3 blokes and 2 birds put their biscuits in the boot and bugger off. Brilliant!: We made it to London

Yes, our blog is several weeks behind. In fact we've been in London for more than 3 weeks. But this is the story of how we made it here.

We were up bright and early in the farmhouse in Calais. We showered, got dressed, ate breakfast, cleaned up a whole mess of toys, and then the kids and I played outside with Itty Bitty Tiger Kitty while Jay did the final cleaning. We met the neighbor for our little farmhouse, a Serbian who played professional volleyball in Europe until a shoulder injury forced him to retire. We also met our hostess, Linda, who had spent the weekend in Paris since we were staying in her house. She was quite kind and talkative... but I was nervous to head out to make sure that we could get to the Eurotunnel in time for our crossing.

We made it to the Eurotunnel in plenty of time - in fact, we had so much time that they let us get onto an earlier train! We drove through this mass of lanes and checkpoints. They then checked our passports and asked us a bunch of questions about what we were going to do in England and how long we were going to stay. I had been warned that they might want to see bank statements, return tickets, etc. But they only wanted to verify that all the faces matched the passports and we were through. We drove through a bunch more crazy checkpoints, all surrounded by barbed or razor wire. Apparently with the escalating number of refugees in Europe, people have been caught trying to run through the chunnel. We stayed safely in the car and then DROVE ONTO A TRAIN. It was pretty crazy. Luckily it was completely not crowded. Here is what it looks like in a CAR on a TRAIN under the English Channel.

After about 20 minutes or so, we emerged in the UK! It was much less eventful than it seemed like it should have been, but quite easy in fact. Highly recommended for convenience!

We caught the earlier train, and the UK is actually an hour earlier than mainland Europe, so we had some time to kill before we could check in to our London apartment. We decided to stop in Dover to see the white cliffs on the other side of the channel. We spent quite a bit of time driving around Dover (STAY ON THE LEFT!) trying to find:
1. A visitor center (eventually found it, but it was closed)
2. An ATM, since we only had Euro and England still uses Sterling

We weren't successful with the latter, and we wound up instead following signs to Dover Castle. We had no idea what we were getting into... except that the sign as we drove in said that the cost would be 50 pounds for the family! I panicked, but it all turned out fine. We drove up a hill to this huge, beautiful castle overlooking the channel.

From the parking lot, we climbed up a hill to look around.

Sammy wanted to climb and climb and go down and down, but it really was pretty steep for him. We managed to drag him away with only a little kicking and screaming.

Rather than pay 50 pounds for admission to just the castle, we joined English Heritage for 100 pounds and free access to many historic sites throughout England. This was totally worth it. English Heritage does an amazing job with the sites that they manage. Definitely check it out if you're visiting the UK.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

We walked down a hill to view the underground tunnels, which we were advised to see first since they get crowded. The boys at first wanted to go through a tunnel tour about Operation Dynamo (Rescue from Dunkirk, in which 338,000 soldiers were saved after being cut off in France by German troops), but after realizing it was an hour long, they settled for the hospital tour (20 minutes). This was a good thing, since as soon as we got in the tour, Sammy was starving. The tunnel must have looked like the inside of a car somehow. Anyway, the tour was interesting and we saw much of the hospital, including the operating theatre, dining areas, sleeping quarters, etc.

When we emerged, we spent a while looking out over the channel, admiring the artillery and the white cliffs of Dover, and eating some cookies.

We then walked up into the castle to see the tower and of course, to get some sustenance.

Everyone was much happier after lunch!

We then saw an exhibit on some of the history (quickly) and then went into the tower. See if you can find camouflage Joey in the picture.

There was a fun kitchen exhibit on the ground floor. Then a whole bunch of steps up to the top of the tower. There were beautiful views over the castle and the surrounding countryside.

And then a fog slowly moved in.

After a last walk around the castle ramparts and some time spent defending the castle against imaginary attackers, we finally had to head out to make it to London at a reasonable hour.

There was a lot of traffic. An enormous amount of traffic. The whole trip was only about 60 miles, but it took us close to three hours. We finally made it, though, and picked up our keys at the University College London reception desk. We drove a few blocks to the address and found parking right out front of what we thought was the correct place. It turned out that our place was around the corner, but still very close! I was pretty nervous about what this place would look like, since I'd rented it online without any detailed pictures. Luckily, it turned out to be a spacious three bedroom that is perfect for us!

Kitchen and dining