10th September 2011 – Tunnel sous la Manche

An easy drive from Ghent to Calais yesterday. Sussed out shopping at Cite Europe before going off into town for a look round. More interesting than I had anticipated. G. has been there before – an exotic day-trip using ‘day passports’ in 1960, when on holiday with his parents in Margate. An adventure indelibly etched in his memory as a result of the excruciatingly embarrassing experience of his father trying to indicate to a Frenchman that his flies were undone. He remembers little else about Calais.

Shopping in Carrefour. The difficulty is in knowing when to stop. Wine, beer, cassis, cheese, a couple of speciality chickens, some duck breasts, tins of confit de canard ……. Have we bought enough? Too much? Have we overloaded the van? Will we regret not buying more?

Three weeks later and here we are again, travelling under the Channel. Three weeks packed full of experiences. Can’t remember a holiday when we’ve done and seen so much. It’s been fantastic. We’ll always remember our first trip abroad in the van.

Just emerging into daylight now.  In 5 hours time we should be home.

Home

Total mileage travelled door-to-door 1875

73.07 gallons of diesel used

Average 25.66 mph – could be improved upon, but that’d mean driving more slowly.  (G. did all the driving so that meant trading economy for speed!)

Our next door neighbours had an attempted break in in the middle of the night on Bank Holiday Monday. They have a very tidy drive and burglars, thinking the house was empty, tried to force the front door while the neighbours were in bed! At the time we were obliviously tucked up in our van at Hochstahl – Aufsess. Had the burglars done their homework better, they could have emptied our house!