Grand Tour of Europe.

Thursday 29^th July.

Iain arrived at 0500 in his LVO3TZH Vauxhall Astra, loaded my cases and we set off for Dover ¼ hour later with Iain driving. We arrived in good time and sailed across on the Speed Ferry to Boulogne: and hour's crossing. lain drove from Boulogne to Liege, where we managed to get lost after having coffee in the city, then I drove from Liege to Lille and we got lost again as there didn't seem to be any way of accessing our intended route. We found the signposting sadly lacking; the signs led us so far then "disappeared" just when we needed them most. Despite this we made good progress on our first day's travel and both felt satisfied with our efforts. It was some time since I had driven on the Continent but was soon into right-hand driving and lain seemed to find it fairly easy too.

We agreed to have a kitty into which we both put the same amount of money, and I offered my silk/leather wallet for this as it has several divisions including a zip pocket at the back. It meant I had no way of keeping my own various currencies separate but mostly worked pretty well, especially when we were dealing in just Euros. It was when we had (at one stage) Euros, Kunas(Croatia) and Bosnia Herzegovina money to deal with that there were slight problems.

We filled up on "essence" at a small petrol station to ensure we had maximum driving available. The price wasn't much different to in England although everyone had been telling me it was much cheaper on the Continent, particularly in Belgium.

We stayed overnight at Lille in the Hotel Metropole which was about 1 star standard. I had packed my usual overnight bag so I didn't have to cart my heavy case around but Iain wanted everything out of the car, which is going to cause problems as I have a very large bag and a box full of things for Elizabeta, including 6 brand new stools, a blow-up bed and electric pump, a toaster and a sandwich grill plus a lot of clothes and household goods. After settling in and showers we went out to dinner but couldn't find anywhere particularly noteworthy. However we managed a reasonable dinner, walked round the city a little then retired for the night. I slept at first then was kept awake by unaccustomed noises so didn't sleep particularly well despite being tired.