Tuesday, 5 February 2013

Tuscany Friday 28 September 2012


Another early start for our tour to Tuscany!
Brian is with me on this tour and we are in Petersfield at 04:30 for a 05:00 departure.
We have a long journey today with our overnight hotel being just south of Strasbourg, about 7½ hours from Calais.
We also pick up in Liphook and Guildford and are delayed slightly in Guildford with my mum, who has picked somebody up for me, waiting at the Cathedral instead of Egerton Road and then when she realised took the wrong turning at the Tesco roundabout (as we watched) and headed off towards London on the A3!! Bless her!
No problem as we are away from here by 06:00 and down at Folkestone by 07:30.
Our 08:20 train has been cancelled but we catch the 09:00 which I’m happy about and we also managed a 25 minute break in the terminal.
The journey from Calais is boring and uneventful with no hold ups and a couple  of stops along the way.
We are staying at the Mercure Strasbourg South which is a comfortable hotel in the middle of nowhere south of the city. I am not concerned by its remoteness as we only need a bed, bar and restaurant.
Because of two long days travelling this will be ideal and we can also park the coach here.
I have stayed here quite often in the past but not for a while as the last time we stayed the bar was closed and the staff wouldn’t open it!
Okay if a choice of bars are nearby but not good when no choice available. I made sure before we came away that the bar would be open both today and on our return journey. Only a small point but a lot of people enjoy a drink before or after their dinner and they should be able to do this.
I have two friends on board, Barry and Jayne, and we enjoy a beer before dinner.
Dinner is okay, I enjoyed it, but a few didn’t eat much. The main course was a type of beefburger which I thought was okay but it was a little raw, very typical of French cooking.
Am delighted to be in bed straight from dinner as it has been a long day and we have a fair drive tomorrow.

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