We have all decided that we like Hotel Belle Azur in Chatham.  Whilst it clearly caters for the booze cruisers etc, we found we were the only ones staying there.  As we were enjoying our breakfast a strange elderly French woman in a beret and fur coat shuffled into the dining room dragging behind her a tiny fluffy dog.  It was an odd sight and she got her self a coffee, plonked the do in the old fireplace seat and seemed to contemplate life for a while.

Later Catherine, our team member with a close affinity to animals was to be seen rushing up and down the bar area dog, in pursuit until it nearly knocked itself out on a door!

Our taxi arrived at 11am to take us to the Sea France ferry.  It was very foggy this morning and the ferries were all delayed but we managed to get the delayed boat scheduled before our one.

Jack and Dana did a bit of shopping.  Also tried to get the blog updated but the journey went remarkably quickly and soon we were delighted to see the White Cliffs of Dover – through the fog and rain.  What a lovely welcome home!

After collecting our hire car we drove to Chatham, which was about 50 miles away and checked in to the Ship and Trades Pub on the Marina, having our first encounter with the extremely rude and officious bar person.

Catherine was keen to visit the curator of the Chatham Historical Dockyard Museum so after wolfing down some chips from the fish shop next door we made our way over there.  We were allowed through without paying and wandered around until we found her in her office at the back of a huge shed.  Chatted awhile and then went to see the old gate of the Chatham Barracks where Alan and Bernard would have walked through to demob 50 years ago.  The Barracks have been closed since the 1980s and now house one of the campuses for Greenwich University.

We filmed Catherine and then the rest of the Project Surprise team with her coming through the gate.

Back to the Ship and Trades we were soon joined by Nick’s cousin Angela that was a lovely surprise and a little later Peter, Catherine’s brother turned up with a bottle of champagne to celebrate our return.  We spent a lovely evening drinking and eating, oblivious to anyone else.  Stevie gave Peter a lift back to Chatham station to get the 10pm train back to London.

We’d been hoping that John would join us tonight in Chatham but sadly his mum is ill in hospital.  The team sent him best wishes and a phone photo message and hope to see him again very soon. It felt very weird that this was our last night.

It was great to have a more leisurely day here, as our train was not going to Calais until 5.20pm.  After breakfast we wandered around and Stevie took us to a lovely café/restaurant that he had discovered earlier when he was exploring.  The sun was shining and we were in the historic old city of Lille next to the beautiful Chamber of Commerce building.

Here we met our first and only people from the UK throughout the whole trip.  A young couple, from Ham in London.  His chosen profession was, something none of us had ever heard of before, big game gynaecology.  A bit of a party stopper if ever I heard one.  We spent a great hour mainly talking about animals, and agreed to meet up with them when back in London.

We had decided that seeing we had a little more time in Lille than in other places perhaps we should do something a bit more touristy in order to learn more about Lille.  So we booked on to the City Bus Tour, departing at 3pm.  Not the best it has to be said and Dana was snoozing for most of it.

Off to get the train for Calais to find it was delayed by 25 minutes.  Whilst waiting in Lille station Dana saw some people she knew from London, which felt totally incongruous to our trip.  Eventually our train was announced on Platform 46 and we dutifully lugged all our bags down to the platform.  Catherine got our her saxophone and worked on an arrangement to match the announcement jingle at Lille station (repeated every few seconds).  Whilst this was happening Dana wandered aimlessly to the other end of the platform where a train, seemingly unconnected was waiting.  Just as the Guard was about to wave the flag she asked when the next train to Lille was – it was this one.  Asking them to hold the train she hurtled down the platform trying to get the attention of the Project Surprise team over the subtle tones of the sax.  After a mad and stressful dash we were on board and soon arrived in Calais.

The Hotel Belle D’Azur could be seen from some distance with its blue neon sign flashing on the skyline.  We settled in and then took a walk to find Maritime Way where Bernard and Alan had spent their final night abroad while waiting for the ferry.  The road was about ten minutes from the hotel and by the beautiful sands of Calais’s almost deserted beach.  We walked to the sea and watched the sun go down before walking back towards the main town for something to eat.  Found a quiet bar/café and enjoyed a really nice French meal.

Despite our odd sleeping arrangements, pillows and ambience of the Hotel Collette we all spent a restful night and met together for a surprisingly good breakfast.

Needing to access internet and emails, Catherine and Dana went along to the internet shop along the road, where Jack joined us later.  On the way back we felt that another small Gaffel Holsch was in order to set us on our way!  Returning to the bar from last night we were amazed to see if filled with people having a spectacular buffet brunch.  Tempted but eager to get into the centre of Cologne we met with the other and got a taxi to the centre.

We pared ourselves and our extensive collection of bags at an outside café next to the cathedral, the largest in Europe and in ones and twos went to explore.  The cathedral is truly amazing and very busy with tourists from all over the world.

Meanwhile Catherine and Jack went searching for a pipe.  Catherine was determined to buy one in Cologne as this was where her father had bought and documented his in the diary.  You can see him smoking his on the blog and we hope you will see Catherine smoking hers there too when we can get the technology sorted out!  Jack and Catherine had a rather nerve-wracking encounter with the shop owner who objected strongly to them filming the purchase being made, but made it was and Catherine happily presented her pipe to the rest of the team.

Our train journey from Cologne to Lille was fairly uneventful in Project Surprise terms and we arrived early evening and booked into our hotel.

Unfortunately it was dull and raining and we went to find a restaurant recommended in the guidebook which served the Lille speciality which was somewhere between a pizza and a pancake with different savoury fillings.  These were so delicious that Jack felt he needed to have two of them!