Day 3... White Cliffs and "Bogi"

In the morning, we packed up our suitcases and had breakfast in the hotel. Then we headed to the Cosmos desk to be loaded on to a bus. This wouldn't be our permanent group of passengers or bus driver. This ride simply took us to the ferry so we could cross the English Channel and there we would meet up with our permanent tour group. While this sounds kind of boring, it was actually quite exciting. The port was Dover... famous for the White Cliffs of Dover. Not only a significant part of WWII history but it is a VERY busy port. I had never seen an operation quite like that. There were rows and rows of freight trucks and containers waiting to be loaded on HUGE ships. There was activity everywhere and our tour bus seemed tiny.

After getting our passports stamped by French officials, we waited for the ferry. Oh, the ferry... this wasn't your average Texas Gulf Coast ferry. It was the LARGEST ferry I have ever seen in my life. In fact, the word ferry seems some puny. This was a SHIP. I lost count of how many 18-wheelers drove into the belly of this ship. Not to mention all of the passenger cars. Once inside the ship, it reminded me of the Carnival cruise ship I was on a few years ago going to Cozumel. There were lounges and snack bars and it was endless. According to the ferry website, the ship can hold 2,290 passengers and 650 cars. It was MASSIVE. 

Leaving the port.

 The entire cruise lasted about 1.5 hours. We had lunch and watched the Channel go by. As we got closer to the French shoreline, we went outside to see the city of Calais appear.

I just had to take a picture of my lunch. I thought it was funny because the crust actually told you what was IN my pot pie!

Arriving in France.

 

Once we were in port, it was a madhouse getting off the ferry. However, we made it off and followed our directions to our bus. We finally met our awesome tour director... Bogla'rke Fekete. Yep. I said, Bogla'rke Fekete. Luckily for all of us, she had a nickname- Bogi (pronounced Boogie). She was a very bright, funny and sweet Hungarian lady. Our bus driver was Franco, a large Italian man. Over the course of the tour, we would learn to understand Bogi's heavily accented English and Franco's lack of English.

We loaded up into our bus and as we drove towards Holland, we learned more about Bogi, Franco and the passengers we would be spending the next 18 days with. Out of the 38 passengers, there were 8 Americans (including us), 2 Canadians and all of the rest were from Australia and New Zealand. It was a fun mix. We stopped for lunch somewhere in Belgium and then made our way into the Amsterdam area for our hotel and dinner.

We knew we were in Holland by the windmills.

Old school windmill.