Dover Castle

I visited Dover Castle today. It took a while to get there by bus (about two hours, what with the waiting and the transfer) but it was fun. And on the upside, I'm becoming quite the pro at the bus system here. The reason I went was that I was looking into volunteering at the archaeology society there, where they do repacking and storing of archaeological and historical collections dating from Roman times all the way through the Cold War era. The collections they had stored were interesting, but I'm not sure if I can handle the two-hour-each-way journey on a regular basis.

After I talked to the assistant curator, I got a chance to look around the castle grounds, which were gorgeous. I also got to take a tour of the "Secret Wartime Tunnels," which are tunnels that were used during WWII (among other times; they originally date back to the war with Napoleon, I think) to house military personnel and even an underground hospital. Very cool, very creepy. Supposedly the repeater room down there is haunted, but I didn't see anything. I also went into another set of tunnels dating back to the medieval period; those were really dark and full of spiders. I got to explore the castle's Keep, which was built by King Henry II and is known as "the Key to England" because it's so exposed geographically and yet has never been conquered. The views from the top of the castle walls were incredible!

And thanks to the fabulous digital camera my parents got me, I have lots of pictures to share!

Dover Castle