June 17 – Back to the UK

We arose early this morning just in case we had difficulty driving to Lille and finding the car park to return the rental car. Was a good thing we left early. My GPS failed me this day. The previous night I had look at routes to the depot and wrote them out for reference. We did get lost. We ended up getting off the expressway and going into the tourist office in a small town. Our level of anticipation was quite low though. We didn’t really expect to find someone that could speak English at a small town information office. Our spirits soared when we asked the question and received an affirmative answer. Not only could she speak English she was also very helpful. I wish I knew the name of the town but I failed to write it down or ask the woman her name so I will thank her profusely anyway and hope that someday I will once again be able to thank her in person.

Being back on the right track lightened all of our spirits and we quickly made our way to Lille, France to catch the train. We go to the depot with little trouble but finding the entrance to the proper car park was a challenge. Finally I dropped Ed and Bonnie off to ask the Hertz rep. While Kay and I were waiting we got chased out of the place we “parked”. I just knew that while I was going around the block they would come out and indeed that was the case. As a pulled up to the station one more time they were already walking down the street. I was able to flag them down and we got to where we needed to be with the car.

After unloading, I left the other three to check in for the train while I turned in the car. Coming back to the rest we had our ticket information checked, went through French passport control, and then had to fill out a card for British passport control that basically had all of the information from our passports. Went through just fine then security checked the bags and we waited for the train.

The train came and we boarded and I think all of napped at least a little while on the trip back to London. To our surprise, Melanie was at the station waiting for us. She had to catch a train at King’s Cross, which was just across the street. She helped us find the taxi and we were off to 19 Salcott Road, YEAH!

We got everything in the house in proper order then Bonnie and Kay got laundry going before we went grocery shopping. Got that stuff all back to the house and then went to the corner pub for dinner. We all had a burger and a brew or wine for dinner. Went back to the house and Ed and Kay crashed for the night. Bonnie and I were up a while longer but soon were in bed as well.

All of us were glad to be back in London.