Back to Kent

Even tho' I think every once in awhile that I miss having a car, when we actually do drive in the city I quickly remember how lucky we are not to have one.  When I say "we" drive, I of course mean Chris.  When we first came to London, I told him that learning to drive here could be one of the biggest challenges of my life, but also one of my greatest accomplishments.  However, it was not to be.  Just wasn't worth the hassle and most of the cars here have manual transmissions anyway, which I never mastered on my own side of the pond with the gear shift on my right...  I could really be dangerous behind the wheel here.  What with the "roundabouts" every 100 yards and the motorways named with letters & numbers, going clockwise and "anti-clockwise".  And when giving directions in the UK (or in fact anywhere we've been in Europe) no one uses street names.  It's "Go down this road about 5 minutes and turn right when you see the Budgens."  This includes the good old GPS, or "sat nav" as it's more popularly referred to here.  Our automated friend simply doesn't use road names or numbers, rather it's, "after 100 yards, turn right at the round about, third exit" or "after 200 yards, bear right" or "after 100 yards, go straight on!"  But she was spot on with her most recent commentary, and we were grateful to have her when we rented a car last weekend and drove to the Kent Coast.

I've been wanting to see Dover Castle, and a few different people recommended against staying in the town of Dover itself, so I found a hotel in the seaside port of Ramsgate, about 20 miles north.  Suffice it to say that Ramsgate is nowhere as scenic as its tourist website portrays, and the room we stayed in - although the hotel itself was charming - was probably the smallest we've ever stayed in.  Ever.  In our lives.  One of us had to back up around the bed when the other needed to grab something from the closet - er - cubby with hangers.  But it was clean and functional and completely fine.  And despite the lack of atmosphere in Ramsgate, we had really great dinners there both nights we stayed, first at a seafood restaurant tucked away above a fishmonger's shop, and the second at a Michelin-starred venue with a waiter from NYC.

The real highlights of this weekend were Dover Castle and the famed "White Cliffs".  And we thoroughly enjoyed the town of Sandwich, where we spent our Sunday before heading back to London.  Dover Castle is a fort that originally dates back to early Saxon days 2,000 years ago.  It was expanded upon under Henry II, who built the current castle in the early 12th century.  Well, we are talking about a king here, so I suppose it's more accurate to say that he had the castle built.  Over the years, it's served as a key defense of Britain, being quite close to the coastline of France across the English Channel.  From the first invasion by the French in 1216, to protection during the Napoleonic Wars threat in the early 1800's, to it's importance in the planning and execution of "Operation Dynamo" - a huge evacuation effort of British troops from Dunkirk during WWII - Dover Castle has earned its nickname of "key of England".

The castle is actually a huge complex, and your visit can be broken up into sort of 5 different eras of history; we spent the most time in the Secret Wartime Tunnels exhibit.  These tunnels were first built  - or dug I suppose - during the Napoleonic Wars - and became the crucial centerpiece for the afore-mentioned Operation Dynamo.  They basically provided an underground city including headquarters, barracks, and a hospital, and the amazing feat of the evacuation of nearly 340,000 troops over 10 days who were trapped in Dunkirk and unable to fend off the German army any longer, was carried out from these tunnels.  The exhibit was really well done and moving.

Leaving the castle, we drove to the nearby White Cliffs.  The weather had improved nicely by then and we had a lovely walk along the cliff edge (!) to get a good look.  We recalled our trip to the more-impressive Cliffs of Mohor in Ireland in 2005 - like then, there was not a guardrail in sight.  And it was windy which made us feel all the more vulnerable.  But we didn't fall thank goodness, rather we got some lovely pictures and strolled back to the car after about 30 minutes - we really didn't need more.  On the way back to Ramsgate, we stopped in the nice little coastal town of Deal and had a bit of a walk around before stopping for a pub lunch, then headed back to our hotel.  As I said earlier, Ramsgate doesn't seem to offer much in the way of culture or history, but we were 2 for 2 with really excellent restaurants for our dinners, in both food & service.  Made the lack of square footage in our hotel room bearable.  And speaking of the hotel, the common areas were really charming, and they even had an extensive vinyl collection and a turntable; while I was napping one afternoon Chris whiled away some time in the reception room listening to classic Dire Straits.

After packing up and checking out the next morning, we headed for Sandwich, a lovely and historic little Cinque port town. (What's a Cinque port? click here. )  At first we were a bit discouraged, as everything seemed to be closed, including the tourist information center!  But we stopped for a coffee and had a chat with the proprietor and she gave us some encouragement.  And believe it or not, the attendant at the public toilet was a wealth of information and had free maps for us!  Thank God for Chris's prostrate the size of a grapefruit.  So we went to the "Secret Gardens of Sandwich" which were beautiful, and strolled along the town "wall walk" and had a nice lunch before finally calling it a day and heading back to London.  It was a nice little getaway weekend in this nice little country of which we are privileged to be temporary residents.

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