Adventuring Abroad: Dover

Another day trip with Paul's parents took us down to Dover! It is about a 2.5 hour drive from us, to the far southeast corner of England. I had been there with my family in December 2003, which was memorable for the wild winds and driving rain that soaked us! Unfortunately, it would seem that my presence in Dover guarantees windy squalls. This time the storms came and went, but we were definitely windblown by the end of the day.

Paul did all the driving for the trip, which took us to two separate sites: the White Cliffs of Dover, which is a National Trust site, and Dover Castle, which is an English Heritage site. The high cost of going to the castle meant that we ended up getting yearly membership with English Heritage as well, and visiting just a couple of other sites will more than make up for the cost of the membership.

The White Cliffs are beautiful! There is a small visitor's center that actually doesn't have much in the way of the history of the area (disappointing) but does have a nice cafe that we enjoyed after braving the weather. It was raining when we first arrived, so we ducked into the center to wait it out. The squalls came and went quickly, so we set out when the sun came back out.

We had our umbrella stroller with us for Charlotte, which wasn't ideal for the bumpy trail with occasional stairs, but we probably made it a half mile along the cliffs before we decided to split up. Paul's parents took Charlotte back to the visitor's center, while Paul and I continued along the path. The stroller crew definitely had the better idea, as another downpour (complete with whipping winds and small hail) started up just as they got back to the center. Paul and I were caught in it for about 5-10 minutes! As we were trudging along with our hoods up, getting pelted with hail, we passed other walkers who were huddled on the protected side of some hedges -- smart, but there were no hedges left for us to do the same. One person startled me because I was so focused on where I was placing my feet that I didn't see her until her shoes were also in my vision about 2 feet away from my own!

When the storm passed, we were left dry on our upper bodies thanks to our raincoats, and completely soaked through our jeans/shoes. Amazingly, it was windy enough the rest of the day that our jeans had dried by the time we got back in the car a few hours later.

Besides the exciting weather event, the walk along the cliffs was scenic, and we could glimpse the coast of France across the English Channel. It amazed me to think of the people who choose to swim that distance! It was interesting to see the traffic at the port of Dover as well.

Looking from the Cliffs path back toward Dover Castle

Dad H, me, and Charlotte in stroller along the Cliffs path

The famous White Cliffs of Dover, made of chalk and easily visible from France (they say)

Mom and the Port of Dover behind her

Looking quite soggy and windblown after getting caught in a hail/rain squall out on the Cliffs

After we had a nice lunch at the cafe, complete with hot chocolate to warm up, we headed back up the road to Dover Castle. It is the largest castle in England, and was built initially in the 12th century. I realized that Paul and I will have to make more trade-offs in terms of who's walking with/pushing Charlotte at historical sites, because that person generally only gets to read about 5% of the signage. So my knowledge of what actually happened at Dover Castle is quite limited. Charlotte was getting crabby toward the end of our visit to the castle, so I ended up walking her around the grounds a bit. It stayed very windy but we didn't get rained on any more! Maybe sometime we will head back to Dover and it won't be a wild weather day :)