But we were all amazed by the amount of traffic at that hour. What are all these people doing already on the highway at 6:00am? We purposely did that to avoid the heavy traffic. I suppose we did though, because it would have been much worse later on.
We stopped for breakfast just north of Gatwick Airport and by the time we got on the road again it was raining. And quite heavy at times!
Didn't bother taking any photos... it was four lane motorway almost the whole time. Not very exciting.
But, speaking of exciting. The big news of the day is that Max is sold.
I didn't put a whole lot of effort into trying to sell him, but it's such a great deal for a foreign buyer, and that's exactly who is making the purchase. We've spent a lot of time doing video chats with Larry and Carolyn from Ohio, and we think Max is going to be very well looked after. They are doing one of the camino walks in Spain next month, and then they will end up picking up Max from our dealer around November 1st.
Part of us a little disappointed that he sold! We wrangled back and forth on whether we even wanted to sell him or not, but in the end, it just made sense at this time. I'm glad we found good buyers.
But, we've got some great adventures planned for the future. So while they will no longer include Max, I'm sure they will be interesting for you. Motorhome travel is still our favorite way to explore, and we will pick up another vehicle at some point in the future.
We found somewhere to park near Dover Castle and waited out the rain until about 2:00pm.
Dover Castle in the mist.
This is the last time we get to use our English Heritage cards, and boy did we ever get value out of them. And, it turns out that we can bring in one child each under the same card, so Cameron also got free entry.
Buying the cards cost us a total of $109 CAD last year for the two of us. We ended up saving $530 in admission fees (with the $109 taken out) because Ruth kept track of the full price admission at all 21 sites that we visited.
Dover Castle is quite impressive.
Cameron, at his first real castle!
Dover Port as seen from the castle.
One of the entry gates.
They were teaching sword fighting for kids!
Sir Cameron of Greenwich.
(Cameron lives in Greenwich, Nova Scotia.)
The great tower.
The great hall.
A prince, and his grandmother.
Smile and wave!
Stained glass and its reflection on the floor.
The stairs take you up to some fantastic views from the roof.
Another hall.
Meat hanging in the kitchen.
The castle was really good. They had the interior all done up as if it was a thousand years ago, and lots of interactive things for the kids to do.
Ruth, doing some cooking!
Sir Cameron of Greenwich.
Dover ferry port.
Kevin and Cameron playing with morse code.
The tower on the left is a 2,000 year old Roman lighthouse.
The church is young... only 1,000 years old!
Inside the 1,000 year old church.
Exit gate.
It was a good visit, and we all had fun. Still doubt that we would have paid the £26 entry fee per adult had we not had the pass... but we did have the pass so it didn't matter!
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And in Canada...
Sort of sad to learn that Max is sold and that you'll be parting with it pretty soon. I kind of liked that small RV as much as if it was mine ... which could have happened in other circumstances. You people have a great sense of adventure and renewal, amazing. I'm sure you're next move will be as exciting and enjoyable as the time you've spent with Max all over Europe. Meanwhile enjoy your time with Cameron and have a pleasant trip back to Canada soon.
ReplyDeleteWe are kind of sad too. Max has been a great motorhome and we have loved his small size and his layout. It is time for a chance, we will be back to Europe to do more motorhoming but it was time to switch things up and keeping Max in storage just didn't make sense.
DeleteWe are having a great time with Cameron and he is loving his time here in Europe, lots of neat things to see and do for him.
Funny my son was grappling with the idea of giving and letting his son watch old fairytale car toons and the associated violence...my grandson is 4 years old. In the end my son decided 4 years old was a tad young...maybe wait another year when he can explain the cartoons i.e. sword fighting in Peter Pan. I was telling my son, I remember in Little Red Riding Hood, the big bad wolf scared the beegees out of me. My niece at six years old went to see the Riding Hood play at a children's theater. The theater was quiet as big bad wolf pretending to be grandma...Autumn stood up and screamed 'Don't do it...it's big bad wolf' wherein all the children in the theater practically rioted screaming 'don't do it' I remember this as I see a much older Cameron enjoying his trip through the castle. Such fun it must be for him.
ReplyDeleteI think our children both started watching animated Disney movies around the age of 4. The main thing is to just talk with them about the movie and letting them know that the characters aren't real. We don't think shielding them from movies like that is good, it's different when you are talking about real live people in movies. Gosh we all survived watching Bugs Bunny and all those other cartoons when we were kids! Anyways, there were lots of very young children exploring the castle and joining in on the "sword practice" and they were having a ball!
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