Think I have put this on after Bruges! Apologies for my lack of technical knowledge!!!
We load cases at 09:00 ready for our departure at 10:30.
We are booked on the 05:20 shuttle tomorrow morning so anticipate arriving in
Calais at 03:30/04:00.
Once the cases are on it is just a matter of waiting
around until the off.
It is a bright sunny day as we leave with Brian driving
and me relaxing a few seats back admiring the gorgeous scenery.
Our first stop is a late lunch in Switzerland. About half
an hour after crossing the border we pull off the motorway into a large
shopping complex that has a McDonalds! Everybody enjoys their burgers and I
must admit they do taste good. I am not a big McDonalds fan but a burger and
chips after all that good Italian food is rather tasty. I’m all pasta’d out!!!
Some enjoy it more than others by having two meals!!
The drive through Switzerland is always a delight and
this stretch of motorway between Milan and Lucerne is one of my favourites.
We lose 45 minutes at the Gotthard Tunnel but I’m not too
bothered as we have plenty of time in hand.
We take it in turns to drive up to Calais and I do the
last three and a half hours between half past midnight and four o’clock. This
is always a tiring part and I do need a short toilet/fresh air break that I
don’t think anybody notices as they are all fast asleep.
We reach Calais at 04:00, bang on time.
Our shuttle at 05:20 is the first one out with the next
one over an hour later at 06:25 so we don’t want to be missing it.
There is one coach in front of us as we reach passport
control and everyone alights to walk through with their passports. This should
take about five minutes.
The coach ahead of us has many non Europeans and one
person without a passport altogether!
There are only two passport officers on duty and they
spend an age sorting the other group out. Ypu would think they would just ask
them to wait a couple of minutes (they are going to be a long time anyway)
while they usher the English schoolchildren through. No chance!
By the time we are through we only have enough time for a
five minute stop at the terminal instead of the expected forty minutes.
At least we manage to catch our train and we arrive back
in England at 05:00 local time.
Wendy has driven Robert down and we swap over at the
service area close to the shuttle terminal.
We do this on all the ski-ing trips now because both
Brian and I are very tired at this point and it is dangerous to drive another
couple of hours.
I sleep all the way back!
I have really enjoyed this week and love taking Calthorpe
away. As I’ve said before I have been taking them off and on for 23 years and
Paul has organised all of them so it feels very comfortable from the outset. So
thank you Paul, Jo, Immy and Tommy for the Craic this week and thanks also to
all of the children who have been a credit to their school.
Ciao!!
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