The end of the first half - Euro Road Trip

It is hard to believe that we are back in the Apartment in Carshalton Beaches instead of being on beaches somewhere in Europe. It is officially the end of the first half of Lynda and my Euro Road Trip 2019, but it has been one of new experiences and bucket list achievements.

Lyndas bucket list -- Reims Cathedral

 

This was after the longest drive of the trip so far -- about  9 hours and over 800 kilometres, from Lake Como, Italy into France and up to the North.

 

The longest tunnel we drove through was the Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerland and hats off to all the European countries who have made driving so much easier due to the construction of tunnels under mountains rather that the perverse helter-skelter roads in some locations, where you cant drive more than 30 Km an hour as you are dropping 10,000 feet.

 

Lots of Tunnels

   
The day was driven by with a sky like this  and so we were gradually saying goodbye to the snow on the mountains.

Also lots of very green fields and forests with the occasional Tyrolean, cabins thrown in -- actually to get a shot as you are driving at 130 kilometres and hour of a decent looking chalet is hard so well done Mrs A' 

Lots of lakes as well so you wean yourself off of Lake Como bit by bit

 We cant also explain why it is that people in the alps choose to live on  the side of very steep hills and mountains--

The sign here is there abouts on the border between Switzerland and France at the place called Mullhouse.

Obviously pictures of signs just help show where we are but this one below are easier to describe where we are going / coming up to.

Ok so there we were in Reims, with the purposes of going to the Cathedral to see in person this amazing structure-- like most cathedrals -- but to be somewhere that has ended up being the location of the coronation of the Kings of France -- well of course that stopped in a revolution , when they started losing their heads.

 

So the reason why they chose Reims was simply that around the 10th century , the arch bishop of Reims was the most powerful at that time -----

 

 

The prestige of the Holy Ampulla and the political power of the Archbishop of Reims resulted from King Henry I of France, who was crowned here in 1027 and permanently established Reims Cathedral as the location of the coronation of the French monarch.

It is very similar in many ways to the other famous cathedrals such as Westminster Abbey, and like all such structures is suffering badly from decomposition and if not tackled it will become too late.

So here is the boss, at a place that has the history of some of her favourite things, French and English monarchs and the hereditary .

 So when you think that the first cathedral was built around the 8th century, and it has been destroyed by fire twice and been looted in the war from its artefacts while loosing its roof -- Rockefeller, was one of those that funded its rebuilding in the fifties / sixties. 

 

The following are a mixture of shots from the inside that I hope show the enormousness that you get within this type of building with this type of history--

The features , particularly around the huge oak doors, are immense but are definitely showing that they are in disrepair.

 Not going to waffle on about it -- people know I adore architect and know that I am in awe of the structural feasibilities of engineers hundreds of years ago. The picture on the right is the opening that they would have hoisted materials up into the roof void.

 The Pulpit , the organ and the alter are always going to be a feature within such a grand structure

However , in this place the Windows are extra special as they were all blown out and the decision makers decided top go for stained glas that is all about the colour rather that the normal detailed pictures of the saints and disciples

 

 Worth blowing up the pictures above for some of the many stories that there are within the cathedral history ---

Below are the list of the Kings of France who were crowned in Reims Cathedral.

Quite a list -- but also of course there are many types of lists in France -- mostly produced from the first and second world wars and many from My choice of bucket list thing/places to do / see and that was without realising it. One of the things with a trip like this is putting routes together that reflect what you want to see or go to.

Lynda and I agreed that we wanted to try out going through places such as the following on the way from Greece to the UK---

Greece
Albania
Montenegro
Croatia
26 kilometres of Bosnia & Herzegovina
Croatia
Slovenia
Austria
Germany
Austria
Switzerland
Italy
Switzerland
France
England

Going back it is France / Italy / Greece

-- And from that agreement we look at what there is that we would really like to do / see/ meet etc - and with parts of Albania, Dubrovnik, Salzburg, lake Como -- we have been able to sample things that 6 months ago , we would not have previously dreamed of.
And so for me and my bucket list -- probably without thinking it was at the top of a list for somewhere I truly wanted to go to-- Dunkirk -- somewhere that we were brought up on the stories of what took place in our families lifetime and where incredible tragedy and heroics seamed to take place in equal numbers.

 So this is me on the beach at Dunkirk, some 75 years after the following happened---

 

 

 

I cannot believe the emotions that those involved with this went through but I am totally humbled when I see these kinds of pictures and see some of the stories about what took place-- am I expecting too much to think that one day in the future that people will realise the futility that war brings .

 

Anyway, I have to say that Lynda and I are very impressed with the changing world that is Dunkirk and having walked along the promenade that is being prepared for the 75 years remembrance planning that is going on currently.

 

 

So a bit different today and also an important University city in France now.

But of course we shouldn't forget why Dunkirk is famous for UK people and so we saw one or two of these memorials there are.

We finished up with dinner in the town centre -- after over half an hour of looking for a restaurant that wasn't one that only cooked lunches and then became a bar only at evening time -- anyway we were not disappointed in the one we did find with Moulles Marinier and a really nice chicken dinner.

So that was it , got a couple of snaps of some ships on the way back to the hotel.

So a short but enjoyable visit to my bucket list item and left early yesterday morning for Calais -- and while this was something that Lynda and I had done many times in the past-- so it was more than a little disconcerting when the cars in front drive off, the ones behind are diverted to other lanes and the customs police or Gendarmerie put big cones in front and behind us and ask us to stay put with the engine off.

A 3rd officer took a 3rd electronic swab later and an officer came over and when pressured says that they may have picked up a detection of explosives -- no bluddy wonder the majority were standing in a building 20 metres away.

Any way it was a false alarm -- thank god -- and the rest of the return was uneventful, and all of that after 4000 + Kilometres.

So we have spent the past hours putting our house back together as of course it was all packed away for the new carpet and the decoration of the lounge. 

Lots of people to see , lots of things to do , before we start to get our act together for the trip back .