Calais

We're now in Calais and booked on the ferry to Dover tomorrow.




I've always thought of Calais as just a town that people pass through when they go from England to France on the ferry, so we thought we'd spend a couple of days here and see what it's like.

If you're in England and want to visit France, forget about Paris, just come and stay in Calais, it's such a nice town. The people here are so much nicer than those in Paris for one thing.

Getting to Calais from Amsterdam was interesting. I didn't mention we visited Amsterdam did I. We went there from Heidelberg, only spent one night, and no, we didn't visit the red light district. Amsterdam just seemed so crowded and fake compared all the other cities we'd visited over the past few weeks. It was the first city we visited where the person in the tourist information office acted as though she didn't care.

Anyway, going from Amsterdam to Calais involved several changes of trains, some of them unplanned. We caught a train from Amsterdam to Brussels. Now that was an eye opener. We'd heard about the girls in the red light district in Amsterdam, sitting in the window advertising themselves, but weren't expecting to see them from the train as we came into Brussels North station. I'd only just put my camera away as well, sorry guys.

We got off at Brussels Central, thinking that would be the main station and we'd be able to get a train to Lille in France, not so. We had to get on another train to Brussels South, where our original train would have taken us.

Brussels South was where we got on the Eurostar to Lille, a quick half hour trip, just enough for a glass of wine.

At Lille we got on a train to Calais and were lucky enough to be sitting near a young bloke that told us where to get off for Calais as there are a couple of stops. It's Calais Ville if you're following in our footsteps.

The woman at the information office at the station seemed surprised that we wanted to stay in the town, but she booked us a room at the Mecure hotel for the night and a good choice it was.

After a quick look around town, we decided to stay an extra night and see the town properly. We also decided to eat in the restaurant in the hotel, something we haven't done much of during the trip. We didn't regret it. I had my first taste of escargot and emu steaks, both delicious.

So now, we just getting ready to head back to England. We're hoping we can pick up a hire car from Dover. If not, we'll have to catch a train to Hertfordshire and get a hire car from there in a couple of days.

It won't be long now before we're back home. Apparently all the animals are still alive, all that is but the tadpole. Their water wasn't topped up from the pond. Maybe the next batch will have a better chance.