Today we say farewell to the UK (for now) and hello to continental Europe! I’m writing this from a cafe table on board the MS Côte des Dunes, carrying us from Dover to Calais. From Calais, we will drive to Utrecht and meet up with Jacob’s sister before working our way up to Norway, where we will spend just under a week exploring.
It’s a beautiful sunny day today, which meant we had a spectacular view of the White Cliffs of Dover as we left the terminal (pictured above). The cliffs stand out in stark contrast to the blue of the sky above and the blue-green of the sea below, especially when lit up by the sun. I felt so privileged to be standing there, seeing such a famous landmark for myself (and there’s another example later on in this post). We watched the cliffs grow smaller and smaller until it got too windy to stand outside. As we made our way to the interior passenger deck, I was trying to remember whether I’ve ever taken a non-BC Ferries ferry. I suppose feeling nostalgic about BC Ferries is a sure sign I’m slightly homesick! There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between the ferries, though, other than size. Apparently this ferry holds 1900 passengers (200 fewer than the Spirit of Vancouver Island) but has twice the vehicle deck space. This makes total sense, given the huge lorry lineups we saw waiting to board the boat! There are even dedicated lounges for the lorry drivers. I’m sure during peak summer the boat gets busy, but we are on the 8:30am sailing and it’s pretty quiet (screaming children notwithstanding).
To prepare for the continent, we took some time this past week to make minor van improvements. We’ve been living in the van for three weeks now, which has given us the time to discover some little annoyances about how things are arranged. One example is the cabinet under the fridge - it’s quite tall, but has only a narrow space left next to the garbage and recycling bins we got from IKEA. We had cleaning products and tins of food sort of thrown in next to the bins, but wanted to make use of the vertical space and tidy things up. We thought of installing shelves, but weren’t able to find free-standing ones, and couldn’t be bothered to get wood shelving cut down to size, so we settled for some stacking plastic bins. We also put an LED light in the cupboard, so now we can see what we’re looking for! It was an easy fix, but makes such a difference when accessing items from that space, which we do frequently. The larger DIY project we took on this week was making our own bug screens for the side and back doors. We purchased midge netting (mosquito netting just wouldn’t do!) and some edging and fastening supplies. Our plan was to cut the netting down to size, attach bias tape to the edges using fabric glue, and attach carefully-placed velcro strips to the bias tape. We’d then use removable duct tape as an interface with the van wall (preserving that re-sale value!) and stick the opposite side of the velcro strips to the duct tape. Thankfully we were able to stay with one of Jacob’s relatives in Devon for a few days, so we had a great place to do our crafting. We got all the netting cut out and edged, but we still have to stick on the velcro. It was a bigger project than we anticipated, but I’m looking forward to having it ready for when the bugs are out in full force this summer!
While we were in Devon, we also had a chance to go for some walks around the countryside and around Topsham. This little town summed up a lot of the things I love about the UK - all of these super cute small towns surrounded by countryside, accessible by public footpaths, with at least one or two cafes and a good pub, and more charity shops than anything else! Topsham had one in particular with an excellent selection of books; Jacob and I each walked away with three new novels to enjoy. We also popped in to Tipton St John, where we were excited to discover a book swap inside an old red phone box. Both towns still had their Jubilee decorations up as well, which gave them such a festive, cheery feel. There’s a lot I will miss about the UK, in addition to the towns: the ubiquitous tea culture, the food (cream tea, Cornish pasties, Welsh cakes, cheese & onion crisps, grocery store meal deals, and my very favourite: chocolate-covered Hobnobs), brisk countryside hill walks, taking the train (ScotRail in particular), and all of the little lambs who have stolen my heart. Some things I will not miss: fruit and vegetables wrapped in plastic at the grocery store, lack of consideration for pedestrians combined with some ridiculous driving and parking practices, and 10% gratuity being added by default to the bill.
Our last stop before Dover was the most touristy of our entire trip thus far: Stonehenge! Even though I heard you couldn’t get that close, I was still keen to see the standing stones. I was even more keen when I learned National Trust members go free! We were a bit rushed, but I’m really glad we went. It was amazing to see the stones for myself. As I mentioned above, it feels like such a privilege to see and experience things in person that I’ve read or heard about. This whole trip is really a privilege; I know most people do not have the same opportunities or resources I do to make this happen. I am very grateful to be on this journey!
Stonehenge