The Tale of 2 Tintles: May 2010

For all you Americans out there, May 1 (May Day) is a bank holiday in the UK which means 3 day weekend for Shane. So, assuming this would be our last chance for a get away for a little while we piled into the car and headed for the White Cliffs of Dover. We also managed to convince 2 of our friends (who are also quite pregnant!) to come along for the trip. The 4 of us headed out on Saturday morning for the cliffs. Of course, London had been having the most beautiful weather the week before the 1st and since about April 29th (the Saturday we left) it has been cold and rainy. But, like good British folk, we just put on our rain coats and ignored the storms.
We stopped first in Dover. Dover castle has been a military fortress for around 900 years and was used until WWII as a military stronghold. During the Napoleon era there was a maize of underground tunnels built to house and hide soldiers. These tunnels were renovated and expanded at the beginning of WWII and contained a military headquarters as well as an underground hospital. The famous evacuation of Dunkirk, facilitated by Admiral Ramsey, was planned and run from Dover. We took a tour of these tunnels and the hospital which was quite cool. Due to the rain we choose to skip seeing the cliffs from a boat (we aren't that British yet!) but were able to get a good view from the castle. They are quite pretty and I'm sure very intimidating for any navy set to attack England.
After a day in Dover we headed to Canterbury. We grabbed dinner at The Old Weaver's house, an adorable little inn that served solid British food, and then headed for our B&B for the evening. The following morning we attended a service at the Canterbury cathedral. The cathedral is enormous and is the active headquarters of the Anglican church. It has been a site of Christian worship since St Augustine first built there in 597 AD and was the site of the murder of St Thomas Beckett in the 12th century which made it a place of pilgramige for hundreds of thousands. St Thomas Beckett's remains were removed and destroyed when King Henry VIII broke from the Catholic church but there is still a memorial for him located behind the alter.
After church and a short tour of the cathedral we grabbed lunch and then headed back to London.
So, that is all of our planned vacations until the arrival of T3! Thanks for checking our blog and we hope to introduce you all to the little guy soon!