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Saturday - 22nd March 2008 |
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Up nice and late,
breakfast (too continental for me), although I did have
some fun changing around some of the fresh eggs for the
boiled eggs until Anne gave me one of those looks and
tried to undo what I'd done. Well, tried... |
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Paid up and chuffed that
we did get a discount on the room rate - it pays to ask
for upgrades and then if they mention money, well offer
to go say half way. Left Chinon at 9:30 |
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We'd checked to make sure
that the car needs to be returned empty as we'd prepaid
for the fuel, so a bit a maths and then adding that
extra bit on, meant that we didn't need to put that much
fuel in for this 500 mile trip. |
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All going ok, until the
last 100km to go, when the car was saying that it had
130km of fuel left in it, so tried turning off the air
conditioning but eventually gave in just outside Calais
and decided that we'd put another 5 euro's worth in.
Well we were about 30km to go and the car reported 90km
left. This was ok, but... the wind had really picked up
and there was driving rain and so when I got out to put
the fuel in (Anne stayed in the car to check that it
didn't roll away), but I was almost blown over. The
attendant inside was having wonderful fun watching
people getting blown over and laughing away - sympathy,
not! |
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We got to just before the
terminal when the car reported that we were running on
fumes (what timing) and headed for the the P&O office,
only to be told that as we were foot passengers, we'd
have to go to the main terminal, but hurry as the last
ferry was about to leave... surprising as to how quick
we can travel that last 500 yards, ditch the car after
stripping out all our bits and off to the office
counter... |
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A very quick dash to find
the main entrance was locked (due to bad weather) and so
found the other entrance and proceeded to the check in
area. |
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I found the Hertz counter
(closed) and so posted the car key and the relevant form
into the key drop post box. |
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Now, this holiday has been
anything but 'normal' and this next part wasn't any
exception... |
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The P&O check-in desk
issued our tickets (good) but then informed us that
there was a slight delay due to the port being closed
due to the bad weather... oh drat or words to that
effect. And we'd missed the earlier ferry by 10 mins -
but it had just loaded up and was now waiting in the
habour. |
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So to cut a long story
short and missing out the numerous phone calls to
EuroTunnel, P&O, Dover port while Justin was checking
out things from his side, we had a wait... from 17:00
and the ferry was due to leave at 20:10, but that came
and went and eventually there was cheers as about 22:00
we were aloud onboard. So glad we weren't with SeaFrance
as they weren't allowing people through and actually
issue boarding tickets until the ferry actually arrived
in the port. Luckily P&O ferry beat the SeaFrance ferry
but there were rumours that the people waiting for SF
may have to go away and come back in the morning to try
again. During the waiting, we'd been chasing for any
updates but for the 5 hours, there was no news issued by
the staff, so people were getting rather cheesed off at
that. They did provide us with a 7 euro voucher each and
so this was spent while the cafe was still open as it
was due to close at 9 (having extended it's normal
closing from 6). Also I'd tried catching a lift with
several car owners if they wished to split the cost of
going through the tunnel, but there were no tunnel
tickets available. |
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So at last we're onboard -
a quick call to Justin to confirm this, then brought up
the next little hickup, he'd assumed that the ports were
going to be closed for the night and so had popped
across the road to a party - result, not really in a fit
mode for driving (seems further information received was
that he was just about able to make it home himself!).
So what do we do when we get to Dover? Out with the
laptop and look for local hotels near the port - tried
the usual suspects of Travelodge and Premier Travel Inn,
but they'd recently updated their telephone numbers so
no result there. Next start phoning around a stack of
other hotels and B&Bs only to find out that Dover is
chock with it being Easter and people wanting to pop
across the Channel for the day (the fools!). Eventually
we got through to Michael of East Lee Guest House and he
was kind enough to offer us a room, well, originally he
said yes, but then when he found out that we wouldn't be
in Dover until about 23:45, then he said no. So the hunt
continued but Michael phoned us back saying that he'd
stop up for us - result! And all while we just about had
mobile reception at Calais. |
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The crossing was actually
ok, apart from a few 'speed bumps' when the whole ship
rattled and it was just like we'd sailed over a local
trawler. There were a number of rather poorly guests and
I must admit that the gents were not a nice place - a
lot of green faces around. At least we didn't need to
wait for service at the bar long! Also turns out that
the last trip into Calais, the people onboard had to
wait while the ferry circled for 7 hours, waiting for
the port to open. Rather them than me, but the staff had
done a great job of tidying up. |
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I'm dreading what my
mobile bill will be for this month! |
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One last bit of fun - we
got to Dover, found out where the cash machines were,
but they were in a locked area, so we had to do a quick
copper up before finding the taxi. We managed to find
£7.34 and explained to the taxi gentleman who said it
should cover it, and it did, just by 54p, so we just
passed on this extra as a tip with our thanks. |
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The guest house was
excellent, really nice quality rooms and the sort of
place where you just don't want to put a glass down
unless it's on a coaster. A quick bottle of wine bit the
dust and we were out for the count... |
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