Seven days in Ramsgate

Weather and tides meant we would be staying in Ramsgate for seven days. We could have left after six days but basically the seventh night was free, so it would have been rude not to stay the extra night.

In our initial planning we decided we would skip Dover this year. We caught the train to Dover so we could do the bits of the Castle we missed last time we were there. Luckily for us we choose the day that was calm so had good views from the top. There is still a lot of building work going on there and apparently They don’t think the new marina will be ready this year. Dover Castle is spectacular, we concentrated on the Hospital tunnel and the Medieval tunnels. these were areas we didn't get to when we visited two year ago. It’s really amazing how many years this Castle has been in use.

View of the harbour from Dover Castle.

Keeping to the theme of tunnels we also visited the Ramsgate Tunnels, which we’ve not managed on our previous visits. They were really worth a visit, the history is fascinating, they were constructed prior to the outbreak of World War 2 to shelter the population of Ramsgate. They served their purpose and are an amazing testament to a the people who thought of them and the engineers who built them. The tour was a good one with an informative guide. It lasted for 1 1/2 hours and involved a lot of walking. I would recommend it. The pictures weren’t very good unfortunately.

Another place we have never visited whilst in Ramsgate was the Sailor's Church. We had a quick visit there.

Whilst we were in Ramsgate two tall ships came in, one from Sweden and the other from Holland. We watched the Dutch one dock, our friends Ann-Marie and Mick on Fleur had seen the Dutch ship in full sail as they were sailing towards Whitby.

The Border Force were also in evidence, when we arrived Searcher was moored up, later to be replaced by Seeker whom we had last seen as we left Ipswich. Alert  was also there for the duration. We felt that things would be relatively quite for them as the weather was so bad. For most of the week we were in solitary splendour on E pontoon.