Saturday, September 19th, 2009: Boarding the Norwegian Jewel in Dover, England

The drive to Dover from Hythe was far easier than I had anticipated from the experience of my previous weeks. We took the M20 Motorway to the A-7 and that was quite a relaxed drive as it was a divided, limited access highway and I could hang out in the slow (left-hand!) lane. Also traffic was light; in particular there were few lorries (American: tractor-trailer trucks) which necessitated far less passing. Fortunately, when the M-20 turned into the A-7 it didn't really change much in that it was still basically a four-lane road with restricted access, just with narrower shoulders and possibly a narrower median strip. But the traffic flowed just as well so we arrived in Dover by 9:30 or so and dropped off Lois and Phyllis plus all our luggage at Cruise Terminal 2, where the Norwegian Jewel was docked, well before 10:00.

My next step was returning the rental car, but our sat-nav (American: GPS) had pinpointed that as being just about a block down the main street from the entrance to the cruise ship terminals. The drop off went quickly and since we knew that the boarding for the Jewel would not start until 11:00 a.m., we took our time and had a nice, relaxed walk back to join Lois and Phyllis. I enjoyed taking pictures of both some of the charming old buildings lining the streets, the sailboats at anchor in the marina in the harbor, and last, but not least, the startlingly white cliffs of Dover.

We processed on board the Jewel and relaxed with a leisurely meal up in the Garden Cafe buffet-style restaurant on Deck 12 while we waited for out cabins to be cleaned. Our cabins were ready by 1:30 and although the basic room appeared to be about the same size or even slightly smaller than other ships, we were impressed by the amount of storage space that was incorporated into that small footprint. I immediately unpacked my backpack, by which time my wheeled suitcase had arrived so I just continued unpacking. By the time I was done with that, Monika's wheeled suitcase had arrived, so she took over the unpacking.

Our settling into cabin 5098 was interrupted by the mandatory lifeboat drill at 3:30 and then again by our departure from Dover around 4:00. We had a great panoramic view of the famous white cliffs of Dover as we departed, but the moment for me was bittersweet. On the one hand I was excited to be off on another cruise across the Atlantic Ocean and hopefully seeing Iceland for the first time. On the other hand, I was surprisingly sad to see the coast of England fade into the evening mist. We had such a nice visit there and met so many nice people, foremost of course being Helen and Jeff, who had so graciously extended their warm hospitality when we visited the Midlands area, that it was just hard to say "good bye". Having seen many of the tourist sites, I really wanted to take some time to see more of England and Scotland more slowly and in detail, if possible by a walking tour. In England there are apparently coast-to-coast paths in the downs area and Helen and Jeff highly recommended the less tourist-populated areas of the Lake District in northern England. In Scotland the Cairngorm National Park seemed to offer a wonderful set of walks through somewhat rugged territory, and the Southern Upland Way running from the West coast across Galloway to the east coast near Dunbar also looked like a great walk. Maybe next time.

Lois, Phyllis, Monika and I had a "free style" dinner in the Azure Dining room. I was happily surprised to find "Cooking Light" appetizers, entrees, and desserts, each with a completely nutritional analysis that included the exact grams of fat. Since I try to hew to a low fat diet for coronary reasons, I just simply chose all the Cooking Light options and settled in for a nice low-fat meal. Unfortunately, I also went wild drinking several glasses of rather strong iced tea for dinner, with the result that I was wide awake and bushy tailed well after Monika fell asleep shortly after nine. Having a good book to read also tended to keep me awake, and as a result I didn't get to sleep until 11 or so that evening, which is pretty late for me.