A bit of a rough start this morning. After a full English breakfast at the hotel where we are staying in Canterbury, we prepared for a full day of fun. I got out to the car to load some items, and tried to start the car to warm it up. The engine would not start – the battery was dead. No one was around the help jump start the car, and after a series of panicked calls, I learned that the British Auto insurance that I had signed up for included full roadside service as part of the policy for free. After about a 45 minute wait, someone arrived and not only jump started the car, but did some diagnostics on it to help isolate the root cause of the problem.

In the end, we don’t quite know what caused the problem, but the most likely problem (since I cannot find anything/anyone else to blame) was that I left the headlights on during the day after we parked and ran the battery down.
We finally left, fully charged but a bit more nervous about our situation around 10:00 and the day just improved by leaps and bounds afterwards.

We did purchase a second battery as backup “just in case” we run into future problems. Otherwise, the car performed marvelously, which improved everyone’s mood as the day progressed.

We drove to Dover and spent most of the day at Dover Castle – our first visit there – and a real highlight of our trip. The castle was first built just after 1066 and was really filled out by William the Conqueror’s grandson, Henry II in the 1100’s. It is the largest castle in all of England and was a wonderful place to visit. It has been used as a fort over the past 1000 years, and was also a strategic site during WWII, where the British positioned a number of anti aircraft guns and battalions. On the site was a 20 minute tour of underground passages that served as a field hospital from 1941-1945 – completely untouched and authentic, left abandoned just after the war and recently restored for tours.

View from the castle to downtown Dover

In the great dining hall of the Keep, set up to simulate conditions during Henry II’s reign.

Several hundred years later… canons set to defend the coast against the French.

Windy! It wasn’t cold, it wasn’t wet, but the wind up on that bluff overlooking the English channel knocked us about a bit.

The church on the left was first built around 1000. The lighthouse on the right (built by the Romans around the time of the death of Jesus) was almost 1000 years old when the church was built.

Did we mention it was really, really windy?

(Brenda’s note:)  It was by far the best castle we’ve ever seen.  The inside has an ingenious floor plan with these huge intersecting spiral staircases.  It looks just like being inside the Xbox game Oblivion (or Skyrim) and the kids had a fantastic time exploring it.  I told Adam today that if I ever became a billionaire, I’d have it reproduced (with well-hidden modern amenities, like running water, heat, plumbing, etc.) complete with moat.  I don’t recall Dover Castle having a moat, but if I were creating my fantasy castle, I’d definitely add one.  Then I’d put swans on it.

We then drove to a position to show my folks the White Cliffs of Dover – we didn’t spend much time there – it was extremely windy (20-30mph winds) and a bit dangerous trying to walk on the narrow path along the cliffs – but my folks got to see what all the fuss was about, and I broke off a bit of the cliff to give to my mom to take home as a reminder.

Afterwards, we returned to Canterbury for wine time, some late afternoon shopping at a Scottish cashmere store, a nice curry dinner and hot chocolate for dessert. Off to bed!