Yes, an early morning start to try an beat the traffic only we failed as it took nearly 45 minutes form West Byfleet to the A3 junction with the M25. IN addition there are quite a lot of road works en- route to Dover which is our destination. We had not counted on the rain to aggravate the journey but after a while that stopped.
The journey to Dover Port was just over two hours and at least half an hour longer than usual although the port was so quiet with nobody at immigration and no one queuing to get boarding passes etc and so by 11.20 we were in the queue to board our DFDS ferry which is due to leave at 12.55 which it did , give or take a minute. The journey was a little bouncy doe quite strong winds and highish waves in the channel but we spent some time in the Premier lounge where it was reasonably quiet except for one excited family.
We arrived on time and was off the ferry quiet quickly and headed of to our Hotel La Speranza in Wimeraux just up the coast from Boulogne sur mer. We did not want to travel to far this first day and were staying in a Hotel with a nice restaurant where we have eaten before quite a few times in the past. We were joking on the way there that we had originally planned to go to the Hotel then walk along the sea front and find nice bar and have a pre-dinner drink but when discussing it was pouting with rain so we gave up that idea except after we had checked in the rain stopped and we did a brief walk to a local café for a beer.
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We then returned to the Hotel for dinner which was very good. The restaurant is well known for its seafood which is what I did except that Jennifer had the pork loin which she enjoyed very much. Then off to bed where we sat and read for a while but the room was quite warm for sleeping , about 24 C and it had started to rain again. The Hotel does not have parking and so parking on the street is what we did with a certain amount of trepidation being concerned that somebody might try to break in, however this is not London
