Northern Europe Trip 2003
UK, France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands
THURSDAY - Getting to Calais
Thursday was going to be the rough travel day, between the hour drive into the airport, 3 hours there, 7 hours in the air, 1 hour getting out, 2 hours getting to the chunnel, 1/2 hr crossing and then 2 hours to Brussels. So we packed a LOT of snack food, water, and other items to be able to get to our destination in one piece!
Jenn and Dad showed up at the house around 1pm and soon we were all getting ready to go. We all packed small carry-ons to be able to fit our luggage into the trunks and make this an easy trip baggage-wise. As we hopped on the highway, there was a TON of stuck traffic coming out of Boston but luckily there was none at all going in! The drive into Boston was easy, parking was in the central parking lot for economy rates because the economy lot was full. So we got close access and cheap rates! There was a luggage cart sitting right by our parking space to use. The walking tunnel over into the terminal had the COOLEST sea mosaics on the floor including lots of fish and a gigantic squid with a gigantic eye. Very neat!
Not only that, but there was hardly any line at all for the airplane! So before you could say time-to-go, we were through security and had 2 hours to kill. We stopped at Killian's Boston Pub for a send-off with a Blue Moon Belgian Ale :) Then we went to hang out at the gate. They board by "group numbers" now so even though our four seats were all together (2 by 2 on the side of the plane) we boarded separately. Soon we were together again. We each got our own blanket, pillow and headphone and quite comfy seats. Each seat had its own mini-TV that included movie, radio stations or an always-running GPS display of exactly where you were. I found a cool migrating bird movie that talked about how birds migrated and lived, and it even had puffins! Neato :)
Bob and I had ordered special "diabetic" menus for our low carb diet. Unfortunately, what American Airlines calls diabetic is pretty sugar-filled :) It was chicken with rice, a roll and green melon. The "fat free lemon vinaigrette dressing" had as ingredient #1 "high fructose corn syrup". Still, it ended up being much better than the standard dinner which included mushy mashed potato and a chocolate brownie. We had brought a TON of snacks including cheese cubes, raspberries for me, celery, grape tomatoes, steak cubes and much more so we were quite amply supplied. Poor Bob asked for a caffeine-free diet drink. Nope, they said. He asked about tonic water and they said "Oh right!" - but he drank half of it before checking and seeing that it was 35g. Oooops. Always check before you drink!!
The other 3 slept some but I couldn't fall asleep - too excited about things to see :) Soon they served the breakfast "snack" which was a croissant, blueberry yogurt orange juice and marmalade - pretty much all sugar and starch. Luckily my supplies held us through.
Soon we were circling over London although by the time I got lined up for a photo we were landing :) We landed and because of construction had to do a cross-airport hike to get to customs and such. Jenn and I went up to the desk together. "How are you related?" they asked. "We're sisters!" we chimed merrily! That was about it, we got a fuzzy passport stamp, got our bags and left the area.
Woo hoo, we're on English Soil! Time to find a car. Hertz had a sign to take their bus, and when we got outside POOF there was the bus! Kismet :) We took it over to the Hertz office and because of a minor Lisa mix-up involving dates our regular sedan wasn't ready ... so they gave us a Land Rover! What a shame!! Now it was time to head out.
A note about how we did cars. We signed up for the Hertz LeSwap Program. This program is PERFECT for visiting the UK and Europe. It gives you unlimited milage for the entire trip. You get an English car (opposite steering wheel) in England, and a normal European car on the continent. The fare includes both ways 1/2 hr chunnel ride ticket. For us, for 6 days and a "good" sedan to be comfy in, the total was $438. Not bad at all when you realize ferry rides can be $50 or more each way per person just to cross the channel!!
Bob was doing all the driving on this trip to keep the insurance payments low, and because he'd driven in Ireland before and was comfortable with the whole driving-on-the-left that is done in England. The steering wheel is on the RIGHT inside the car - and the car drives on the LEFT side of the road. We drove around the London ring-road and then headed south, all the time having fun with the "driving on the wrong side of the road" thing. There was a point that I thought I was comfortable with it, but then I looked over to a car besides us and thought with surprise that nobody was driving it! Of course the driver was on the "proper" right side :)
The ring road has 'variable speeds' - the 60 shown there means 60mph currently. Note that England uses MPH while Europe uses kilometers. This ring road had small villages along it, but once we headed south from London we went into rolling hills of farmland, with sheep and cows alongside. Very, very lovely. The houses we saw were mostly brick or brick-and-beam with gradually sloped roofs. We passed Canterbury along the way down to Folkestone, which is where the English Channel Tunnel connects over to Calais, France.
Day 1: Thursday Crossing the English Channel Tunnel
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