Tuesday, August 24, 2010

24 August 2010 Left London for Folkestone & Ashford

Mick Zara Lyn in London


Mick Betty Lyn


Mick and Betty


Betty's block


View from Betty's flat


Battle of Britain memorial at Folkestone


Supermarine Spitfire replica


Cross Channel Ferries at Folkestone


White Cliffs of Dover



24 August 2010 London to Folkestone

After a relaxing start to the day we were packed and ready to leave London and head to Kent to visit the sister of my father’s brother’s wife, Betty, who lives at Folkestone. Got that?

We said our goodbyes to Zara, our charming host who had put us up in London for a couple of days before and after our Paris adventure.

After filling up with petrol for £1.139 per litre at a Shell service station and after having to negotiate with an Indian gentleman to allow us pay with our ANZ Visa travel card that has a magnetic strip and requires a signature rather than the now more common chip and pin version, we headed off down the A20 and thence onto the M20 to Folkestone.

Loaded with the appropriate postcode, our Nokia N95 GPS took us right to Betty’s house in Folkestone, where we received a very warm welcome followed by tea and scones.

Betty is a very sprightly 89 year old.

We spent almost 3 hours chatting about our family history and more recent events before asking Betty to show us around the local areas of Folkestone and Dover.

We had a look at several interesting sites including the Battle of Britain Memorial at Folkestone and the very large and imposing, Dover Castle.

Folkestone is a lovely town and nearby is the entry point for the Eurostar trains that carry passengers, trucks and cars under the Strait of Dover to France through the Channel Tunnel. It is the route that Lyn and Mick traveled on the trip to Paris.

We watched several large ferries leaving the Dover port heading across to the French ports of Dieppe, Boulogne, Calais and Dunkerque.

After they saw the rough seas of the channel, Lyn and Mick were pleased that they had taken the train through the tunnel rather than travel by ferry.

At about 5.30pm we dropped Betty off at her very spacious flat on the 4th floor of her building. The building contains 5 flats in total and has nice sea views.

We then headed off up the M20 to our hotel accommodation at a Premier Inn at Ashford and had a nice meal of Rack of Lamb and Prawn and Lemon Squid and salad at the attached Beefeater restaurant.

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