[19 May 2010] One late afternoon, Alvin and I decided to go to the nearby Rochester Castle. It is only a fifteen-minute walk from the flat via the Rochester Bridge that crosses the River Medway.
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The Rochester Bridge crossing the River Medway |
Rochester is a town in Kent which is considered to be the "Garden of England". As a trivia, Kent is the English county where Charles Darwin grew up and is also the resting place of Pocahontas!♣ On the other hand, according to some internet sites, Rochester is the favorite town of the most popular British novelist Charles Dickens, as the place is depicted on many of his classic works.
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Rochester High Street |
I have come to know that in this country, every town has its own "high street" where restaurants and shops are mostly found. In Rochester high street, I saw a second-hand bookstore which I really wanted to see but was already closed by the time we're there. Sad...
A few meters away from the high street is the Rochester Cathedral, which is the second oldest church in England next to Canterbury (will be doing a separate post on this).
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The Rochester Cathedral |
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The Cathedral's Interior |
In front of the Cathedral is the Rochester Castle which had histories of siege in 1215 and 1264. You have to pay a fee to get inside, but the castle grounds are open to public just like a wide-open park.
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Rochester Castle |
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Graveyard on the Castle Grounds.
The spot above says "Charles Dickens wished to be buried here..." |
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Moments... |
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Catching up for a late afternoon fun.
The castle is overlooking the River Medway, and by the time the sunset sets in, the entire atmosphere suddenly tuned into a déjà vu for me. Wow, it really felt like I've been there before, or perhaps I imagined the exact place before and it has now turned into reality. I honestly felt time has stopped ticking while I'm in disbelief figuring out which of it is more true. In the end I just thanked God for bringing me there, a place I know I've already been to... somewhere in time ♥.
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The view of River Medway overlooking from the Castle.
A scene arousing from a dream... |
Afterwards , we drove to the Historic Dockyard in Chatham where real-life historic warships of English Navy are kept (and where the recent Sherlock Holmes movie was filmed!☻). Whoah, a submarine is such a huge metal sea monster!
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Launching of HMS Submarine Ocelot in 1962,
the last submarine built for the English Royal Navy. |
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The HMS Submarine Ocelot during her heyday.
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Today, HMS Submarine Ocelot serves as a ship museum. |
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The HMS Cavalier (D-73) 1944 is a C-class destroyer in WWII.
In 1997, it was officially designated as a war memorial to the
142 Royal Navy destroyers sunk during World War II
and the 11,000 men killed in their service. |
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The HMS Gannet 1878,
designed to patrol the world's oceans to protect the British flag. |
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