Sam had a three day weekend for Veterans Day, as he should considering
he is a veteran, so we decided to take advantage and go on a little trip. I had
already found a dog sitter for Hercules and had booked him in (which is what
the British people say instead of reserved or made a reservation) back in
September. We had originally planned to go to Scotland, but with my unfortunate
fight with food poisoning leaving me in the states longer than planned, I didn’t
get a chance to plan a trip to Scotland and by the time I was back in the UK we
had waited too long and it was too expensive. So we decided to go somewhere a
little closer to home and per Rachel’s suggestion we headed down to Dover. Sam
had a long flight on Friday, he flew to Crete, which I had to look up because
my geography skills stink, but I learned that it is an Island off of Greece. It
is also where a lot of people from the squadron are deployed to, so Sam got to
meet some more guys that he hadn’t met yet because they deployed right before
we arrived. Sam also had his first experience of flying a civilian, one of the
wives going to visit her husband, who is deployed, for the long weekend. Her
name is Meg and she is a super sweet person that I have had the privilege of
meeting a few times and I saw on Facebook that it was her first ride ever on a
KC-135, how fun! She got to sit up in the jump seat while they took off and she
got to lie in the boom pod while they refueled six F-15’s from Lakenheath,
which sounds totally awesome! I can’t wait for my first ride on a KC-135,
unfortunately it won’t be while Sam is flying unless they lift the ban of
spouses being on the aircraft that their husband (or wife) is operating, but we
may be flying Space A home in May and we would be taking a KC-135 to Kansas, so
that will be super neat if it happens!
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| This is a map of where Sam flew, the little red dot is Crete! Long flight! He particularly enjoyed flying over France and Italy. |
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| Sam refueling an F-15. I stole this picture from Meg's Facebook, if your reading this Meg I hope that is okay, sorry I didn't ask permission! That would be a Boom's Eye View....hahaha I am so funny |
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| And a map showing where Dover is, just below Canterbury, Southeast of London. Some people I talked to had never heard of Dover, England, just Dover, DE. |
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| My crafts that I worked on while Sam was away. The red and white one is going to be a Christmas wreath, I have to add some snowflakes and other pizzazz to complete it |
Sam’s flight was supposed to land a 9:30 on Friday night,
since we still only have one car I was there to pick him up at 10:30pm, but
unfortunately he didn’t land until 11:15 so we didn’t leave the base until
midnight, good thing I had my interest crafts to work on! We had a restful night’s
sleep on our air mattress and headed for Dover around 9:00am on Saturday. When
we dropped Hercules off his dog sitter, Maxine said American’s always go to
Dover, but British people don’t care for it, so I took it she doesn’t visit
there much. It was a pretty easy two and a half hour drive, where I slept most
of the time, and we arrived in Dover around noon. We had lunch and then headed
straight for the castle. It was rainy and cold on Saturday so we were excited
to tour the castle and be inside. Upon arriving at the castle we noticed it was
a 16 pound entry fee for both of us, which is about $25 a person, but if we
joined a English Heritage club (for 80 pounds) then we could get into the
castle for free as well as other English Heritage sights all over the UK. Since
the castle closed in two hours and we knew wouldn’t finish it all in one day we
decided to join the English Heritage, which I think will be worth it since
there are so many other places we want to visit that is on their map. We
started our castle tour by taking a tour of the underground war tunnels. It was
about a forty-five minute tour that described how they rescued soldiers during
WWII and brought them down to hide in the tunnels. It was a pretty neat tour.
After the tour we headed to the main castle, hiked up a million stairs,
explored the rooms (which were set up like they would’ve been in the medieval
times), and finally made it to the roof top! It was a gorgeous view; I really
don’t think I will ever get use to looking at England’s landscape. After we
finished exploring the main castle building Sam discovered a museum, so of
course we had to stop. Lucky for me I found one of those awesome penny machines,
like they have at SDC, and made a design on a pence. This entertained me for a
good five minutes, but then my lovely husband made fun of me for making a “white
trash” penny but I told him it was cool since it was on a British coin. After
we left the castle we headed to our Bed and Breakfast (my new favorite thing
since staying at one in Albuquerque) and got checked in. We found a place that
had awesome reviews that we decided to try
for dinner, but we were the only ones in the four star restaurant and I
am very leery about food since the English Asian’s tried to kill me, so I stuck
with a hamburger, which was not very good. Sam had some sort of English pie,
which also looked pretty gross, basically it was English cuisine at its finest,
and they have never been known for their food.
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| Entrance to the castle |
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| At the castle |
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| View from the castle |
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| A British seagull! This is for you Anna and Stephanie...HARRY |
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| One of the many gates to the castle |
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| Heading to the main building |
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| The main castle |
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| Just hanging out |
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| The kitchen in the castle |
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| Pumping water |
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| View from the top of the castle |
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| The city of Dover from the top of the Castle |
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| At the top |
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| Touring the inside of the castle |
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| The ferries |
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| The view from our B&B |
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| View of the white cliffs from the castle |
Since we didn’t get to finish looking at the castle we
headed there after church on Sunday. It was a much prettier day, the sun was
shining and the high reached 51*F! We took a tour of the second underground
tunnel, which were used as a hospital during the wars. This tour was about 25
minutes, but way better than the wartime tunnels. You followed the story of a
pilot who had been shot down throughout the entire tour and each room you
entered was staged, with smells and everything. The lights also flickered with
the sounds of bombs going off so you got the feel of what it was like for the
hospital staff during the war. We saw the kitchen, dorm rooms, operating rooms,
bathrooms, hallways, and dining facilities. Unfortunately, you weren’t allowed
to take pictures of these tunnels. After the tour was finished Sam and I ate
some lunch and then headed out for more exploring. We were determined to find
the medieval tunnels and along the way we found where the moat must have been
and I freaked out. I was so excited to see a real moat, but sadly there wasn’t
any water L.
We finally found the medieval tunnels and we hiked around them for about thirty
minutes, it was pretty neat to see something that was built throughout the Middle
Ages, those things take a long time to build! I was super excited to see the
Roman Light House, which was supposed to be the oldest standing building left,
I was expecting to be able to go up to the top and see this light house, but
much to my dismay it was only half a building and not very exciting. The final
place we toured was around the chapel, and again I was disappointed since they
didn’t have any candles for me to light and pray with, lame!
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| The lookout from the castle |
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| The knights quarters...according to Sam...who knows what it really is the building was closed |
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| Castle |
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| The moat! |
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| The King's gate |
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| And again |
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| Dover city |
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| Beautiful England |
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| Loved the castles |
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| Trying out the cannon in the Medieval tunnels |
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| The chapel without candles |
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| The Roman lighthouse |
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| More of Dover city |
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| Beautiful city |
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| In front of the Roman Lighthouse |
After the castle we headed out to the white cliffs of Dover.
The white cliffs are part of the coast line facing France; they act as a barrier
and protection for Dover. Since it was such a clear day we could actually see
France from the cliffs. Once we got to the cliffs we parked and began our hike.
It was starting to cool down a bit, but we saw a sign for a lighthouse that had
a tea room, it was about a three hour journey there and back. We set out on
this adventure, but saw a sign that said the tea room was closed, probably
because it was Sunday, my second hope of seeing a lighthouse…dashed! We hiked
around the tops of the cliffs, taking in the beautiful view. We decided to hike
down the cliffs to the beach, which was full of rocks and smelled like a
dumpster. We both touched the English Channel, so that we could say we touched
it, and it was very cold! After we had our snack it was time to make the long
hike back up the cliffs. We decided to head back once we got to the top, we had
seen enough and we were tired, the sun would also be setting within the next
half hour or so, yes the sun sets at like 4:00 here. We could see why our dog sitter,
and other British people, do not really get too excited about the white cliffs,
maybe it’s better in the summer, but we spent about two hours there and that
was plenty for us!
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| White Cliffs |
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| And again |
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| I thought this couple looked cute, they had been biking |
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| Sam and I's kissing shadow |
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| Beautiful view |
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| The cliffs |
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| The English Channel |
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| On the beach |
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| At the beach |
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| Rocky beach |
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| White cliffs |
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| More of the beach |
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| The grass is so green here |
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| More cliffs |
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| Ferries |
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| Sunset |
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| Beautiful Sunset |
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| The castle from our b&b |
On Monday we decided to skip breakfast and sleep in a bit.
We checked out of our B&B and went to Dover’s Town Centre; it was much
busier than where we had been, with lots of shops. We had a small breakfast at
Costa’s (which is like a Starbucks) and walked around the shops. I even found a
discount card store and I was super excited because I needed to buy my
Thanksgiving cards, but then I realized we are in England, where they don’t celebrate
Thanksgiving, but I enjoyed reading some of the funny British birthday cards
anyway. We headed to the town of Canterbury, which is indeed where the Canterbury
Tales are written about, and it was on our way back home. We decided to go to
the Canterbury Cathedral and as we were walking in Sam received an e-mail
saying our household goods had cleared customs! Yay!! I did a happy dance in
front of everyone! The Cathedral was beautiful, I can never capture the beauty
in a picture, but it had lots of places for lighting candles, so yes of course
I was requesting loose change from Sam and spreading my prayers throughout the
entire journey, while Sam stopped and read each sign. After the Cathedral we
had lunch and walked around the town of Canterbury, which reminded Sam of
London but on a much SMALLER scale. They had really neat shops and I enjoyed
walking around the town. It began to rain so we decided that was our time to
head home.
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| Canterbury Cathedral |
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| Sam finding out that our household goods cleared customs |
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| My candle stand inside the cathedral! I guess I am the only one who is obsessed with these |
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| Canterbury Cathedral |
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| Canterbury Cathedral |
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| Canterbury Cathedral |
We picked Hercules up from the dog sitter and learned that he
was a big bully to the other dogs L.
She said that he wasn’t shy at all; he came right in and started picking fights
with the other dogs. She found he did better with these two big dogs, outside,
because they would just run away from him. So basically, Hercules was chasing
these dogs all up and down the yard and they kept running from him. And he wouldn’t
listen to Maxine, eeek! All my worst fears had come true, but she said he was
allowed to come back, but she doesn’t think he will ever calm down or not be a
bully. He is staying with her for about a week over Christmas, hopefully it
goes well, because if he gets kicked out of the dog sitter’s I don’t know what
we will do! Sam say’s it’s too bad for me, he will travel while I stay home
with the dog, but since I am the one who plans all the trips and he is too lazy
to make plans, well he won’t make it very far, or he will spend lots of money by
waiting until the last minute!
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| How can this sweet face be a bully? |
Wow! Three blog posts in one week...I didn't think I could do it! Well that pretty much catches everyone up on the Holbrook's life. We are busy setting up our cottage, now that our household goods have arrived so you can look forward to another blog post next week (hopefully) with pictures of our new place.
Thank you for reading! Have a blessed day!
Amanda
