08. May 2013 4 min read

Day 11 of UK adventure - Foggy South beaches, Leeds castle and Dover Fortress

We thought that we will be able to spend some time on the South England beaches but there was fog and even slight rain. So after driving next to beach we decided to check out a Bodiam Castle a bit further North, and we were not disappointed.

Bodiam Castle

The castle itself is built in middle of watery pawn, connected with drop bridge. The outside sightseeing is for free, a really nicely trimmed grass and landscape provides for some nice photos, as well as castle in middle of water. It is the sight of what I thought castles should look like.

Leeds Castle

We arrived here just before midday and decided that it is too expensive to check it out and we had also Dover in plan - as castle would probably take the whole day to see. It has huge park, it is nicely placed in landscape and also inside it has furnished halls. What was more important it had souvenir shop that was nicely stocked.

Dover and Dover fortress

After Leeds we decided to go to Dover and use the last day of our pass to check the Dover fortress. Dover itself today is just a small port town, with huge castle-fortress looking from cliff above it. Again the English Heritage pass proved to be useful for one last time and honestly - only this fortress would make it all worth it. It is all about army and wars, but this time it is more about history of this town which was always first to be hit by greedy Europeans trying to cross. It takes you around the history of this place and how the reinforced it and added additional protection to stay the most modernized fortress. What really gives cherry on top of the cake is the multimedia tour of World War II (2) bunkers built into the rock itself, explaining how Allies lead the war from just this place and also how they could see guns firing against them from main land. Weather was cloudy with sun shining from time to time and a bit foggy on sea so we could not see the mainland, but the multimedia presentation where you walk around the halls with holograms and projections all over the place was just as realistic as it can be. I was really sorry when they told us we have to pick between last two tours and it would be well worth to revisit it, just to see the last tour.
It was evening and we decided that we needed a nice dinner, so after not finding anything open in Dover we drove to Fokerstone, where we found a bit more restaurants. We spent rest of the evening on beach, but it was cold with wind and a bit foggy, so we ended driving back to Dover for midnight ferry back to mainland. This was the end of our journey which left us without London, but we basically saw every other still presentable thing in England (I do not count ruins as worthy places to visit sorry). Remembering our first day, when we started the drive it was quite an experience and to say it was not really expensive thanks to English Heritage and Scotland Explorer cards. They are really something to have when visiting England and Scotland.