dover castle
18 Oct '04, 00:00
Went on another castle trip yesterday, and back to Kent too.
This time our visit was to Dover Castle - oddly enough in Dover. I have to say before I say anything else, that I did not think much of Dover. It seemed very cluttered. Especially with a huge sixties style block of a building dropped in the middle of it. I suppose the clutter is what you get a places like that, what with the port and all but I wouldn't live there.
The castle was nice though. Sitting high on top of a cliff overlooking the town and the coast. Parts of it are almost 2000 years old, stretching back to when the Romans roamed our land. And it has served a purpose from then right through to only 20 years ago in the mid eighties when underground chambers and tunnels where used as a government base where officials would have ruled Kent in the event of a nuclear attack.
Obviously, being in such a front line position (France being a mere 22 miles away), the castle was huge. Considering we arrived at about 1pm, our afternoon was certainly packed. We had a look around most of the grounds, went into the main castle keep, took a walk in the medieval underground passages and took a look at where WW2 weapons were positioned.
When we left at about 5pm, there was still things to do such as visit the WW2 underground command centre and hospital (which we were going to do but decided on the medieval tunnels instead), the battlement walk - a trek around the perimeter of the castle and something called the admiralty lookout. I think another visit will be in order one day to finish these bits.
See Photo Album
Charlie paid a visit yesterday evening too. Kate bought the Monopoly board game a few weeks ago an we have played a couple of games - all of which I won. So of course Charlie had to be challenged to beat me. Which he didn't - Kate did instead. Darn & blast.
thorpe park
03 Oct '04, 00:00
Went to Thorpe Park today, which I haven't been to for a couple of years.
It was debatable as to whether Kate and Myself would actually go. We had been planning it for a week or two but the forecast for today was wet wet wet (but no Marti Pellow in sight - boom boom).
However, this morning the skies looked clear and the forecast had miraculously changed to cloudy with patchy sun so we decided we would go.
After popping into Tesco for some picnic foods and petrol, we headed off on the 1hr 15min journey to Chertsey, Surrey.
On arrival we were confused as to where we bought the tickets. Confusingly all the normal ticket booths were closed and only the advance collection booth was open. We headed in there which turned out to be the right thing to do. But why it wasn't signed anywhere I don't know. We weren't the only one's who were confused.
£48 pounds lighter in the pocket we headed in and went straight for our favourite ride - The Logger's Leap. The tallest log flume in Britain.
Overcast October days seem to be a very good time to head to places like Thorpe Park since we never had to queue for more than 2 or 3 minutes. Compare this to the height of Summer where you might wait an hour for some rides.
Disadvantage of overcast October days? When the weather forecasters get it wrong. The skies opened and most of the day we had showers with occasional breaks. It didn't really matter though as our favourite rides were water based so we were getting soaked anyway.
Or at least Kate was. She decided to go on one of the water rides that I didn't think was suitable for me due to my knee. This ride was similar to the log flume in that a large boat rides up a tall structure and then goes down at high speeds ending up in a splash of water - only this splash of water was huge. When Kate came out of the ride, she looked like she had jumped into a lake. Absolutely soaked through.
The other rides we went on included the Rumba Rapids - circular boats running around a track of rough waters. 'The Storm In A Teacup' - Sitting in teacups, occupants are spun around at speeds, and a nice tame 'Big Wheel' giving nice views of the park.
The last ride was our 4th visit to Logger's Leap which was the only time we managed to get a boat to ourselves. Only thing is we think this boat may have sprung a leak since the floor moved when I stepped into it, and on arriving at the foot of the largest drop, our shoes provided nice little foot baths!
All good fun though and the car heaters dried out my socks nicely.
We left the park at 5:15pm after spending about 5 hours there, and arrived back at 7pm after some traffic on the M25 (as per usual).
Other than that, I have to say how annoying it is to see Christmas stocks in the shops already. A small selection of cards were stocked in gift shops when we were on holiday, adverts on the radio are on the increase and today I saw Mince Pies being stocked in Tesco. Some people may not I guess, but I consider these to be Christmas foods. The most strange thing is their Best Before date expires on 1st November (which is the earliest I believe Christmas stock should appear).
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m0gky: Eaten too much pizza (lunch) and Chinese (dinner) but had a good evening out with friends - although my bowling is terrible! :)
