White Cliffs of Dover, England

This past weekend, Peter and I planned to go to Cambridge for a night, but the weather took a turn, and we canceled our trip. Since Dexter was booked in for boarding, we decided to make the two-hour drive to the White Cliffs of Dover, located on England’s east coast.

First, we stopped in Deal, England, and visited Deal Castle. It’s a unique castle (from the air, it is shaped like a flower) and was worth the £5 admission fee.

The strangest thing about Deal Castle is that it is located on the beach. My friend Amy gave me a hard time about having lived in England for nearly two years and never having seen any of the coastline/beaches.

Well, I’ve ticked off “visit coastline” now.

The beaches are as expected – pebbly, windy, and cold.

The temperatures were in the high-50s. I was dressed in a sweatshirt, jeans, socks, trainers, and a winter jacket. There was no entering of the sea or even touching the seawater. Had I touched the seawater, my hand would have frozen.

Note: We visited on June 16, 2013, otherwise known as summer.

After Deal Castle, we drove to the White Cliffs of Dover National Trust site. We parked and then walked along the tops of the cliffs, similar to what we did at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.

On a clear day, you can see France (34 km / 21 mi across the channel). Our day was not clear, so we will never know if that is true or not. One surprising thing about the Cliffs of Dover was the giant Port of Dover built directly below the cliffs. It was like a miniature city built on the water.

It is reported that the Port of Dover is the world’s busiest passenger port.

After spending about ten minutes at the Cliffs of Dover, we walked to Dover town center and to the shop where we had booked to go on a sea safari. Dover reminds me of Duluth, Minnesota.

Our sea safari was to take us to see the Cliffs of Dover and other sites from a boat in the sea.

Due to multiple instances of miscommunication between Peter and me and the sea safari company, we found out upon arrival that our tour had been canceled due to a lack of safari-goers.

So, we hopped back in the car and drove two hours back to Maidenhead, unfulfilled and a bit depressed.