A Day in Dover

It's no surprise to those of you who know me, but one of my favourite places to spend a day out, is Dover Castle. I absolutely love it, and the only thing that can possibly make it better is a warm, sunny day, with views across the channel to France. Yes, you really can see France! One day, I shall take my passport with me and hop on the next ferry to the land of fresh baguettes, mouth wateringly, gorgeous cheese, and vats of lush wine...but I digress, a sunny, clear day at Dover Castle is hard to beat.

Dover Castle, Kent

So when the sun was shining on Thursday, we decided to head off to Dover (again - thanks be to English Heritage Membership). We were expecting  the odd shower, but the weather was super kind to us, and not one spot of rain fell from the sky, though as you can see from those clouds, it looked a bit 'iffy' shall we say, but we were very lucky, and if anything, it actually got a wee bit warm, which is nice, given that most British summers are somewhat grey and damp.

The bonus of it being a sunny midweek day of course, was the lack of other visitors, facilitating us in finally being able to get some much coveted, 'tourist' free photos. Not that the tourists are a problem, I mean, we're rather proud of our lovely castle and it's fabulous to see people from other countries enjoying our rich heritage, but they do have a nasty habit of ruining the most lovely shots. Take it from me, this next photo never happens on a busy day...

Dover Castle, Kent

Not a single person in sight! You know why? Because it was flipping warm, so everyone was either in the tunnels, where it's nice and cool, or sitting by the NAAFI canteen with ice creams, which might I add, are rather yummy; I highly recommend the lemon meringue, which I could happily have eaten until the cows came home, but that would just have been plain greedy! Besides, the other half had actually remembered to bring his camera, so we had a good potter around, he took lots of photos and I took a few, not so good photos (the ones in this post are mine - like I said, not so good).

But all that wandering around, not to mention climbing of multiple spiral staircases, is jolly thirsty work, and I happen to know of a really rather fabulous public house a mere stone's throw away from the castle, so it would have been rude not to pop in!

The White Horse, Dover, Kent

The White Horse Dover, nestles next to the ruins of St. James' Church in, oddly enough, St. James Street, and is run by two rather handsome, fun, professional, welcoming, landlords, Jules and Stuart. Now, I may be a little biased here, because I worked with Jules, but I really cannot imagine two better landlords for this fabulous, quirky wee pub. The White Horse, isn't just any old pub, oh no! It has all the things a pub should have, good food, good beer, a rather lovely range of gins, I can recommend the Violet one, nice and sweet, and served with a few juicy blueberries.

Violet G&T

It also looks pretty and tasted absolutely lush (the perks of not driving). If you look at the background of that rather photogenic G&T, you'll see some writing on the wall. 'What?' I here you cry, 'You told us it was a nice pub, but there's graffiti all over the walls! Have you gone nuts?' Well obviously, the answer to that is yes, I went nuts ages ago, but no, that is not graffiti, and yes, it covers the walls the door, the ceilings and it's spreading, but before you go looking for the good Doctor (Who) to investigate and rescue us, take a closer look.

White Horse, Dover, Kent

It's spreading because every entry is a record of a cross channel swim. These super humans record the date, time etc. of their epic feat on the walls of this unassuming, little pub. A permanent record of their achievement, for all to see.

So should you find yourself in our glorious county, be sure to spend a day at our historic castle, and give the boys at the White Horse a visit, I promise you will fall in love with the place; just make sure to give yourself plenty of time to explore all those cross channel swim entries.