Last weekend was another Bank Holiday, so David and I decided to rent a car and take our first road trip in the UK.
David has been driving a little bit using the local Streetcar (a short-term car rental service for people that live in the city without vehicles). Mostly, we’ve used the service to drive to and from baseball games outside the city and to B&Q (also known as Home Depot in the states) for gardening/lawn supplies. But we’ve never driven through the city or as far as we did this weekend… and it was TERRIFYING!
David has been driving a little bit using the local Streetcar (a short-term car rental service for people that live in the city without vehicles). Mostly, we’ve used the service to drive to and from baseball games outside the city and to B&Q (also known as Home Depot in the states) for gardening/lawn supplies. But we’ve never driven through the city or as far as we did this weekend… and it was TERRIFYING!
David is very focused driving on the opposite side of the road.
We decided to drive to England’s Southeast coast for our mini-vacation. Only problem is, we live in West London. So to avoid driving through the city to get East, David printed MapQuest directions that took us around the outskirts of the city, instead of the “faster” route straight through. Well… after about 10 minutes of driving, we realized we took a wrong turn and were headed straight into the city!
Crap!
I quickly pulled out my handy dandy iPhone GPS and rerouted us. And then before we knew it, we were driving past Hyde Park and Harrod’s and the Wellington Arch! Once we got to Victoria, the traffic and rain and darkness finally got to us and we took another wrong turn. David maneuvered us into a double-decker bus only lane (luckily there were no buses around) to get us back on track. Finally we crossed the Thames into East London and things slowed down a bit. Traffic was terrible in this part of the city, though, and it ended up taking us 45 minutes to drive 3 miles. Never again!
Our first stop was Canterbury. Canterbury is mostly known for its massive cathedral, a pilgrimage site since the late 1100s. David and I had booked a hotel room on the grounds of the cathedral, but since we arrived so late, all of the cathedral gates were closed. So our final hurdle on Leg 1 of our road trip was actually getting to the hotel once in the city. We drove around the block a couple of times before finally pulling over and asking someone. When we finally found the gate, we did feel a little stupid since it is obviously a huge, historic marker…
Cathedral Gate - It does look really obvious in the daylight!
On Saturday morning, we enjoyed the breakfast part of our bed and breakfast and then walked the few steps to the cathedral. We took a self-guided tour through the nave, the beautiful quire, and finally the crypt. The focal point was the spot where Thomas Becket was murdered by King Henry II’s knights. He became an instant martyr, inspiring pilgrims from all over the world to visit the cathedral. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer tells the stories of the pilgrims’ voyages.
The Quire
I asked David to take a picture of this plaque for me.
How sweet that they loved their auditor that much!
David loved this stained glass window...
It reminded him of our beloved Disney characters.
After the tour of the cathedral, we walked a couple of blocks to the main city center, where the Saturday markets were taking place. We couldn’t resist the kettle corn, so we grabbed a bag while we window-shopped. Then we went to the Roman museum.
Much like last year’s trip to Bath, we discovered that Canterbury was a Roman town about 2,000 years ago. No one knew this because the town was deserted and the Roman buildings were buried under new structures. It wasn’t until WWII when Canterbury was shelled by German bombers that some ruins were found in the craters. David and I paid for our museum tickets and then took the steps to get underground. We came out into a colorful room with mannequins of archaeologists and Romans. It turns out the Roman museum is a children’s museum! Haha! We made the best of it, though, and still learned a lot! David even got into the arts and crafts section, putting together a mosaic much like the mosaic floors of the Roman houses and baths discovered!
After the museum, we walked to the Norman Castle, which has been reduced to a four-walled open-air stone structure with a partially flooded staircase.
We had lunch at a gastro pub recommended to us by TripAdvisor called Deesons. The fresh-baked bread was so good and all the ciders and ales were local. David had the best steak sandwich ever. I don’t even like horseradish, but even I couldn’t get enough of this sandwich! For dessert we split the deconstructed strawberry shortcake.
A little disappointed, we got back on the road headed to the coast.
We stayed at another bed and breakfast on the beach in Dover. Once we checked in, we decided to head to Dover Castle. I whipped out my trusty GPS again and saw that it would take about 19 minutes to walk up the hill to the castle and the last admission was in 11 minutes. We didn’t want to rush the castle or wind ourselves running up the hill for no reason, so we decided to just hike up to the famous white chalk cliffs instead. We enjoyed some local blackberries and saw lots of horses grazing in the fields. Once the weather cleared up a bit, we could even see France across the channel. I couldn’t believe how close it was!
A ferry headed to France - they have white cliffs too!
We didn’t do the full four mile cliff hike to the lighthouse and back but we were still hungry and tired once we hiked back down after a couple of miles. We walked to The Allotment, supposedly the best bistro in Dover. The reviews were right – it was really, really good. For starters we had the prawns with garlic chili sauce and goat cheese crostini. David had fish with buerre blanc as his main and I had the beef tips with potatoes dauphinoise. For dessert, we split the blueberry cheesecake. Everyone at the restaurant was so nice, and even though we didn’t have a reservation, they seated us anyway. It was an open layout, so we could watch our food being made in the kitchen across from us.
The cutest little church we found on our way to the restaurant.
Saturday morning we woke up early to take the ferry to Calais. Dover is the world’s busiest ferry port. Both ships we took (there and back) were packed full of tour buses and motorists. And the ferries were like mini-cruise ships! There was a duty free shop, restaurant and cafeteria, a bar, a coffee shop, outdoor decks, and a casino. All of that for an hour and a half journey across the channel!
The view of the Dover Cliffs from the ferry to France
Being an important strategic location along the French coast with such close proximity to England, Calais is no stranger to conflict. Hundreds of years ago the English and French battled it out to gain possession of the tiny port town. At first, the English won, but eventually the French took it back! During WWII, the Germans occupied the city and over 70% of it was destroyed. Eventually, it had to be evacuated, until it was finally liberated by the Canadians.
Because so much of the historic city was destroyed in the war, there is not that much to do in Calais. So we had a long, leisurely, French lunch that ended up lasting almost 3 hours. Thanks again to TripAdvisor, we discovered Aux Moulettes, a seafood restaurant near the beach. We both got a little fish amuse bouche to begin and David was so proud of me when I actually ate it (I don’t like regular fish, only shellfish).
For my main, I had the prawn beignets with some crusty French bread and David had garlic scallops and fried steak. The dessert was the best part! David got a sampler with his meal that included chocolate mousse cake, profiteroles, and a strawberry custard tart.
To work off our delectable yet heavy French lunch, next we climbed almost 300 stairs to the top of the Calais lighthouse. Then we walked down the street to Notre Dame church where Charles de Gaulle, WWI and II veteran and French president, was married. On our way to the Hotel de Ville, or City Hall, we passed a 13th century watch tower and lighthouse (or what was left of it). Unfortunately, City Hall was under construction, but it was still a really pretty area.
Calais Lighthouse
Notre Dame Church
Hotel de Ville
In front of the Hotel de Ville is the famous ‘Six Burghers of Calais’ statue by Rodin, honoring six brave men who were willing to give up their lives for their fellow citizens. In the 1340s, the town was under siege by Edward III of England. The locals held up within the city walls but after about 10 months, they were running out of food and water. The story goes that 500 children and elderly were finally let out of the citadel, but the English wouldn’t aid them and they ended up starving to death. Finally, everyone was ready to surrender. But when a town has held out for that long, the king usually kills everyone anyway. So six brave men came forward and offered their lives in exchange for the remaining citizens. Edward’s wife was so moved by the sacrifice, that she convinced Edward to spare everyone. Nice, but where was she when the 500 children and elderly were dying in front of her??
Across from City Hall is the St. Pierre Park. Inside this beautiful park is a hideous concrete bunker that houses the WWII museum. We had some time to kill before our ferry, so we decided to go inside. It was a great museum and we learned a ton! There were old plane parts and guns and other things found in the channel from the Battle of Britain. Nazi flags and old war posters were hung on the walls behind glass cases, and there were recreations of war control rooms. One of the best parts of the museum is all of the old newspapers along the walls. One front-page story from a British paper had a picture of the King and Queen after the famous ‘King’s Speech.’ The entire speech was re-printed on the front page… just like in the movie. It really put you in the mindset of someone living during that time, from both the French point of view (defeated but still holding out hope) and English (doing whatever it took to keep the Germans out).
We had also heard about La Coupole and Blockhaus at Eperlecques, massive underground bunkers built by the Nazis to launch the V2 rockets (first missiles to reach the stratosphere). The rockets would have destroyed London but thankfully the bunkers were bombed by the Allies before they could ever be launched. We really wanted to visit La Coupole because it is supposed to be a really moving, educational site but it was also about 30 minutes outside the city and we hadn’t driven our rental car onto the ferry.
So after the park, we headed to a café for David to watch his Man U football match. Then it was time to head back to England.
On Sunday morning, we enjoyed another full English breakfast on the terrace of our hotel overlooking the sailboats and crazy-ass swimmers in the channel. That water must be so cold and they weren’t even in wetsuits! I was too much of a baby even to stick my toes in! The swimming clubs in the area are hugely popular though and every morning we noticed groups of swimmers and divers.
The Start/Finish line for Channel swimmers
After checking out of the hotel and loading up the car, we drove to Dover Castle.
The castle is enormous! It not only has a medieval history, but the castle was also used as recently as the 1960s when the UK government planned to have their headquarters there in case of a nuclear attack. We went from exploring the medieval tunnel system around the moat to taking a tour of the tunnel system used during WWII. Operation Dynamo, code name of the evacuation of 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk, was planned within the tunnels of Dover Castle. The line to see these war rooms was an hour long, so David and I opted for the much shorter tour of the underground hospital instead.
The tour was fascinating. Visitors follow the story of a pilot shot down over the channel, arriving with shrapnel wounds to his leg. You follow the team through reception to the operating room, with lights flickering in and out and air raid sirens going off. After the operation, you tour the rest of the facilities – from the bathroom to the kitchen to the tiny living quarters. During raids, over 600 people camped out in the tunnels. Winston Churchill visited on many occasions to meet with the soldiers and watch air battles over the channel.
Because it was a holiday, the castle also put on a lot of shows for the local kids. They had pirate reenactments and at one point, King Henry II even held court!
The tour was fascinating. Visitors follow the story of a pilot shot down over the channel, arriving with shrapnel wounds to his leg. You follow the team through reception to the operating room, with lights flickering in and out and air raid sirens going off. After the operation, you tour the rest of the facilities – from the bathroom to the kitchen to the tiny living quarters. During raids, over 600 people camped out in the tunnels. Winston Churchill visited on many occasions to meet with the soldiers and watch air battles over the channel.
Because it was a holiday, the castle also put on a lot of shows for the local kids. They had pirate reenactments and at one point, King Henry II even held court!
King Henry II's Court
We also saw one of the only remaining Roman structures, a pharos, or lighthouse, outside the castle walls, and a Saxon church. The church was used by servicemen stationed at Dover and King Richard the Lionhearted even stayed there before he and his knights sailed off for the Crusades. Graffiti from the knights can still be seen carved into the wall next to the pulpit.
The Saxon church and Roman lighthouse
This holiday weekend was the last now until Christmas. It’s going to be a LONG Fall….
Love the blog! More stuff for Uncle Paul and I to see if we have time (which we don't) so I am glad you got to see it all and tell us about it. I really like the food comments as well. I like all types of food (accept raw octopus...) and want too make sure next time we travel together we go to some of these gastronomically exciting venues. For some reason, we did not do that as much as I would have liked...(wonder if it had to do with having two American teenagers with us????)
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