Dover, England

May 4, 2024 -Today we arrived in England, the last country on this world journey. The sail in to the port in Dover was stunning, with the famous white cliffs of Dover in clear view from our Veranda. We docked in Dover just before 9 and were disembarking about 9:30 for a brief customs “face to face inspection”, which might have been the smoothest process yet, before boarding our bus for our 3.5 hour excursion to Canterbury. One of the greeters who welcomed us told us the weather the day before was miserable, with waves crashing over the docks and fog blocking much of the cliffs, so yet again were blessed with great weather.

We met our guide Evelyn and took a 30 minute bus ride from the Dover harbor to historic Canterbury. The scenery along the drive was great, with lush green fields, some sheep and many fields of yellow flowers that Evelyn told us was for Canola oil. Once we arrived in Canterbury, we did a brief walking tour with our guide along the windy streets with lovely old wood and stone buildings - where we could see the spires of the cathedral above throughout our walk. Apparently the building codes prohibit building any structures that would block the views of the cathedral — so everything two stories or less. Once we arrived to the gates of the cathedral we were given 90 minutes to explore on our own. The Cathedral had scaffolding all around it for renovations, so we opted not to pay for the interior tour, and just walked around the streets enjoying the architecture and the people. We even found an old catholic church, St . Thomas, which was an old stone church that was well preserved and was both beautiful and simple inside. We went in and sat for awhile praying in silence along with some others. It was nice to be in a church where there weren’t tourists snapping pictures and talking, but just people silently praying or going to confession. After this, we stopped at a small cafe and sat outside enjoying a cup of tea, before taking a leisurely stroll back along the river to the buses for the trip back to the Dover docks. The driver took a short detour on the ride back, so we could get a closer view of the Dover castle on our way back to the ship.

An interesting fact about the castle during the war was that Hitler apparently told his pilots not to bomb the Dover Castle, as he wanted it to remain unscathed, so that when he was victorious, he could stand alongside the castle and show his dominance over England.

For dinner this evening, we had the private room in Manfredi’s for the group of 10 people that we’ve shared most of our happy hours with. We had a great meal, but even better conversations. We shared stories of our trip, laughed (a LOT) and just enjoyed a final night together with wonderful people. We then went to the Star Theatre where all the entertainers did a “Best of the Best” variety show that was excellent. We ended the night with a quick stop into Torshavn, to hear Speedy, Judith and the Sea Six Band play a few sets after they performed at the variety show. It was an great day - start to finish!

London (Greenwich), England

Honfluer, France