April 16, 2021
We awoke today to the white cliffs of Dover instead of Le Havre, France. Because of the protests in France over the new retirement age, we were unable to come into the port. Rather than spending a day at sea, the captain was able to arrange for us to visit Dover instead.
There was a shuttle with stops at both the town of Dover and the Dover castle. We stopped at the Dover castle first. We crossed an actual drawbridge into the castle grounds and gazed out over the walls at the gorgeous views and the greenery-covered moat (no longer filled with water). Sheep grazed below us. One was off by itself lying on the ground. It may have been pregnant and close to giving birth - at least that was theorized by another visitor.
Inside the castle, we visited the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment and Queen's Regiment Museum. The museum tells the history of these regiments beginning in 1572 when Queen Elizabeth sent a regiment to the Netherlands.
We then climbed up the Great Tower where we saw restored furnished rooms to show what the castle rooms would have looked like back in medieval times.
After admiring the views from within and atop the tower, we explored more of the castle grounds, including a ballista used to defend the castle against a seige (similar to a catapult). There were also tunnels built back in 1942 during World War II to house British soldiers. They were the only underground barracks in England.
After the castle visit, we went into town to have lunch and explore before returning to the ship. I had fish and chips and Brent had a fish pie.
Nice that you got to see Dover even though the French port cancelled. Interesting too that there were underground barracks at the castle and to see the furnished castle.