Walking the Bluebird Heritage Trail in Dover

 A Day in Dover walking the BlueBird Heritage Trail:

The famous song “There’ll be Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover” was popular in WWII as solders dreamed of seeing the cliffs as they returned home. I diverge to note there probably have never been bluebirds in Dover as they are not indigenous to this area. 

After another hearty English Breakfast we went to walk the BlueBird Heritage Trail. 



The trail starts at the Dover War Memorial. At the base of the statue is a grappling hook incorporated into the memorial. This grappling hook was used as part of a heroic raid in April of 1918. The objective of the raid was the port of Zeebruggeand, the hook was used to block the passage of German U-Boats.



The trail winds through the streets of Dover and I will note some of the points I found interesting. Should you desire to explore further, Google BlueBird Heritage Trail.

One comes upon St. Edmund’s Chapel. This is believed to be the smallest church in England still in use. It was to have been demolished in 1965, but was purchased and restored to it’s present condition. 

A couple of things worth a visit are the Dover Museum which houses the Bronze Age Boat. This is said to be the oldest sea going boat. The other place to visit is the Roman Painted House. This is a town house dating back to 200AD. The in-floor heating system is rather interesting. 



The trail leads to the waterfront, here, looking back on the cliffs, you can see Mote’s Bullwark. It was there the Dunkirk evacuation was masterminded. The balcony is where Churchill looked towards occupied France. 

The trail continues along the waterfront where there are many memorials. 

There is a bust of Captain Matthew Webb, the first to swim the English Channel in 1875. This took him 21 hours 45 minutes and his distance was increased from the straight line of 34 km to 64km as a storm blew in. He later died trying to swim across the rapids below Niagara Falls in 1883.



A monument to Operation Fuller, where part of the German Fleet sailed through the Channel as it moved to the Baltic Sea. The operation was not a success as a think fog concealed most of the movement.

 

A monument to the Merchant Navy and their WWII involvement. 

There is a statue of Charles Stewart Rolls, the first to fly over the Channel and return nonstop on June 2, 1910. He later died in an aircraft crash and was the first Englishman killed in a flying accident. 

Following here are some photos of the area and other memorials. 

If you have about three hours, this is an interesting walk steeped in the history of this area. 


 

A Day Trip to Folkestone

 

 

We were up at 0600 after a good nights sleep. 

Our room includes a cooked to order English Breakfast. I had bacon, sausage, beans, tomato, and hash browns with toast and coffee. Lynn had bacon, eggs, tomato, and a bagel. It was excellent and way too much. 

After breakfast we returned to our room and did our 2 Day COVID test, both of us were negative. The test was easy and did not take much time, about 25 min. 

We packed our bags and struck out to Folkestone via bus. Return fare for both of us was only £13.20. We got off near the Harbour and make our way to the Christmas Market in the Custom House area. 

We were a bit early and the vendors were setting up and it was windy and raining. We sought shelter in Bobbies Bake House. Lynn had hot chocolate and I had a coffee. We did split a cheese puff. Friendly staff and all was very good.

We then did some shopping at the Christmas Market where we found some hand made craft items. 

We then went for a walk along the beach boardwalk. The Sun was shinning and the wind had died down a bit. We made a circle tour and back in town we walked up The Old High Street, a narrow cobblestone pedestrian street, with lots of interesting shops. We did make a stop at the Folkestone Museum for a toilet break, I must say the museum is interesting and worthy of a stop. We made our way back down The Old High Street to the bus stop.

We waited in the wind and rain for a bit before the bus arrived. Then we returned to Dover. 

We decided our in-room soup would be welcome on this cold and rainy day so we went to M&S for bread and cheese.  We did make a quick stop at a local church craft bazaar. 

We enjoyed our soup, bread and cheese and are not sure what the evening will bring.  

We decided to dry out and warm up this evening with a cup of tea. 

It was nice to see many people out with their dogs enjoying the market and beach.

The Weather Channel is reporting very nasty and deadly weather in the Northern UK. 

 

 

A Rainbow to send us on our way 

 

Low Tide 

 There were more vendors inside, however these vendors wares were hand made crafty items. 

 

Look Palm Trees

Sea Side Architecture

There are some new Apartments and Town Houses being built in the area. 

Interesting 

Folkestone makes for a nice days outing. 

FINALLY OFF TO THE UK

 Here we go off to the UK for a bit over a week. This is a trip which had been rescheduled a couple of times but now is a go.

With COVID, travel and country entry requirements are changing all the time. As we are fully vaccinated, there is no pre-entry COVID test required. There is a requirement for a test within 48 hours of arrival. This test needs to be arranged and payed for prior to arrival. This is documented with a pre-arrival tracking form. This form can only be completed 48 hours before arrival. The form includes your arrival information, lodging information, vaccine information and more. One per traveler and it took a bit of time to fill out.



Arrived at DEN nice and early so had all documents checked, and we were off through security, which went smoothly. 

Pre flight time is in a club room for coffee and a snack. There used to be a non stop from DEN to LHR, but not now. We will be flying via Chicago (ORD). The nonstop United service will resume in the future.

Chicago to LHR went well and we even got a few, very few, hours of sleep. Passport Control went smoothly with the E-gates, just needed passports. I thought we would be asked to show Vaccine Cards and our UK Locator,  as we have in the past. 

The Underground service from LHR to St. Pancras was interrupted due to a strike. So train to Paddington, Underground to Edgware Road, change line, and then onto St.Pancras. We plan extra time for just such events. 

We arrived St St. Pancras and collected our rail tickets to Dover. We had about 15 minutes before an earlier train was leaving for Dover. Yes, we were able to get on the earlier train. Starting to see some blue skies. I think Lynn was hoping for a coffee before this rail journey.

Arrived Dover and walked to the Castle House Guest House. Very nice and friendly as you can see.

Then off to Poundland for some necessities, then stopped in for a pint at The White Horse. (the oldest pub in Dover)

We unpacked a bit and headed to Blake’s to get a bite to eat. We had their Fish and Chips. 

The evening consisted of rekindling friendships with great conversation and many a laugh and a few pints. 

We got back to the room by early standards and Lynn did some laundry.

Oh we did learn there is a Christmas Market in Folkestone so might be going there tomorrow. 

Desert Not So Solitaire

 Desert Not So Solitaire

We were up and out early today and got to the entrance to Arches National Park at 0700. This was about 30 min before sunrise.

The entrance station was not open but there was a stream of cars entering the park. We drove to the very end of the park where we stopped at Skyline Arch. Then reversed our route back towards the entrance. The main stop was at Windows Arches area. Since no pups are allowed on trails this was a parking lot pullout visit.

We did make a stop at the Visitors Center and got our passport stamped. Sadly the exhibits were not open just the gift area. The only park personnel I saw were a couple VIP’s (Volunteer’s In the Park) helping people with information.   

Eventually we left the park as about 200 cars were in line to enter.  Later in the day as we drove by at 1255 the park had reached it’s capacity and the gates were closed.

We the drove Utah Hwy 128 into the BLM area, a beautiful canyon headed to the Red Cliffs Lodge. This is a really kewl place where they have a museum dedicated to all the classic western movies filmed in the area. Basically name a movie John Wayne, Ben Johnson, etc etc were in and it was filmed in that area. The lodge was great and the front desk staff were most gracious. This is the kind of place I would like to return to and spend a couple days.


From there we headed to an area of petroglyphs located in a canyon on the way to Potash, Utah. 

Yes, after visiting this area I want to reread “Desert Solitaire”. 


Here are a few pictures form the day.