Deal

Because of Mom's ankle, we had a more chilled out day on Sunday and headed to Deal for a mooch around. We walked along the sea front and pier before getting a Sunday lunch. 

Deal sea front.

Dad made a friend.

Deal from the end of the pier.

After lunch we walked to Deal castle. The castle was built by Henry VIII to protect against the French and Spanish after he broke he marriage to Catherine of Aargon, his first wife, and managed to annoy every other Catholic country in Europe. It was never actually used as a defence but was built really well. The walls were rounded so cannon balls would skim off and the inside was a rabbit warren. He made it intentionally confusing so if it got invaded, it would be easier to defend.

castle

Heading inside.

The lower floors were empty, as they would have been, for fighting and storage. The upper flower was refurbished for the commanders and had panelled walls etc. 

We had a good look around but there were some extremely loud and annoying children running around, screaming. Their parents apparently thought it was just fine to let them keep on doing so. We did not. So we left after grabbing some Sloe gin and Damson Gin from the shop.

We then headed to St.Margaret's beach and sat on the beach for a while. They do an amazing hot chocolate at the little cafe there! And then spent another lazy evening at the caravan.

South Foreland LightHouse and Fan Cove

The weather was amazing on the Saturday so we took a walk along the cliffs, going to the South Foreland Lighthouse and Fan Cove Deep Shelter. We could walk to the lighthouse from our caravan so this was our first stop.

Our guide was brilliant, really informative and funny and we learnt a lot about the lighthouse. Including that Michael Faraday used to work there, working on an alternative power source to whale oil. 

Lighthouse keepers desk

The light - glass made in Birmingham.

View from the top

Unfortunately we couldn't go out at the top as they are repainting but it was still good.

                                     

Back down we got lunch at the cafe, which is amazing. And sat looking out over the sea, before starting our walk. 

Over Dover.

Fan Cover

View from the entrance to the tunnels.

We went down the tunnels and took the tour which was as good as las time.

How it would have looked.

The tunnels took 100 days to build and were meant to be accommodation for soldiers. But the condensation made it unliveable so it become an emergency shelter which was often used during WWII.

Office water cooler.

Fossil.

We went out onto the cliff front and the guide explained the concrete sound mirrors, used to locate boat, planes, and troupe movements in the Channel. And they still work. They were covered up after the war so were protected until uncovered in 2015.

Fungi.

Giant shell

We walked back to the lighthouse for a cuppa before making it back to the caravan. But we knackered Mom out. Her ankle still isn't up to as much walking as we put her through.
We eat at the caravan that night with mom resting her ankle with an ice pack. Oops!

Dungeness

Last weekend Mom and Dad came down for a road trip. It didn't start well. They arrived on the Thursday evening and I spent a portion of the night being sick. No idea why. Plus my cold was still in full force at this point. We were carried on, on Friday morning down to Dungeness - I just spent a few days eating little bits of very boring food before I was convinced by stomach would handle it.

We drove to New Romney and get the miniature railway to Dungeness.

On the train.

Train!

On route.

We had some lunch and took a little walk on the beach. We couldn't go far as Mom's ankle is still not great and she had trouble walking on the pebbles.

Dad and I took some photos of the boats. A few are still working but some equipment has not moved in a long time.

We'll have to go back and take a longer walk at some point. I would also like to go up the lighthouse but every time I go, I seems shut. This time it was due to high winds, though to be fair it was really windy.

After this, we headed to our caravan in St. Margaret-on-Cliffe. We had a caravan (which was very nice) for 3 nights and then moved to the hotel for another 2 nights. 

Weekend with Friends

A few weeks ago, I spent the weekend with some friends back in Dudley. It rained all day Saturday so we just wondered around some shops. On Sunday it was drier so we had a Sunday lunch at the arboretum before taking a walk. Livvy slept through us eating but was not too happy about this when she woke (who is when they miss food?) She was much happier when she got hers.

On our walk, Clare was much more impressed with the cows when Livvy. 

But we did get smiles!

However one of the maintenance men was really rude to us so we decided to leave and will not be going back.

The train trip back was awful as they had 'forgot' to put enough couches on. Some people had seats booked on couches that didn't exist. Luckily we had seats but the trip was not fun. And I caught a cold which I am only just getting over.