Mundane Monday: Beach and Cliffs

Dr KO has such nice themes for Mundane Monday. This week’s theme is the beach. I’m back from my trip to Europe, which was not really a beach vacation. But the parts of the trip I will remember the longest involved beaches of a sort.

The last day of our cruise took us to Dover, England, of the famous White Cliffs. When British pilots returned from bombing runs during World War II, it was the sight of these cliffs that let them know they were home, and (relatively) safe, for now.

PRESENTED TO THE TOWN OF DOVER BY THE BRITISH LEGION, CALAIS BRANCH Section of armored plating dismantled from one of the German long range guns at Sangatte, Calais. The 84 rounds recorded formed part of the 2226 shells fired from these batteries at the harbor and town of Dover during the period 1940 to 1944.

Our day was warm and sunny, the sky a clear blue with a few white clouds. We hiked along the Cliff Walk and looked out over the beach and the water.

My son taking pictures

The beachiest picture in this whole blog

We were high-up enough to see the curvature of the earth and the boats crawling along the watery arc of the globe.

And a lighthouse behind a field of flowers.

The different shades of blue and white were amazing all day. As we sailed away from Dover on the cruise ship, seagulls followed us, drafting off the ship’s movement.

This gull was dive-bombing some leftover food on plates stacked up in the bistro at the back of the boat.

And the cliffs themselves, and the shadows they made, took on a different hue as they receded into the distance.

There’s a song about bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover, but as we learned, bluebirds are not native to the area and cannot be found here. It’s white birds all the way. White birds against a deep blue sky.