Now that I’ve finished classes, it’s time to catch up on the blog. Yes, it's April and I’m done classes. Exams begin in 5 weeks when I have two exams and two more papers due in May.
So, we’re going to do a bit of time travel here and go back to March 13th, when Butler organized a day trip to Dover. The day began with the bus departing late, making Butler a perfect 0% for leaving on time!
First stop on the trip was the town of Faversham, where we were to tour Shepherd Neame Brewery, the oldest brewery in Britain. During the tour, they had samples of the malted barley and hops for us to taste. If anyone ever goes on a brewery tour and they offer you hops to taste: DO NOT taste the hops. The taste doesn’t leave your mouth for about an hour at least. And it’s not a taste you want in your mouth for an hour. Trust me. But do take the malted barley, it was pretty good, especially the lighter barley.
As with every distillery/brewery tour, there was a tasting at the end. Which is where things got interesting. We started with a tutored tasting of three different beers brewed at Shepherd Neame. The one I liked was called Bishop’s Finger, which is named after the signposts that pointed the way to Canterbury.
Things got interesting because my friend Ben had volunteered to bring up the rear of the tour, and for this he got a full pint instead of a half pint at the end. People also gave Ben and I their samples that they did not want. Since Ben was having a whole pint at the end, I took some of the sample given to him so he wouldn’t have too much. So instead of three small samples and half a pint, I had a little over a pint. Let’s just say I slept well on the bus ride to Dover.
Now I will explain the title of the post for those of you who don’t know, because it will explain what the first thing I did (and the next picture) when arriving at Dover. There is a band I like called The Decemberists who have a song “We Both go down Together” which begins “Here on these Cliffs of Dover, so high you can’t see over.” The first thing I did was played the song on my cheap mp3 player I bought to make trips more enjoyable.
Now that the required bit of being a Decemberists fan was out of the way (I would also repeat the process at the top of the Castle), it was time to head into the Castle. We only had an hour so we headed straight to the top of the tower.
After spending some time at the top, we headed down one of the spiral staircases and took every exit to explore the castle. Yes, the coast line you see off in the distance of the first picture is France.
Then it was back on the bus for the trip to London. Look for daily posts over the next several days. First up is a post covering Jordan and Deanna’s visit to London, which in reality will need more than one post to cover in full. Then it will e another round of England vs. America, followed by a post covering a visit by Terry and her parents, and another trip to Bath. And then I should finally be caught up on the blog.
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