June 25, 2024 (Day 6) – Dover, England
Yes, we also thought it was hilarious that after all that work to get to Rotterdam, the cruise ship turned right back around and brought us to England again. Now, they told us that they were going to dock in Dover and Daniel and I had lengthy discussions as to whether we’d be able to see the White Cliffs of Dover and whether or not we should book an excursion – since none of the available ones included Dover – to make sure we saw them. But we finally decided to just go ahead and book a different tour and hope that we were near enough to see the cliffs.
Well, I’d like you to know. We were. Our cruise ship – along with others – docked right in the middle of the cliffs! AND there’s a castle on top of them! How did we not know there was a Dover castle? I feel like this was a major oversight. But we at least got lots of pretty pictures before hurrying off to see a different castle.
Have you ever heard of Leeds Castle? Neither had we, but oh. my. gosh. Those were some of the most gorgeous grounds I have ever seen! So the bus dropped us off at a visitor center/gift store and then you walk up to the castle itself – you can also take a shuttle bus, but we opted to walk so we could see the grounds and that was definitely the right decision. Lush green grass, trees, and flowers everywhere. Birds of all shapes and sizes – they are apparently known for their black swans – we only saw white swans, but I was still delighted. And then, as you get further along, you glimpse the castle up in the distance. And as we continued to walk toward it, we stumbled upon two swans with a bunch of baby swans (which are apparently called cygnets)!
From there, as you finally reach the castle, first you get to cross the Barbican, and then up to tour the castle itself!
One of the coolest parts was the video showing all the different stages the castle has gone through throughout the years. It was built around 1119 and the grounds went through lots of different iterations – sometimes more fortified, sometimes less, since it was more of a retreat than someplace to actually defend, until they housed French prisoners there in the 1660s, who managed to partially burn it down while trying to escape. It took about 100 years for it to be rebuilt and was finally sold to an American heiress in the 1920s, who redecorated in all 20s style, and that is still how it looks today.
We thoroughly explored the house and then made our way up to another part of the grounds that had a restaurant, places to actually stay the night, shops, and gardens – I’m not sure of the history of that section, but it actually looked semi-original and I wonder if it was part of the servant’s quarters or something. But we went into the restaurant portion and finally got tea and scones with clotted cream! It was delicious. We had just time enough to purchase some tea and scurry back to the bus (where we were technically still early, but everyone else is lame so they were all waiting for us).
Back to the cruise ship, where we bemoaned the fact that we didn’t have enough time to actually walk the cliffs, so we comforted ourselves by chilling in the hot tub for hours as we watched the shore fade away.
Step count: 12,025
Forest Idylls 