Dover and beyond, England - August 20, 2010

The Duty Free Candy Store
called loudly to Marian

The ferry takes a couple of hours to get from Calais to Dover and, once we disembarked we drove clear around the south-side of London to our first overnight stop.
Dover, a major ferry port in the county of Kent in South East England, faces France across the 21 miles of water at the narrowest part of the English Channel. Rising from the sea to the east and west of town are sheer chalk cliffs known popularly as the White cliffs of Dover. Services related to the Port provide much of the town’s employment, augmented also by tourism. Dover’s name originated with the River Dour which flows through the town while the white cliffs gave Britain its ancient name of Albion - "white".

If it's not one thing it's another -
this is a tube of English M&Ms

In the Domesday Book Dover was noted as an important borough and of course over the centuries it served as a natural defense against would-be invaders including the French during the Napoleonic Wars and the Germans during WWII.
In 1800 it was reported that the town's population was almost 10,000 while the current population is closer to 25,000. In the meantime however, since eastward and westward growth is prevented by the cliffs, the town has grown back up the river valley absorbing numerous small communities along the way and growing its total urban head count close to 40,000 people.

Finally though, all was well when
the White Cliffs appeared

The English Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world and ferries crossing between Dover and the Continent have to negotiate their way through the constant stream of shipping crossing their path. The Port of Dover is also used by cruise ship passengers, and the old Dover Marine railway station building among others, cater for those passengers.