Return to Crystal Symphony

Although our room at the B&B was quite small, the bed was very comfortable. Since nobody in the south of England has air conditioning, we slept with the window cracked open a bit, under a nice thick duvet. After all of Tuesday's exercise, the lights went out just after the blog was posted (around 9:45), and we didn't wake up until about 7:30.


The morning's adventure was using the shower. Anyone who read the blog from our river cruise in France will recall that Larry found the shower very small, to the point where he counted tiles to figure out the exact square footage. Well, he did it again here – and discovered that this shower was even smaller than the one on River Baroness! In fact, he dropped the shampoo bottle and had to turn off the water and come out of the shower stall to pick it up!! But that was only a minor inconvenience.

After getting everything packed up again, we headed down to breakfast. There is a nice little room all set up for 14 guests, the standard maximum. You can see the room from the breakfast photos below. And, by the way, it was quite delicious!

Just as we finished breakfast, another couple was debating with Sharon about a taxi pickup time. It turned out that they were also coming aboard Symphony, so we talked for a few minutes and decided to share a cab to the port a little before noon. That being settled, we headed out for another walk, this time toward the waterfront.

Not far around the corner from Castle House are the ruins of Old St. James' Church, which was founded in Saxon Times and most likely one of the Dover churches that was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Although left in disrepair since the 1860s when the town needed a larger church, it was destroyed during the Second World War by German long range artillery fired from France. It has been left as a monument to the citizens of Dover who suffered from the long-range bombings during the war.

Here are a few photos from down near the beach and the quay. The beach would not be too comfortable to walk on in bare feet – it is made of stones rather than sand – but we did see a few hardy souls swimming at 10:00 in the morning!

The little brown blob in the cliff face is the balcony we were on yesterday
from the tunnels

First glimpse of Symphony at the cruise ship port

On our way back, we took a closer look at the rows of banners stretching up and across the pedestrian street to the town square, where there is a huge outdoor TV screen showing the Paralympic Games that are currently taking place. These banners were all knit or crocheted, probably about a thousand in all. Monica had to take some photos just for the Casting Off the Cold group.

We asked Sharon about them later. They were made as an Olympic project by people with learning or other disabilities, as well as people in addiction rehab in various facilities in the Dover area. The strings of banners add a real sense of celebration to the downtown area; we hope they leave them up after the Games are over.

Our wanderings led us back past St. Mary's Church, and another view of the very old churchyard, and then on to St. Paul's Catholic Church and a very pretty house nearby. Hope this gives you an idea of how picturesque a town Dover is. Many Brits probably don't even notice, since Dover is the main landing point for the Channel ferries that go to Calais and Boulogne. The highway literally runs right down to the car ferry ramps, so there's no need to see much of the town.

A rose blooming in the small patio at Castle House

We arrived at the Cruise Terminal just after 11:30. The check-in was being done on the ship, so there was a little wait in the lounge until they were ready for us on board. We hooked up with Roy, Judy and Bob, with whom we had shared the ride from Southampton. Apparently, even though our room was a bit small and the bathroom rather cramped, we had the better deal on the accommodation front. They stayed right on the beach in the Best Western Marina Hotel, and were not particularly happy, especially since, of course, there was no air conditioning and they could only open the window a couple of inches. On top of that, they didn't find breakfast all that appetizing – so they were rather jealous when they saw our photos.

Finally on board, we got checked in and headed out to take a look around Symphony. We hadn't sailed on this ship since 2009, and she recently went through an extensive drydock that remodelled a number of the public rooms. Particularly impressive is the new Palm Court, that got a complete makeover. We'll take some photos and post them in the next day or so. In the meantime, here are a couple of shots taken from the vantage point of Deck 12.

Our best shot of the White Cliffs to the west of town. We'll be
going to dinner at sailaway, so there may not be another chance
for a photo.

Symphony's pool deck

One of the breakwater lighthouses

For dinner we are at a hosted table (officer to be advised when we meet him/her). One of our tablemate couples is from Sydney, Australia and the other one we've met so far is from Chicago – and it turns out that we've sailed together before, on the Dubai-Athens cruise on Serenity in 2010. They are celebrating their 40th anniversary and are now on their third consecutive cruise, having done the Baltic and the British Isles itineraries that preceded this one. The last couple is also on from the British Isles cruise and will be joining us for the first formal night tonight.

Of course, we couldn't go very far without running into Jim Brochu! We were heading past the Starlight Lounge after dinner and there he was, sitting with Ken Rees and John and Laura Loesser. They are all very friendly and interesting; we're looking forward to Ken's destination lectures and John and Jim's talks focusing on entertainment.

We also ran into a few more of the Cruise Critic group, especially Nancy and her husband Larry – then the party moved from the Starlight into the Avenue Saloon, also newly renovated and redesigned…We were there until midnight, so it's a good thing that we're gaining time on this leg of the cruise instead of losing it!!