Ashore in Dover - 07/09/19
09 July 2019 | Dover, UK
Helen

Our alarm was set for 8 am which woke us up. I woke up several times thru the night. Not sure why. We still had a few more items to pack up, but first, we walked up to Deck 14, Lido, for our last meal on board the Sea Princess. After we finished, we headed up a couple of decks and took pictures of the White Cliffs of Dover. Our ship was late getting to the dock. We actually walked off close to 10 am. We took our luggage with us as we exited the ship. We walked over and joined a huge long line of passengers waiting for a taxi. Finally got one and headed a short distance over to the Europcar Rental place. Then it took quite a while waiting in line and finally we got a Citroen which is actually a good size and drove well. Although, Mark kept turning on the wind shield wipers when he wanted to change lanes. They drive on the left side here, but the speed limit is in miles per hour as is our gps. Our first stop was to pick up a UK sim card, so we can use Mark's phone while we are here. Then on the drive to Southampton, we stopped at the Battle of Britain Memorial. They had some airplanes and other momentous pictures and artifacts from the 1940's. It was not that far to Southampton, but we had to almost drive up to London, to get the M25/M3 hiways to head west. We stopped at a rest stop, but missed the area where the cafes were located, so we kept going. We got off the motorway for a late lunch. Then continued, arriving around 3:30 pm. We stored one of our two large suitcases. Then drove back to Dover. We checked into the Churchill Guest House b&b. It's a lovely place. We walked over to the beach front. The beach here in Dover is really pebbles and no sand. The thing that surprised us was that it was barely in the 60's today, and we saw at least half a dozen swimmers in the water. We asked some of them what the temperature was. They said it was maybe in the 50's but once you start swimming, it doesn't feel that cold. Wow! We enjoyed our tour of the water front area. We could see the Sea Princess still at the dock. The waterfront was beautiful. They were building a new marina with a lock entrance. Also, there was a few other construction sites which will make this area even more beautiful than it already was. We had a bite to eat at Cullins Yard Cafe, which was actually a brewery. Mark got to sample the warm beer that they made there. They also had free wifi, which we took advantage of. It was overcast most of the day. At times it looked like rain, but we didn't get any. After lunch, we actually saw the sun. Driving in the car, it was really warm. However, the high was barely in the 60's. We will enjoy breakfast here before heading to the east side of London. Thanks for the many emails and messages. Enjoy your day!