Today we made our way to Dover Castle. The castle is rich in history from multiple generations, from a surviving lighthouse built in approximately ~30CE by the Romans to a church built in the 1000s by the Anglo-Saxons, to a castle keep built in the late 1100s by king Henry the Second, to a series of tunnels dug during the middle ages, another series of tunnels dug during the Napoleonic wars, a series of tunnels dug during the second world war, and finally, a series of tunnels dug during the cold war. The WW2 tunnels were particularly interesting, having housed a radio repeater, a military hospital, and a military bunker and planning chamber. It was in these tunnels that operation Dynamo was planned. Dynamo was the last minute operation to rescue the British expeditionary force as well as various other allied forces from Dunkirk, France, after the German advance had pushed them to the coast. Over 330,000 soldiers were successfully evacuated to fight again. We did our laundry, and are back at the cheery local pub where we're currently posting this from while drinking some cask ales. We had an excellent curry dinner here as well.

Today was our first full day in Dover. We woke up early in order to eat our full English breakfast included in our hostel fee. A full English breakfast includes: eggs, sunny side up (though apparently this is the only way the Brits take their eggs - they don't know what "over easy" is), baked beans, a fried tomato, fried mushrooms, sausage, bacon, and sometimes hash browns. (We passed on the bacon and sausage.) After breakfast we spent almost all day at the White cliffs of Dover hiking and exploring - it was incredibly beautiful. We've attached a picture of the cliffs.

We took a bus from London to Dover today. It was cheap, but it smelled like urine and we're pretty sure the people across the aisle from us were in the drug trade. It was pretty much a Greyhound and I hope we don't have to take a bus again. The train is much better... Luckily our hostel wasn't too far from the bus station, so we were able to walk. When we arrived we came upon a note saying that the doorbell was broken and that we needed to call in order to contact the staff. we didn't have the ability to call it so we were lucky that the owner happened to show up right around the same time. We dropped off our belongings at the hostel and set off to catch a glimpse of the cliffs of Dover before sunset. Unfortunately for us, the map of the cliffs gave a route for cars... not pedestrains. We wound up

More London! We slept in today but then had a pretty busy day. We took the underground to Westimster Abbey. The Abbey was beautiful but expensive so we only looked at the outside. The church next door, St. Margaret's was open to the public without a fee, and was fun to explore. Originally opened in the 800's, it was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. (Most recently in the 1550s.) It has survived since then despite taking at least one bomb during the Blitz in WW2. There were many ancient plaques and graves in the church, dating as early as the 1600's. We proceeded to the Palace of Westminster (parliament) and Big Ben, then crossed the river Thames to see the London Eye. On the bank of the Thames we had a hummus and pita lunch as we viewed Big Ben and Parliament. We continued down the river and took a look at Tower Bridge and the London Tower. The London Tower looked awesome but we arrived to late to go inside. The picture in this post is us in front of the River Thames with the Palace of Westminster in the background.

*Changing of Guards * Picadilly * Trafalgar Sq. * Lunch at some irish place in chinatown * National Gallery - awesome * Groceries for dinner

This morning we grabbed some bread and pastries from a nearby bakery (yum!) and began walking to the entrance to the French catacombs (about a 45 minute walk). We got there about 15 minutes after they opened and already a huge line had formed. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes but it was totally worth it. The catacombs are abandoned stone quarries converted into an ossuary which now holds the remains of about 6 million Parisians. This came about because the cities cemeteries had become overcrowded. The first solution was the formation of a central mass burial ground. As other churches adopted the idea of mass burial the city became totally saturated with bodies to the point that it was unsanitary and unsafe. Eventually cemeteries within the city limits were condemned and new cemeteries were built on the outskirts of town. The problem of what to do with the bodies was solved when the Police Lieutenant General who had been renovating the quarries had the idea to transfer all of the remains down into the existing quarries. It was incredibly eerie to walk down tunnel after tunnel lined with stacks of carefully stacked femurs, skulls, and tibias. Not to mention the cold, dark, and damp. It took us about an hour and a half to meander through the tunnels and by the end we were happy to see the daylight! Next, we took the train to the Eiffel tower. We weren't able to go up to the top as we had planned since it was closed because of the wind, but it was still a great view from the ground. After, we traveled to the arch du triumphe, which was also pretty magnificent. We went out for dinner at a French restaurant near our hotel, where the waitress brought both of us something different from what we ordered but it turned out well anyway. Jon ended up with a wonderful 4 cheese salad as well as some clams while I had a vegetable salad. For dessert I had fromage (cheese which basically tasted like yogurt) and Jon had a baked custard dish. After dinner we walked to the tower Montparnasse, where we ascended 59 floors to get a stunning 360 degree view of the night sky.

We took the Chunnel in the morning to Paris where we made our way to our lodging for the night. After dropping off our bags, we took the underground to Notre Dame Cathedral, which was beautiful! Next, we walked along the Seine River all the way to the Musee d' Orsay. Here we saw a lot of great paintings. There was a Van Gough exhibit as well as a Toulouse de Lautrec exhibit which were of particular interest. We left and headed back to our hotel to escape the rain. Getting hungry, we scoped out all the restaurants in the area looking for something affordable as well as either in English or at least something we could deduce what the entrées were. After looking around for over an hour, we finally decided on a place right next to the hotel which had a menu with English translations. I got a fantastic 4 cheese pasta and Jon had a 4 cheese pizza (there were very few vegetarian options at all the restaurants- but plenty of pâté and fois gras). I also had creme brulee for desert (my favorite!). We ended up paying 4 euros for water because we didn't understand that when asking for water the wait staff will assume that you want bottled water. It  would have been trivially more expensive to get wine. Here we also learned that in France you need to request your bill otherwise they will not bring it to you. After dinner we grabbed some fruit and a bottle of wine from a small shop down the street.