Overnight in Dover

Cunard, though claiming to be much classier than any other cruise line, is no different when it comes to turnaround day. We were up at 6:00 to shower, dress and get to breakfast before we needed to have our things out of the stateroom and head for our designated waiting lounge. Our stated disembarkation time was around 9:00 and we weren't too far off of that. The whole process was actually rather painless as disembarkations go.


Once clear of the terminal, we had to look for our van, which of course had all the guys a little nervous since there was nobody waiting with a sign…He did finally show up a bit after his scheduled time with a nice, roomy 8 passenger van/bus with plenty of room for all our luggage. Here's the only photo we have of the QM2, as we left her behind in Southampton

The drive took about 3 hours, but didn't give us too much of a glimpse of the lovely scenery, since it was all on the M-series motorways, but that gave us most of the afternoon in Dover. After leaving our companions at their hotel, the driver dropped us off at the Castle House Bed & Breakfast, just at the bottom of the hill to Dover Castle.

Outside

Our room, small but comfortable

After meeting Sharon, the owner, and getting settled, we took a short walk around to find a bite to eat before heading up to the castle. We found St. Mary's Church

and almost right beside it, Chaplin's, a small restaurant serving local specialties. So how could we resist? Lunch was a little late, but here's what we had:

Larry's Cottage Pie with veggies

Monica's Plaice & Chips

After that satisfying meal, we started off along Castle Hill Road – aptly named, especially the 'Hill' part. Here's a view along the flat part of the road

After climbing what seemed to be a 17% grade (judging by how much higher the path was than the 13% grade road) we finally reached –

a staircase, with 84 steps, leading up to the ticket booth for the castle. By the way, we left the pedometer in the bag, so we're only guessing that over the whole afternoon we added another 5 miles to our log for this trip.

The headland on which Dover Castle is built has been important to defence ever since the first century AD when the Romans built a lighthouse there to guide ships into the harbour. Then the Saxons built a fortification that was added to by William the Conqueror in 1066. Henry II remodelled the castle in the 1180s, and the new fortifications were put to the test during a siege by the French in 1216-1217. Here are a few photos around the grounds

Looking down over Dover

We climbed all the way to the top of the Great Tower, which was Henry's big contribution to the site. The view was impressive, but not as good as it could be due to the mist and the thick cloud of little bugs that never appeared anywhere else all afternoon.

We also visited the Church of St. Mary in Castro, dating back to around 1,000 AD. It is still used today as a military church having last been restored in 1862. Although it is not large, it is beautiful inside. Each of the pew cushions has been cross-stitched by hand and personalized, too.

Dover Castle's historical importance as a fortification includes the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars with France in the late 1700s to early 1800s. At that time, a huge underground barracks was built to house a few thousand men. They weren't used much after that until 1940, and were instrumental during Operation Dynamo, where the British and French soldiers were rescued from Dunkirk. The whole operation was run from the underground offices, and a whole hospital was created to care for the wounded soldiers who came back across the Channel. There is a 45 minute tour that takes you through a portion of these tunnels and covers a lot of what went on to effect the rescue. Unfortunately, you can't take photos inside, but once you get out onto a balcony overlooking the harbour, cameras are allowed again.

After descending from the height, we stopped in to the B&B for a bit, and then headed out for a quick pub dinner. We had seen the Eight Bells Pub earlier in the afternoon and decided to give it a try. Obviously a regular haunt for quite a few of the locals; it was pretty busy even for a Tuesday night. Larry had a club sandwich made with fresh turkey and English bacon (like peameal without the cornmeal crust) and Monica had sausages, mashed potatoes and peas. Couldn't get much more typical than that!

Tomorrow we should be getting to the ship around noon. We'll report on the B&B breakfast that gets excellent ratings from TripAdvisor comments. Sharon already feels the pressure…