We had breakfast and left our London Hotel about 8am. We took a hired car to the Victoria Train Station, and than the 9:52am train to the Dover Station. It was a pleasant two hour trip.
In Dover we caught a cab to the ship to drop off our bags, check in, and have a nice lunch. We left the ship at 12:30 and caught a hired car to Dover Castle. The hired car driver turned out to be from London, and had just dropped off a fare, and as there were no taxi’s around, was willing to take us up to the castle, a new experience for us. He was not real sure which road to take, but as you can see the castle from about anywhere in town, it was not too easy to get seriously lost.
We toured the Dover castle, which sits up above the White Cliffs There was probably an iron age fort on the site, but William the Conqueror built the first castle in about 1066. Successive Kings expanded it to the present size. It continued to be a military site in both World War I and World War II. There are a series of secret tunnels under the castle that we first started as barracks in1797. The tunnels were expanded and added to in the Napoleanic Wars, and World War I and II.
In World War II, Admiral Ramsey organized and directed the evacuation of Dunkirk called Operation Dynamo. They expected to rescue 45,000 soldiers and ended up saving more than 330,000. He continued to direct Navel Operations in the area from his base in the tunnels, including directing all naval activities for the invasion of Normandy on D-Day. One of the surprising things about Dover is how close it is to France. You can clearly make out the French coast with your naked eye. During the war, the Germans shelled Dover from France, with over 2,000 shells hitting the town.
After we toured the castle and tunnels, we returned to the ship (photo of our ship with the Statue of Admiral Ramsey in the foreground). Back on the ship in time for our life boat drill. After the drill we met a four other cruisers, who we had corresponded with on line. Tomorrow we will be sharing a taxi with them to go into Bruges Belgium, and probably hang with them for a walking and canal tour of the city. For all you relatives out there, they are from Iowa, one couple living in Des Moines and the other now living in Moline, Illinois.
Here our some pictures of the White Cliffs from our ship, before it left port.
Time to hit the sack,and by the time we wake up, the ship will have made the short 81 mile trip to Belgium.
1 comment:
I remember going the other way on a ferry from Ostend to Dover when I was a young lad, and seeing the white cliffs of Dover. They still look magnificent!
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