As some of you may remember from the Dumfries March Burns Supper thread, I've had a friend from Australia visiting recently. Shane is a long standing mate and we met when we worked together while we were both serving in our respective Nation's Armies in Germany in the 90's. I'm out now but he is still in the Australian Army and took leave to come to Europe to, among other things, attend a wedding in Lancashire, learn to snowboard in the Alps and attend the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Villers Bretonneux in France. My family and I made a long weekend of it too. Thought you might like to join us.
We set off from Lancashire for Dover at around 11 o'clock (23:00) and with only one stop, we arrived about 05:00, just as Dawn was breaking and were soon on the ferry...
There was a bit of a delay while they bunkered fuel so we watched a few other ships come and go...
and went out on deck to strike up the guitars.
Pretty soon we were underway.
It took 90 minutes to get across to Calais. After docking we changed clocks and watches and set the sat-nav for Amiens,
We had a brief stop and a leg stretch on the way which gave my daughter a chance to have a run about. It's no fun sitting in a car for ages when you're only three.
My mate Shane meanwhile had travelled up to Paris from Geneva a couple of days previously and had travelled down from Paris to Amiens that morning.
We agreed to meet up in Amiens Cathedral square.
We picked him up in due course and made our way across town to a Motel in Glisy on the edge of town. As soon as we'd established there was to be no more driving we broke out the hip flasks and sank a nip or two.
That night we ate at a steak restuarant round the corner. There was a lovely kids play area in the garden which kept my little one busy.
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