Cracker start to the day. The hotel was better than I feared and quite a bit cheaper. Rather than risk the breakfast I took a stroll into the town where the market was being set up and a acordian player was giving it all a very French feel. I even bought a coffee and pain aux raisin and sat outside a small cafe to watch and listen. The bowels are much better thank you for asking
Returning to the hoteI asked Monsieur abouut the paper and getting the weather forecast out of it. Sadly his reply did not invlove giving me the paper and was a lengthy tirade with the word pleut liberally scattered through it. I thanked him and went and packed.
Being a no particular rush I took the back way to Amiens and despite it clouding over made it there by 11am, good going for me. Amiens is another of those post war architectural disaster zones and it occurred to me that Dad might be willing to come out of retirement and deal with some of the worst parts? Perhaps not.But when you finally get through the trash you find the fabulous cathedral, apparently the largest in Europe. I wandered around this for a spell then retired for a coffee and a call to Seafrance about getting an earlier ferry but, despite my call being important to them, (they get a clip of what I pay apparently) they never answered.
There was not much alternative but to push on despite much wind on Peage. The people in the Calais Seafrance office were most helpful and put me on the next ferry.
The actual journey was quite pleasant, this ship being in better order than the last one, albeit a bit lumpy due to the 25kt wind. The arrival was made more interesting by a small cluster of stupid passengers who became cast and bewildered at the bottom of my stair well. They could not be persuaded to open the door and exit nor get into the lift so everyone had to climb past them. Odd.A last minute change of plan saw me riding straight into London to stay with my daughter at her Bar on london Bridge. Doreen has this down as a drive through the East End, Blackwall Tunnel and other parts, my how things have changed, hardly for the better. Mr Brown would do well to listen to the House of Lords and limit immigration a bit.
Finally arrived at the bar and parked in the nearby parking building, only £12 per day, good value in this part of the world!
Phew!