Travel: Crossing the Channel

We left the island of Hawaii to live on the island of Great Britain.  While I thought I would never us the term ‘mainland’ again (when referring to the mainland of the USA), I sometimes do revert to that label when I refer to Europe.  While England may be set off in the ocean, just like Japan is off of Asia, it is quite easy to travel to the ‘continental Europe’.  We traveled back home this way from Paris last Summer. We took a ferry from Calais, France across to Dover, England where you can see the beautiful white cliffs.  We would really like to return here with our boys to explore the beauty and the history of those symbolic white cliffs. 

For us the experience of using the ferry was very easy and accommodating  We were able to get through customs fairly easy and the waiting period to board was met with a nice waiting area with vending machines if needed. The prices would be as expected on the ferry for food and refreshments and I cannot comment more than that as we brought our own for the voyage.  The trip seemed shorter than I expected or remembered as a child and we were able to just enjoy the trip and relax.  We had traveled through Italy and France up to this point so just being able to kick our feet up was a great ending to our travels.  While flying may be a lot easier or quicker, we really enjoyed taking the trains and ferry back.  The view as we came in of the white cliffs were just breath taking. Whether you are traveling by train or car, I definitely recommend checking out crossing the English channel for the views and the experience.