Traveling

WINGING AWAY: Overly excited by the amazing castles of Dover, yesterday I forgot to include any mention of our travel over to the United Kingdom.

We flew on Norwegian Airlines for the first time, on a big, beautiful 787 Dreamliner. The plane gets high marks from all of us for its comfortable seats and ample head room and baggage storage.

The Rolls Royce engine had lots of ooph! Upon take off, we marveled at how quickly we were airborne;It seemed almost instantly.

 After a nine-plus hour flight, we landed at London-Gatwick airport, which is southeast of London proper. We made our way through customs quickly, and to the car rental part of the airport. 

We'd reserved an economy Vauxhall sedan to drive around, but ended up getting 'upsold' to a Mercedes. As much driving as we had to do, at the time we thought the bigger car would probably be better. While it was super comfortable for the driver, the back seat was like a cave, and really hard to see out of - not great for touring the scenic countryside. If we had it to do over again, we'd make a different decision. 

Anyway, we were happy to be off the plane and on the road toward Dover. I snapped a quick shot of this cute little tunnel through one of many round hills in the area.

After about an hour and a half's drive time, we were all quite excited to catch our first-ever glimpses of the white cliffs of Dover. Here they are, as seen from the car.

I chronicled the visit to Dover Castle in yesterdays blog post (if you looked at it early, go back, as I added a bunch more photos)!

Our evening in Dover was unremarkable, spent at the Ramada Inn Dover. The place was quiet and the room comfortable, and that was all we really needed.

We did walk to a nearby pub for dinner, The Archer Public House. It was neither quiet nor comfortable. ;) There was some private party going on inside, with loud, bad live reggae-ish music. But they did have an abbreviated bar menu, which we could order from, and eat it sitting out on their smoke filled patio. The kids were happy with their pizza, so overall, it was ok.

DOVER TO DUNKIRK: We slept a few hours and way-too-soon it was time to get up and on the road. We had a sunrise ferry to catch.

We made sure to get to the departure terminal in plenty of time. We had to go through customs, and give the French customs officer a look in our 'boot' (trunk), but it was fast and efficient.

We explored the ferry terminal a bit, by dawn's early light.

 It was super pretty. The white cliffs of Dover almost looked like icebergs.

 As we walked around, we discovered a doggie pen (but no canines inside).

The sunrise colors managed to make even the semi-trucks look lovely.

 Eventually, we were able to get on the ferry!

 As we shoved off, we got even better glimpses of the beauty of Dover.

 As we pulled away, we realized we could see the castle we'd toured the day before.

I couldn't help but imagine what this sight looked like centuries ago to both visitors and would-be vanquishers. 

 Below, the white structure is a more modern day military base. Someone told us it was the "Coast Guard," but I Googled it and it looks like that's the name of a nearby pub.

Following is a short write up from CJ regarding the ferry ride. 

 DFDS Seaways, a Danish ferry and cargo service, is the only ferry service that carries passengers between the British city of Dover, and the French city of Dunkerque. Dover's terminal is Europe's busiest ferry terminal.

At Dover, I witnessed the iconic White Cliffs, a staple of Dover. The White Cliffs of Dover formed over millennia, from the skeletal remains of minute planktonic green algae that lived floating in the upper levels of the ocean (source).

While the ferry was leaving Dover, I recorded a video of the ferry. On the way to Dunkerque, there were very pretty views of the English Channel. At one point, while on the inside of the ferry, I also played a Mario Kart: Arcade GP machine that was present.

Here's the video he captured: https://youtu.be/oJCnZyeDC5I

It's funny, before we left on the trip, Christian and I looked for arcades we could visit while over there, and found none that would work. It was a nice surprise that there was a mini arcade on the ferry!