Calais to Dover

We left Brussels to go to Calais, France on a train-strike day. The European train employees went on strike in April but there was an agreement that the strike days would roll so transportation wouldn’t come to a complete standstill. We didn’t know all this, of course, when we made our plans. We had three different trains to take and 2 of the 3 planned legs were cancelled for the times we had scheduled. Fortunately, some trains ran that day to where we needed to be, it just meant that instead of getting to Calais by 3:30, we didn’t arrive until 8:00 PM. It also turned out that the last leg, which went from Lille to Calais in France, only ran once that day, leaving at 5:30 and arriving at 8:00. As the only train between Lille and Calais for that entire day, it was packed and I mean more packed than any train we had previously been on. Before, we had been on trains where the extra people stood at the back of the cars. No one stood in the areas that had the seating. On this train, every available piece of flooring was occupied including all along the aisles of seats and the stairs between top and bottom (these were double-decker train cars). We were packed in like sardines. If you fainted, you wouldn’t have fallen down because there was no room. Doug was up against the doorway and I was afraid when we stopped at a station and the door opened, that he would fall out. The train made several stops at towns and, fortunately, more people got off than on so we were able to sit in real seats about half-way to Calais.

We arrived in sunshine but the two days we spent there were cloudy. At least they were dry. There is a very beautiful city hall in Calais that I wish I had taken a picture of when we arrived, when the sun was out, but we were loaded and walking to our hotel so I passed it for the next day. We also missed getting inside because it is only open for 2 hrs on Sat and we went through some nearby parks before we got there, then took pictures outside. We just missed seeing the inside. It was built in 1885, “contains one of the most beautiful chimes in the north of France”, and has the Burghers of Calais statue by Rodin outside. It was quite impressive.

Calais also has a really pretty old town center and some interesting statuary in their parks.




This honors De Gaul and Churchill, and their partnership during WW II to free France.





The peacock was just fun.






There is also a church from the 12th century (Eglise Notre-Dame de Calais) that appears to be repurposed but at least is being historically preserved. We were there on Sunday, mid-day, and people were dismantling electronic equipment from some event from the night before. There is a beautiful altar but the rest of the inside is pretty barren. The grounds are well maintained and it really was lovely.


The day we took the ferry to Dover was also sunny, which we appreciated. Doug wanted to see the white cliffs of Dover, hence the plans around taking the ferry, so we were really happy to see sunshine. My pictures aren’t very good because there wasn’t any area outside on the ferry to take pictures from. I was limited to taking them through the dirty ferry windows, but coming up on them was impressive. We walked along the top of the cliffs another day, and along the bottom to get to the horrifically steep and long climb to the top, so I got a few other pictures.

We were trying to get to a view point (there is a visitor’s center and designated paths, very popular with locals and tourists) but by that time my legs were already starting to give out and we still needed to climb down and back to our B&B so we didn’t make it. Doug thought we were on the wrong path anyway (we weren’t) and I was in pain by the time we made it back to the B&B so it was probably just as well.

It was a gorgeous day, though, and we had fantastic views of the Dover harbor and all the activity going on there. Ferries arrive and depart regularly and unload and load streams of tractor-trailer trucks. Very busy harbor. We could also see the outline of land on the horizon. My pictures probably don’t show up well unless you blow it up to zoom in on the horizon, but you can see the water horizon, land mass, and then clouds. It has to be France because there aren’t any islands in the channel. Kind of cool to think we are seeing France from England.

back side from the cliffs

front side from the town

Dover Castle looms over the town of Dover. It goes back to Henry II days, over 1,500 yrs ago. The Dover Cliffs, under the castle, were dug out to create miles of tunnels to house soldiers during the wars against Napoleon. After Napoleon was defeated, the tunnels were used for various things. They became very important again during WW II. Dover proper was bombed daily during the war so the British Army set up a hospital and command centers in the tunnels. Hitler never bombed the castle or grounds because he wanted to make it his fortress once he conquered England. The damage that was sustained came from the British themselves, the result of planes they shot down and debris that fell.





















There are tours of the tunnels and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to live and work in them. They would have been pretty tight, very poor air quality as most everyone smoked back then, and power was sketchy. Think MASH programs underground but much worse. The day started cloudy but then cleared so after we had made the climb to the castle and toured it, I went back up the hill before we left and retook pictures to get them in the sunshine. Doug stayed at the lower part of the castle and waited for me. Between that day and the next climbing the White Cliffs, it is a testament to all our walking on this trip that I was able to move the next day.

There is also a beautiful church in Dover, St. Mary's, that is over 700 yrs old and just reminded me so much of what I would expect an old British church to look like. It is down in the middle of the historic section and is typical of a place where the town grew up around it. There was a very nice couple inside answering questions about the church.

Maison Dieu (Dover Town Hall)

Some other cool little buildings in Dover.