There'll Be Bluebirds Over....

the White Cliffs of Dover....

Tomorrow....

Just you wait and see

But more on that later.

I got onto yet another London trip after I traded the radiation and earthshaking of Japan for the two day London Heathrow layover (which actually ended up being a 3 day layover, but more on that later as well).  I guess I should consider myself lucky that I am able to fly there so much since I certainly don't have the seniority to hold it on a regular basis.

We had a great crew and a couple of my friends were on it, including Mary Beth.  Due to light loads and a long layover, she brought her mother and her daughter Olivia along for a sort of mini-vacation.  I learned Olivia reads my blog, so a quick shout out to Olivia!

My plans the first night were to meet up with my friends Charlotte and Robin and go see a play.  Charlotte and Robin were friends back from my "777 Domestic Mafia" days, who just came over to International.  On the suggestion of my friend Bobby, I wanted to see Pygmalion.  It's a play by George Bernard Shaw.  The movie and stage version of My Fair Lady was based on the play (which everyone knew about but me apparently).  I would be closing in early September so I wanted to see if before it went away.  I've pretty much given up on seeing Warhorse until some time next year when the excitement dies down.  The Pygmalion cast included Diana Rigg, most famous as Emma Peel from the Avengers, although I remember her from The Great Muppet Caper and The Worst Witch.

We got pretty good seats for a pretty good deal.  The ticket manager offered us Orchestra seats for about £30, which was £15 less than the list price.  After buying our tickets, we went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant before seeing the show.

The next day they were heading home since they just had the regular layover, but I had made plans to head south to Redhill to meet up with my friend Amanda and do a road trip to Dover to see the White Cliffs.  I have wanted to visit this area of Britain ever since my friend Kathy made me listen to "White Cliffs of Dover", a song made popular during WWII, by Vera Lynn.  It was written and recorded during a time when British and German planes would have aerial battles over the area near Dover.  The song's lyrics talk about a time when there will be peace and tranquility and no war.  The only problem is that Bluebirds (mentioned in the first line of the song) are not native to England, and are only found in captivity.  Anyway, it's still a great song and you can hear it here.

Unfortunately, Aaron, Amanda's husband, was already back in the states for work, so it would just be me, Amanda and Samantha.  It would be the first time they visited the area as well.  They are members of the National Trust (the British version of the National Park Service) so we got free admission and parking onto the site).  The ride southeast to Dover only took about an hour or so.

The city of Dover is home to the port of the same name that serves as the launching point to continental Europe.  Ferries full of cars and trucks cross back and forth, to the tune of about 60 crossings per day.  It's also one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.  As I stood out overlooking the port, I started thinking about how cool it would be to take the Chunnel train under the channel and go to the continent for the day.  That idea must have taken root quickly, but I will save that for another blog entry.

After a nice lunch at the visitor center (I had something called a rarebit, kind if like a melted cheese sandwich, which was delightful) we began our trek down the 2 mile trail along the cliffs.

As a bit of background, the cliffs spread both east and west from Dover, but we tackled the eastern part.  At it's tallest point, they are over 350 feet high, which might explain the advisory to stay at least 5 meters from the edge.  The striking white color comes from the fact that they are made of pure calcium carbonate, or chalk.  The cliffs also serve as a symbolic form of protection for Britain as they are the closest point to the continent, and the height of the cliffs also served as a natural fortress for centuries from foreign invaders.  With Calais only 9 miles across the channel in France, the cliffs can be seen from the continent on a clear day.  The harsh weather continues to erode the cliffs at a rate of several centimeters per year.

Here we are as we set off for our two mile trek.  This was before we realized that the trails were not as stroller friendly as we thought they would be.  I remember making a comment that it might be best to come back here after Samantha has finished high school!

This will give you an idea of just how darned difficult the trails were to maneuver around, and you can also see how quickly the chalk built up on the stroller wheels as well as the bottoms of our shoes.

Our little journey involved lots of pauses for pictures and general resting after stroller drama.

The area is filled with wild Exmoor ponies that graze along the cliffs.  They did not seem to be too bothered by the tourists, as one didn't even mind going potty right in front of us.

They were a great distraction though for Samantha.  As soon as she would get fussy, we would point to a pony to try to make her forget she was about to have a tantrum.

We met a little terrier named Harry along the way.  Lots of people brought their dogs.  I wish we had brought their dachshund, Wolfie. 

It was at about the half way point that we realized we were not going to make the lighthouse.  All the difficult terrain we had encountered up until now we were going to re-encounter on the way back.  Not to mention that Samantha was starting to get fussy, so I left mommy and baby behind and ran ahead to get some more pictures.

Of course I had to stop and do the obligatory foot shot for my "Around the World with My Feet" album.

At the farthest point in our journey, the lighthouse was still quite a distance away, so this was about a close as I got to it.

I opted for a different route for us on the way back to the visitor center.  There was a lower trail that didn't see to have a many steep areas, so I thought that would be an easier route for us.  It was indeed flat until the end when we realized we had not only overshot the visitor's center, but also the car park, and also the National Trust entrance!  In the end, Amanda carried Samantha, and I collapsed the stroller and carried it up some pretty steep hills.  We finally made it back to civilization and didn't even have to resort to cannibalism or eating roots.

With all the obstacles, it was still a wonderful day.  The weather was great.  Very cloudy, which kept us from getting too warm (we still worked up quite a sweat).  Back in London that day, it had rained buckets, so we were fortunate to have dodged that.

The drive back wasn't too bad, even with a bit of traffic as we got closer to the city.  After getting back to the flat, I said my farewells to Wolfie and the girls and hustled back into town to catch a 6:45 train back to London Victoria.

When I got back to the hotel, I went down to the crew room, only to find several of my co-workers gathered around a computer screen.  Our flight the next day was cancelled, so we were now laying over one more day and then flying home on Saturday.  Normally an extra day in London would be awesome, but I had backed trips up and was supposed to fly to Honolulu on Saturday, and of course had made plans for the layover.  That all fell apart.

My friend Mary Beth was worried because now our flight on Saturday would be full, and she had her mother and daughter with us.  There was no way they would get on the plane on Saturday.  She ended up sending them on a nonstop to Raleigh on Friday, but weather cancelled their Dallas flight and they ended up getting stuck in Washington DC before making it home on Saturday.  The joys of non-revenue travel!

On Friday, I met up with Mary Beth after she got her mom and daughter off to Raleigh.  We went downtown for a 2pm London Walk about Sherlock Holmes.  Our guide was a rather prim and proper older lady and actress named Corinna.  She will actually next be seen in the 2011 movie Hysteria, coming out later this year, about the invention of the female vibrator.  She has a bit part as Lady Perrigott.

She was a very knowledgeable guide and new anything and everything about Sherlock Holmes and the writer Arthur Conan Doyle.  The walk included places where Sir Conan Doyle lived, as well as places that were included in his novels, or inspired his stories.

I enjoy the London Walks tours because they take you to parts of the city you would not normally visit.

When our tour was over, we made our way over the Thames to the Southbank.  It was brimming with people, street performers, and musicians.  

We made our way down river towards the Tate Modern and into a little alcove with lots of restaurants and pubs.  I had visited this one particular pub on numerous occasions, so we went there for an afternoon of drinking pints of the Früli, a Belgium wheat beer with fruit flavoring (perfect for a warm summer day) and an early dinner.

I finally made it home on Saturday, a day later than planned, tired, broke, and out of clean underwear.