Day One

[poliphilo]

The Wallace Arnold Coaches are named after great British heroes. We travelled down to Dover on Boadicea, then transferred to Captain Cook.

I left a cardigan in an overhead locker on Boadicea. Two weeks later, when we transferred back to her for the journey home, it was still there and I was able to reclaim it.

We were meant to cross on the ferry, but the French dockers have a grievance and were "working to rule", so  we switched to the Tunnel. I'd not been through the Tunnel before. The coach drives onto the train and is shut away with you inside it. Grim. I buried my head in  Bleak House. As we zipped along under the Channel we crossed paths with Lady Dedlock who, "bored to death" with Parisian highlife, was  sailing over it in the opposite direction.

The train runs so smoothly that you think you're creeping when  you're actually zipping along.

We drove through Northern France in the evening light. We passed lots of battlefields- Dunkirk, Armentieres. Ypres. Its a flat country with lots of sticky-up spires.

We arrived very late at our stopover in Lille and ate our "evening" meal at midnight.

To be continued...

Comments

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

It is a rather absurd experience to sit on a coach on a train under the Channel... i prefer going through the tunnel on a regular Eurostar; it seems much mroe reasonable to be in a train that goes through a tunnel than to be on a coach within this huge, cavernous train.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well yes, but Eurostar wasn't an option for us.

It was a strange experience. But I prefer it to the ferry. Apart from anything else, it's so much quicker.

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

You rode Boadicea! That's awesome. I cannot wait to read more about you guys' adventures.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We rode her there AND back....

There's lots more to come.....

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

I cannot wait. What adventures!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

First, how pleasant to find your posts again on my friends page!

It's going to be fun to hear about your adventures.

My favorite so far: your reading Bleak House while going through the tunnel.

Please tell Ailz hi from me.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ailz has just taken herself off to bed. She would say "hi" back if she were awake. She's been pushing herself and pushing herself and now she's exhausted.