We both woke up early on Monday morning and, as we had a big drive ahead, we got up and got packing. By 9:15am we were at the local supermarket, then we filled up on diesel and before 10am we were on the motorway and heading in to Belgium. We travelled all the way up to Namur, crossed the River Meuse and then turned west past Charleroi, Mons, Tournai and Mouscron. We couldn’t get LPG in Luxembourg, so we stopped at a motorway service station and it took half an hour of wasted time hanging around to get to the pump, attaching the correct connector, queuing to leave a deposit, filling up the tank and then going back in the queue to pay the €3.60 bill for 5.7 litres of gas; what a palaver! Apart from that, it was a pretty uneventful 325 km journey, apart from giggling at a few more funny place names, which always amuses me on a long drive; Wellin, Hour, Grupet, Spy, Ghlin, Bury, Barry and Wevelgem were just a few that caught our eyes.
When we arrived at Camping Jeugstadion in Ypres it was just before 3pm and the 37°C heat at the shade-less, concrete campsite was intense. We opened up every window and vent, put our desk fan on the draining board and sweated. Rodney went off for a cycle ride and visited the Flanders Fields Museum and then, after eating dinner, we both walked for just ten minutes through to the old town. It was amazing to think that the town of Ypres was reduced to rubble and such a huge effort was made to reconstruct the town back to how it was before World War I. Sadly, the town suffered further damage in World War II.
We made our way to the Menin Gate which was built to commemorate those who gave their lives and have no known grave. The walls are covered with the names of almost 55,000 soldiers, from all parts of the Commonwealth. The Last Post has been sounded every evening at 8pm, whatever the weather, since the completion of the memorial in 1928 and it is quite a moving ceremony. On Monday, when we attended, two British schools were involved in the readings and laid a wreath on the steps, while about 500 people stood silently under the impressive arch of the Menin Gate.
After the ceremony, we circled the enormous re-constructed Cloth Hall, which took forty years to re-build and then, before returning to Eileen, we stopped for drinks; the prices of which were a bit of a shock!
At 9:30 on Tuesday morning, we left Ypres and Belgium and drove over the border into France. We went straight to the Cité Europe on the edge of Calais. We just couldn’t face the Aires at the port after last years’ experience and with no shade there and on such a hot day it would have been awful. At least at the shopping centre, we could get in to the air-conditioned building. We popped in to Decathlon and both bought a new pair of shorts and Rodney replaced his a.w.o.l. sunglasses. Then as we moved over to the main shopping mall, a big storm rumbled up and exploded on Eileen, fortunately we had just stepped inside the shops. We had a whole day to waste and a list of things we needed, or wanted to replace, and we decided not to put any more food in the fridge that was now struggling to stay cool, so lunch was eaten in there too. Around 5pm we filled up on diesel and then, not sure where to park for a short part of the night, we went back to Cité Europe and noticed that a herd of campervans had not moved, so we parked in amongst them, watched a DVD, and finally snuggled down to get some sleep. The alarm went off at 3:30am, we left the sleeping herd and drove round to the ferry port, checked in and queued for the 5:30am ship to take us across the Channel to England. Our sojourn in Europe finished again for this year.
Most of the passengers were spread out on the sofas, or laid across tables sleeping, or dozing, so we tried to catch up on a few zzzzs too. A thick mist was hanging over the middle of the Channel, but by the time we reached Dover at 6am, the sun was up, the sky was blue and the temperature was wonderfully cooler. The first thing we heard on the radio was “sunny spells over Selsey Bill”; what a brilliant line and you could only hear it in England. We drove through Folkestone and along the coast to Dymchurch, then drove back to Hythe and found a spot to park Eileen and we waited for the banks and post office to open. I managed to get a pedicure and my eye lashes tinted, which made very happy and then we indulged in an early lunch at a Nepalese restaurant before checking in to Daleacres Campsite in West Hythe. To make us both happy, the man on reception didn’t think we could possibly be old enough for the ‘age concession rate’; we had to show our cards. So Rodney had a little spring in his step and now believes that he looks younger than 55!!! We got a load of washing done, sat in the sunshine and enjoyed really nice showers (so much more happiness) and then we fell in to bed quite early in the evening for some much needed sleep.
