Saturday we decided to go off on an adventure to Dover Castle and hopefully meet the King.
The journey down was fine, boys all watching DVDs and only a few 'are we nearly there yet?'s. Boys were quite excited about going to a huge castle and J was impressed that he might see the King!
First off we went on the 'Operation Dynamo' tunnel tour. Very dark and very interesting, you go into different rooms and watch projections and hear about the planning etc of Operation Dynamo. One of the best parts was the projection along a wall that kept moving along it had props and it felt like you were seeing it properly. A very visual and audio tour that the boys could keep up with. They liked looking at the communication equipment and all the different rooms that were used.
Next stop was the 'Hospital' tunnel tour, again very dark but this time you follow an airman who has been injured on his journey through the hospital (which in fact was only really a dressing station, and once patched up the injured were sent on to proper hospitals). It again is visual and audio and even had the smells that associated with particular areas i.e antiseptic in the wards and food in the kitchens (J liked that, he also would have liked their dinner!) Lots to look at here and as we were at the back of the tour we could meander thorugh slowly taking it all in. An impressive part for the boys was that the toilets and basins in the tunnels were exactly the same as in our house, the guide said people often don't think they had toilets in the tunnels, but of course they did.
Out of the tunnels at the edge of the cliff
Guns
It was ridiculously windy at the castle and we were lucky not to blow away! After some lunch and a look up the viewing tower out to sea, we just about saw France, we set off to have a picnic as Daddy was getting hungry :-)
Next stop was to be the Castle itself, lots of steps which the boys coped with very well although A decided he would not like to live in a castle because of this!
Knights helmets along with swords and bow and arrows
Very impressed with the shields
King A and King J
Stiring up some porridge in the kitchens
Sitting on the stool and turning the spit
Unfortuantly we just missed the King but we did see a Lord and some other characters walking about in costume. There was also a beautiful stained glass window but I don't have the pictures of that, I shall get them though. It was a lovely day and the boys did really well they were interested and enthusiastic and were complemented by the tour guide on their behaviour within the tunnels.
Once home A made a map and then proceeded to take us on his own tour of the tunnels, pointing out the places where the soldiers slept and ate and even the shed were they kept their toys.........!!
Always learning...... :-)
