On our third sightseeing day, we went to Leeds Castle, which is not in Leeds but in southeast England, in the county of Kent. By all accounts, this is the most romantic castle in all of England, although not the largest. I believe Windsor is far larger. The castle has 24 bedrooms and, until the mid-20th century, did not have any bathrooms with indoor plumbing! It was a beautifully restored example of medieval architecture, although some of the wine cellars date back to the Normans. The castle’s last owner, Lady Baillie, completely refurbished the castle, and added some 20th-century touches, like central heating. Our tour guide told us it was once called the Ladies’ Castle, since it became something of a tradition to give it as a wedding present to royal brides. Keep an eye out for the pictures of Henry VIII and his six wives!

The grounds of the castle are beautiful and included an aviary with a wide variety of exotic birds, including white peacocks, toucans, parrots, etc. There’s also a huge maze on the grounds, created from over 2,400 yew trees, although our guide asked us not to go into the maze since it might take hours to get out! One note: the castle rules have changed recently and guests are now allowed to take photographs inside the castle, something we didn’t know until after we had left.

Our next stop was Canterbury Cathedral, with a short stop for lunch at Panteli’s restaurant up the street from the cathedral – food was okay, not stellar, and quite possibly the strongest cup of tea I’ve ever had! Canterbury Cathedral was only somewhat interesting, although I found it was incredibly commercialized. The only exit from the grounds forced guests into the gift shop.

After meeting up with our group again, we went to Dover for a 15-minute photo stop. We wished this stop had been longer. My kids certainly would have willingly shortened or completely traded in the stop at Canterbury for a longer stop at Dover. Despite the drizzly day, the kids had a blast on the beach and wanted to climb up to the cliffs.

To round off our day, we stopped for afternoon tea (included with the cost of the tour) at a pub about 45 minutes outside of Dover. We were treated to sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream (yum!) and individual pots of tea. It was better than lunch!

This particular tour was not nearly as attention-grabbing as our other tours (see entries for "Discovering London" and "Stonehenge & Bath …"). However, we would definitely, given the chance, go back to Leeds Castle to try the maze, and to Dover, to climb the cliffs and tour Dover Castle.

There are castles, and then, as I realized on my visit to Dover Castle, there are fortresses. Castles, it seems to me, are pretty places, well-suited for royalty dressed in gorgeous fabrics, sipping tea from exquisite china while gossiping and half-listening to string quartets playing softly in the background. Fortresses are for battles, with thick walls and few windows. One might feel pampered in a castle, but safe in a fortress.

As it seemed most people headed directly for the keep, I set out to see the Roman lighthouse and Saxon church located nearby, which allowed me a roughly chronological view of the premises. Built of local stone in the first-century CE, the Roman lighthouse is now hidden from the coast by St. Mary-in-Castro Church. During the Roman rule in Britain, however, the lighthouse stood twice its present height and guided ships across the Channel. I was told that the ghost of a Roman drummer boy can sometime be heard playing in the ruins, but I didn't hear him!

The church next door (for which the lighthouse served briefly as a bell tower) was originally built around 1000 CE, and served as the site of a wedding the day I was there. The inside was closed while wedding preparations were underway, but the outside shows the marks of extensive 19th-century renovation. The view of the castle’s keep from the hill just above the church is excellent for photos.

From the church and lighthouse, it’s a short walk to the fortress itself. Pass through the gates into the yard, and the massive walls of the keep, built by Henry II to replace the wooden one constructed on the spot by his great-grandfather William the Conqueror, rise in front of you, gray and forbidding. You can roam through the inside more or less freely. The stones used in the construction of the interior seem as large as those used to build the outer walls. The ceilings are tremendously high. But what surprised me most was how light it was inside, given the lack of windows. Some of this was undoubtedly due to the addition of electrical lighting, but I expected a dark and cramped space but found one that was remarkably bright and airy.

If you’re feeling spry, you can climb all the way through the keep and walk along the ramparts. They say you can see France on a clear day, and, although the sky was blue, haze obscured the view of the coastline. You can’t see the cliffs from the ramparts though. Instead, head for a viewing stand near the WWII gun. With luck, you’ll be rewarded with the amazing view of the Cliffs I saw that day.

Admission is £8; opening hours are 10am – 6pm (April – September), with closing at 5pm in October and 4pm from November through March.

This Norman-era church is the oldest of its type in England and in the best condition of any of its era. It is next to the Lighthouse built in Roman times. It is small by modern standards, but certainly was considered an extremely large building in it's day. It has pews now, but did not have such for the first several hundred years of its existence. A beautiful little church. You are entirely on your own in touring this building. No guides or brochures evident. But as it had been a very busy day at Dover Castle perhaps all the brochures had been picked up. The width of the windows, remarkable when new, give the church a lovely light. Fairly high up within the castle grounds, there is a wonderful view of the sea just outside the church. Entirely made of stone, it is in great shape. Outside the church, up on the curtain wall of the castle, on a clear day it is possible to see the coast of France.

UPDATE: As of Monday 12 February, 2001 new areas of the Underground war rooms have been opened to the public. A secret room used by British commanders to plot the courses of Allied and enemy ships during World War II opened to the public after being shrouded in mystery for a half-century.

The Coastal Artillery Operations Room, in an underground labyrinth more than 100 feet below Dover Castle, is part of a network of tunnels carved into the southeastern costal region's unique white cliffs. This room, kept classified by the British military until 1986, was used by Sir Bertram Ramsay and his staff in 1940 to organize one of thie most dramatic operations in British military history. That is the Dunkirk evacuation. About 800 civiliarn small craft joined navy vessels in the rescue of more than 320,000 British and French soldiers stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk, France, under heavy German fire.

This newly opened room is the latest in a series of military attractions open to the public along the 3 mile long tunnel system under Dover Castle. It includes a hospital, bunkers that housed thousands of soldiers and nuclear bomb shelters created during the 1962 Cuban missle crisis between the US and Cuba.

This is an extremely interesting place to visit: however, and this is the big, HOWEVER, although I was able to tour the areas where you wait for your tour to start, I was unable to negotiate the long winding stairways going down to the deepest part of the tunnels. I had a very sore ankle and the stairs were beyond my abilities on that day. I had to cut out of the tour about 1/3 of the way through. Friends who finished the tour said that going down wasn't the worst part--going back up was. They also said that although I left the tour, several other people should have and didn't. A word to the wise should be sufficient.

This is definitely not an accessible tour for handicapped, injured people or those who have trouble in confined areas.

Up, up and up above the city of Dover, the castle sits more or less as it has since about 1260. This is the highest point on this coast of England. It is also the closest point in England to Europe. The castle is rock-solid and huge. The walking is somewhat handicapped accessible, but you'll get your exercise. The main hall of the castle is in renovation and various areas are often closed off. We were there on a 'light' visitor day. I think that it would be difficult to see much on a 'heavy' visitor day. We were able to climb up quite high in the castle although the steps are uneven and there are few if any handrails. When we were there the interiors were all painted white. Not what I expected. Grand views of the coastline. It is said that on a really clear day you might catch a glimpse of Europe. There is a lighthouse on the castle property that was built in Roman times. It is next to St. Mary's Church. You can walk into the lighthouse and study its rude but long-lasting construction.