Dover

Dover, England

Our journey on the Sea Princess, which has been our home for 51 days comes to an end in Dover. The plan is then to spend two days at the Hubert Hotel and then to transfer to family in London for another 2 days before flying to Copenhagen.

We decided to self disembark which we have done on our last few cruises. Obviously you have to be able to manage all your luggage yourself which we could. The advantage of doing it yourself is that you don't have to be packed up early the day before, put your cases out by the specified time, you don't have to pack a separate bag with all the things that you need after your other bags have been taken away, you can disembark when it suits you and your bags don't risk getting damaged like mine did on the Circle Pacific.

Once off the ship, which was very easy, we found a taxi straight away and set off to our hotel which was in town and close to the path to the Castle.

As checkin time was not till 4pm we were able to drop off our bags for safe keeping and then headed to explore Dover which didn't take long! A mission of mine for the day was to seek out a hairdresser to have my colour touched up. Annoyingly hairdressers in Dover insist on having a colour consultation first which requires a 48 hour allergy colour test first! Time which I don't have.... thankfully I did find a hairdresser that did not practice this ritual and I was booked into a 12.30 appointment. Peter used this time to visit the Museum which he found interesting.

We then planned to walk to the Castle but as it had now started to drizzle rain we decided to head back to the Hotel to check into our room.

Our room was the "Georgian Suite" and was well appointed and very comfortable. The main drawback being that there was no lift so had to carry two packed to the max suitcases up two flights of stairs.... we vowed never to book any accommodation in future without a lift!!

In the evening the rain had stopped so we decided to walk down to the waterfront for a seafood dinner and to watch our friends leave us.

Our dinner of fresh sea bream and white wine garlic mussels was very nice. We waved goodbye to our friends with me waving my white serviette and them wearing bright colour jackets and talking on the phone. So sad but honestly I don't think I could keep up that pace for another 55 days!!!

Our second day in Dover was marred for me as I woke in the early hours of the morning with a migraine headache which confined me to our hotel room for most of the day... probably a rest I really needed!! Peter used this time to walk to the Castle and explore the tunnels.

By evening time I was feeling much better so we went next door to the White Horse Inn for dinner with another couple we met on the cruise who were also staying at our hotel.

A good meal was had and then back to pack the bags for our transfer to London the following morning.

After checking out of our hotel at 10.30am our taxi arrived to take us to the Dover Ferry terminal where I had booked a National Express bus to London and more specifically Lewisham as that is the closest stop to Greenwich.

We were originally going to get the train which would have required a taxi and two trains but the price went from 13 pounds in the afternoon to 36 pounds when I went to book later that night! I looked for alternatives and found this express bus for 10 pounds plus a 5 pound taxi ride to the ferry terminal. A bargain I thought!! All in all this worked much better as no changing trains, no lugging luggage around platforms and trying to find somewhere on the train to store plus it was an express bus all the way to Lewisham. This arrangement was totally much better than the train!

Two days in London before our flight to Copenhagen.

Note to self: no need to stop off in Dover.... transfer straight to London on disembarkation in future. We did not overly feel comfortable walking around even in the middle of the day!!