Page 8 - Shining On Winter 2022

Thursday

The plan was to get to Calais and head to La Louviere, where we would all meet up at the Orange
Hotel, a place that has become the de rigeur stop on route to Germany. The sun gods were with us and
bright sunshine was promised for the whole weekend so the only major obstacle was getting through
customs. A week or so before the trip there had been reports of long delays. Some say it was due to
French customs, some because of the sheer volume of holidaymakers at the start of the school break up
and some because of the new covid restrictions. Seven of us would be going from Ulysses GB: Rudy,
Nick, Mike, Alan, Simon, Peter and my good self. Me and Rudy were taking the earlier train and the rest
were going on the Midday. Rudy and I arranged to rendezvous in a little town, Ardres, about 15 miles
from the port.

I awoke to a beautiful sunny morning and managed
to get to the tunnel an hour early. The lady on the
ticket booth said there was about an hour’s delay
but said she had put me down for the 10:15 train
instead of the 11:35 that I’d booked. Result! She
did say something worrying about waiting in the car
park until the train was called. The next booth was
the dreaded Customs and possibly the much touted
delays, however, I experienced no delays and in
fact it was as quick as when I went to Normandy,
via Cherbourg, back in June this year! As I put my
newly stamped passport away and headed for the
car park, I noticed the signs saying France/Train departure. I had “forgotten'' that the lady said to wait in
the car park. Well that is not strictly true, I just kept on going, and since I was waved on as I got nearer
the departure lanes, I went with the flow. As I got to the last part where you are given which departure
lane to get into, to my surprise there was Rudy! He had got there an hour before but had to wait as there
were problems with a train under the tunnel. I had only just got off my bike when the green light came on
for us to get onto the train. So from start to finish, it only took me 30 minutes to get on the train.
Unfortunately, the second group didn’t have such a smooth departure and it took them more like 2 hours,
possibly because they followed instructions and waited in the car park, but we will never know!

With Rudy and I united, we took the scenic route to Ardres for a lovely coffee stop. We continued our
scenic route, following the route a few canals. We were meant to end up in Hallennes-lez-Haubourdin,
and from there take the Motorway to La Louviere. We managed to go astray, so with the sun beating
down upon us, I stopped to take stock and determined we were in Lillers, where Rudy kindly pointed out
that in the distance he could see some golden arches, and that meant only one thing - it was McDonalds
time, and free Wi-Fi! Fortunately we hadn’t gone that far out of our way, and after some refreshments,
headed for the nearest main road, the A21, and were back on course. We arrived at the hotel
mid-afternoon and shortly after were informed by the second group that they wouldn’t be there until 9
PM! After freshening up, Rudy and I made our way to the bar and waited in comfort for the others to
arrive. They made up some time and arrived earlier than expected, so we ate at last.

Friday

Friday morning we all saddled up and headed for Bastogne on the way to Hauenstein. Today would be
260 miles, mostly via the motorway. After a pleasant stop at the Bastogne museum, we made the slog to

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