To get to Dover from Oxford, we woke up early and caught the first Brookes bus into town. We got off at the stop just across from the train station. We booked a return train (meaning round-trip) from Oxford to Dover. That meant 1 hour on the train into London, the tube from Paddington Station to Charing Cross, the 1.5-hour train from Charing Cross to Dover. And then back. Whew!
Prince Albert isn't in a can... he's in Dover! At a pub, of course!
We could have hired a car, but I was a little nervous about driving in town. Highways, I have down, but since there are more than 2 roads in England, even highway driving would be much more complicated than driving on the North Island of New Zealand.
Having (almost) completely figured out the Tube system, it was a piece of cake! We arrived just after noon in Dover. On the way out of the train station, we passed a food stand and stopped for lunch. Since toast was all we chose to eat before we left, it was a welcome sight, even if the fish and chips were frozen and out of a bag.Instead of going directly to the Western Docks, we walked away from the water about 1 block to the tourist information office, and by complete accident found the hub of the town. A 10-block pedestrian walk from the tourist office (near the ruins of St. Edmund's), past the Bronze Age boat and the Roman House ruins, all the way to the 20' x 40' jumbo-tron in the middle of the square where the day's football (soccer) matches were showing. Talk about a blending of time and space!
We were fortunate in that our fellow passengers consisted of a talkative British couple with their grandson Kye, who drove the boat. My nephew would have jumped at the chance, but Kye was very unsure of himself when given the opportunity. With a little prodding and encouragement, he slowly crept into the wheelhouse and took the reins.
After the boat returned to the docks, our captain drove us in a shuttlebus to the top of the hill where Dover Castle stood.
I know I can't repeat the history accurately in the blod, without many references and some audiovisuals, so instead, I'll say that I don't know of any other structure that has withstood the damage of time and neglect (built in the 1170s and 1180s) and served so many uses over such a long period of time. These uses include its original purpose as home of Henry II, ___, ___, hiding townspeople in the underground tunnels during the first and last bombings during World War II, evacuating Allied soldiers following the German invasion into Dunkirk, and serving as a back-up government for all of England, should London be blown away by a nuclear blast. Most recently, St. Mary the Virgin Church inside the Castle's grounds served as the location for a wedding. We watched from the rooftop of the Castle.
The view of France from the Dover cliffs:
The trip back took much longer than the trip to there, with more than a dozen stops instead of the 2 or 3 on the way to Dover. We got back just after midnight, and finally settled down just in time to catch my nephew, bro, and sis-in-law at home and hear that UT lost to UCLA.
We saw some ugly Americans while we were in Dover. No wonder they don't like us as a people in general. This pair, the woman in particular, were so obnoxious that even Mom and I were trying to distance ourselves from them. No need in someone thinking that we were traveling together. And then of course, they showed up in the train station, but thank goodness were traveling through another location in London.
And, we met an ugly Brit. A drunken ugly Brit at that. He couldn't decide which he hated more--the damn Yanks or the damn Paki's. An interesting perspective on world peace. My biggest laugh came when he asked Mom a question, and she answered in the most country-fried American accent I've ever heard. He didn't catch on.
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