29 May 2013

The one with the Australian passport!

Here is our lovely driver Diane, all ready to take us as far as Fleet services where we would change driver!

But first the Coach needed refueling. I never appreciated before just how much diesel one of these babies can guzzle. Diane had to use her purse as a wedge as the clip was broken. It takes a little time to pump that much fuel into these tanks!

How much? Even the whole of DFS, together with Ed, didn't drink this much on the whole time away! Glad I wasn't picking my nose in that reflection, there!

With the sun shining, DFS and Diane headed for Calais, and some shopping time, with a quick comfort stop on the way so that we wouldn't miss our ferry! 

Lots of delights were to be found in Carrefour. From kitsch souvenirs to something for tea on the coach. I ate some of these before rejoining the coach, ready to pass through customs. If I had fed some to Linda, we might have got away sooner perhaps ...

Which brings us to the passport in question, as one of our choir members was actually born down under. Her new Australian passport was lacking anything that said she could reside in the UK, or even visit there, and neither did she have a drivers licence or the old passport. Officials started talking sternly to her. The driver stayed in customs with Linda, and Ed acted as a go between.

Meanwhile, back on the coach, we all made the decision to wait for our friend, at the risk of missing our ferry, and a dear friend of mine (I was busy texting) and I, prayed that common sense would prevail, so we could be on our way. Time ticked by and we did miss our ferry. Diane and Ed made important calls to tour operators, and we we told that there would be space on the next boat. I had to turn my phone off to save enough battery to let folks at home know when we would be back, following the change ... so no more photos were taken!

After threatening Linda with deportation to get their message across, common sense prevailed and they released her to her loving DFS family! We all cheered! The DFDS ferry we managed to catch, was bigger and much smarter than the one we went over in, and I only felt a lighter shade of pale-green this time! And there were no vocal football fans either. So it all turned our very nice again indeed!

And for our next Trip? Watch this space! See you after half term Singsters! Cat XXX

27 May 2013

The one with the melons!

Sometimes freedom has a price and today we spent time considering the great price paid by some, for the freedom that we enjoy today... First off to the Juno Beach Centre where we considered the efforts of many in the second world war, particularly the Canadians in this case.

I loved the social history on display at the centre, and we had a tour, before our concert, in the sunshine out doors!

I managed to find a spot with a phone signal right here, with a good view all round, and called home for an update on the chickens and pet rats! The building itself boasts awesome views from the roof, and it was difficult to imagine adrenaline charged beach landings on such a fine day and in such a stunning place as this. But consider it, we did ...

After our concert (and thanks to those fun children for dancing), DFS hit the local town, with their chewy packed lunches and some money for drinks in the cafe. The place looked like Weymouth, we though,  but with class!

Our next port of call was the American Memorial, a place charged with the memories and emotions of the very great sacrifice of those recorded here.

There was several parts to the outdoor remembrances, and also a visitors centre, with again, a lot of objects that really brought home how life was in those times. 

Time for the panrorama option again, but even that could not convey the sheer numbers of neat, white marble crosses. There were a few Jewish stars there too. Click on the photo to see it full width.

While this photo of bear is also sweet, getting down to this level really brought something home to me, and I spent sometime a little overwhelmed, still laying on the grass ... I felt very small, and very thankful.

At the viewpoint over looking the beach is a tactile map of the landings, and we were very proud to see this:-

Young Jack wrote only 'Freedom' in the visitors book. Then we loaded up the coach and headed for Hotel number two, Le Gateaux de Baffy, spending some quality time on the terrace before, and after dinner.

Three course meals and wine, what a luxury, esp if you drink red, and sit on a table of white wine lovers! 

And the melons? I almost forgot! They were displayed in the dining room, were thanks to Cezanne, someone clearly had their hands full, and someone seemed to have melon envy. 'Please can i put my melons in your melon, my dear?' Something to do on a hot day perhaps?

26 May 2013

The one where we spent a very long time doing traveling!

The day dawned for us to embark on our tour... The coach was not the right one and Caroline was missing. The loo wasn't even working so I'm not going to tell you what I did in a bush next to Wey Valley School! So we went the wrong way up the road and met Caroline at the end of her road and scooped her on board! Our working coach and our driver Dianne would be meeting up with us on route ...

I was going to bring a cuddly Man-Doll on the tour but i ended up bringing a sweet little bear. To find out who's special bear it was, read THIS! Bear was very Excited to be having a holiday after troubled times recently! The coach ate up the road between Weymouth and Dover and the sun shone, but no one sang any cheesey songs just yet! Perhaps something to do with the 4 am start to the day!

Here is our ferry, with a name not unlike out own choir acronym! It was full of football fans who smoked in all the wrong places and could have done with a few singing lessons from Ed to be honest.

Aboard the Ferry, the Cat felt very green despite several doses of evilly strong travel-sickness pills, but she did manage to work out how to use the panorama setting on her trusty iPhone! Lets hope she doesn't over use it! Ed complained that the white cliffs were not very white but nothing was done about it and no one sang like Vera Lynn ...

The Cat doesn't usually turn up in front of the camera, but here is one of Cat and Bear taken by the lovely Linda whilst promenading on the deck. It was a lovely smooth crossing by all accounts, and the sun shone and shone. Not like back home in Dorset!

A very long time on the coach had to be spent before we arrived at Hotel Crocus. The wrong Hotel Crocus! So a quick treck back to the other side of town to the right Hotel Crocus, a very nice dinner and some early baths for tired bodies!