Tag: Dover

The Retirees go Abroad – Farewell and Hello Calais and Beyond

A beautiful day greeted us for our trip to Gatwick. Our new hood rack and carrier had been fitted and we got underway on time. The weather blessed us and the traffic took a holiday. We travelled without incident to Gatwick where we rendezvoused with David and Veronica. We have known them for over 25 years and in my case 35 years but had only limited contact during that time. Now travelling together may raise some issues but we would have to wait and see.

We changed over the luggage had a bite to eat and farewelled Rod and Kerry who were off to Norway and the Hurtigruten trip up the Norwegian coast. No time to waste we had to be at Dover for the ferry at 4.40pm. Again the traffic was kind even on the dreaded M25 and we reached Dover with a half hour to spare. After lining up we went to the terminal kiosk for a nature break and over stayed our time returning to the car to find the traffic by passing us to board the ferry. A salutary reminder to me about timing.

All’s well though. We boarded and landed in Calais without problem and stayed at our favourite Hotel Meurice – an older hotel in a classic style and a great breakfast.

Calais looked very different from the windy and cold place we saw at Xmas. There were clear skies and late evening sunshine to entice us into the old city for dinner, a red beer for David and me (Grimbergen Kriek) and a walk around the square. We even got to see Notre Dame Calais before circling around back to our hotel.

The next day we were on the road early to drive to Reims or Rheims the pre WW2 spelling in the Champagne region. The day was misty rather than overcast and everything appeared grey and a little fuzzy. We caught up with gossip and shared some memories as we travelled along finally arriving in Reims right on 12 noon Saturday. I went to the hotel to book us in and to my dismay found that the reception closed at 12 noon on Saturdays. After calling the hotel number we gained entry and the keys to our rooms on the 2nd floor.

That afternoon we did a little exploring but the travel had been exhausting, so after dinner it was off to bed for a big day tomorrow.

The Retirees go Abroad – Travel to Amiens Picardy France

As April 25th approaches, we travel to Amiens as our base to attend the ANZAC Day service at Villiers Bretonneux. Amiens is in Picardy north of Paris and a short drive from the Belgian border. To the west and north of Picardy is the Somme. This was a killing field during W.W.1 and W.W.2 and the people of the region hold special affection for the Australian Imperial Force which held back the German advance in W.W.1.

It is an all day journey to Dover and the cross channel ferry and onto Amiens. We had allowed ourselves over five hours to reach the ferry terminal as we have learned that traffic bottlenecks occur with painful regularity around the Dartford Crossing. The weather blessed our journey. Fine and cool with patches of sea mist from time to time. Traffic was slow up to the turnoff to Birmingham where a majority of the trucks and cars turned off giving us an easy run to Dover.

On this occasion our planning was too conservative and we arrived in Dover ahead of time giving us a chance to look around the port. We drove along the sea front bounded by holiday flats and a new board walk reflecting the white cliffs that are famous in this area. With the sun shining and a gentle but cool breeze blowing we prepared our lunch on the foreshore and enjoyed a break from driving. Dover Castle looked on as we soaked up the vitamin E.

We finished lunch and joined the queue of cars and Lorries (trucks to us) awaiting boarding of the ferry. I had to call in to the kiosk to get our head light defuses as under French law we cannot travel in France without them. A right hand drive car has its headlights set to shine brightest to the left which is straight into the face of the driver of left hand drive cars. Understandable but at £7 a pop every time we go over to France it becomes expensive as you have to pull them off on returning to England.

I had just fitted them when the cars were called to board the ferry. These are very large boats with trucks on two decks and the cars scattered amongst the trucks on deck 5. The fittings are more like a cruise liner so the one and a half hours across the channel seems to fly.

The drive to Amiens was only one and a half hours but with the time change this meant we would arrive around 6.00pm. The weather continued to be fine and the fields of northern France were stunning. I could not reach my camera but I have included some shots I obtained on the return journey but unfortunately it was overcast and showering.

France is in a different time zone to the UK and has daylight saving as well so we had to set our watches an hour ahead. Fortunately this meant that we had the benefit of twilight even though it was past 6.00pm when we arrived in Amiens. It seemed like the middle of the day when we found our apartment. It was on the edge of the old city and a parking space opened up just nearby.

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Bishops Visit – France and More – Battling the Dreaded M25

 

We set off this morning with the weather mild and sunny. Our planned route would take us through Northamptonshire and down to the M2 avoiding most of the dreaded M25. We have to use the Dartford Crossing and that is on the M25 – no avoiding it.

Our trip through Northamptonshire was very relaxing with little traffic and clear weather. “Tommy” predicted that we would have a trip of 4 hours to Canterbury and we were on target until coming close to London where we moved onto the M11 headed towards Docklands. Blue lights and sirens – a good indicator that things are not going to be smooth sailing. The traffic came to a stand still and for over an hour we crawled along the M11 until we reached the lorry stalled in the left hand lane blocking completely half of the freeway. At least we knew the cause. So often the blockage clears like stale water in the sink when the blockage is cleared and you never see the cause.

Even so the traffic jam had lost us 1 hour. We then moved along again with free flowing traffic until meeting the M25 and chaos. All we could see was red taillights to the horizon. This is the usual chaos at the Dartford Crossing so now we just had to be patient and navigate to Canterbury rather than any other one of a dozen destinations. We lost another hour finding our way through this chaos.

Having made the crossing we had the choice of the A2 (presently backed up to the M25) or the M25 which strangely cleared as traffic scurried like rats down other exits. The M25 is the obvious choice and our journey is underway again but we are still an hour from our hotel. Our expectation had been to arrive at sunset but these delays had changed our ETA to 1900 hours two hours after sunset.

Now I don’t know what Tommy had been smoking but from that point forward it seemed to find every narrow country lane and go around in circles until out of the blackness of the night a service station appears and Tommy says “you have reached your destination”. Our hotel is one of those freeway motels lurking behind a service station. Despite its location the hotel proves to be fine. The standard of the Holiday Inn Express has proven to be excellent everywhere we travel and we can recommend that chain.

Refreshed we are on the road to Dover early in the morning. No hassles getting to Dover where we visited the local museum with its 12,000 year old salvaged boat and its bronze age history then a quick trip to Deal (Yes a place called Deal and certain evidence of pre Aussie travellers) and back to line up for the ferry. Now a word of warning to all those intrepid travellers using their own car to travel through Europe – it has to be compliant but you can buy the kit on board the ship (Yeah right!). Well we bought the kit and now we are compliant – its not a gag.

 

The weather has turned decidedly grey and wet. We line up an hour before boarding and the wind picks up. The ferry is delayed by high winds in Calais so our departure is set back 1 and 1/2 hours meaning we arrive in Calais after sunset. Just makes driving a right hand drive car in the right hand lane a little more difficult. Although the crossing was not rough the ferry pitched sufficiently to cause Kerry some discomfort (not a good sailor).

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