D & E dropped us at the Freiburg train Station in plenty
of time, cold wait due to wind but sunny at least.
Overnight stay at our fav little hotel with shuttle to/from
the airport in Frankfurt. Snow in the morning backed all flights up by about 45
minutes.
Got into Paris, Charles De Gaulle and I lost Bruce in this
massive airport! My mistake, he had to use the toilet before the bags came
down. I thought he’d gone out of the secure area and couldn’t get back in, it’s
happened before, me thinking that and not true.
I gathered our luggage onto a luggage cart and then the
frustrations began. Steering Lexi in her cart and the heavy cart with luggage
was a challenge! Especially when the cart had a mind of it’s own and insisted
on going right against my efforts to keep it straight. So I went down one floor
and had him paged at the Information kiosk, but didn’t hear it. So we are
searching for one another and finally met at the Info kiosk with great relief.
Now to get to Gare Nord where our hotel is, across from the
train station we are using the next morning and we are both tired and grumpy so
decide to cab. Expensive but worth it, neither one was up to navigating an
unfamiliar train system at that point and Lexi was getting restive. Poor little
cat had been carted all over. CDG
Airport. New plan for Bruce and I
– stay where you are, don’t leave the spot!
The hotel is a chain we’d never been in, very small room but
okay for one night. Walking the neighbourhood we enjoyed a fabulous dinner out
, had nice wine (Sancerre) and watched locals and tourists go by. Well, I
finally made it to Paris! Yes!
Next morning we are at the train station ridiculously early
hoping to find out the platform we leave from
but no go, they only list platforms 15 minutes before the train departs.
Of course, we are at the very far end of the train from the beginning of the
platform, a very long walk done in a rush, ouch!
Train is a fast one, not the Eurostar which is faster, but we
arrive at Calais in time. Find our taxi driver and he’s a talkative bloke but
very nice. He drives us to Animal Control for them to check Lexi’s pet passport
to allow her into Britain. She “passed” with flying colours, apparently that
doesn’t always happen. Thanks to our Vet in Freiburg. The Folkestone Taxi
service has a Vet on call in Calais for when a pet fails, which corrects the
situation but delays boarding. We actually got an earlier train which pleased
us all. Our driver could go home earlier and feed his own cat whom he seems to
love very much. He’s a widower, hence, all the conversation I think.
So the Chunnel we took is a service with two story train
that takes cars like a ferry, drive on and off. It’s a 35 minute easy ride, but
boring because you can’t see anything of course, you are under water in a
tunnel! No problems with air quality or pressure. I had thought one could drive
their car across on their own but was wrong on that, it’s three tubes, to and
from and a service line for maintenance as Bruce tells me. They run twice an
hour in either direction but also have heavy goods running on the same line
separate from the cars. I am amazed at the engineering it took! This isn’t the
longest tunnel in the world, but years in planning , millions of currency and
years in construction. I did so appreciate all that effort going across!
Our driver gets us to Folkestone but not before driving to a
fish and chip shop to show us the best place to eat. The hotel is on the
Harbour and we have a view. Beautiful but foggy. Fishing boats lay in the sand
waiting for the tide to come in. Lots of fish and chip kiosks now closed in the
Harbour. The hotel is old, rooms large, needing an upgrade but clean enough,
except the carpets are stained.
Very many older folk come here to play all day Bingo or
gamble at the on-site Casino. I heard some excitedly talking about winning
about 2 GBP each, what ever, they didn’t lose anyway. They seem to come by the
bus load, maybe from London?
Lexi has taken all four trips in stride and not a murmur from
her. Being enclosed for those days for about 6 hours a day and jostled and
trained, planed and automobiled. She does know when we’ve arrived at desination
and cries to be let out STAT. Tomorrow will be shorter as we head for Brighton,
about a 3 hour car ride. By the time we go to Dover and pick up the car, back
again to head east.
We are back in English speaking
country but it’s a highly accented English (to our ears) of course so we still
have to listen hard to “get” it. Nice to
be in Britain again and seeing the ocean. I’m hoping to get some clearer days
for photos but weather isn’t bad and if it stays this way it’ll be grand. Thinking
of a true English breakfast tomorrow as I write, yum about once or twice a week
and then too much, we’ll see.
Pictures on next post, just had to let you know we are still alive and kicking!
Cheers, Bx2 & Lexi Cat
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