During our two previous UK adventures (1989 and 2000), I’m embarrassed to say Dover did not really feature on our Must See List, but in the interim my brother made it home which changed everything. We’re glad – because Dover and her environs rock!
Besides being home to one of our favourite families (a mark of our regard is the lack of photos of our time together as too much time was spent talking), Dover Castle is awesome. It’s location means it has never been that far from the action and we had a fantastic time being somewhere that’s had it’s stony finger in all the major historic pies (Does that even work? Well, I like it so I’m leaving it in) since forever.
The town itself is the epitome of grunge cool; the urban equivalent of Kurt Cobain’s green cardigan. Everywhere you go, from the check out at Asda to The Eight Bells pub (where we were served by number one niece), Doverians are quick to tell you how terrible their home is – but with such pride! And it has a Banksy!!
It is no secret that I have “a bit of a thing” about lighthouses but all the lighthouse accommodation was either out of our league financially or did not stretch to our size group…
so we settled for a fire station instead. This was a major treat after the squash of our US accommodation and St Margaret at Cliffe is beautiful – as well as being where Ian Fleming invented James Bond and Miriam Margolyes (a lady after my own heart) has a “cottage” there too.
The Bean Counter had done a bit of surreptitious pre-travel googling so our amble along the White Cliffs (during which Alfred Noyes was horrendously misquoted in my excitement) ended here
The South Foreland Lighthouse (swoon). This find was celebrated with a real cream tea. This was The Homestead’s first encounter with clotted cream…and it won’t be the last. Our verdict: sort of like sweet butter, it elevates the humble scone to a near religious experience.
note the Laura Ashley wallpaper
Dinner at the Coast Guard Pub (wonderful food and we chose to “not hear” the muttering about it being “for the locals”) and breakfast the following day at The Dovorian, rounded off our first UK pit stop.
Lovin’ the place you call home, bro.
Apologies to number two niece who was quite rightly at school when we realised no evidence of our visit existed
Union Homestead 
Glad you enjoyed Dover so much a town with a rich history. Also good to know that you have arrived safely in the UK.
We loved it there
Never had clotted cream before?… thank goodness you’ve found it now!
No, it was all new to us…and what will we do now? Whipped Cream just doesn’t work once you’ve tasted scones like this!
You can make it yourself… it just takes a bit of care with the heat and quite a long time.
I think it would be worth it for a special treat😊
Another item on my bucket list… Dover. From all the pictures I have seen, this is a truly beautiful and deeply historic place – How wonderful that you have loved ones there! I am excited to see where you guys end up next!
Stand by…we’ve got some cool stuff planned 🙂
A cream tea is always a treat. I am glad that you have had one.
A cream tea is sublime…now I get what you all go on about 🙂
Dover is a really great place and the port is a little quieter now more people travel to the continent by train and plane instead of by boat. The white cliffs are wonderful, especially when seen from a boat. I see from your photo they were shining nicely in the sunshine! I am so pleased you had fun with your brother and his family.
Those cliffs were gleaming!
Sounds like a wonderful start to the UK portion of the Journey. Did you belt out Vera Lynn while at the cliffs? I can sometimes get very expensive little bottles of “Devonshire” cream in certain grocery stores – it’s as close as we come here to the clotted cream of your swoon – better by far than whipped cream but not quite the same thing either, althout it’s been easily 30 years since I last had a cream tea in the UK Hopefully all are caught up on jet lag and able to enjoy adventuring to the full.
No Vera Lynn as I was sending day to much time trying to remember the Alfred Noyes poem and forgetting to look it up when I had the opportunity of Wi-Fi. I’ve started a list now otherwise my mind goes blank when faced with the limitless possibilities of free Wi-Fi 😊
Hi, If you do nothing more than sample cream teas on a regular basis, your trip to the U.K. will be worth it. My personal favourite is the eccles cake which I sampled for the first time on my sole visit to the U.K. years ago. There is a bakery in Malmsbury which makes eccles cakes – bliss!