Terry Arnold
Like so many others, we had been waiting 3 years to tour again in Europe as a group, and I don’t remember being so excited for a very long time. The final week before departure dragged on slowly, sleep patterns were affected and then the day finally arrived.
Gareth and I rode to meet Clappo, Colin, Will and John who had assembled at the Brentwood services near the M25 and then we set off as a group. Almost immediately we hit a queue and filtered through near stationary traffic for 7 miles on the approach to the QE2 bridge before gathering Paul and then on to the Eurotunnel terminal at Folkstone.
(Gareth had only come to see us off – as he was forbidden from joining the tour in case he injured himself ahead of his daughter’s impending and equally delayed wedding). Adrian was absent also because he had taken the tough decision to join a cycling tour (St.Malo to Nice in France!) with conflicting dates.
After a trouble-free late afternoon crossing we were soon heading down the A26 autoroute towards Saint Omer. A budget IBIS hotel (with a good car park) was a popular stopping off point for brits judging by the various decorated cars (1 a pirate ship, another a London Taxi heading east for charity).
Drinks were taken in a very pleasantly refurbished old town, and we moved next door for a meal. Colin proclaimed the steak tartare the best he’d ever had, and we certainly all enjoyed our meals. early bedtime as we were losing an hour and had a long day’s ride ahead of us.
