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Published: March 14th 2012
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So I'm not all that impressed with Dover, the city anyway. The cliffs and the castle were great, but everything else not so much.
My day started off good. I left Canterbury, took a short train ride to Dover, and had breakfast at one of the little cafes in the main market area. Then I went to the castle. It was amazing! It was massive, with numerous buildings spread out over the top of the white cliffs. You could see it from just about anywhere in town.
The first thing I did was a tour of the wartime tunnels. The first level I toured was the middle one, originally built in the late 1700's. The tour mainly focused on the role it played in WWII, especially the evacuation of Dunkirk. It managed communications and monitored ships going through the Channel. The tour walked us through several rooms with videos giving the background information, then through other rooms that had been set up to look like they did during the war. Most of what was there was the original equipment. The guide was extremely knowledgable and willing to talk.
The tunnels were a lot bigger than I thought they'd
be, although it was more the height of the rooms that surprised me. They were built right into the cliffs, so you could see the harbor and the ocean from the few windows.
Next was the tour of the war hospital, which was the top level of the tunnels. It wasn't as long as the first tour, but there was still a bunch of interesting stuff. The had a ward, the operating room, the kitchen, and a dorm. There were relics from WWII spread throughout all the rooms.
Then I went to the Admiralty Lookout, where signals had been sent out over the water. It had an excellent view of the ocean and I could even see France!
After that, I walked around the battlements of the medieval castle, the Roman lighthouse (called a pharos), and the Norman church.
The main keep/tower of Henry II was cool to walk through and had a lot of areas open, but there weren't that many exhibits besides the explanitory opener adn the really tack recreation of a medieval bedroom. The roof was the best part because it had an even better view of the city and ocean than the
Lookout. You could see for miles.
After the castle I tried to find my hostel. This took the next two hours. I got a little lost and ended up finding a different hostel with a similar name by the East Dock. They gave me directions and I found the right hostel. Problem: no one was there, even though it was after check-in. I asked around to make sure it hadn't moved or anything, and then went to the beach to wait to see if someone would be there later.
The Beach was a small strip of rocks. I've never been on a rock beach before. It makes the waves sound different. The breakers come in just like they do at home, but as the water pulls back all the rocks get pulled back with it. It makes a really coold sound, similar to a rain stick.
After the beach, no one was at the hostel so I went looking for dinner. Here lies my second problem with Dover. All of the restaraunts were decent dinner food were closed for some reason. All that was open were cafes and sandwhich shops. I ended up getting some Cornish pasties
(good, easy to walk with, but not excellent) and a subway sandwhich. Funny how the familiar things are different here. They had different toppings and sandwhich types. Apparently mayonaise goes on everything, and putting oil and vinegar on a sandwhich is unheard of.
I tried the hostel once again after dinner and it was still empty! So I hiked back to the other one and asked for a room. The girl was very nice and let me stay there while she called her boss. They were renovating so some of the rooms were closed. I did get a room, but by the time my hostel hunt was over it was too late to walk down to see the bigger strip of cliffs.
Brighton is tomorrow!
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