The Crossing

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We had breakfast with our host this morning and chatted for ages with her about traveling and families before we had to pack up and get going.

After the dramas of finding where to go yesterday, we were armed with google maps, directions and we also left early just in case we had any difficulties. None were encountered and we got through customs and border control with only a couple of extra questions from the Brits – what family... no job back home eh? We had to tell them that we had flights booked out of Paris before they let us go!

We left the car lined up and went into the terminal for a bit of a wait. Watching the boat pull up to the pier was great – these guys do it 4 times a day so there is no fear and they come in flat out! It is a bit weird driving onto the boat but we parked the car and went off to see what was aboard. We found the kids play area and that was the end of that! Em made some friends and ended up spending the whole two hour trip playing with them and having a great time.

Off the boat in Dover and our accommodation for tonight was not yet confirmed when we got off the boat so we needed to find another Maccas for the wifi. No dramas finding it but here in the UK, you need to get a code SMS’d to your phone – which we don’t have! WHY WOULD I NEED WIFI IF I HAVE MOBLIE ACCESS!!! No accommodation and no internet makes us a bit nervous so we headed for the tourist bureau in Folkstone which was nearby where we wanted to go. Being a lovely Sunday afternoon, the beachside town was quite busy but apparently that is no reason to open the tourist bureau! So it was back to Dover tourist bureau to hopefully get things sorted. We never found the tourist office despite signs pointing to somewhere we couldn’t find but Mel found a backpacker’s and used their internet café to cancel the AirBnB place and booked a hotel in Dover.

As it was a bit last minute, the hotel is pretty ugly and run down but the inside is clean and the staff are friendly and helpful. We went back to Folkstone to go to the beach and look around. The tide was out so the boats in the marina were all sitting on the muddy bottom and the pebble beach was ENORMOUS! A huge dune of pebbles rolling down to the water was a bit of a new experience for all of us and we played on the beach for a bit. We walked along back to the pier to see if we could get out to the lighthouse. A couple of small signs pointed access to the pier through a small doorway. We emerged onto the old train platform which is slowly rotting away then at the end another hand painted sign points through a rusty tunnel and stairway up onto the pier. The whole area is slowly rusting away and really needs demolition.

We went over to the other side of the marina and the sandy beach where Em was happy to dig and play in the sand. As this is England, we got fish and chips and sat on the beach to eat before returning to the hotel for the night.

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