Day Out Dover Castle

This weekend we spent two days at Dover Castle and East Sussex. It was such a nice trip - the kind that makes me so thankful to be here in England. I loved it so much that I'm having a hard time weeding out pictures. I just can't help taking up two posts to talk about our weekend. 

First we drove down to Dover, about a two hour drive from Cambridge. Dover Castle is, I think, about the perfect castle to visit with kids. It has a bit of everything.

A throne room that you're welcome to try out. My girls aren't that fond of tours, and appreciated being able to run around and entertain themselves. 

Interactive areas that show some of the work involved in running a castle. ("Boil, boil, toil and trouble, cauldron burn...")

Furnished areas. (Did you know that in the time of Henry II that beds were so expensive that only the richest of the rich had them? And then you had to take them with you? If you decided to visit your castle in the next county you would take your bed with you. All the other nobility slept in a common room together on mats on the floor.)

 Twisting, stone staircases.

 Castle-life brought to life. They had some actors appropriately dressed and roaming around the castle acting their parts ("Get back to work!" "Thank you, my lord." etc.) Here they're training some children on how to defend the castle.

Secret passageways, including tunnels they used for war operations during World War II. There's a nice multi-media tour talking about the war and the evacuation of Dunkirk (managed from Dover Castle). My kids, who as previously stated hate tours, said about the tour, "It was awesome!", and "It was kind of cool."

 Beautiful grounds.

 Beautiful vistas.

And nice picnic spots. 

And, obviously, any England outing is made better by a Harry Potter tie-in. Camille found a bag of "Sherbert Lemons" to buy. She informs me that they are both Professor Dumbledore's favorite treat, and were a password for getting into the headmaster's office at one point. Who could pass up such an opportunity?

Dover Castle is definitely worth a visit on a trip to England. We spent a good three hours or more visiting, and could have spent longer since we skipped the World War II Underground Tunnel Hospital Tour. Didn't want to push my luck with the kids. The one thing we didn't see in Dover was the white cliffs of Dover. I'd heard they were hard to see from Dover itself, unless you're out at sea. To see the white cliffs we went to East Sussex.