Day 5
Wednesday, June 20, 2001
France, Belgium, and the White Cliffs of Dover!
Today's the day we're to head to "the Continent" for a day trip...
Everything goes well until about 15 minutes away from the house, we realize we all forgot our passports!!
Turnaround time!! :P
Okay... passports in hand, we set off on the 1.5-2 hour drive to the southeast coast of England.
We're going to catch the train that will take us and the car through the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel!
The crossing takes ~20 minutes, and then we're in Calais, France!
It's gross.
We head off towards Dunkirk, along the northern coast of France, in search of history, shopping, and food -- not necessarily in that order!
We get to Dunkirk and are not impressed.
We stop and have lunch... and are not impressed.
We try to drive out of town... and spot an old church with bullet holes from WWII.
Okay... that's impressive!
We decide to head to Belgium, just so we can say "we've been there".
On the way, we stop at the Dunkirk Memorial, to the WWII British troops who died fighting so that others could live free.
That was impressive.
And now... off to Belgium!
We didn't know what to expect, but found a most charming village.
Voerne had several seventeenth-century churches, lots of shops (including great chocolate!), and a really nice out-of-the-way restaraunt/bar where we enjoy Belgian beer and feast on the just-purchased chocolates!
This town is just what we had wanted to see!
We're quite pleased with the experience, but it's time to go.
A quick detour for some "cheap beer" (actually... really good beer at surprisingly low prices!), we're aboard the train to recross the Channel Tunnel to England.
Since the crossing point is so close to Dover, we have to see the famous White Cliffs.
A 15-minute drive and we're there!
The view is breath-taking... actually much better than pictures I've seen.
Kathy and I take tons of pictures ourselves to go with the many fond memories we each have.
There's an impressive castle in Dover that we can see from the Cliffs.
It's too late in the day to tour, but we get lots of pictures!
What a surprise, huh? <g>
During the ride home, we marvel at how long the twilight lasts at this time of the year in England.
It's well after 10pm (about 1015pm actually!) before it's "dark".
We stop at Julian and Jenny's favorite "Chip Shop" for Fish & Chips (Kathy gets the Chicken & Mushroom Pie!).
This effectively ends this phase of our trip.
Tomorrow, we head off to Stratford-upon-Avon!! :)
This way for more adventures!!!!!
return to the trench