TASHY TRAVELS
These are some stories from my travels in 2019.
I hope you enjoy the text and the pictures.
BELGIUM 4 - July 19 2019
Time to leave Bruges, or Sint Andries to be precise which was the suburb where we had been staying. Once we had done the obligatory pose on the front door step, packed the car, we were off. A quick glance into Lidl to see if there was still a massive queue at the barrier and we were back, in the words of Willie Nelson, on the road again. We had no need to rush as, if I remember, our ferry was about 6.00pm.
We had two ideas for stopping on the way back. One was to check the Belgian coast, the other to spend a little time in Dunkirk before we caught that ferry. We found a road leading to a Belgian beach and I think the name was De Panne or at least somewhere near there. There were a massive number of fairly high-rise flats which may have been holiday homes or perhaps permanent residences. Considering the time of year, mid-July, the beaches were amazingly empty.
Once Rachel had been brave enough to walk across the lovely soft sand, she and I sat down for a while as James conducted a conversation with a representative of British Airways (see end of video) following their decision to cancel the tickets he and Rachel had booked to Inverness with a mere 2 days notice. They had originally planned to take the sleeper train overnight but the train operators had already been in touch and said that the new trains they had hoped to introduce weren't ready and they only had old rolling stock. However, it transpired their train booking had not yet been cancelled, James re-instated it (if you can re-instate something that is actually still there) and eventually all was sorted.
We then drove out of Belgium and into France, made our way to Dunkirk and spent a good hour or so in the Dunkirk Museum which, mainly, told the story of the evacuations that took place there in May and June of 1940. The following two photos also come from that museum. There was no mention of a different evacuation that took place in the mid-nineties when, on a flying visit to Dunkirk, well a floating one by Hovercraft, James has become trapped in a small toy car and been assisted by a Frenchman (probably Jean-Pierre) who happened to be passing by.
All that was left was to find somewhere for lunch and make our way to the ferry. This proved to be slightly more problematical as it would appear the French in Dunkirk stop serving lunch at 2.00pm. We could not find anywhere that was open. We asked one cafe owner who said she was closed and was actually sitting outside eating her own lunch. We wandered about a bit and then made our way back to our car, having decided to go for a McDonalds.
Imagine our surprise when the cafe owner saw us again and ran over to say that she had a few ingredients in the cafe and she could cook us something if we wanted. It was a really nice thing to do but we decided to stick to our McDonalds plan and so declined her offer. We found the McDs, ate and drank, although they had no milk shakes at all, and drove to the ferry hoping Brexit hadn't happened while we'd been away (Oh Richard you are funny). I think we actually got on an earlier ferry and we were soon back home in Clacton.
Now I think about, we did so much in those three days, well two full days and two halves. It was amazing what we crammed in yet it didn't seem that rushed and we even had time to eat. It was a wonderful birthday presnt, superb company and magnificent scenery and attractions. Now, for my eightieth James I think maybe the Dardanelles to keep up this WW1 theme.
Time to leave Bruges, or Sint Andries to be precise which was the suburb where we had been staying. Once we had done the obligatory pose on the front door step, packed the car, we were off. A quick glance into Lidl to see if there was still a massive queue at the barrier and we were back, in the words of Willie Nelson, on the road again. We had no need to rush as, if I remember, our ferry was about 6.00pm.
We had two ideas for stopping on the way back. One was to check the Belgian coast, the other to spend a little time in Dunkirk before we caught that ferry. We found a road leading to a Belgian beach and I think the name was De Panne or at least somewhere near there. There were a massive number of fairly high-rise flats which may have been holiday homes or perhaps permanent residences. Considering the time of year, mid-July, the beaches were amazingly empty.
Once Rachel had been brave enough to walk across the lovely soft sand, she and I sat down for a while as James conducted a conversation with a representative of British Airways (see end of video) following their decision to cancel the tickets he and Rachel had booked to Inverness with a mere 2 days notice. They had originally planned to take the sleeper train overnight but the train operators had already been in touch and said that the new trains they had hoped to introduce weren't ready and they only had old rolling stock. However, it transpired their train booking had not yet been cancelled, James re-instated it (if you can re-instate something that is actually still there) and eventually all was sorted.
We then drove out of Belgium and into France, made our way to Dunkirk and spent a good hour or so in the Dunkirk Museum which, mainly, told the story of the evacuations that took place there in May and June of 1940. The following two photos also come from that museum. There was no mention of a different evacuation that took place in the mid-nineties when, on a flying visit to Dunkirk, well a floating one by Hovercraft, James has become trapped in a small toy car and been assisted by a Frenchman (probably Jean-Pierre) who happened to be passing by.
All that was left was to find somewhere for lunch and make our way to the ferry. This proved to be slightly more problematical as it would appear the French in Dunkirk stop serving lunch at 2.00pm. We could not find anywhere that was open. We asked one cafe owner who said she was closed and was actually sitting outside eating her own lunch. We wandered about a bit and then made our way back to our car, having decided to go for a McDonalds.
Imagine our surprise when the cafe owner saw us again and ran over to say that she had a few ingredients in the cafe and she could cook us something if we wanted. It was a really nice thing to do but we decided to stick to our McDonalds plan and so declined her offer. We found the McDs, ate and drank, although they had no milk shakes at all, and drove to the ferry hoping Brexit hadn't happened while we'd been away (Oh Richard you are funny). I think we actually got on an earlier ferry and we were soon back home in Clacton.
Now I think about, we did so much in those three days, well two full days and two halves. It was amazing what we crammed in yet it didn't seem that rushed and we even had time to eat. It was a wonderful birthday presnt, superb company and magnificent scenery and attractions. Now, for my eightieth James I think maybe the Dardanelles to keep up this WW1 theme.
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