the Chunnel, Christmas and LEFT!

This Christmas would be different:  our first in Europe; our first in many, many years without Papa.  It was good therapy to plan a trip to the English countryside and experience "Christmas in Canterbury".  And, I wanted to find an amazing worship/music experience for Christmas Eve in my own language (resolution: learn more German this year!)   This was the first time in many years I wasn't the church musician during the holiday.  It was very strange to only be a participant.  Lovely, but strange.

Fortunately, I'm blessed with an adventurous husband who wanted to try driving in the UK.   (and blessed with 3 boys who knew Christmas wouldn't happen if they didn't come along for the ride!)   At first I thought we should take a train, but I'm really glad we drove --there was so much beautiful country to see in Kent!

Our vacation commenced with a morning drive thru pothole-ridden Belgium to the Chunnel entrance.  Failure on my part to read all the ticket info properly resulted in missing our train load-in by 10 minutes.  UGH!   We had to wait for the next one, 1.5 hours later.  Hanging out in the Chunnel oasis wasn't so awful: we bought ginormous Toblerone bars and Christmas wine (since I accidently drank our special wine a few weeks earlier.  Alone. oops! But it was SO tasty!)

No joke, toblerone bars the size of your head!  Perfect for the emergency chocolate stash….

Next, we followed the signs to load our car onto the train.  Our language expert, Alex, claims to have not retained any French, so we assumed this was the right way. 

"Le tunnel sous la Manche" (you have to read that with a grovelly French accent)

Once parked, we could get out of the car and walk around the sides of the train, just not between the cars.  The way they jostled around, I can see why the parking brake sign was illuminated!  Watching more cars and buses load onto other trains, soon there was nothing to see from the windows.  Zach was really hoping to glimpse some fish….no dear, we're not in a floating tube, although it would be pretty cool to be "in" an aquarium for 50km...

Closing the fire doors inside the train

 Finally, the doors opened, we were all still alive,  James, our GPS desperately searched for a signal and we cautiously followed the signs out.  As the murmuring of "left, left, left" echoed in the car, sighting a giant horse "sculpture"on the hillside did not interest the driver nor my fellow passengers iPad game junkies.

"Left" became easier after a few days, but those first harrowing hours in the rain were a bit, well, harrowing.  Especially for this writer, seated on the right.  Closest to the oncoming traffic.  On the narrowest roads ever.  Never doubted Mike once (well, ok, a couple times I did have to shout "LEFT! after a left turn --you try turning left and staying left!)  It was the oncoming traffic that I feared most.

Twitham Court Farmhouse was our resting place for the next few days.  Located in the countryside near Canterbury, it was a peaceful haven after driving the narrow, scenic roads.  Our hostess, Sally, was ready with maps, pub reservations and places to visit--all of which were wonderful recommendations.  Click here to read all about the pub adventure! 

Sally, and her beautiful family, were gracious hosts --the house was a cross between contemporary fresh decor and nostalgic history surrounded by gorgeous landscaping, free range chickens and walking paths.  

Sally's hens made the BEST breakfasts every morning and Sally's authentic English Breakfast Tea became a fast favorite of Nate & Zach! (We have yet to replicate that taste!)

Spending Christmas Eve & Christmas morning in someone else's house was a bit of a worry for the boys.  Would Santa really find us here?  Just in case, Zach wrote a letter to Santa and left some cookies & water on a try by the fireplace.  We didn't have any hot cocoa, but figured the old man might like a change of pace for at least 1 stop!  

Christmas morning, another delicious breakfast AND Sally left Christmas crackers for the boys--an English tradition we had never encountered, but will definitely incorporate into our celebrations as we remember this special time together!  

Not a huge amount of gifts were left for us, but each of the boys asked for a couple of reasonable things and Santa came thru with just that.  OH, but there was 1 gift that just wouldn't fit in the car to bring home, so Santa stopped by our house in Germany and left a BIG package….

Nate's new Xbox controller, Zach's minecraft legos, Alex's airsoft vest

Back home to Germany a week later….oh yeah!  Carera slot cars!

More Christmas in England stories to come!

Cheers!

Linda