[GG] Cherbourg, Dover, & Brugge

May 30, 2011

Voila! We're in France, docked in Cherbourg, and headed to Mont Saint Michele (aka MSM) with Walter & Christine, a married couple from Poland, and our taxi driver, Michel, who spoke only French.

As Michele & his little Peugeot whisked us through the French countryside and through quaint villages with cobblestone streets, Cee attempted bravely to communicate with Michel in her limited French, while the rest of us sat in dimwitted silence. Cee was inspiring as she fused her French with Spanish and Italian, enhanced it with arm waving and hand gestures, and was ultimately successful in communicating with our driver. Or at least I think she was. But then how would I know? I barely speak bunny. Cee, ever the linguist, having mastered enough French turned to Walter & Christine to learn Polish.




MSM is first seen from a distance as an island castle floating above the land. Traffic backed up as we made our way onto the land bridge, a small strip of land that connects MSM to the mainland. 14' tidal changes have been known to flood the road, truly leaving MSM an island. It was the perfect fortress & on our day we are lucky that the tide is out when we arrive. Narrow, winding alleyways lined with souvenir shops, restaurants, and the castle hotels, and stairs upon stairs upon stairs & we finally reach the top. The view is fantastic, but looking out to sea, we can't even really see the sea because the tide is out so far. We see white sand flats and occasional clear tidal pools. We are warned about venturing out because of quicksand. As we wandered through the castle it was just like being in medieval times. You could practically hear the knights in armor rattling trough the castle, in the towers, down in the dungeon. We spent about 2 hours wandering, then challenged the sand flats & threat of quicksand, as we walked around the base of the fortress and made our way back to our own Michel, waiting patiently in the taxi.



May 31 Dover, England

As our shipped pulled in we saw the famous white cliffs of Dover. Yup, they're white. Hopped the train to Canterbury, a walled city in England, that brings to life stories of King Arthur, Knights of the Round Table, & Canterbury Tales. The Cathedral was especially beautiful and with a very interesting history, not the least of which was that Richard Burton (aka archbishop Thomas Becket) was murdered by Peter O'Toole, better known as King Henry II. Although they were friends, they had issues they could not resolve. Relationships are often tricky that way.


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Back to Dover we hiked up to the 12th century castle fortress on the hill. The site has a long history of defense, significantly even into WWII. It has been remarkably preserved and some rooms restored to their medieval state.
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With thirst beckoning, we hiked back down the hill into town and to the White Horse Pub, the oldest pub in Dover (opened in 1345). The White Horse Pub seems to be a mecca for successful channel swimmers, who have graced the walls and ceiling of the pub with their name, date of crossing, time and comments. We had bangers & mash & fish & chips and decided to leave the Irish Coffee to Ireland.


June 1 Brugge

Chocolate! Try some. Buy some. Buy more. Enough said.