Early autumn holiday, 20 September 2024

Blégny-Mine, Belgiium

A long day driving across Belgium. We set off at about 10:00 am; our first port of call was the Auchan at Grande-Synthe, just outside Dunkerque. The Sat-Nav took us via the back roads, which was lovely - we allowed it to, because we knew we would have a lot of motorways later on. That was thoroughly enjoyable.

I did a shopping in the Auchan, which to my annoyance was out of all the Lipton's black tea varieties, just empty spaces on the shelves where they should have been. So no agrumes! I have bought some Earl Grey, which I like, and will have that or Lady Grey in the afternoons instead.

Lunch, parked up in a random services somewhere in Belgium, was rather later than we intended, because there was a contraflow due to roadworks and we thought we needed to stay in the right hand lane, not realising that this was now solely an exit. So we drove for several miles on N roads, which made a pleasant change from the motorway, but by the time we go back on to the motorway, the services where we had planned to stop were behind us, and the next ones were another 15 minutes or so away. The Swan Whisperer had mentioned going to Strépy-Thieux for lunch, but I'm glad we decided against that, as it was quite a long way on from where we did stop!

After which, it was only another 2 hours to Blégny-Mine, where we have stopped before. The aire is free, including services, although you do pay for electricity if you want it. The Swan Whisperer went for a walk, and I did as much of the tai chi form I could remember (despite watching a video of the form, I still had trouble remembering!). Then I sat and read until the SW came back, and then came inside as I was getting chilly, and there was cider in the fridge calling my name! In a moment I'm going to get supper. 

Early Autumn Holiday, 19 September 2024

Calais, Hauts-de-France

We had not intended to be here tonight, but things went a bit pear-shaped. The day started off well; after breakfast we loaded the car and headed down to Sussex, in time for lunch with my mother (who finally came home two days ago) and sister. 

We needed to leave about 15:00 to get to Folkestone in time, but, largely due to the Swan Whisperer leaving his phone in the car and having to rush up to get it, we didn't get away until about 10 past. 

It was a slow old drive to Folkestone; the M25 was giving its best impression of a car park! However, the M20 was reasonably fast as the lorry lanes weren't in use so we could use all three lanes. 

We arrived at about 17:30, expecting to be pushed on to a later shuttle, but the automatic check in gave us the reference for the 18:16 on to which we had been booked, so we went straight through passport control and into the holding pens. Where we sat and sat. After 45 minutes, I contacted their customer service to ask what had gone wrong, but their rep kept saying we had been bumped on to the later shuttle because we were late, and quite made it sound as though we were being punished for it! She simply wouldn't listen when I asked why we had been booked on to the 18:16 - what had changed between checking in and arriving at the holding pens? And we were far from the only vehicle with the same boarding letter in the same situation! I was very unimpressed, and have sent them a stonking e-mail saying so. 

By the time we finally got on a Shuttle, it was about 19:00, so I made salad while the Swan Whisperer finished making the beds, and we ate during the crossing. But we decided we didn't really want to drive another 45 minutes this evening, in the dark, so I checked the aire in Calais, and they had free spaces so I quickly booked us into one of them! 

And there is the most gorgeous moon - my photos don't begin to do it justice!