Day 2 Folkestone to Ghent
Via Brugge
29.06.2023 - 29.06.2023
18 °C
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We left the hotel in Folkestone a bit earlier than planned and, when we checked in at EuroTunnel we managed to get an earlier train at no additional cost. We only had time have a quick hot drink before we were called. The process is very streamlined and efficient much better than it was the last time we visited the Continent in 2012👍. We waited in the motorcycle queue and boarded last, as usual, but as we are a trike, we boarded in front of the other motor cycles.
The train was quick and easy, we would recomment this for everyone.
Once on the train, you stand by your vehicle and in about 25 minutes you arrive in France.
When we rrived in Calais we couldn't get off of the train. There were quite a few classic cars on board and the 4tht car cars in front of us didn't move and drive off. The driver couldn't start it. They had to get a recovery waggon to board the train and tow it off. So, our early train wasn't worth it in the end 🤪.
It was raining very hard when we rode off the train so we stopped in the nearby petrol station services until it had almost stopped before continuing our journey. We were onroute to Ghent for a lunch stop and we rode through heavy rain some of the way. It stopped raining and brightened up fairly soon out of France and we were dry when we arrived in Ghent.
Ghent is a lovely city, cobbled streets with a main square full of bistros, restaurants and character, that's where we had our lunch.
"Lunch" is not the right description, we arrived later than planned due to heavy traffic and road closures and finally parked in a secure underground car park close to 1515h !!! When it was time to leave, we went to the car park and the ticket machine would not accept our parking ticket 😥😫. We had to call for assistance who recified the situation allowing us to leave the premises, hooray 🙄.
Onwards to Ghent. Nice city, cobbled street and trams, lots of character. This is the view from our hotel room:
We are staying in the IBIS Ghent Centrum, a perfect location with parking. All of the hotels for the entire trip have parking, we want to make sure that the trike is safe. We arrived at the hotel and pressed the button for the car park and the Duty Managed ran up to us and said that we shold be careful as there are stairs in the middle of the ramp 😏. That's no good for use as we have a trike, the front wheel would go down but not up the stairs - what a joke !!! We didn't find it very funny though. We checked in, unloaded our bags then parked the trike in a secure underground car park fairly near and walked back to the hotel. All of this took nearly 1 1/2 hours - definataly not happy😫😣. It's now 2140h and we haven't had anything to eat yet.
Oh well, there's still tomorrow...
Additional...
We finally went out for a meal at about 2045h for something to eat. We ate late in Brugge so we only wanted something light. After walking around for a few minutes we found a bar with good music but coundn't read the menu. We asked for a translation and the bar tender stated there were English versions and asked one of the servers to get one for us. About 10 minutes later he gave us the English versions. It only took us a few minutes to decide and when we went to order the server said that the cooking had finished at 2100h. It wasn't 2105 yet !!!😆😒. Talk about "jobs worth." We then went hunting for somewhere to eat and the next 3 restaurants all finished cooking at 2100h. We did find one open and willing to serve. One of the servers was outside and we explained what we wanted, he invited us in and offered us a rack of ribs. When he described the size, I asked if we could share and he refused, stating one serving per person, so we walked out. We have travelled extensively in the USA and regularly share meals, even in the UK we share some meals and no one has any problems with this. We were surprised at their attitude here in Ghent.
We did find somewhere to eat... McDonalds... Those of you who know us will find this astounding, that we ate in McDonalds, we haven't eaten there in a number of years 🤣. Any port in a storm...
Posted by RickAdderley 21:03 Archived in Belgium