DOVER (updated)

WEATHER: 15 °C and lower, rainy, cloudy, windy

Well, it certainly wasn't a good idea to visit Dover on 24th June, the weather was awfull. But at least I experienced a bit of the real English weather.

Again I travelled by train, the return ticket cost £7.75:

Dover Priory, the rail station is quite far from the Castle, about 1 mile. It took a good 40 minutes on foot to reach the castle especially because the castle is located on the top of a hill:

Dover Castle is a big complex consisting of several separate buildings:

You buy your ticket at the entrance (£17.50 - student concession), you get a wristband and you are allowed to visit each part of the castle on that day:

I also got a map to use but hunestly it couldn't be used because of the strong wind.

This is the view you first meet when stepping in the complex. Quite impressive, isn't it?

The castle was built for Henry II (12th century) and was actively used again during WW I and WW II.

Inside the complex a Roman Pharos and the Curch of St Mary-in-Castro:

The Pharos:

The church:

 

Playing corner (!) inside the church:

The most important sights in the castle is the Great Tower where Henry II lived. But before you go there, tourist are directed to another part of the Castle where the history of Henry II is briefly explained on the one hand through videos running in different languages and on the other hand through pictures, maquettes and short paragraphs:

Here can be found a maquette of the Great Tower:

The Great Tower from the outside:

In the inside there are four rooms which look like as if they were in the 12th century. Unfortunately the lights were awfull so the pictures aren't so clear:

You can also go on the top of the tower, which, of course, I did. I'm a great fan of climbing onto the top of buildings so I couldn't miss it even in this weather:

As I have already mentioned, the castle and the underground tunnels were actively used during the wars. The famous Operation Dynamo, Rescue from Dunkirk was operated from these tunnels. You can also visit these tunnels if you go on the guided tour. The group goes into the underground tunnels, is directed through different rooms, where the story of the WW II and the rescue from Dunkirk is told using each and every new technologies (projecting videos to the most unexpected surfaces, combining speeches with pictures and sound effects...) Unfortunately taking photos is not allowed there, so I haven't got any proof to show you, except for the statue of Ramsay who was in charge of the rescue:

After I finished at the castle, I wanted to go to the seaside, too. Yes, I was crazy to think it would be lovely but...

Five years ago I was already at the seaside in Dover, when it was abouve 25 °C and sunny. I loved being there on the shore as it is a lovely one. The view from the Castle:

I thought it would be easy to find it on foot from the castle, but it turned out to be very difficult. I was wondering around in this weather about 30 minutes before I found the way. I arrived there took some photos and that was it. No sitting down and admiring the view, no coffee/tea drinking at the shore, unfortunately.

All in all, I have to admit that the castle is really a good thing to visit, but otherwise the city is quite grey and unfriendly. (But maybe I see it like that only because of the weather, who knows...)

How much did I spend altogether?
£27.65 (bus and train ticket included) ~ about 10.000 Ft

And a picture that about covers my day:

Coins

WEATHER: (I have some serious catching up to do...)

18th June: 30 °C, sunny
19th June: above 30 °C, sunny, littel windy
20th June: above 30 °C, sunny
21st June: 35 °C (!), sunny. Record-breaking temperature! It hasn't been so hot for ages in England.

These previous days were like magic here. I loved it while the English suffered hilariously.

22nd June: day of change: warm and sunny in the morning, big storm with lightning and thunder at noon, a big but short shower and then quite warm and muggy in the aftrenoon
23rd June: about 20 °C, sometimes sunny


This short post is about the coins (small changes of the currency pound):

There is absolutely no sense in the order! The size doesn't suggest the value of it. It's awfully difficult to recognise them and the numbers being so tiny on the coins don't help the foreigners' case either.

On the back of each coin there's the portrait of the Queen.

CANTERBURY (updated)

My first trip led to Canterbury. I travelled there on 17th June, Saturday. When I found my host family I was very happy to notice how close I was going to be to Canterbury. I had been there once in 2011 and it was an amazing experience, so I definitely wanted to visit again. I hoped for a good weather and I got excellent weather with lots of sunshine and a temperature above 30 °C. I would have never thought that I would be looking for shade in England but I was. You can imagine how the English were suffering...

I got up early as I wanted to have enough time at the city. Trains to canterbury go in every 20-30 minutes from Ashford International. Dad had things to do in twon so he took me to the station.

The return ticket  cost £5,35.

I managed to catch the 8:05 train. The journey took about 20 minutes. Canterbury West, the station is very close to the town centre, so it was just a quick walk there.

When entering the city centre from the Rail Station the first things you see is the Tower Gate. The city used to be surrounded by more than ten of these, but for today only one has remained. When there was some serious city rebuilding in the 18th century the other towers were destroyed.

 

England is very famous for its gardens. Right next to the gate there is the Westgate Garden. It is very nice to take a walk in any garden and admire the nature:

 

After the garden my way led to and through the High Street, which is the main street of Canterbury. It is full of shops, English often travel there to do some shopping. It was quite quite in the morning and became very busy in the afternoon:

There are Guided Walking Tours available in the city, so I took one. It costs £7 (student concession). It is an about 90-minute long guided walk around the city centre with a local tourist guide. It is in English but if previously book it is available in other (main) foreign languages, too. Our group consisted of about 12 people from various countries: USA, the Neatherlands, Belgium, France and me from Hungary. We had an amazing and enthusiastic tourist guide whose language was very easy to understand as she is used to use a language which can ba understood by foreigners, too. She always explained special terminology when it was needed.

In order to buy the ticket I had to go to The Beaney House of Arts & Knowledge:

After the guided walk I visited the Canterbury Roman Museum for £7.20 (student concession). If you ever go to visit Canterbury do NOT waste any of your time going there. It is dedicated to show the Roman heritage of Canterbury, which is very important but unfortunately there is not so much about it to show. There is a big map there which shows how the city might have looked like in the Roman Time:

The only interesting thing in the museum is the fact that it is an underground museum, you have to go down about 10 metres to reach the museum. Why is that? In the Roman time the surface of the city was much lower than today. Buildings were built later on the top of the original surface. Inside the museum there is a place protected by glass windows where you can see the base of some former Roman buildings:

The next stop was, of course, the famous Canterbury Cathedral:

Unfortunately it is under construction, the renovations is going to be 5-year long, it has just started in this spring:

But, of course, during this time the cathedral can be visited. As you may know this cathedral is the centre of the English Anglican Church (not the Westminster Abbey). In England there are only two archbishops: one in Canterbury and one in York. And, of course, the head of the Church is the all-time monarch of the UK, so currently Queen Elizabeth II. 

Entrance into the church costs £10.50 (student concession).

The cathedral or rather the tower of it is like the Eiffel Tower in Paris. You can see it from almost everywhere in the city:

Again, the garden around the Cathedral is just amazing:

 

Inside the church I got the audio guide because otherwise it would have been very difficult to get to know the church. It cost £3 (student concession) and again, available not also in English but in the main European languages. It was extremly easy to use, you use the machine like a phone, you follow the map and when you get to the next point, you press the appropriate number on the phone. You can also pause it and listen to it again if you wish:

Some pictures form the inside of the church:

The nave:

 

The throne of the archbishop made from stone:

The Quire:

It is the place in a church where the so called Evensong takes place. Evensong is actually a service, takes about 50 minutes and most of it is sang, there are only two short readings. 

Normally it is closed from tourists but you can sit there during the Evensong, which is a geat privilege for tourists. I had the opportunity to attend the Evensong on Saturday, so here are some photos taken secretly (beacuse it is not allowed to take photos then):

Everybody gets a leaflet of the Evensong which tells you the steps after each other, what will happen and what you should do, like stand, sit, say...

Each visitor can use during the service the following books:

 

The Evensong is sung by a choir, which consists of 1/3 adult men adn 2/3 young boys. The songs are like they were sung by girls because of the high number of young boys. 

Actually, to be honest, it reminds me more of a noise than of songs but that might be just my opinion:

If you have the nerves listen to it:

The Martyrdom where the famous Thomas Becket was killed:

The Cloister:

Inside the Chapter House:

When I first visited the Cathedral in 2011 we had an amazing tourist guide who knew every single little place inside the church. She showed us then a special place which I was looking for the whole time inside the chatedral. I was so disaapointed that I cannot find it. And then, when I was about 10 steps away from the exit I found it! I was so happy! It is nothing special, really, but still I wanted to find it. When cathedrals so big was being built, it took always a lot of time. Si sometimes it happened that through the years the style changed. This picture is a good example for that. That's what I was looking for:

And here are some of my favourite pictures of my day in Canterbury:

With the oldest house in the city in the background:

Again, a photo taken secretely:

How much did the trip cost altogether?

£34.45 which equals about 12.000 Ft. (without any food, drink or presents bought)