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Part 5 of 8Tagging along to London

Dover Castle and the white cliffs

A change of hotel, then a high-speed train to Dover with a friend, for the castle, the white cliffs and the harbour.

By Thawaio1 min read30 April – 1 May 2022 · Dover

White chalk cliffs topped with green scrub dropping to the ferry terminal and the grey sea, seen from high on the castle hill, with a lorry park and roads below.
The white cliffs and the Eastern Docks from Dover Castle, 1 May.

A change of hotel

On 30 April, we moved from the London Heathrow Marriott to the Wilde Aparthotels at Aldgate Tower Bridge, for our last five nights in London.

To Dover

On 1 May, we travelled to Dover on the high-speed train, with one of my wife’s friends who was living in London. There were four of us.

A blue high-speed train standing at a long, empty platform under a canopy, with tower blocks beyond.
Our high-speed train, 1 May.

Dover Castle

We visited Dover Castle and the white cliffs.

Looking down from the castle hill over Dover harbour, its long breakwaters and the calm, pale sea.
Dover harbour from the castle.
Two dark green field guns on a concrete pad on the castle grounds, with a boy sitting by the nearer one and the sea beyond the bare trees. His face is pixelated.
My son on a field gun.
A bronze statue of a naval officer in a cap on a stone plinth, with two people standing on the path beside it and old barrack buildings on the hill behind. Faces are pixelated.
The statue of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay.

I was already familiar with much of the wartime history through films and historical accounts. Being there made me think about how different peaceful times and wartime must have felt. I felt that contrast in my stomach.

A large green lawn with a woman and a child playing on it, below a grey stone house and the tall square tower of an old church. Faces are pixelated.
On the lawn below the church of St Mary in Castro.
Looking down from a high tower over the castle’s inner buildings and green banks, to a church, the harbour and the sea.
From the roof of the Great Tower.
The massive square stone keep of Dover Castle, with an old cannon on the grass in front and a flag flying from the top.
The Great Tower.

The seafront

Later, we went down to the seafront.

A wide paved promenade by the calm sea, with a long block of seafront flats and the castle on the green cliff behind.
Dover seafront, with the castle on the hill behind.