White Cliffs, Castle Dominate Busy Dover Port

Day 103, Grand World Voyage

Sunday, April 16, 2023; Dover, England, U.K.

I didn’t expect a round of applause when I arrived for dinner at the Main Dining Room tonight, but that is what I got. My accomplishment? Walking with crutches instead of being pushed in my wheelchair! All of the dining room front staff, starting with the wonderful Josephine and all the rest who check us in and push me to our table showed great excitement at my progress.

I haven’t completely left the wheelchair behind, but I have graduated to walking as long as I minimize the weight I put on my right leg. My crutches seemed a bit cumbersome at first, and I walk slowly, but the trek from the front of the ship to the dining room aft went smoothly and didn’t tire me out.

This morning at my follow-up medical appointment the doctor declared me released, although I will be back to have my brace adjusted. Right now, it limits my range of motion (amount of bend) to between 10 degrees and 60 degrees. Zero degrees would be a completely straight leg – it took me a couple of months to achieve that goal on my left knee after knee replacement in late 2021. I’ll shoot for at least 120 degrees of bend on my right leg, but that will probably come slowly.

By May 12, when the world cruise ends and my sisters disembark, I should be fully ambulatory, although I’ll probably still be building up my strength. It’s nice to see the light at the end.

I awoke this morning with a stunning view from my balcony of Dover, the Dover Castle and the white cliffs.

I stayed on board, but enjoyed watching the ferries come and go all day. There even are traffic lights on the cuts in the breakwater.

Dover, being just 21 miles from France, is Europe’s busiest ferry port. A ferry leaves on average every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day. The Chunnel connecting England and France leaves not far from Dover, as well.

Eloise and Elaine took the shuttle into town to the main gate of the Dover Castle. They spent four hours there because it was so interesting, from the secret tunnels to various parts of the castle built over the centuries.

The grounds sport a mix of architecture from as long ago as the Roman days. There are miles of tunnels. And of course they enjoyed scones, clotted cream, jam and coffee at the castle café.

I am mildly disappointed in missing it, but I will return to Dover on the Zuiderdam twice in the next two months. In late May I already have a ticket to the World War II Weekend at Dover Castle. I haven’t researched what is involved, but it should be interesting.

You would think that I have used all this shipboard time to catch up on my sketching and painting, but I’m afraid that isn’t true. I do wonder where the time goes. Now that we are in European ports almost daily, I have activated a month-long plan on my Skyroam, a computer hotspot based on cell service.

I’ve taken advantage of the faster internet and the security of my VPN to download my financial statements and make sure all the bills are being paid as scheduled. It’s also a bit of a challenge to track payments on the various tours I am booking, not only for the end of this cruise, but also for my summer and fall cruising.

My guilty pleasure has been binge-watching the latest season of Formula 1 Drive to Survive. One downside of world cruising is the inability to watch the races live. Thank goodness my Netflix subscription works using my VPN and my Skyroam hotspot.