Train to Calais....a new adventure

Wednesday July 23

Alarm went off.... I didn't hear it.....6:30.......I made the 7:15 train to Leewarden and then bought a ticket to Amsterdam airport, so I could get the train ticket for Calais.

My plan is to to Calais, France tonight spend the night and then go by ferry to Dover on Thursday morning spend the night and then either make my way back to Sneek on Friday or to go on the Poole UK catch a ferry to Jersey and spend a night or 2 and then back to France landing in St Malo. I have always wanted to see the White Cliffs of Dover and then in France see the castle in the water Mont St Michel........

We will see.....I have been gone now 6 weeks and I'm getting tired and lazy.....

So at the Schiphol airport I bought my ticket to Calais....bought the more expensive one because it had 3 changes instead of 4.....in actual fact it would get me to Calais at the same time because the last train from Lille to Calaise left at the same time (you need to remember this point!) Also the more expensive ticket ( 30 Euro more), would take me on the that neat fast train from Amsterdam to Antwerp where I would make my first change. But because the train was filled I could only get a jumper seat in between 2 of the cars with the luggage of the people in the 2 cars I'm in between. Fine......but the airconditioning was off in one of the cars and that effected the temperature in the area I and a few others were sitting, so we were sweating and the poor conductor was trying to fix it!

luggage racks filled & on the ground!

Got to Antwerp on time (thank heavens!)....it is a really beautiful station....blending old and new. I was here for a stop couple of hour stop over with Sheryl and Paul in 2012.....this is the station of the famous Sound of Music Flash mob!Antwerp historic flash mob

This train was going from Antwerp(leaving at 12:50) to Lille, due to arrive at 2:50 and my next connection to Calais left at 4:00  All went well ....except for the one woman who woke up and realized that the train we started on had split (lost 3 cars) two ways and she was going the wrong way!!

Then in a little town (I forget the name) just about 20 minutes before Lille 2 fellows got on the train and within minutes of the stop the buzzers started to go in the train and all of a sudden it stopped....apparently they opened the door and when that happens the train will stop.....but when they tried to get it started again it wouldn't go......so we sat for 2 hours while they decided what to do with us. The conductor kept getting phone calls and she had to keep changing her announcements to us. First in French then in English. 

My view for 2 hours!

Conductor's 10th plan

...her 50th phone call!

  

Little did we know (because we weren't aware of the stops) but we really were only about 150 meters from the last station which had an underground metro to Lille!!!! so finally after 2 hours they gave us metro passes and guided us out of the train and down the way to the platform. Getting on the metro, one of my fellow evacuatees, an elderly English fellow, got attacted by the metro door shutting on his arm...he was bleeding and his arm turned black and blue really quickly.....a young Danish couple (also fellow evacuatees) was prepared with bandages that stopped the bleeding.

Escape!

.....to the metro

I finally got to the hotel in Calais about 8:00pm tired, hot and sweaty and really hungry.  A fun little trip. Maybe I should have waited a day...but I have banished would have, could have and should have out of my vocabulary.....what is....is.

After cleaning up a bit I went out and found a near by restaurant exploring a little along the way and then after dinner kept walking for while longer before it got too dark. Calais is a major sea port and ferry terminal.....it is the closest point to England.....There are about 4 different ferry lines leaving from here. It is also the closest town to the the entrance to the chunnel. So there are a lot of travelers in the area. 

My hotel room looks out on to a lighthouse (where there is supposed to be a cache!) and is about a 1km from the train station and close to the ferry terminal which I will take in the morning!

Out my window at night