437+1. Silver

Holyport

Maisey meets my niece Amelia

Mathew and Claire, by share coincidence, departed Bilabo, Spain by ferry arriving yesterday in Portsmouth and driving to us today which we were very excited about, especially Roman who was keen to see Edward, Audrey Maisey, Jacqueline Claire and me to see me mate, Matthew. Matthew and Claire have completed almost a year travelling in their motorhome. They arrived about one to great excitement all round, particularly Maisey (2) who screamed with excitement when she sighted her Audrey. It was great to see them and catch up with their adventures. No need to update them with our adventures due to this blog.

Matthew and Claire were able to stay for the day to depart tomorrow which was great and set up next to us. The advantage of plenty of space, thank you Jago and Lucy.

Jago and Lucy reappeared later in the afternoon with a cake jetting impressive sparks and excitement simultaneously celebrating Jacqueline and my silver wedding anniversary, which happened to be today, and setting off the Giantavan's smoke alarms. Quite a moment indeed.

In the evening we dined at The George on the Green with is across from the Holyport. We rotated two places each course which was a great success. The dinner was a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary, thank you all.

Clare, me, Jacqueline, Tony & Elizabeth
Jago & Lucy, Matthew

437. Ensnared and terminated

Holyport

Round the M25 to Holyport

After getting to bed after three we woke reluctantly at eight for our ten thirty sailing. The gas central heating worked beautifully I'm pleased to say. We had breakfast then I went to pay the parking charge and was pleased to see that it was a very reasonable price.

Unfortunately, the machine refused my card but had a cash facility to I inserted ten Euro and it spat it out. I dispatched Fyfe and he returned with a range of euro and every note did the same thing. With a lot of difficulty, not really understanding the screen I managed to retrieve the ticket and crossed to another machine which swallowed the ticket and said Bon illisible or something similar. I tried every permutation of buttons without success. I pushed the attendant button and it would ring for twenty eight rings then cut off.

The other car in the park was a very nice C6 Citroen (a car I admire, same engine as the Disco, which Fyfe and I had looked at earlier while the family ate their breakfast) and the couple returned. I explained my predicament and the agreed to let me follow them out of the barrier with the result below, the time now nine thirty and we have yet to do customs and immigration, caravan inspection etc.

Nothing for it but to seek help. I ran around the deserted terminal without success and eventually entered the staff only part of the building and ran around, eventually finding a surprised worker with a fluro vest and a radio who escorted me promptly out but did make a call on her radio.

I returned to the ensnared rig and resigned myself to another one hundred and eighty pound ferry ticket as I had not paid the extra for a flexible ticket. Eventually a gamekeeper appeared and released the trap. 

Immigration was painfully slow as the family's visa's had expired (I have right of abode) and my laptop went flat while searching for our tickets. It is possible I was a little flustered by this point but I doubt it. It is more likely that I was a sea of calm. It appears that our sailing was delayed due to fog, I dunno, didn't buy another ticket, but we drove on and the ship immediately sailed while we were still organising ourselves. The photo below taken at ten forty one.

The ship, virtually empty

The white cliffs of Dover

The trip went incredibly quickly including our sitting in the closed bistro mistaking it for the breakfast café. Audrey bought a snitch, Iris, Toblerone, Roman a Lego Mustang Fastback and Fyfe a Nerf gun.

The trip bak to Holyport surprisingly uneventful.

We arrived just after dark and got a tremendous welcome from Jago and Lucy, Sister Elizabeth and Tony appearing shortly after which was lovely.

Tony, Jacqueline, Lucy, me and Elizabeth
Photo - Jago 

The cousins, with Elizabeth
Fyfe, Roman, Holly, Iris, Theo, Audrey and Amelia

Amelia had her Audrey back,
or is it the other way around?

And with that, our trip is over. Four hundred and thirty seven days of it, already, just a memory. We returned with the same rig and the same children, not a bad result.

I will write a bit more as we still have to get home......

436. Run away

Calais

The joys of PVA

Roman had been very keen to revisit the Eiffel Tower. Yesterday, we had seen it disappearing into the mist and agreed that a visit to the lower levels was in order. Checked the route on the Maps and saw masses of red and a long travel time for what should have only been a twenty minute drive. Suspicions aroused a bit of research confirmed that the protests were in full swing and common sense told us that it would be worse tomorrow, Sunday.

No need to keep saving
my NZ marmalade 

We decided to Get out of Dodge and head for Calais, about three hundred kilometres to the north but could see that the main route the A1 had lots of blockages with the protests. It was a big pack up as even the roof rack was off the Disco having needed repair but we had good motivation as we had how long the drive would take. Three hundred kilometres normally takes us about four hours but we knew today would be interesting and challenging.

Autumnal departure 

It took a few hours to get everything loaded up and we set off at about three in the afternoon. We weren't stressed as we knew we had everything on board and if we got stopped could just go to bed, on the road if necessary. I had established that the gas central heating worked, it only taking a new AA battery for the igniter, the whole Giantavan able to run for days on its reserves.

We wound our way out of Paris on little roads, the roads deserted due to the protests, it was very strange. Though we were sure we would be stopped we weren't though we occasionally saw fires and arrived a Calais a bit before three in the morning. Checking online news we were stunned to see the images below where we had been, without a problem, last night.

Wouldn't like to get caught up in this with the family....

Arrived at the Calais ferry terminal and very pleased to see a aire dedicated for caravans and motorhomes. Fell into bed with racing heart having drunk energy drinks to keep the family alive. Bought a ferry ticket for ten thirty sailing in the morning. Wasn't prepared to purchase a ticket prior to now as I had no confidence that we would make it through to Calais.

Should all be pretty straight forward from here, hard to miss the boat when you are already at the terminal.

435. Moaners

Louvre, Paris

Top on Iris' bucket list was The Louvre. Jacqueline and I had not been either so were keen, the other three, not so keen.

So iconic. The tourists on top show the true scale.
A little larger than our Bridge of Remembrance

The opposite of every other roundabout rules in the world
Those entering have right of way

Arriving at the louvre carpark we realised that it might
not be crowded today

Audrey and Roman approaching the
iconic pyramids

Thingie swallowing the sun
Iris was very frustrated that she couldn't remember the name
though she did know that it is an Indian myth explaining
solar eclipses which is a lot more than her ignorant Dad knew

Audrey, unaware that she would soon be boooooorrrreeeed

The ticket queue
All the children were free and only €18 for us

Straight into an absolutely stunning sculpture gallery 

It is beyond me how anybody could see this
inside a block of stone - wonderful 

The floors are a feature in themselves 

The Winged Victory of Samothrace
stands majestically at the top of large stairs.
Impossible to believe she is two thousand years old 

Barely started and the three younger are exhausted
and Iris frustrated. Empty seats everywhere which
I guess is unusual 

The walls are a feature themselves, then there are
the hundreds of beautiful, life-size statues

This painting of David slaying Goliath is double sided.... 

... the other side
Awful painting but I like the two perspectives

The colours are astounding

Some watery tart...

Jacqueline, Fyfe, Mona Lisa, moaning Audrey

To my uneducated eye, there are better works everywhere.
This for example is wonderful 

I think it is often more crowded

The ceilings alone are worth visiting

Photos don't do the paintings justice..... 

..... as they are large and incredibly detailed
Same painting as above

The girls recreated this scene, with much hilarity, when going to bed

The ceiling of the crown room... well, you can see

The crown of Louis XV

 The diadem of the Duchess of Angoulême on the right

Looking out of the palace, over the high fences,
the view of the Royals

The crown room, not a big crowd 

Panarama of the ceiling

Ceiling detail

Looking into the palace courtyard from the crown room

Though the Palace was stripped bare during the revolution,
some of it has been returned and is spectacular

Truly beautiful views out the window 

Love the parquet floors and the way they yield
when you walk upon them 

New additional stairways are beautifully done 

The antiquities section is absolutely vase
and deserted and we were spent 

Below ground, the original castle foundations are now visible
complete with moats and turrets

After a long innings at the Louvre shop we were bowled out,
the iconic Louvre Apple store (Jobs first) the promised next innings only to
discover it had closed a few days previously now that the Champs-Élysées
store has opened