Day 2 in England (25 Aug 2018)
We are recovered from the long day yesterday with all the travels & no sleep. Hooray! We slept really well and set out today for some adventures that were pretty spectacular.
First, we drove down to Dover to visit the Dover Castle and to watch the Grand Medieval Jousting Tournament held there. The castle itself was amazing. It is HUGE!! You can see it from miles away. It is located right on the White Cliffs of Dover on the SE coast of England. We visited King Henry II's bedchambers and his special religious upper chamber rooms. We saw what an ancient toilet looks like. And we went up endless amounts of medieval stairs all over throughout the castle.
The jousting tournament was pretty cool too. We had a nice vantage point on a small hill overlooking the arena. The horses were so beautiful! There were 4 contestants, each representing the North, South, East and West regions of England. We were rooting for the South - named Sir Isaac something. It was his first jousting tournament and he was young and hungry for some action. He ended up winning Round 1! (Round 1 took about 30 minutes, Round 2 was later in the day but we had to leave by then) They get points if they break their pole on their opponent's chest or upper body as they ride toward each other. Some places of impact get more points. He had 7 points total and the guy from the North had 6.
We also drove a few minutes past the Castle to see the White Cliffs themselves. It was worth the drive for sure! You'll see pictures again in the link below.
Then we drove what was supposed to just be about 17 minutes away (Folkestone) to go through the English Channel Tunnel over to France. We had to arrive by a certain point (minimum of 45 min. prior) in order to be able to board the EuroTunnel Shuttle. But then we had to have a few more issues with the roundabouts again. HAHA
So here's the thing about roundabouts. Your GPS tells you something like: At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit. So you look at the picture on the GPS app to see what that looks like. You look at the sign coming up and gauge what your upcoming adventure should look like. You enter the roundabout - which can have 1 lane going in, or 3-4 lanes going around. You don't always know which lane you need to be in. And sometimes you are pretty confident which lane to get in, but then halfway around the circle, your lane DISAPPEARS!! And then people are honking at you, and you're trying to figure out what to do and not get in a wreck, but then you miss your "exit" or - like us - we accidentally take the wrong one!! Lol So then we have to fix our mistake and try not to lose too much time.
We did end up making our Eurotunnel Shuttle just fine. It was a train that we had to drive our little Hyundai Ioniq INTO - and up the ramp to the upper deck. We literally had about 1 inch clearance on either side of the car. That was pretty hairy to say the least. We parked in our spot as directed, about 1 inch from the car in front of us, and then shut off the motor and relaxed. The train took us all the way over to France underwater through the tunnel. We studied French flashcards as we rode along. It was pretty nice actually. It took about 35 minutes altogether. The only way we knew we were either going extremely down or extremely up was that our ears felt like they wanted to pop. :)
In France, you drive on the right side of the road. So we are in a car that has the steering wheel on the right. So that is just downright weird. But Charmaine did awesome today doing all the driving. I was just the co-pilot. Tomorrow will be my turn to drive some in France.
We had an adventure like Mission Impossible to get into our apartment here in downtown Rouen. After several missed turns, and finally arriving at our very nondescript location, I had to call the owner. He did everything remotely over the phone to get us in - we never actually met him. He had us push a buzzer button at the outer door, then he buzzed us into the building. He directed us up to the 3rd floor, through a brown door that wasn't labeled, then go to the left apartment door of the 2 doors. Next to the door was a coded box. He gave us the code, which opened the box and there was a set of keys inside! So that's how we got in!! Crazy - I KNOW. But we're here! And it's literally right near everything.
We went and found some dinner at 10:00 pm tonight, and then on the way back, (we were walking) - we ended up seeing the most wonderful thing. There was a special presentation movie playing on the front side of the Notre Dame Cathedral of Rouen. A movie about the history of Rouen, including William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings, and other highlights through time. It eventually ended with incorporating in the faces of today in Rouen - families, individuals, children, etc. And when it was done, we were there about 5 minutes, everyone in the plaza was clapping and cheering and kissing each other on both cheeks. They were very happy and proud of their heritage. And we were there to witness it all - what a miracle!! We had not gone that way to the restaurant, but kind of stumbled on this route on the way back.
So it is after midnight here now, and I need to go to bed. One note - especially for our family - tomorrow we are going to do the beaches of Normandy and the Claude Monet gardens all in one day. The reason is that if we don't, then it will be way too tight on time for Monday, when we have to get to the Ferry at Dieppe by a certain time in order to get back across to England. We don't want to take any chances!! So Monday we will tour the Cathedral and visit some downtown areas before driving over to Dieppe. So just make note of that on the itinerary.
We love you all! Hope all is well in the great USA!! The link below will allow you to see photos from today. I would advise you to check back either later today (your time) or tomorrow so that you can see the video that is still uploading from the Jousting Tournament. It was the very first run of the tournament - and was definitely the most impressive!! You'll see why!
Love,
Michele
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