Scotland Photo Extravaganza

Please do enjoy this slideshow of my Scotland pictures to date (It shows only the most recent 100, there are more). If you'd rather not look at them in a slideshow and/or wish to see the whole banana, here's the link to the whole album.

Yes, Rudyard, They Are (Photos)

Ah, God! One sniff of England --
To greet our flesh and blood --
To hear the traffic slurring
Once more through London mud!
Our towns of wasted honour --
Our streets of lost delight!
How stands the old Lord Warden?
Are Dover's cliffs still white?

-- From The Broken Men by Rudyard Kipling

In case anyone was uncertain, I can provide an answer in the affirmative. They are. And Darcy and I just spent all of yesterday tromping all over them (at least six miles, we estimated). We climbed across them, looked (but did not fall) down them, and took a bunch of good pictures of them. At least, I did. The fruits of our adventure follow. I really hate doing this photo uploading bit, it takes forever and is generally a source of great aggravation, but I suppose I should get into the practice for, you know. SCOTLAND. (In case anybody forgot).

Anyway.

Our first sight of Dover Castle on the skyline as we came down from the train station.

The streets of downtown Dover.

Castle ruins right the crap in the middle of downtown. This is why English towns are so cool. Ignore the random fat lady in the foreground, she took fricking forever to get out of the way and we were in a hurry, so I had to take the picture and go.

More castle ruins built in a hillside.

Our first glimpse of the white cliffs.

The street, East Cliff Terrace, that led up to the footpath.

Looking up at the cliffs overhead. As you can see if you look, there were several windows -- houses, lookouts, or something. Nice view.

More castle ruins in the cliffs.

I am really quite fond of this picture.

Darcy at the start of the footpath up to the cliffs.

The footpath.

Stairs. Haven't we had enough of these?

Oh bugger.

A look back at Dover Harbour as we climbed.

Another one of Bill's houses. Although I think Henry II had more to do with this one, at least in present form.

Darcy at the sign for the White Cliffs.

Me.
Dover Harbour again and part of the sea wall.

A ferry headed for Calais.

Looking back along the coastline.

Looking down at the sea.

And with a little sunlight.

Also a little sunlight on Dover Harbour.

Zoom functions are useful.

Getting closer...

And closer...

AAAAND....

/CYMBAL CRASH

Looking back at the weather station on the headland.

Yeah. You're jealous.

Getting friendly with the sea.

Getting VERY friendly with the sea. Don't worry, no bloggers were harmed in the making of this photograph.

See?

And neither were any sidekicks.

But hey, I gotta get my shot.

For which you thank me most kindly.

Down. Down. Drums in the deep. Down. Down. Downnnnnnnnn.

I iz an extreem bloggah.

Continuing my ongoing quest to write parts of the book in cool places, here I do so atop the cliffs. I am not your average writer who sits inside with a laptop (although I do do that a lot). Nah, I've been taking the notebook on my travels. It makes for good stories. Also, I lost a fountain pen somewhere in the cliffs, which is both slightly romantic and a little annoying, since that'll be the fourth one I've lost and/or broken. Maybe I use my writing implements a little too hard. Hmm.

Dats a noice vue.

The South Foreland lighthouse in the distance.

Closer.

And inside.

And inside the column. This is where the weights are cranked up to start the light, or at least that's what it used to do before they decommissioned it in 1980. We had a very interesting tour, and now if I ever write a book set in a lighthouse, I have plenty of useful tidbits.

The light itself.

St. Margaret's Bay from the lighthouse. The wind, which had been blowing like crap the entire time, was blowing like CRAPPPP up here. My eyes were watering.

The harbour from the lighthouse.

The harbour on the way back.

Dover Castle again. Most unfortunately, we missed out by two days when they begin summer hours, and missed being able to go in.

The castle on the hill. Kewl.

I swear, you expect to see Sir Lancelot and Sir-Not-Appearing-in-this-Photo to come busting out of there with Herbert. And maybe a couple coconuts.

Well, this sure is perty. Down the castle wall with the harbour in the background, and even an aesthetically placed seagull.

LOOK OUT BILL. WE'RE COMING TO STORM YOUR CASTLE.

Tra-la-la.

A narrow side alley on the way back from the castle.

A church tower in downtown Dover on the way to the railway station.

The door into the church, with some spring flowers.

Okay, that covers it. Getting TO Dover was an ordeal, for various transportation-related reasons, but it was pretty awesome. We left Dover on the 4:48 train, since we couldn't get into Dover Castle, and it was 9:15 before we were tromping our tired asses back into my apartment. We are both very sore today. But what the hey.