Dover

This weekend we had one of our most enjoyable trips yet.  And we tackled one of the most intimidating parts of living in the UK - we drove on the left side of the road!!!  Yes, that's right, we went on a bona fide road trip to see the White Cliffs of Dover.  

Road tripping is normally one of our favorite things to do.  We love to pack up the car, get a few treats, and drive to some great destination.  It's not quite so enjoyable when you're worried about 18 years of driving instinct taking over, causing you to turn straight into oncoming traffic, resulting in a head on collision, who knows what kind of injuries, and medical/insurance bills for the rest of your life.  This was the kind of worst-case-scenario thinking that was running through our head as we picked up the car Saturday morning.  But with DJ in the diving seat and Michelle as the navigator, we made it to our destination and back without even a little scratch on the car.  Needless to say, we were a little proud of ourselves :)

Our destination point for the day was Dover, to see the White Cliffs of Dover, of course!  We didn't know quite what to expect, but we knew it was kind of a famous place, so we thought we better check it out.  Turns out it has been one of our favorite places so far.  You park at the visitor's center where there are several trails all throughout the hills.  Unlike all of the touristy places we have gone so far, where you have an audio tour taking you along a prescribed path, Dover was pure freedom.  We had freedom to roam and explore the hillside without the usual constraints of a tourist attraction, and even without the crowds.  Yes, there were other people there, but nothing like almost every other place we had been.  The hillsides were beautiful: rolling green grassy hills, meadows colored bright yellow by the flower of the rapeseed plants, golden hills of hay, all sloping down to the white cliffs and the blue-green ocean below.  

Here goes driving on the left side of the road!  All this stress makes my head hurt! 

Standing from the visitor's center looking toward the light house in the distance, about 2 miles north of where we stood.

 It was so windy, if we were standing closer to the cliffs we may have been blown right off the edge!  At the same time, though, the air was fresh and crisp.  It felt good to be hiking in the beautiful outdoors.

 Beautiful green hills, sloping down toward the ocean. Nice place for a picnic!

 This is the rapeseed flower.  When you drive through the English countryside during this time of the year you see hillsides covered with these flowers, resulting in gorgeous rolling hills of yellow.

This is what those yellow hillsides look like.  

 Up close to the cliffs.  

 We walked along a two mile path from the visitor center to this light house.  You can buy ice cold drinks and ice cream at the little tea house here. Someone needed to check the temperature when they set the menu!

 From the light house looking back toward toward the visitor center and Dover Castle.

 You can take this winding path down some of the less steep parts of the hillside to get to the rocky beach below.  DJ said there was a railing to guide you - but I think I would need more than a railing to get me to walk that path!

After four miles of hiking through the hills we had worked up quite an appetite.  We stopped at this Italian restaurant in Dover.  Delicious!

Friday night we ate at one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants - yes, the famous celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver.  He has a chain of restaurants call Recipease where they do cooking classes for kids and adults, as well as the usual dining fare.  We went for the simple eating option, no cooking classes for us this time.  

 Jamie's version of guacamole and chips - smashed avocados on seasoned flour tortilla chips, with garnish of tomato, pepper, herb, and lime.  Pretty tasty!

Main meal?  Pizza and curry chicken.  The curry chicken was amazingly good - more like cilantro lime rice. The pizza was your typical European pizza - thin crust, parma ham, mozzarella and rocket leaf.  So good!