Portland, England

This was a new port for us. The Isle of Portland is 4 miles long by 1.7 miles wide. It's south of the English Coast in the English Channel. It's known for its stone, a special limestone, which is mined there in a large quarries.

The Portland Castle, built in the 16th century, was near the dock.

 
We walked over a ridge of gravel to the "beach." This ridge was constructed in the late 1800s and connects the island to the mainland, which created one of the world's largest man-made harbors. Now there is a train track and a road connecting the island to England.

Looking north toward England...

...and south toward this rocky island.

We took a bus to Southwell, which was closer to the southernmost end of the island, but we had to do a bit of hiking from this suburban intersection to get there.

We visited with some horses along the way.

The map indicated that there was a trail along the fence and another couple was considering going on that trail. They decided to continue along the road. We took the road less traveled.

The trail led to a large quarry. We walked around to the other side toward the coast.

The trail stopped, but we continued along a very narrow ledge to get to the other side.

We found the Coastal Trail.

What a rugged shoreline.

There were some ruins. This island has been inhabited since the Stone Age.

The beach cherries were in full bloom.

 
We'd been alone on the Coastal Trail, but now we were approaching the south end of the island.

There were several very large blow holes that were covered with metal grates held in place with heavy blocks of stone.
Because the seas were calm, there was not a blow hole show on this day.

Here's another blow hole where you can see how far the water has to shoot up to reach the top of the blow hole.

There was a fishing village here, which was puzzling since there is no easily-accessible shoreline.

But all the boats were outfitted with metal clasps on each side of the center and...

...there was this crane. So we guessed that the boats are rolled to the crane and the people get into the boats with all their gear and are lowered into the water. We thought that this activity would be limited to times when the seas were calm.

It was early spring here, so people were working on their cabins. In the background is the lower lighthouse, which is now a bird observatory.

We took this photo of the Portland Bill lighthouse and its obelisk from our bench where we had lunch.

 
We caught this view of both the higher and lower lighthouses as we headed back to the bus stop in Southwell along the road.

Along the way, we saw several herds of sheep.

 
A classic red phone booth and a stone church in Southwell.

We were happy to see the bus. We'd been on our feet for a long time.

A nice send off from the local choir.

We passed the fortified breakwater as we sailed to our next port, Dover, England, which was a substitute port for the two we had missed in France. Brest, was for high winds and a narrow port entrance and the other missed port Le Havre, which is the port for Paris. Unfortunately, there was political unrest and workers' strikes in both the port and in Paris.

Dover, England

This was a new port for us.
The famous white cliffs of Dover came into view at sunrise.

We were first off the ship and chose to walk out of the port rather than to wait for a shuttle bus.

 
The Cinque Port Arms, just outside the port gate looks like it's seen better days, but it does have a cool sign.

Town buildings lined up along the base of the cliff.

A very long beachfront hotel...

In front of that hotel, metal silhouetted figures of people who brought fame to Dover.

From left to right.
- Jamie Clark, who was born with two holes in his heart, brought the Olympic Torch to Dover in 2012.
- Vera Lynn, (born Vera Margaret Welch): English singer-songwriter & actress who sang 'The White Cliffs of Dover' during World War II.
- Ian Fleming, former resident of St Margaret's Bay who included Dover & the surrounding area in several of his famous James Bond novels.

Our ship's dock was across from the hotel.

The Dover castle on top of the cliffs.

We walked through this tunnel with mosaic walls depicting the history of seafaring to get to the center of town.

As usual for us, we were happy to be here early, so we had the city to ourselves.

The castle looms over the city.

 
While Dover was interesting and we could have hike along the cliffs, Dean had planned a different adventure for us, which began with a bus ride to the seaside resort town of Deal.

 
We enjoyed riding on the double decker bus for the higher viewpoint. The Deal TimeBall was set up on the top of this four-story building in 1855 to signal to ships passing by in the English Channel the exact time. Every day the ball started to rise at 12.55 Greenwich Mean Time, stopping halfway up the mast. At 12.58, it rose to the top, before dropping at 13.00 precisely via an electronic signal from Greenwich. It was in operation until 1927 when signals via radio became available.

Deal Castle was one of several built by King Henry VII in 1539 and 1540 to fortify the southern coast from attack after he renounced Catholicism and feared reprisal by Spain and France. The castles were built with materials on hand, including stones and other materials from monasteries that had been torn down.

The low profile and rounded walls were to reduce damage from ships' cannons.
While there was a moat, it was not built to withstand long sieges.

The entrance faces away from the sea.

From the bus back to Dover...

We got off the bus at Dover Castle thinking that we could walk around the outside and get good views from there, but that wasn't an option. We decided to skip the castle this time, because we'd not have enough time to explore the castle to justify the hefty admission fee. Instead of waiting for the next bus, we found a nice path down to town through the neighborhoods.

Looking back from a park where we'd settled for a lunch.

Dean shared some of his lunch with the pigeons.

Walking back through the town, those gray metal rings, which we'd seen that morning were more than just another art installation. They exuded steam through holes on the insides of each hoop.

And so we say farewell to Dover and its famous white cliffs.

Our next port was the next day in Zeebrugge, Belgium.