Tracy-Shane-Trips

Good evening, friends. Here’s what I saw when I looked out my balcony this morning… the White Cliffs of Dover. You can see Dover Castle on the hill to the left. We didn’t go there today, but it looks amazing.

Here’s where we are in the world. So close to France there.

That was 715am. We headed down to breakfast around 830 and it looked like this: salmon toast, bacon, French toast, granola and yogurt, and fresh watermelon, coffee, and sparkling water. Remember, the plates are “really small” so it’s not as much as it seems. Food is amazing and available here all the time, so Shane and I are trying to eat in moderation.

At 10am, onto the coach. First stop was Ramsgate and the Ramsgate Tunnels. It’s an abandoned labyrinth of old air-raid-precaution tunnels extending for more than 3 miles around the town. While we were in there, we saw this sign. Imagine our Troop Devon 50, instead of staying overnight at the Battleship NJ, staying in these tunnels?? Pretty cool!

As we walked through town, we saw this really old, cool post box near Royal Victoria Pavilion, erected in 1936. The King then was Edward VIII. You can see his crest at the bottom.

Ambling along down the road, we came to the Ramsgate Royal Harbor, where during WWII, over 800 naval and requisitioned vessels and small, private boats sailed from Ramsgate to Dunkirk in northern France between May 26 and June 4, 1940, as part of Operation Dynamo, helping to rescue more than 336,000 British, French, and other Allied soldiers who were trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk.

Then off to the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Museum in Manston. There was one Spitfire, one Hurricane reproduction, and some cool models.

Here’s a cockpit section from a Lancaster Bomber (this one’s for you, Robbie! Think you could fly this one? I think you’d need a navigator in the back.)

We drove through Canterbury and got a long-distance glimpse of the Canterbury Cathedral. Here are two photos. The second one also shows the city wall. Canterbury City Walls are historic fortifications in Kent, England. The Romans built the first walls between 270 and 290 AD. Later, medieval builders rebuilt the walls in the late 1300s. Today, the walls stretch about 3,000 yards and feature the famous West Gate, England’s largest surviving city gate. We didn’t see the gate. Our guide for the day, Nick, lives here. What a good place to live!

And then it was time for lunch. Hooray, fish and chips. Shane doesn’t eat fish, so he got a chicken club wrap at the museum and ate it before our meals even showed up at the table. And then there was English bitters… I preferred the lager and so did Shane.

Finally, to the cliffs and the Battle of Britain memorial. Very beautiful and sad for the “few” that make the ultimate sacrifice. “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”. The building is called “The Wing” and is designed to resemble a Spitfire wing.

Here was Shane, trying on the airmen’s hats in the museum.

And here’s me comforting the Airman of the National Memorial to the Few, dedicated to the heroic and selfless deeds of the men who won the Battle of Britain.

Here’s the view from the cliffs by the memorial.

Then it was time to embark again. Tonight we are headed to Dublin. We won’t get there until Sunday morning, so we’ll be at sea all day tomorrow. Here is the view as we were leaving Dover. So beautiful. See the lighthouse?

We had dinner at 7pm, it’s 920 now, and Shane is already asleep. It was a long but interesting day. Dinner tonight was a little sushi in the upper left, onion soup, a piece of salmon, some butter chicken with saffron rice, and a scallop and mushroom dish in a pretty tasty sauce.

Tomorrow, there are lots of activities planned for all of us, cooped up on the ship all day. Some of the choices include some really interesting lectures from experts on astronomy, Dublin, and the Vikings. There’s also yoga at 730am and a wine tasting at 2pm. I hope it’s sunny because I am going to see if I can find a seat at the pool. Good luck. I will have to go early and put my book on a chair before breakfast… Mom and Dad taught me that, right, Mom?

I’ll let you know what I decide to do. I’m going to let Shane sleep in.

Tracy