Loddington House Dover

... of the great sites Europe has to offer, with challenges and drinking along the way.

Each rally has a theme; ours was based on the comedy 'Allo 'Allo, and so centred around areas where the French Resistance played their part in World War Two.

Our chariot of choice was a 1.3L 1995 'Skoda Favorit LXiE', called Stavros, but after a few modifications this became a 'BMW Favorit RS Motorsport Sport Turbo Sport LXiE V8'. Awesome.

For the ...

Boulogne is a town that seems to have grown a lot. Its old city center is still surrounded by its old fortress walls. The city that sprawls outside of this is somewhat drab and uninspiring but within the walls there is a great feel for what it used to look like with its cobbled stones and old city hall building. We stopped at a small café to warm up and then we walked along the walls of the city enjoying the view of the city ...

Next stop was Calais, sort of. We didn't really stay in Calais but we kept getting drawn back there for one reason or another. It is the closest city to the U.K at just 34kms of water in between the two. We first decided to stop there to stretch our legs and grab a bite to eat. The city isn't huge and besides a few nice buildings there wasn’t too much to see. We got some good food at a restobar ...

... bus from Satara to Panaji
Night on bus

Tues 29:
Arrive in Panaji at about 8am
Take bus to Calangute – 45 mins
Night in Calangute/ Candolim

Wed 30th:
Visit Calangute
Depart for Madgaon
Depart from Madgaon to Jog falls OR
Depart from Madgaon to Ernakulam (Train – 14hrs)
Night on train/bus

Thurs 1st Oct:
Visit Backwaters - Allepey
Depart for Coimbatore (Train – 8-9 hours) bus?
Night in Coimbatore ...

... Cathedral. It is an Anglican cathedral and considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture. The main body was completed in only 38 years.

The cathedral has the tallest church spire at 123m or 404ft). The cathedral also has the largest cloister and the largest cathedral close in Britain. The Cathedral ...

... due to a couple of little incidents on the way. We had a new inverter delivered yesterday morning as the original failed on Friday so I attempted to install that this morning but ran out of time. We were making good time to Dover but we needed to fill up the gas before we left the country as we had no time to get a French adaptor. The pump we found filled ...

... climb I knew I would have to make.  It was about a 2 mile walk through the town of Dover and then up the hill to the castle.  I got more than my fair share of exercise in for the day!  

Dover Castle is so neat because it's essentially been a fortification for over 2000 years.  The lighthouse, or pharos, dates from 120 AD, the Castle from the late 12th century, and the "secret wartime tunnels" were used from the Napoleonic Wars up until the ...

... poorly ventilated hospital during World War II. At one point, the lights flicker as an air raid hits. Seriously, it's a haunted house. It even had a warning before entering for those of a "nervous disposition" as the British would call it. Still, it was pretty cool historically. The evacuation of Dunkirk, for those who don't know, was an evactuation of hundreds of thousands ...

... to get up really early (6AM!) because I had booked a tour that left from London at 7:30 in the morning. My roommate Jenna was nice enough to drive me into central London, and it's definitely a different experience at that time of the morning and driving into the city instead of going by rail. We made a few wrong turns and ended up at the gate of Buckingham Palace, but I got to the tour bus on schedule. My tour was leaving from London and going to ...

And I'm back. I was glad to hear a good old Kentish accent when I was going through passport control at Dover and had a nice chat with the guard. I couldn't stop talking when I got home tho I think I was relieved at being able to speak English again! So just to do all my unpacking and washing now....