Belgium and France... our first cross channel adventure

The kids had a week off for half-term break, so we took advantage of the time off to do some travels. Our first stop was Dover, England - the last town before the English Channel crossing. We toured Dover Castle and the war time tunnels under the castle and in the cliffs, and we went to White Cliffs park and the lighthouse. It was a windy but clear and beautiful day and you could see across the channel to the cliffs on the coast of France. My cousin works for National Trust (like the US Parks Department but for the UK) so we met up with her at White Cliffs as well.

The next day we loaded on to the "Chunnel" the channel tunnel. You drive your car onto a train and 30 minutes later you appear out of the tunnel and you are in Calais, France. Suddenly you are also driving back on the right side of the road and the speed limits are in kilometers.

We drove to Menen, Belgium where we stayed in a small townhouse we rented for a few days. It was right on the France/Belgium border, and with a car easy to get around to many areas. We went to Brugge and Brussels Belgium for one day each and then to Roubaix and Lille France for another day. We explored the local town of Menen and then headed back across to England.

Brugge, Belgium: One of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to.

Brussels, Belgium: It is a really big city so we took an open-top bus to see the sights. It was an awful tour (bad narration, terrible driver, long waits) but we still were able to get some of the main sights in.

Lille and Roubaix, France: Both wonderful cities, great shops and cafes, amazing architecture, and Tory saw the velodrome from the Paris-Roubaix bike race.

 

We enjoyed a final visit with my cousin in her town of Hythe, a small seaside village not far from Dover. The drive back from the channel to the base is about 2-1/2 hours and we arrived home tired and ready for our own beds. 

It was a great week of travels. The kids enjoyed the sights, the chocolate stores on every corner and touring new places. They are great travellers - happy to read a map and wander around a town all day. We climbed castles and bell towers, toured breweries, ate new foods, took canal boat and bus tours.  Andrew was a little frustrated by the language barrier - especially in Menen where everyone only spoke French.  I need to brush up on my French -- we were pretty lost ordering food and asking questions. We ended up ordering them some kind of cheese and frech fries... two words I was pretty sure I could order correctly. We have no idea what meat product Tory ate, but it was good. In the larger tourist areas most people had at least conversational English skills which helped us greatly.

It was a successful first trip over to mainland Europe and I am sure it is the first of many.