Boulogne-sur-Mer

Left England and the white cliffs of Dover early yesterday morning (Saturday) on the P&O ferry to Calais. We had a great time with Di, Barry & co in Dover. Di, with her usual consideration, packed a breakfast bag for us to take on the boat. Had tedious company on the boat with a family with uncontrollable kids, yelling, tantrums etc. Ferry docked in Calais, but the tide was such that the gangway for high tide wouldn’t go low enough and the gangway for low tide wouldn’t go high enough, so the relatively few foot passengers had to go down to the vehicle deck and get off after the vehicles.

We collected our new Renault Clio, black & silver, very smart and set off on the first tentative leg. Car has a GPS, so we tried to follow it to fill the tank, but, not being used to the road signage, missed the turn. Went on and found a supermarket fuel outlet. Conveniently, the supermarket sold wine. Bought a couple of bottles of a very nice chardonnay – we thought that we’d need something at the end of the day.

We headed north into Belgium and went for a ride on de Kusttram (the coast  tram), a tram that runs along most of the coast of Belgium. Some sections are right against the beach & others just inland, through residential areas and main shopping streets. Seating was cramped, so we got off at a pretty little village of De Haan, had waffles and one of the best coffees. Back on the tram and back to De Panne, where we boarded the tram. Time was now about 6:0pm. Into the car and drove to Boulogne-Sur-Mer, arriving around 9pm. Found a very basic shoebox sized hotel room quickly, that was good because we were very tired from getting used to the car and the roads. Dinner near by & back to the hotel by 10:30 – still light.

Very fast internet connection, so blogging now (10:30 am Sun) before we head off to Honfleur for the week.