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Published: August 2nd 2015
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De Panne
The beach is ready for customers, pity about the wind and low temperature. Thursday 30 July 2015.
It is an early start this morning, so early breakfast isn't quite ready. But we are on a tight schedule so nothing is going to get in our way. Our final check-in time at the Eurotunnel is 9:09 am. The news is full of items about Operation Stack, illegal immigrants and long delays. We don't want to be an item about disgruntled Kiwis missing their connection.
From the hotel the route to the Channel Tunnel is well sign posted. All is going well. We will be an hour early for our train. Just as we are about to enter the approach road we are confronted by red cones and barricades. Deviation! Oh no! Only one thing to do, follow the yellow signs back towards London. We are one of many cars racing north trying hard to get to the check-in on time. Finally we join a long queue trying to get back onto the motorway and and the Channel Tunnel terminal. Police are busy directing traffic and soon we are racing back towards Folkestone.
What a relief when we get our boarding pass, enter UK Immigration, and head towards the French border control. A
De Panne
A sample of the hotels and apartments that line the beach front. polite official with white gloves directs us to a parking area. This seems ominous. More officials with white gloves. One official asks if we have guns, knives, explosives, drugs, and whether or not we packed the car ourselves. A special drug and explosives wand it rubbed over the steering wheel. All the door handles are checked. We sit patiently for several minutes. Are we being xrayed? Perhaps the red number plate is the problem. One tour member always gets the close examination every time we go through airport security. Who would know. Just a random check. We are cleared to move through French Immigration and on to the assembly area.
While we wait for our turn to move to boarding we watch other travellers preparing to move on. One couple were certainly having difficulty keeping to schedule. An agitated wife was trying to find husband and dog. Once found dog was put in the car and husband sent to..... (we think the toilet). It took an age. Wife is now really agitated. We leave for boarding and wonder if husband got left behind. The trip across the Channel is uneventful and we arrive in Calais on time. Our destination
De Panne
The Belgian version of the bathing huts. is A alter in Belgium.
As we whizz along the motorway we see heavy rain ahead. Being ahead of schedule we deviate to the seaside town of De Panne on the North Sea coast. The rain has already passed through by the time we get to the beach. People are starting to fill the promenade area. Some are walking, sitting in restaurants, or riding all forms of cycles. No one is swimming and a very small number are trying to enjoy the warmth of the sun behind wind breaks. Just back from the beach is a wall of hotels and apartment buildings that stretch as far as we can see, perhaps from Brittany to Denmark.
With plenty of time available we drive east along the beach front. Sometimes mixing it with shoppers in exclusive shopping centres or beach goers enjoying the entertainment along the promenade. A regular tram service connects all the towns. By the time we reach Oostende it is time to head south east towards Aalter, a town halfway between Bruges and Gent. The sun is out and the threatening heavy cloud has moved further inland. We have travelled from England to France and arrived in Belgium. Now to try a new language.
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