The seaside

As I mentioned in my Canterbury blog, Steve and I went exploring on that Monday. After we left Canterbury, we headed to the seaside villages on the isle of Thanet. From there we drove along the coast. 

Here is a map of southeast England. We started in Maidstone, which is in the county of Kent. Maidstone is southeast of London. From there we went to Canterbury, which is directly east. Northeast of Canterbury, right on the coast, is Margate. That little tongue of land that includes Margate and Ramsgate is the isle of Thanet. We drove as close to the coast as the road allowed, driving through Deal on our way to Dover and then Folkestone before returning to Maidstone. We tried to get a glimpse of the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, but it was no joy.

Our first stop was Margate. Established in 1736, it is England's oldest beach resort. As you can see, it was low tide when we got there.

The long, desolate beach.

It's a pretty little town. Steve was a bit disappointed. He expected there to be more tacky touristy places like you find at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. It would have been something to look around, at least. Other than a bulk sweet shop, we didn't see much in the way of interesting shops.

I imagine when this old church was built, it stood all alone. Now it's hemmed in on all sides. This is the car park we used. You can see the back end of our Fiesta. It's the white car to the right of that cluster of people.

We had lunch and Margate, visited the Shell Grotto (which I cover in my next blog) and then we drove on. This is Deal.

We rounded the corner and saw this, Deal Castle. We had no idea this place existed. The road wraps around it and it's more impressive on that side, but I couldn't get a good shot.

Steve pulled off the road so I could get the previous picture. He noticed that we could glimpse the white cliffs for which this part of the English coast is famous.

We drove through a bit of farm land when we left Deal and saw this windmill. This photo is for Mom. It's not the greatest, but the best I could do from a fast-moving car.

We followed signage leading us to the "white cliffs" and stumbled across Dover Castle.

There is a National Trust park established at the white cliffs, and it overlooks the Port of Dover. It's a busy ferry port, with regular trips to France. 

The moment we entered the park, my thoughts were on my Dad. Not because he ever spoke of the white cliffs or expressed any desire whatsoever to visit Dover, but because one of his favorite vocalists was Vera Lynn and she sang "White Cliffs of Dover." I felt like maybe Dad was visiting with us that day. Especially when Steve started singing out of the blue, "There'll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover..."

Look at all the semis lining up for the ferries. We saw several ferries coming in and out. There was a lot of cargo traffic, but little to no passenger traffic.

A shot looking toward Dover. You can see some white cliffs, as well as Dover Castle.

That's France on the other side of the English Channel.

We walked along the cliff side (scary - at least for me) and got up close and personal with the white cliffs. They're made of chalk, so they're actually pretty fragile.

A good shot of the trail and some more cliff face. On the very left edge about halfway up is a large black spot. We couldn't figure what kind of stone it was. It was shiny and very hard. We saw a lot of these stones embedded in the cliff face. Later we learned that there used to be a coal mine here and figured it must be coal. Funny how the cliff is made of black and white.

I was not expecting this view. Everything I read said you could only see the cliffs from a boat, and we were too late in the year for those cruises. So I was quite chuffed to see this. It was worth being nervous on the cliff. I thought the black along the shore was stone, but it was seaweed.

A closer view. 

A flowering bush I saw along the trail. 

The flowers don't look quite as pretty close up, but they're still fascinating. It looks like a spider went nuts. Or tent caterpillars.

Another shot of Dover Castle that I took when we were a bit closer. Steve and I agree that Dover warrants a longer visit in the future. It was a nice town and obviously has a lot to see.

Our little tour of the southeast coastline made for a very enjoyable day. Very often this type of day, where we don't know exactly what we're going to find, turns out to be the most fun. You have no expectations, so every discovery is special.