England and France Family History Trip

We are recovered from the long day yesterday with all the travels & no sleep. Hooray! We slept really well and set out today for some adventures that were pretty spectacular. First, we drove down to Dover to visit the Dover Castle and to watch the Grand Medieval Jousting Tournament held there. The castle itself was amazing. It is HUGE!! You can see it from miles away. It is located right on the White Cliffs of Dover on the SE coast of England. We visited King Henry II's bedchambers and his special religious upper chamber rooms. We saw what an ancient toilet looks like. And we went up endless amounts of medieval stairs all over throughout the castle.  The jousting tournament was pretty cool too. We had a nice vantage point on a small hill overlooking the arena. The horses were so beautiful! There were 4 contestants, each representing the North, South, East and West regions of England. We were rooting for the South - named Sir Isaac something. It was his first jousting to...

Today was rough. But it is wonderful to actually be here and to begin to realize that this is all for real. It's not a dream!!  Didn't sleep on the plane. Had some issues with phone & internet, but thank goodness Charmaine's phone worked! Otherwise we'd still be back at the airport trying to figure it all out on my phone!  Driving on the wrong side of the road definitely takes some getting used to. And when you haven't slept in over 24 hours, it can be even trickier. Those darn roundabouts! Holy Cow. But I'm getting better. We're on a huge learning curve today but my sister is a wonderful companion - keeping me calm and reassuring me when needed.  We had a lovely dinner tonight here in Canterbury - definitely the highlight of the day. A beautiful old restaurant - est. in 1500 - right on a canal that leads out into the river. Charmaine ordered a lamb & rosemary pie and I ordered a Yorkshire pudding with chicken. It was delicious! Sort of a...