Well, today was the day we had to bid farewell to continental Europe and head back to jolly old England.  We arose fairly early and, once washed and packed, which took a pleasingly small amount of time, we enjoyed our last breakfast outside the cottage.  After washing up the last of the dishes, I set about packing all of our luggage, wine and other bits into the MR2.  This is always a fun game and proved a nice challenge with all the extra goodies that we’d bought while we’d been away.  Lois was busy bringing the items out to me and checking around the cottage that we’d not forgotten anything (as well as getting photos of the inside of the cottage).

With the car packed up, we bid “au revoir” to our kind landlords and set off for the port of Calais.  We were quickly on the motorway and headed in the direction of Brussels.  It was a smooth journey and we were soon on the ring road around Brussels.  This was a testing bit of driving as two, three laned motorways converged and all of the traffic in the left motorway wanted to be over to the right and vice-versa.  With that out of the way smoothly, we cracked on towards the port to catch our ferry.  We were getting low on fuel, but decided to fill up in England as it would be cheaper.

We arrived at the well sign-posted port and joined the queues for customs.  It did amuse us that we’d spent the last 3 weeks crossing country borders every few days without showing our passports, yet, when we want to come back into our own country, there are stringent checks!  This went smoothly, but there was a funny moment when the customs officer asked if there were just two of us.  I looked behind the seats in the MR2, at the camping chairs and wine, turned back to him and said “yes”… I don’t think he appreciated our chuckles.

Once we’d got through and into the queue for the ferry, we decided to stretch our legs by getting out of the car and enjoying some lunch.  This was in the form of a fresh baguette that was still warm when we bought it, along with some sliced cheese.  We soon noticed that behind us there was an interesting looking little power boat being towed by a Dutch father and daughter in a four wheel drive.  We got chatting to them and found out that his daughter had finished 3rd in the European Championships the previous week!  They had driven from Norway via a ferry to Denmark ready to catch the ferry to England for the World Championships, being held in Nottingham this coming weekend.  After reading up on the Internet, we found that she competes in the GT-15 class, which is a 15hp engine in a boat weighing around 210kg including the driver.  Good luck to her! 🙂

We boarded the ferry just fine and were soon under way across the Channel.  We were crossing with DFDS on the way back (on the way to France, we went with P&O), and the ship wasn’t as good a quality, with various bits hanging down from ceilings, stairways closed off and various other little bits that were rusty or out of shape.  However, it was cheap!  The crossing was quite choppy, but it didn’t rain, which meant we could sit outside the whole way.

Before long, Britain was in sight as a slither of land on the horizon.  The slither became larger and larger and we approached the White Cliffs of Dover.  They were really nice to see and are a magnificent sight.  We got into the port and the ferry did another 180 degree turn to line up with the docking area.  We stayed on the deck right up until the point that we had been moored up.  This was quite cool to watch as we saw the ropes being thrown ashore and strapped into a big machine that wound them in.

We made our way with the crowds down to our car and disembarked smoothly.  I had to remember now to drive on the left hand side of the road, which I managed to do successfully.  I was quite pleased after 3 weeks of driving on the right hand side of the road, all over the continent. 🙂

We soon arrived at our overnight stay with Ju and Rich just outside of Canterbury once again.  We were welcomed with a good cup of tea and then had some wine with nibbles – yum!  After that, Rich gave us a tour of the farm, including showing off the family’s tractors.  He brought around his tractor and offered Lois a go at driving it, which she jumped at!  Rich familiarised her with the basic controls and then, before she knew it, the handbrake was released and she was off!  She went about 30 yards forward and then 30 yards back, and had a great big grin afterwards.  I accepted a go and repeated Lois’ efforts!  It was lots of fun sitting in the big bouncy seat and being in control of the tractor, but very weird that the steering was so light in such a machine!  We were both thankful that we conducted smooth journeys after Rich told us how much an average tractor was worth!

Rich then continued to show us around the farm and its various fields, whilst Ju went and got the dinner on.  After a lovely walk around the farm, with the sun going down on the horizon, we headed back to the house for tea.  We all sat down to a nice meal, with some more wine and chat.  It was nice to talk about the holiday and explain all of the smaller things that we hadn’t had chance to include in the blog.

We had a nice early night, ready for the drive back up to Sheffield the following morning.

Just a little update tomorrow, then it’s back to the realities of work.  It was quite surreal being back in the UK after all that we’ve experienced over the past 3 weeks, but it had a nice homely feeling at the same time.

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The final main day of our holiday, and what a way to finish – with a full on day of racing, culminating in Tom’s first ever Grand Prix!

Another early start was needed, this time with the first alarm sounding at a very dark 5:30am.  Needless to say, we ignored it for half an hour, before rising, rushing round and being out of the door by 6:45.

Today the organisers were out in force and we were directed to a car park that we hadn’t used before.  The good news was the “laissez-passer” card that the cottage owners had provided us with (normally just an access pass for locals) seemed to let us park for free too!  The bad news was that the car park was nearly a mile from our entrance, the time was marching on and the queues were growing!  Unable to keep up with Tom’s long strides, I eventually encouraged him to forge ahead, in order to grab us a spot in the line.  When I caught him up, there were already nearly 500 people waiting.  The gates opened shortly afterwards, and Tom again headed off with his faster legs to grab our favoured spot.  The bank was already heaving, but he managed to find us a place with fantastic views, if on a bit of slope (he was very gentlemanly and let me have the slightly flatter bit for my chair though!).  Evidently you need to be in the queue by about 6am to get the most comfortable positions, but we were quite pleased with our little area and luckily everyone in front of us was sitting on the ground (rather than chairs), so it was probably better in lots of ways.  We could also see the next corner much better, where most of the over-taking took place.

The fog this morning was thick and low and, when we’d first parked up, we’d even wondered if we’d be able to see the track!  However, it lifted quickly and, surprisingly (considering the horrendous forecast and violent thunderstorms last night), stayed dry; we even had some moments of blue sky and sunshine!

After the customary jam sandwiches, I settled down for my customary nap!  We didn’t have long to wait until the first race today though – GP3.  As we mentioned yesterday, this provided some exciting and close racing, as the cars are identical.

Next was another thrilling GP2 race, followed by the Porsche Supercup.  More tight action!  English drivers won both the GP2 and GP3 races, to the delight of the heavily British populated crowd.  The flags for the top three in the Porsche race also made us smile, as they were for three different countries but all red and white!

In between races, we amused ourselves with more people watching.  The “healthy living” couple from yesterday were back, with their bags of salad and incessant “us” photos!  Next to us were a group of Spanish, dreadlocked men, who were busy perving on the scantily clad women in the crowd, either by ogling, taking numerous photos or peering through binoculars.  One of them also had a weird (and very cool) caterpillar thing crawl on it’s hand, which also kept us entertained for a while.  To our left was an English family, the mother of which spent virtually the entire Grand Prix sitting down with her eyes tightly shut and her fingers in her ears!

In addition, there was much comedy provided by the patch of grass across the track from us.  There is evidently a route up through the forest to this point, which about 50 people had discovered and decided took them to a good place to view the race from.  Security, however, thought differently, and a man on a quad bike arrived several times to move them on (to a mix of cheers and boos from our crowd).  Some of the spectators opposite had set up whole camps with shelters and flags tied to the fence, so it took them quite some time to pack up.  At one point, the security bloke was hanging around to check no-one came back; what he didn’t know was that one bloke was lurking just in the trees a little further up the straight, drinking beer and enjoying the track action – the crowd were in stitches!  After moving people on several times, he seemed to give up and, unsurprisingly, about 12 of them re-appeared about 10 minutes before the Grand Prix was due to begin (bowing to the cheers and applause from the crowd).  He never came back and they settled down happily to enjoy the race!

I also managed to provide some entertainment of my own for the crowd – once by sliding right onto my backside on my way back to my seat, and once by exploding my alcohol free beer by pouring it into my water bottle and gently shaking it to try and make it a bit less fizzy – woops.  There was one comment about the champagne moment coming a little too early!  Those who know me well will be able to imagine quite how red I went!

Thankfully (after an impressive Drivers’ Parade, with each one in a classic car, rather than the traditional flat bed lorry), the Grand Prix soon started to detract from my idiocy, and what a Grand Prix it was!  Although Vettel soon took the lead and kept a good gap to second for the entire race, there was plenty of action, overtaking and excitement further down the field (especially for me, as a Jenson Button fan, as he went up and down and up and down the places all through the 90 minutes).  Picking a DRS zone was a good move, as lots of the passing happened right in front of our eyes (although it’s a bit depressing that the best photo I have of Button from the weekend is of him being passed by Webber!).  We were also glad that we had a screen.  It’s completely amazing watching the live action in front of your eyes, but it’s also good knowing what’s happening during the rest of the lap.  The hour and a half passed really quickly and the race was soon over.  Wanting to avoid the traffic (and knowing that the interviews would be impossible and frustrating to listen to with the ridiculously unreliable tannoy system), we packed up straight after and headed back to our cottage.

I was feeling really quite emotional.  This holiday has been really quite unbelievable and the thought that it’s nearly over is very sad.  However, a nice cold beer in the garden (finished inside as the threatened rain finally arrived), followed by another lovely evening in by a raging fire, along with the thoughts that we’ll definitely be doing something like this again has soon perked me up. 🙂

We better get packed up really!  Tomorrow will involve a quick trip to the supermarket to buy any last minute wine that we think we might be able to squeeze in, a drive to Calais, a ferry, a drive to Canterbury and another lovely evening with Ju and Rich (who are very kindly putting us up again), so we’re not heading home quite yet.

And, when we do, what a lot of utterly amazing memories we’ll have!  🙂

TOM:- Well, what a day!  My first Grand Prix and I really enjoyed it!  Yes, it was a long day, but the excitement and atmosphere throughout was excellent.  The weather stayed good and the racing from all four marques was of a high calibre.  The GP3 and F1 will remain my favourite from the weekend, but the drivers parade was very special in the vintage cars also!  Much more special than them being carried around on a flat bed truck.  This holiday has been so memorable, that it’ll be with us for years to come.  The scenery, the roads, the food and the wine have all been above expectation by some margin.

We’ve still got a couple of updates to do to tie off the blog, but thank you to all those that have kept up with our travels, and we hope to do another one in the future! 🙂

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Another early start today, although maybe 15 minutes or so later than yesterday.  This was partly due to our sleepiness when the alarm went off at 6am, and partly due to having to turn back when I remembered that we’d forgotten the sun cream (not that we ended up needing it!).

After much deliberation last night, we’d decided to return to our first viewing spot from yesterday, between Eau Rouge and Les Combes.  We think this will be our place for tomorrow too, especially as the straight is a DRS zone (for non-F1 fans, this hopefully means that there will be lots of over-taking right in front of us!).  Unlike yesterday, the gates were already open when we arrived at around 7:25 and our bank was already beginning to fill up, but we grabbed a good place for our chairs and settled down.  Within about 10 minutes of tucking into our breakfast of jam butties, I was fast asleep – early mornings really don’t suit me!  When I woke up properly (nearly an hour later), I couldn’t believe how busy it was!  We were surrounded by fans from all over Europe and enjoyed listening to the different languages that were being chattered away in.

First was qualifying for this afternoon’s GP3 race.  We’ve been really quite impressed by the speed and the quality of driving in both this and the GP2 series, but the GP3 is particularly close because the cars are identical, so it’s just down to set up and driver skill.

Next came the final practice for the F1 cars.  The crowd were most enthusiastic, with plenty of huge flags being waved and lots of cheering (particularly for the Ferraris).  Although it was grey, the weather had stayed fine and the session was busy with cars pouring round the track.

Then lunch.  A grand prix is definitely a good place to go if you enjoy people watching, and this weekend has been no exception.  Formula 1 fans are a very mixed breed.  You have the over-prepared groups, with everything from huge cool boxes tied to long wooden poles or pulled on sack trolleys, to tarpaulins with string to create huge shelters from the rain.  Then you have the people in shorts and t-shirts who are sitting on bits of cardboard!  Near us today were a big groups of lads who had been drinking since dawn (I don’t understand getting drunk at such an exciting event – they won’t remember any of it!).

However, in front of us was a couple of health enthusiasts who only drank water and their lunch gave us a good half hour of entertainment.  They started with rice cakes.  Next, she took an avocado from their cool bag, which she proceeded to chop neatly (to the amusement of the possibly-German couple sitting next to them, who were munching on cured sausages!).  She then shared this between two large sandwich bags of salad (his slightly larger), before producing another sandwich bag that contained a jar of home-made salad dressing, which she added to her concoctions.  They finally sat and delicately ate their way through their lunch, using proper forks of course!  We ate our sandwiches quite happily!

Other amusing sights included a beer trolley being pulled that the wheels weren’t bolted on to but simply rested on the splines – this meant that every 5-10 yards, either one or both of the wheels fell off!  We also enjoyed watching several drunk people try to stagger their way up the steep bank below us to the path behind us – each successful assent caused a rapturous applause from the crowd.

Tom decided that this was a good time for a nap, but his sleep was rudely interrupted by howls of laughter from both me and the rest of the crowd.  The tannoy system has been unreliable all weekend, with it cutting out frequently and at the most inopportune moments, but this one was definitely the funniest: the commentator was heard to say, “If you’re having trouble hearing our commentary, you can tune your radios to 87 point –“  Helpful!

After the Porsche Supercup qualifying came the main event – F1 Quali!  Just as the 10 minute announcement was given, the heavens opened and the track was drenched – perfect timing; this was going to be an exciting session!  Umbrellas and waterproofs were quickly deployed, with the family in front of us wrapping themselves in their tarpaulin, but the shower didn’t last too long, so the times quickly tumbled and your time depended on what point you braved slick tyres (with most people waiting, until Webber was the first guinea pig).  There were a couple of surprises through to second quail, but the top runners were as expected.

The second session was dry and reasonably predictable, although a couple of big names gave us a fright by leaving it until the last minute!

At 2:45, the commentators announced that rain was due at 3pm, about 30 seconds before the downpour began again!  Although it was again reasonably short lived, it made for another exciting 10 minutes!  Again, times tumbled as the 10 cars that were left created a dry line around the track, and we were amazed how soon they braved the slicks.  It seemed a foregone conclusion that Vettel would be on pole, but Hamilton clinched it in the dying seconds.  Whether wet (most likely) or dry, tomorrow’s race is going to be thrilling!

There were still GP2 and GP3 races to go, but many people disappeared after the F1 was finished, leaving us with even better views.  GP2 was eventful and amusing, mainly due to the terrible pit-stops (they’d be fired in F1!).  We had decided to leave after the start of the GP3 race, but the first 10 minutes were really eventful, with two periods of safety cars.  At one point one of the back wings flew off a damaged car on the straight right in front of us!  My heart stopped as it looked like it was going to be flung straight over the fence opposite, but it thankfully landed miles before and a marshal was quickly dispatched to rescue it (they’re a brave breed).  Knowing we needed both fuel and an early night, we headed off before the end of the race, with a quick detour to Stavelo for petrol on our way back to the cottage.

I began writing this blog entry in the garden, with a nice glass of Crémant d’Alsace.  As I began to type, the black clouds and rumbling thunder rolled in from all directions, and 15 minutes ago I had to beat a hasty retreat inside as the huge raindrops began to fall.  We’ve been watching an epic storm through the patio doors, which is still raging on.  Just another memorable experience to add to the ridiculous amount that we’ve had so far already this holiday.  We can’t wait for the race tomorrow, but also can’t believe this amazing experience is coming to an end.  I don’t think it’ll be long before we begin planning for the next one 🙂

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