Memories, mussels and the Menin Gate COMPLETED - PassPorter Community - Boards & Forums on Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel
Memories, mussels and the Menin Gate COMPLETED
About This Page: This is a discussion on Memories, mussels and the Menin Gate COMPLETED within the Globetrotting: General Trip Reports, part of the PassPorter Community - Boards & Forums on Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel; Memories, mussels and the Menin Gate – part one: now where shall we go today?
As those of you who ...
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Memories, mussels and the Menin Gate – part one: now where shall we go today?
As those of you who read my recent trip report, Cemeteries, commemorations and chocolates COMPLETED about our day trip to France and Belgium, will know, we had a great day out and really enjoyed it, pledging to return one day in the future. We had no idea that one day would be so soon, but not long after we got back from our first day trip, I got an email with the same offer that we’d used before.
That was a day trip for just £29 ($45) and including six free bottles of wine and a buy one, get one free offer on breakfast on the way over there. We went ahead and booked again, opting for Saturday 24 March, as there were a number of excluded dates, just before and after Easter.
We deliberately went for a later sailing than the last time, leaving at 8.25 am, so that we could come back later, as the one thing we wanted to do was to see the playing of the Last Post at Ypres, which has taken place every night since 1928. That meant we would be taking the last sailing back at 11.35 pm. Even worse, that night that we came back would be when the clocks go forward in the UK, so we wouldn’t even get the benefit of having the clocks go back an hour when we returned. Oh well. At least we’d be on the right time zone when we got back. I guess that’s something...
Despite the later sailing, it still meant an early start for us, as you have to be at Dover at least 30 minutes before your ship and Dover Port is about a 45 minute drive from us. We were up before 6.00 am and got all our bits together and set off just after 6.30 am, getting the car filled up first, as she didn’t have enough gas to get us to France, a great shame as gas is much cheaper over there.
When we left the house, it was quite foggy outside and I must admit I was dreading the drive down, as the road to Dover is well known for problems whenever there’s fog, but actually it was fine and quite clear, as we drove down.
Our first view down towards Dover, although we couldn’t see very much!
We discovered when we got to Dover that it was still quite cold, even though the sun was starting to come out. I got a few shots as we came into Dover, with its imposing castle looking out over the town.
Part of Dover Castle’s World War Two fortifications
As we pulled up to the port, we were lucky enough to be selected for a special security check. Altogether now.... yay! Fortunately, the guy who did it had a sense of humour and was really nice about it and that does make all the difference. We had to open up the boot (or trunk as you guys call it...) and the bonnet (engine compartment to you guys...) which I thought was a bit weird but a look at both and he was happy and we were off again. It really is done totally at random, as they can only taken four vehicles at a time and, as we left, we saw the next couple of lucky people being pulled in....
We noticed literally hundreds of lorries as we headed through to check-in, way more than we saw last time. Fortunately, they have their own line and we found a relatively short line for cars and were quickly checked in and headed out tickets. I was fascinated to see that no-one asked for our passports at any point. I never thought I’d be able to say that we managed to leave the country without once showing our passports!
We were about 20 minutes early before the ship was due to start loading and we pulled into the last slot on our allocated line. The wait wasn’t too bad and we spent our time programming daughter of Tim with our destinations for the day. For those who haven’t read the trip report of our last day trip to France and Belgium (shame on you! ) then here’s the recap of who daughter of Tim is from that:
Oh sorry – backtrack a second... you’re wondering about daughter of Tim? Ok, Tim was our first GPS system. RIP Tim. He wasn’t well for a while, then sadly died and left us. We were devastated, particularly as we couldn’t find one to replace him. We now have Son of Tim for America, but for Europe, we now have daughter of Tim, as she’s programmed to a female voice. that’s right, the original Tim covered both Europe and America – in fact he covered the whole darned world (he was good! ) and they no longer make them like that, so now we have to have two to cover all our travels...
We knew that we needed to get to Carrefour first to do some shopping, as it would be closed by the time we got back to Calais tonight and we needed to get some gas there as well, so that would be our first port of call of the day. Then we figured that we’d go on to Bruges. Mark had suggested it the previous night and it seemed like a good idea to me. It had been an amazing 10 years since we were last there. Then we had spent a couple of nights there on a Belgian holiday, when we also spent a couple of nights in Brussels. Where does the time go?
Not long after we finished programming daughter of Tim, then they were boarding. It was interesting to see how many people had gone for a wander and were nowhere to be seen when it was time to board. We saw a few people have to put in a frantic run to get back to their cars in time.
I didn’t think the boarding was as smooth as last time. The people doing it didn’t seem to be that clear on where they wanted people to go and we saw one car in front of us being turned around. We were parked up and had to cross a line of vehicles that were still boarding to get to the stairs, which wasn’t the most sensible way to do things.
Next: this must be my home country, it’s got all my favourite things!
Oh cool! I think I was suffering from withdrawal without a daily dose of a chezp TR! I love these cool offers you seem to keep getting! Looking forwarding to hearing what interesting tidbits you show us from this trip!
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Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Oh cool! I think I was suffering from withdrawal without a daily dose of a chezp TR! I love these cool offers you seem to keep getting! Looking forwarding to hearing what interesting tidbits you show us from this trip!
Well, this one will keep those withdrawal symptoms at bay for a few days anyway....
Memories, mussels and the Menin Gate – part two: this must be my home country, it’s got all my favourite things!
Finally, we made it on board and headed up to get some food. Learning from our last trip, we knew to get to the food court as soon as possible before the lines built up and when we got there, there were only a few people in front of us, so we were quickly served. They seemed to have the serving worked out much better than on our last day trip.
We even managed to grab a window seat to enjoy our breakfast at.
As we pulled out of Dover, we were in the perfect spot to get lots of photos of the famous White Cliffs of Dover as we left and, with the zoom of my new camera I was even able to pick out the recent rock fall that had happened just a few days before. Thankfully, no-one was injured when that happened....
Looking back towards the town The food court Moving past the LD Lines ferry I was really pleased to get this seagull in shot! The headquarters of the Dover coastguard Leaving the harbour walls The rock fall
We sat there for a while, until we noticed that it was getting a lot busier and then we headed downstairs. To be honest, it wasn’t much better there. It was packed everywhere. I think it must’ve been a full ship.
We headed into the duty free shop to pick up our six free bottles of wine but that was all we got. It was just chaos in there and far too many people, many of them just standing there blocking the way. I did comment to Mark that half the problem was the elderly people on board, who were just stopping wherever they wanted to, which made it really difficult for everyone else.
After picking up our wine, we wandered back through the ship and managed to find a spot to sit at the bar and there we remained for the rest of the voyage.
Soon we were hearing the calls for the stair marshals and made our way out of the bar, with me steering us in totally the wrong direction..... Oops. We got there in the end and by the time we did, everyone was already heading down the stairs, so at least we had no wait for that.
We waited a few minutes before we were being offloaded and then the waiting really started. My goodness, we noticed the difference compared to our last trip, as it was pretty slow moving throughout the port of Calais. I said to Mark that this wasn’t as nice as last time. I guess part of that was that we were on a later sailing and also a more popular time of the year to travel. After all, March sounds so much more appealing than February....
It wasn’t help by the annoying set of Mini drivers, who wanted to stay together. The guy in front of us was part of the convoy and he kept waiting and letting other people in, so that they could all catch up and be together.
Finally, they turned off into Calais itself and we were on our way. We headed first for Cite d’Europe and Carrefour, but we had a bit of a scare along the way. Daughter of Tim decided to take us a very odd route, which saw us heading straight for the Channel Tunnel. No, I don’t want to go home that quickly, thank you! Fortunately, we spotted a way off before having to present tickets that we didn’t have and eventually we made it to Cite d’Europe, albeit in a very convoluted way.
We parked up near the service station and headed inside, going to the Disney Store first, having been told that our youngest niece is now into the Disney princesses! At long last! We didn’t find anything in there, but it was fin to browse.
Then it was over to Carrefour. We took our time, debating getting some Easter eggs, but didn’t, on the grounds that we were going to Belgium, well known for its chocolate. Instead, I picked up some other sweet delights and we also got my dad some more of his favourite French wine and a few other bits and pieces. My goodness, getting out of there was a challenge. Out of all the tills that were open, they all had long lines and we probably waited a good 10 minutes. Once done, we headed back to the car and filled up for just €61 (about £52) – considering the last fill up at home cost me £75 ($117! ) you can see that was a good saving.
Then we went on our way to Belgium and Bruges.
I cannot believe the zoom is that good on my camera that I managed to catch this door at the door of this house!
Once again, the scenery changed seconds after we entered Belgium and it’s so much more beautiful than France. Within a couple of minutes, I saw donkeys, cows and even lambs, all my favourites. I was in heaven! Belgium must be my home country, I just never realised it.
Next: a superb service and some stunning shop windows
About This Page: This is a discussion on Memories, mussels and the Menin Gate COMPLETED within the Globetrotting: General Trip Reports, part of the PassPorter Community - Boards & Forums on Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel; Memories, mussels and the Menin Gate – part one: now where shall we go today?
As those of you who ...
At least we’d be on the right time zone when we got back. I guess that’s something... 
Fortunately, the guy who did it had a sense of humour and was really nice about it and that does make all the difference. We had to open up the boot (or trunk as you guys call it...) and the bonnet (engine compartment to you guys...) which I thought was a bit weird 
He wasn’t well for a while, then sadly died and left us. We were devastated, particularly as we couldn’t find one to replace him. We now have Son of Tim for America, but for Europe, we now have daughter of Tim, as she’s programmed to a female voice. 
that’s right, the original Tim covered both Europe and America – in fact he covered the whole darned world (he was good! 
It had been an amazing 10 years since we were last there. 
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I was even able to pick out the recent rock fall that had happened just a few days before. Thankfully, no-one was injured when that happened.... 
but that was all we got. It was just chaos in there and far too many people, many of them just standing there blocking the way. 
I did comment to Mark that half the problem was the elderly people on board, who were just stopping wherever they wanted to, which made it really difficult for everyone else. 
We got there in the end and by the time we did, everyone was already heading down the stairs, so at least we had no wait for that. 
No, I don’t want to go home that quickly, thank you! 
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