Dover Castle

A visit to Dover, its Castle, and the famous White Cliffs.

We decided to spend the day visiting Dover, a seaside city to the east along the English Channel. Famous for its chalky white cliffs, and for its history. Because it is the closest point in the United Kingdom to France and the continent, it has been strategically important for centuries. We spent most of our time at the Dover Castle atop the cliffs, where we toured the underground tunnels cut for military use in the 1790s and used extensively during World War II.

Dover Castle, within the broader castle complex.
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Cissbury Ring hike

Climbing over 2,300-year-old earthworks with grand views of the sea.

The weather was beautifully clear for my 25th consecutive weekend of hiking, so I decided to head once again for the south coast and do a sort-of loop hike that would take me from a tiny coastal village, up to a hilltop capped by a Bronze-age earthworks that once served as a Saxon fortress; through the pastoral village of Clapham; to lunch in a 13th-century building housing a 17th-century pub, and over the highpoint at Cissbury Ring, a massive earthwork created in 300 BC and used (on and off) as a military asset for more than two thousand years. Read on!

Outer and inner earthworks of Cissbury Ring, atop a hill outside Findon.
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London miscellany

Random scenes – I just wanted to share.

In my wanders about the streets of London, and visits to its famous sights and museums, I photograph scenes that capture my eye or my imagination. Some just don’t justify a whole blog posting. So here are these random scenes, tidbits to tickle your fancy – below and in the gallery.

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Bletchley Park

A visit to Bletchley Park, the fascinating location where the British cracked the Enigma cypher during WWII.

Every computer scientist must visit Bletchley Park!  And, for that matter, anyone interested in computing history, spycraft, or World War II.  While on a short trip to London, we spent Sunday afternoon on a brief visit to this fascinating museum at the once-secret site where the British cracked the cryptographic codes of the Germans, during the war, and where, in effect, the modern computing era had its beginnings.  The story was the subject of the recent movie, The Imitation Game,  starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing.  Read on, and check out the photo gallery.2019-09-29-72336.jpg

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