Blog ≫ 2023 ≫ A free trip to Dover Castle
Started the day quite early. Clare and T2 went out for a run, the end of week five of Couch To 5k and they had to run for twenty minutes without a break. Good work! I waited in to receive the shopping and prepare our picnic lunch for our day out.
Clare had a couple of free tickets to Dover Castle, so we only had to pay for the boys. But of course we were encouraged to become members, and get that money refunded, and it actually sounded a good idea. We are going to Stone Henge over the summer, so this and Dover Castle will pay for it. Then we can go to Portchester Castle, and other Walmer, and Deal, and all sorts of places.
We bought some English Heritage top trumps while we were there which makes me want to visit more castles.
There was entertainment on at the castle, actors wondering around, and of course it was a fiercely hot day again. We found a picnic table in a shady spot to eat our lunch, and just as we started a seagull swooped in and took a whle bagel from the table, still wrapped in foil. Then other seagulls joined in and they ripped it apart and ate it. Very bold. "Luckily" it was T2's lunch bagel for tomorrow which I'd brought by mistake, so we still had enough food.
We didn't go into the wartime tunnels this time, as we can revisit whenever we like now, and there were queues in the hot sun today.
After we stopped in Dover to get some food for our dinner tonight. One boy is having pizza, one having spaghetti, and Clare and I are having lasagne.
On the way back from Dover we drove through Capel and stopped spontaneously at the cliff top cafe there, which is now a cliff top cocktail bar! Such a nice spot, I'd not stopped there before. We got a good table with a bit of shade and the view is amazing. We saw some of the fly past of vintage planes, including two doing a loop the loop over Folkestone. Food sounds good there, we must go back again.
Then one more thing, as Folkestone and Sandgate and Seabrook looked so busy, so many people on the beach, we thought we'd join them. T2 had mentioned going for a swim, and this was the day for it. He and I both went in the water, but there were a lot of jellyfish so we didn't stay in too long. Just long for a photo!
Now back, for dinner, a bit of ironing, watching Elton John at Glastonbury, and then thinking about how I haven't started packing yet for my big weekend of gigs starting on Saturday...
Twenty years ago this very day we were at Kelly Osborne's gig in Camden and then straight off to Glastonbury the next day for our last time. Last one so far anyway.
5k: Five kilometres, about three miles in old money.