Berlin to London via White Cliffs?

The closest city to stop over in if you're planning to do Calais-Dover is Lille. You can get to Lille by train from Berlin in about eight-nine hours, probably changing at Koln and Brussels. One of the more air-expert people here can probably explain if there are faster ways to do it by air. You can then get a local train from Lille to Calais and then a boat. From Dover to London you have a choice of the two traditional rail routes to either Victoria or Charing Cross stations, or the more expensive high-speed domestic trains over the Eurostar line that arrive at St Pancras. Which route you choose will depend on price and where your hotel is in London, but all of them are operated by the same company so its easy to check at http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/ Be warned that in both Dover and Calais the traditional dock stations were closed when the Channel Tunnel was opened, so you will need to take a bus or taxi between the town-centre stations and the docks. For ferry details see http://www.po-ferries-uk.co.uk. There are also Stena Lines ferries on that route but I understand that they now take passengers with vehicles only. (Discussion elsewhere on this board has left me with the general impression that trying to take a hire car across the Channel in either direction is far more trouble than it's worth.)

Ron, skipping gently over the cliffs, the most obvious route by train is about 4 and a half hours to Koeln, a night there to see the Dom and altstadt and Roman Museum and Chocolate Museum, then just under or over 5 hours to St Pancas via Brussells and perhaps Lille. Having had the thrill of many overnights in Lille I see no attraction for the place. Now, if you really want to try to take in the cliffs in November, please let me remind you of the short days and infamously bad weather in the channel in November. Odds are you may be viewing them in stormy seas through the rain and fog. But never mind, you may be lucky. There is only one company that I am aware of that takes foot passengers across the channel, which is P and O from Calais. All the notes in the previous post are valid. I just checked and they are offering £30 pp for the crossing. By taking slow trains instead of Eurostar and fast trains, and the three hours or so crossing the channel by boat including getting to and from the ports, check in time and security, your trip will be much longer. Not suggesting a private pilot in a small aircraft because the weather might be similar and your pockets might not be deep enough, but hey!.....

Reality speaks louder than an idealist envisioning of pleasantly sailing across the Channel, White Cliffs of Dover in view! Thank you Philip and Nigel for so graciously and gently informing me.  We had a stop in Cologne while on a Rhine River cruise earlier on this trip but likely now will spend the night there en route from Berlin to London. Wow but the Rick Steves "Travelers Helpline" is wonderful. Ron

If this is your "once in a lifetime" opportunity to see the White Cliffs of Dover, I would take a chance and gamble on having decent weather. We planned a couple of days of our 2008 trip just so we could do that crossing. (True disclosure here-we are inveterate Anglophiles and my hobby is reading earlier-English history)....We traveled in June so we had perfect weather, but maybe you will be lucky in November.

Check the weather carefully and check the weather out to sea when you get to Koeln, and make up your mind then. You're too late for cheap fares either way, I expect, so decide then..... Whichever, I hope it works out well for you...