Dover and London.

Our Channel crossing was extremely smooth and we landed in Dover aboard The Pride of Calais. The White Cliffs of Dover are visible just about from the time you leave France and they provide a spectacular backdrop to Dover.

It was a pleasant walk to our guesthouse “Hubert House” at the foot of the hill leading up to Dover Castle. This house was built in the days of the Napoleonic Wars and has provided sponsorship and accommodation for many cross channel swimmers (including Des Renford) over a long period of time. Our guest house was beautifully decorated and our host (a swimmer in a couple of channel relays) was kind enough to move all our bags up the very narrow stairs while we were out exploring the castle.
We were lucky to discover that the castle is closed on Tuesday and we still had enough of Monday to see it! It is a very steep walk up the hill but well worth the effort. I did think I may have expired on the steps but I kept going and was pleased to discover I was still alive at the top.

We enjoyed the World War 2 tunnels and lookouts and batteries, the Roman remains, the Medieval tunnels and the grounds. Most especially we enjoyed the recently renovated “Great Tower”. English Heritage has done a superb job recreating life in this wonderful old building. We had dinner in the pub just around the corner.

We had actually planned to visit the castle on Tuesday and this left us with a free day on Wednesday so we caught the train to Canterbury. We have been to Canterbury before so this time we found Canterbury Castle, walked the old city walls and thoroughly explored the many interesting streets of the city. There are some beautiful shops and some wonderful products on display. The English do Christmas well!!!!! I saw many wonderful things that I wanted to buy – we actually bought some chocolates to take home –will they survive?

Then we returned to Dover and our pub for dinner again.

Wednesday morning and it was time to catch the train to London. London suburbs, especially when you arrive from the east are not attractive! It is a bit of a surprise the first time you see it. I would simply hate to live in blocks of flats such as those in the East End. We are using reward points for our London accommodation (and don’t have to pay!) and are shacked up in Mayfair. There could be no greater contrast than to the somewhat daggy parts of outer London. We have wandered through Green Park, Piccadilly Circus, walked down Regent Street, checked out Buckingham Palace and the vast contingents of media, we have prowled Bond Street and Berkeley Square (where Tony sang beautifully!), trawled through Fortnum and Mason’s, window shopped at Tiffany’s, De Beer’s and many other places of absolute decadence…….and we have found a couple of places with excellent food at a price we can afford to pay! There are still a few leaves on the trees and squirrels in the park.

As I write we are in a bar called Henry’s on Piccadilly – it has good coffee and free WiFi. Our bags are packed and waiting for us and tonight we fly to Singapore. Fingers crossed that we can find some reasonable internet when we arrive.