A day in Dover, England
This is blog post #28 from our tour of northern Europe. On Friday, July 25th, we spent the day at sea, and on Saturday the 26th we docked at Dover with big plans for our final port day of the 28-cruise on the Nieuw Statendam.
My sea day began at my usual station on Deck 9 – I shot this at 06:30 just before leaving as people started arriving for breakfast 🙂
We got back from our usual breakfast-and-spa morning to find the bed covered with Holland America bling. Ceramic tiles (the large “Legendary Voyages” Delft-style ones are very nice) and an upgraded Mariner’s Club loyalty pin for me (Cathy has sailed on more HAL cruises than I have).
The day’s peaceful end, seen from our verandah – our last sunset at sea, with the southeast coast of England off to the left.
The white cliffs of freakin’ Dover – holee! We sailed out of the gloom to see them ahead at about 05:00, and I shot this photo looking back to sea at 05:45.
The South Foreland Lighthouse atop the cliffs was built in 1846, but there has been a light here since the 1300s. It has a significant place in the history of both electricity and wireless communications. In 1858, South Foreland became the first lighthouse ever to shine an electric light, and on March 27, 1899 Guglielmo Marconi sent the first international radio transmission from France to the South Foreland Lighthouse.
Just before 06:00 we reached the outer breakwater and the Dover Port Control tower.
The number and size of ferries was astonishing – most run back and forth to France because it’s much cheaper than using the Chunnel/Eurotunnel.
Dover Castle is massive, but but hoped to see at least some of it, though we knew, given my brain crash at Shetland and 2 more on the sea day, that it would be a challenge.
The beautiful Seabourn Sojourn was already docked. She’s generally considered to be an ultra-luxury ship and carries only 450 passengers – prices to sail on her reflect that.
Pulling up to our docking position at Admiralty Pier at 06:10.
The height-adjustable loading ramp to deal with any ship at any tide level is slick.
I went back to bed for an hour or so, and when I got up, the dock was starting to get busy, with lots of busses and semis arriving. While we were staying on for the short cruise back to Rotterdam the next day, many passengers were disembarking here to start their journeys home from London, and many new passengers were boarding for the next cruise to Scotland (14 days), so it was a complicated day for the crew.
Another ferry departs into the gloom.
Although there is a lot going on in this photo, the subject I was most interested in was the Admiralty Pier Turret in the centre. It doesn’t look like much outside, but it was built in 1882 at what then was the end of the pier, and it’s very complex, heavily armed defence structure inside – I’ll let The Dover Historian explain that.
Traffic was terrible due to the ferries, but for a bit over 14£ we got to the start of the trails. A person could certainly spend the entire day up here.
School was out and there were a lot of students there!
The activity at the ferry terminals was quite mind-boggling!
There’s a lot going on – it’s a great place for everyone from families to seniors.
There’s an upper and a lower main trail, as well as some informal ones. We started on this one but Cathy wasn’t comfortable being that close to the edge so we moved to the top level.
Looking at Dover Castle on the walk back to the upper trail access.
We got to this point and Cathy said that was as far as she could go, but I should continue to the lighthouse. I said I was happy with this and could go back with her – this was the view I came for.
We walked back a bit and sat on a bench with this view – or lack thereof. Cathy wasn’t convinced that I didn’t want to continue, so I told her I was getting sick – another brain crash was coming. 🙁
I did indeed crash on the way back, and needed help. Cathy called a taxi from the cafe at the parking area – the dispatcher said it would be 30 minutes. At 50 minutes we gave up and took the next taxi that emptied there.
Rather strangely, I did see that the entrance to Admiralty Pier was graced with this beautiful station of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway, built in 1918 when the SE&CR controlled the main Channel ports for ferries to France and Belgium.
Cathy got me to our cabin, I went to bed, and another day pretty much ended just after 2:00 pm. What a huge disappointment.
As we sailed away that evening, I got a few photos of the wonderful steel Admiralty Pier Lighthouse that was built in 1908.
Here’s a type of ship I don’t see often – a buoy tender. The 84-meter THV Galatea was built in 2007.
We passed another rather unique vessel, the unmanned stationary lightship Sandettie (to the left of the freighter). It marks the Sandettie Bank in the English Channel.
The next morning, Saturday, July 26th, we would disembark at Rotterdam and take a shuttle to Amsterdam for the first of 3 flights home. Neither of us were looking forward to that – if not for Bella and Tucker, we might well have seen if we could get a cabin for the ship’s 14-cruise to Scotland that would start tomorrow.
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