We had to have an early start this morning as we had a lot of ground to cover and a boat to catch. A pity as we didn’t have the best night’s sleep thanks to Mnsr Thump-thump in the room above. It was still pretty dark as we walked over to breakfast at 7am, fuelled us up and then the car and on the road by 8am. We got onto the motorway heading north and up and over the Pont du Normandie and then wended our way north through who knows what as the fog was pretty dense. Larry basically followed 50 metres behind another car and watched its lights so that we knew which way the road bent and whether there was any braking to be done. We negotiated the toll booths without any dramas and pulled over after about an hour and a half for a stretch of the legs and Larry’s obligatory morning Coke. Such an incredibly big roadhouse with surrounding landscaped gardens we had to take photos. Continued on and made to Calais about 10.45am – 267 kilometres covered pretty quickly at 130 km/h! We wended our way through to the car ferry terminal and were a bit uncertain as to where the Europcar depot was – turned out it was right in the terminal and we just couldn’t face heading back out into the town to fill the car up so will just cop the cost of topping up the tank.
We were so early checking in, the P&O ferry lady offered us a seat on an earlier boat at 12.05pm. Figured it was better than sitting around in a pretty desolate ferry terminal and only a 20 minute wait instead so we were pulling out of Calais and sitting eating lunch on the Pride of Burgundy (Cornish pasties) by 12.30pm. Very calm and smooth trip although it was a bit too bracing to stay outside taking the sea air for too long even though it had turned into a lovely sunny day. Arrived in Dover about 1.30pm and walked through yet another deserted terminal and over to the travel office where a shuttle bus was waiting to take us to Dover Priory train station. A train for London left about 10 minutes after we got there so we hopped on and headed off for London Bridge station. Texted Glen from the train and he was waiting for us at the station. Was lovely to see him and a familiar face. We walked down to his office at City Hall and dumped our suitcases there and Glen went back to work for a couple of hours while we stretched our legs by doing a circuit around London and Tower Bridges. Stopped for a sandwich and coffee and then outside the Tower of London to check out the ‘tourist tat’ – far superior to French tourist tat but probably a bit more expensive – a Christmas tree ornament of Henry VIII and his six wives for 45 pounds!!!
Made our way back to City Hall and collected Glen and our suitcases, then headed to Glen’s ‘local’ for a refreshing ale with some of his workmates. Decided it was too late and too far to walk back to G&J’s with the suitcases so hailed a taxi and were back there in 5 minutes flat. Jeremy was there to welcome us as was Martin T Whippet who warmed to Larry pretty quickly and was curled up on his lap by the end of the evening. Stayed up til about 11pm chatting and watching Dr Who before unfolding the couch and sleeeeeep. J
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