We sailed in under the White Cliffs at sunrise – they really do glow, just as they must have when Julius Caesar first saw them in 55 BC, covered with massed Britons warning him away. He chose not to land here. Smart man. Dover Castle is enormous, sprawling across the clifftop like a stone guardian – they call it the "Key to England," and after walking its ramparts I understand why. Henry II built the great tower in the 12th century, making it the most secure fortress in the realm, but the Romans got here first.

The Roman Pharos stopped me cold. Built around AD 46-50 during Emperor Claudius's reign, it's one of only three Roman lighthouses still standing in the entire former Empire – and the most complete Roman building in England. The original octagonal tower stood 24 metres tall; four of its six to eight storeys remain, golden stone against the sky. In the 13th and 14th centuries, medieval monks repurposed it as a church bell-tower. I stood inside where Roman sailors once tended the beacon fire, where medieval bells rang vespers, where 2,000 years pressed close.

The Secret Wartime Tunnels gave us chills. In May 1940, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay commanded Operation Dynamo from headquarters deep in these chalk cliffs – the Dunkirk evacuation, voices crackling over field telephones, the fate of an army hanging in the tunnels' stale air. You can still smell the disinfectant in the underground hospital, still feel the weight of decisions made in the dark while the Channel churned just 23 miles from France. The tour guide's voice echoed exactly like it must have in 1940.

We took the train to Canterbury (30 minutes through the Kentish countryside) and wandered the medieval streets to the cathedral where Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170. We had lunch – proper fish & chips at The Old Buttermarket pub under the cathedral's shadow, vinegar-sharp and perfect. The pros: real English history layered like sediment, Roman to medieval to modern, without London's crowds. The cons: Dover town itself is underwhelming, a working port more functional than beautiful – but the castle, the cliffs, the tunnels, the ancient lighthouse make up for everything.