Robot Claw

I ate CoCo Pops for breakfast!

This was in Brighton, before we left the B&B. Our room was tremendous, with very high ceilings and striking decor. We actually had a sea view as well.

Anyway we left early to head to today’s destination. Here’s a hint:

And yes, I was there too (check out my shirt)…

Stonehenge. For me, the signature of England. It was surreal actual being there.

The National Trust is doing a great job presenting the monument. Everyone is given a handheld mp3 player with commentary coded to various points about the monument. It was extensive and interesting, and imparted such knowledge as the fact Stonehenge may have been built by The Devil himself! (I previously only knew about the druid and alien theories).

Joking aside, I’ve now been to Stonehenge!!!!

We had lunch there as well, and I had a birdy audience:

Maybe it was because I was throwing them tiny pieces of my sausage roll?

After Stonehenge we headed to the nearby town of Salisbury. This was to see the very famous cathedral (which has the tallest spire in England), but the town itself was picturesque and welcoming:

The Cathedral itself was quite breathtaking to say the least. Impossibly tall, old and decorated….

… it also happened to house a copy of the Magna Carta! Yes, the actual document, which we got to see. This was quite a pleasant surprise to us! The second photo above incidentally shows the modern font inside the cathedral. Precisely engineered, the surface is water which flows equally out of spouts on four sides. It is mesmerising. Be sure to enlarge the first photo to appreciate how tall the actual cathedral is.

Here’s where we are staying right now. I’m in the leftmost room on the top floor typing this only minutes (maybe) before you read it…

I’m not sure when (or even if) we’ll have internet access again, but hopefully it will happen. You can look forward to more entries then 🙂

Day three meant leaving London and heading to Dover. Time to start our 9 day whirlwind driving odyssey!

We rode a lovely high speed train out of London, and here it is:

Dover is a seaside town, half tourist resort and half stopover on the way to Paris (the channel tunnel starts near here). It has three major claims to fame: a massive port, a historically important castle and the very famous ‘white cliffs’.

That’s the beach above. A classic ‘pebble beach’. A seawall breakwater creates a waveless lagoon in which swimmers practice to swim the English Channel. Our first activity was a boat tour to see the White Cliffs from the harbour:

The cliffs are white due to chalk content, and run for miles. They are quite impressive (relatively) up close. Here’s a better shot, and please pay attention to the top:

That’s a castle up there, and it was our second attraction of the day.

After lunch, of course:

Yep, that’s a bucket of cockles, whelks, prawns, mussels and fake crab.

The castle is up on the cliff overlooking Dover, and was built in 1197. It is enormous and contains such attractions as an authentic Roman lighthouse (from back when the Romans occupied England) and a Saxon church. During the Napoleonic years tunnels were carved deep into the cliffsides, and during WW2 the tunnels were expanded and outfitted to be used as a base of operations. From these very tunnels – which we toured – the Dunkirk evacuation was masterminded.

We explored the old castle keep as well, which was tall and mazelike and shows that the architecture of all those RPGs I’ve been playing for most of my life isn’t too far off reality:

And here is our breakfast as the Dover B&B (called the Restover). It was extremely comfortable and far better than our London hotel…