Dover, England is separated from Calais, France by the English Channel.  Yesterday, when we discovered the White Horse Pub, and found that not only do they freely provide aid and ale to lost wayfarers, the Pub is also the watering hole for swimmers taking up the challenge of swimming across the Channel. All the walls are festooned with the names, date and times of the successful.

Can you imagine the challenge to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 936 AD when he had to cross the Channel to make his trek to Rome.  Today when we got off of the ferry in Calais we walked along the Via Francigena, the route the Archbishop took.

The chalk cliffs of Dover, always remind us of the WWII war movies when the bombers all shot up, are trying to make it back from bombing runs over Germany, then some one shouts,”There, I see the white cliffs of Dover!  We’re  saved”. Thirty years ago Monica and I crossed from Calais to Dover in a hair raising trip on a Hovercraft.

we had a two mile hike to the ferry this morning, that left us both soaking wet with sweat, got cooled down on the ferry,but had to walk to Calais from the  ferry, so we’re soaked again – amazing to be so hot for Sept. We intended to go right on by train, but we wouldn’t arrive until late at night and where the train ends it is still an hour and a  half bus ride to the village of Vezeelay, where we want to start the hike.  So, most of tomorrow will be a train ride.  We didn’t want to go through Paris, but there is no other way, and the worst part is we have to change trains there, and it requires taking two different metros to get from one train to the other.  It is difficult to deal with the crush of people using the metros while carrying a large backpack.

I forgot that yesterday at the Oakland airport, Monica got celebrity recognition when three women noticed the Camino patches on her backpack, stopped her to ask if she had done the Camino.  She said she had which had the women squealing with excitement.  Then she had to pose for a picture.  A star is born.