This morning we got up, got packed up and checked out. We were going to look for a bakery to get breakfast on the way out of town. We weren't so lucky. We ended up finding an Aldi (a low end grocery store) and picked up some raisin rolls and Gouda cheese. It was a very rainy day, a good at for having to drive, since a pretty day would be wasted. We also didn't realize it was a national holiday, All Saints Day. Practically every store, shop, and gas station were closed. We made our way north for one more sight before leaving my favorite country.
There was another castle that had been renovated, Pierrefonds. This castle was originally built in the 1300s and was besieged in the 1600s. It lay in ruins until Napoleon acquired it. Then his nephew had it renovated in the mid 1800s. When we pulled up, we were amazed at how much it looked like the typical medieval castle you see in fairy tales. We didn't get to see all of it because they are doing major repair work on it. But it was really cool nonetheless.
When we got out, it was raining again. We stopped at a bakery to get sandwiches for lunch. Mine wasn't very good so I only ate half.
We drove the rest of the afternoon to Calais. We weren't too impressed with this city. It was a bit run down. And we drove around for half an hour trying to find an open gas station or one that worked before dropping off the rental car at the ferry station. When we got there, because the car rental place was closed, we just left the keys and had to call a taxi to take us to the train station. That cost us about 40 euros and we didn't quite have enough so the taxi driver had to take us to the ATM. So now we have about 40 Euros left that we can't spend. Then we got to the station 4 hours early. Normally this would be fine as there is food and shops. But of course the only food place was closed and it was a tiny station. Our train left at 9pm so we figured we'd get food on the train. It was a long wait, but at least we had books to entertain us.
We had to go through customs and security, just like getting on a plane. A dog came and sniffed our luggage for security. Finally we got on the train!
The train ride through the Chunnel was pretty quick, about 20 min. The rest of the ride through to London was uneventful. There wasn't anything appetizing to eat so we waited.
When we arrived in London, we had to go through customs again. By this time it was about 10 pm and we hadn't eaten since noon, and I had hardly eaten then. I was tired and grouchy. We stopped by a Burger King which had a line 15 minutes long, got some food, and walked to our hotel. And of course our room was on the top floor with no elevator, lol! Here we were trying to carry all of our bags, dinner, and drinks. I was so glad to just be where we were supposed to a and rest for the night. It all starts again tomorrow!
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