Our tour bus departed London this morning for Dover, where we caught a ferry to Calais, France. I had seen pictures of The White Cliffs of Dover before, but I never realized how big of a port it is. It seems that a lot of freight trucks use the ferry from Dover, along with the usual passenger vehicles and tour buses.

When I saw the line for the ferry, I thought we would have to wait for quite a while. It turns out that this ferry, named The Spirit of France, is enormous compared to any of the ferries that I’ve been on in Washington. We were actually able to get on the next ferry, so we didn’t have to wait long at all. This ferry has 6 decks for vehicles, and two decks with restaurants, bars, shops, a video arcade, and even slot machines!

I met a nice couple on the ferry from Wales. They asked about my vacation plans, and when I told them we were going to Belgium today, they made a face and said that Belgium is the armpit of Europe. I had never heard anyone say that before and was kind of surprised. If it’s not that great, we’re only going to be there for half a day, so oh well!