As I mentioned before, friend and fellow runner Martin was my travel buddy for this trip, and our first stop after leaving Lakenheath on Saturday morning was actually in Canterbury, about half an hour from Dover. Canterbury is famous for Canterbury Tales, of course, and the Canterbury Cathedral, where people make pilgrimages to the shrine of martyred Thomas Becket. We parked near the cathedral but walked through part of the town before reaching the cathedral gate. I really liked the town, and we found an amazing restaurant for lunch where we enjoyed fun British food like sausages in Yorkshire puddings (I'll save the picture for the photo album...). After lunch, we spent a good couple hours exploring the inside and outside of the cathedral. I'll get a photo album online at some point, but here is the first view of the cathedral from walking in the gate:
It is HUGE, and the inside looks even bigger. There are gorgeous stained glass windows on every side, and they looked so bright inside even with cloudy skies outside. This was actually the point in the trip when we got the news about the race cancellation, via a call from the race organizer. No reason to turn back since we were already in Canterbury and had the hotel rooms for two nights in Dover, so on with the adventure!
Our hotel in Dover was an adorable guest house run by a very sweet older couple. And yes, by "adorable" I mean the rooms were about as big as a closet, haha, but I would totally stay there again. The owners were very friendly, the place was very clean, and breakfast was great! It was evening by the time we arrived from Canterbury and got checked in, so we then headed out to explore the town of Dover and find dinner. We were within walking distance of Dover Castle, and here is our view from walking around in town the first night:
The next morning, I was really excited to go hike the famous White Cliffs. My excitement was only dimmed somewhat when we got there and found the trails icy and snowy. The day was actually sunny, but this created the additional problem of melting snow = MUD. All of these factors made the hiking rather interesting and much slower than expected, but we made it through with only minor bruises and muddy jeans and shoes... so I'll consider that a success. :) Here is one of my favorite pictures of the cliffs:
We hiked all the way down the face of the cliffs on the trail I had found on my October visit, and explored the rocky beach. The most exciting part was discovering a small cave hollowed out into the cliff wall, which we had to scale some not-so-steady rock piles to reach. It was SO worth the effort, however. The view was incredible, and it made me think how cool it would be to camp out in that cave and wake up to the sun rising on the cliffs. But unfortunately, I am pretty sure camping is not allowed there, plus it would have been soooo cold! Here is a picture of me standing on a very large rock I scrambled up on at the beach (Martin gets the photo credit here, as well as credit for being the first one to climb on the rock, slightly more gracefully than I did):
After ascending the trail back up the cliff face, we continued on to the South Foreland Lighthouse. (This was the one I did not have time to get to in October.) It wasn't open, but we walked around it and I got this really good picture:
We made it back to the car by mid-afternoon, and after changing into dry jeans, socks, and shoes, we headed out into Dover again to find a late lunch. This time we took the recommendation of our hotel hostess and went to a really cool coastal-themed restaurant on a marina. The rest of the evening was spent walking around the town and taking in all the sights and unique shops and pubs.
Monday morning (hurray for President's Day!), we checked out of the hotel and were off to Dover Castle. We spent several hours exploring the wartime tunnels and every nook and cranny of the castle. I was slightly disappointed that the roof of the castle was closed due to ice, since that had been one of my favorite parts (amazing views!), but Martin reminded me we could come back and go on the roof when we return for the rescheduled race. We left the castle around mid-afternoon, and planned to stop in the town of Sandwich (yes, as in the "Earl of") for lunch.
Unfortunately, Sandwich fell very short of our expectations. The small town was pretty dead - most of the shops and restaurants were closed, and we saw very few people walking around. Also, there were barely any historical markers or monuments, and nothing to tell the story of what put Sandwich on the map, which was really weird. So much untapped marketing potential! Anyway, we decided that it was best to just go back to our new favorite restaurant in Canterbury, since we were still in the area. This proved to be a great decision, as the food and atmosphere were just as good the second time around.
We got back to Lakenheath Monday evening, and I went back to work on Tuesday morning. This week is a very busy one work-wise, as I have still been playing catch-up from the Vegas trip and also am working the forecast counter on day shift due to our current manning situation. Looking forward to the weekend for the chance to catch up on some sleep, plus Saturday night is a group outing to celebrate Greg's last weekend in England, as he prepares to move back to the US next Wed. I will be very sad to see him go, but I'm glad to have one more fun weekend first. For now, it is off to bed with me, early wakeup tomorrow!
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