The Writing Nut

We reached Dover at around 12:30pm. It was a really quick stopover on our way to lunch.

A row of apartments near Dover Beach

The bus parked near the Dover Sea Sports Centre.

The Dover Sea Sports Centre

All thirty of us  walked to the beach and took whatever pictures we could take in the span of 15 minutes.

Taking pictures on Dover Beach

An old clock tower in Dover

Knowing we only had a few minutes in Dover, Mary, our tour guide, had told us about the famous White Cliffs on the bus.

The White Cliffs of Dover

The White Cliffs of Dover, composed of pure white chalk and accentuated by streaks of black flint, form part of the British coastline. For many years, the cliffs have been a symbol of British pride. In the old days, the primary route to the continent was through Dover, so the white cliffs were the first or last thing the British would see of their country.

A raft on  Dover Beach

Such was its symbolic value that songs, poems, were written about the White Cliffs of Dover. A popular song in WWII was Vera Lynn’s “There’ll Be Bluebirds Over (The White Cliffs of Dover”. The cliffs have also been used as settings for books and movies. In a chapter of “Moonraker”, the third James Bond novel, the villain attempts to kill Bond by blowing off the white cliffs.

The White Cliffs of Dover in the distance

The cliffs face the Strait of Dover, and on a clear day, Mary says, one can actually sea the coast of France.

Dover castle above, a row of apartments below

Atop the white cliffs, we saw Dover castle. It wasn’t part of our tour that day, but the zoom in my camera allowed me a glimpse of just how large the castle is.

Zooming in on Dover Castle

The stopover ended all too soon and Mary herded us all back to the bus where we headed for Ramada Inn where lunch was scheduled.

Ramada Inn, Dover

At the start of the trip, Mary had passed down a list of available lunches for our group. Having learned much about budgeting from our first tour, Maiko and I had packed our own lunch. So while others piled into the Ramada for their pre-ordered lunch, Maiko and I found a table under the tree and ate lunch.

We were enjoying our ham and cheese sandwiches when the four people who sat behind us in the bus (yes, the loud, noisy group) decided to pull out a table near ours to have their own picnic. Maiko and I just looked at each other and laughed. It seemed as if we were destined to have the background chatter with us wherever we went on this tour.

Premium Tours Bus

The sun was bright and hot where we sat and I was craving some ice cold soda. I went into the Ramada and ordered a coke from the bar. The bartender was nice enough to offer me a glass full of ice with my bottle of coke. I trudged back to where Maiko sat on the bench, shaking my head. £2 for a small bottle of coke. Extortion, I say.

We finished off our lunch of sandwiches, and potato chips (or potato crisps as the British call them) with a dessert of fruit. I bit into my apple and was quite happy with the shape of my bite mark. I just had to take a picture of it:

That’s one HEART-Y bite!

Lunch was forty minutes as usual, and after all of us had had our fill of food, and taken restroom break, we all headed back to the bus for the next major stop of our trip:

Canterbury Cathedral.

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