Captivating Calais is located at the narrowest point of the English Channel and is known as the gateway to the UK. The ship is docked where the ferries come and go and there are so many of them! I was watching two ferries this morning, one leaving and one arriving. I swear they missed each other by barely a meter. And I'm not talking Manly Ferry size, these are cruise ship size!
We didn't have a tour booked for today and decided to do Calais on our own. The shuttles run every half hour from the ship to the City Hall and I had read about one of Banksy's artwork that he called "Girl with Telescope"and I was determined to find it. A map was provided to us as we boarded the coach but it wasn't much help. I ended up finding the artwork on Google Maps so off we went in hopefully the right direction. It didn't take us long to get lost. However a young French man helped us with directions so off we started again in the opposite direction! The further our walk went the more uneasy we became. There were homeless lying everywhere on the ground or gathered in groups. I checked google maps and found that we had another 2.8km to walk before we reached the artwork. Philip made the executive decision for us to get the hell out of this area and abandon our quest. I was a bit disappointed but I did find the artwork on a google search so here it is.
It was easy enough to find our way back as the City Hall with its Clock Tower dominates the city skyline. It is a beautiful building and the surrounding gardens are magnificent, in fact the city streets are lined with flowers of every description and being summer they are in full bloom.
Outside the town hall is a magnificent bronze statue titled "The Burghers of Calais". The sculpture depicts the defiance of six prominent citizens who offered their lives to save their city from the British in 1346 during the hundred year war.
Inside the town hall a marble staircase dominates. It is magnificent. There is also a model train display with Calais in miniature. It gave us a good overview of the town from its beach huts to its waterways and from the Old Calais to the new Calais.
It's nearing lunch so we decide to find somewhere to sit and rest our weary legs. We found a great little bistro and of course I had to order their fish and chips. The fish was cod and it was very fresh. Washed down with a glass of Prosecco, it was the perfect lunch. Note the cut of the chips that are hallowed out. Never seen chips cut that way before…..
We felt revitalised enough after lunch to continue our walk around the city centre. How do you like this 3D artwork on the side of a building? Pretty amazing I think…..
Today I walked 11.15kms. Some of that was spent walking around the deck early this morning while Philip was on the exercise bike. That's a lot of kilometres though and any wonder my legs are tired 😅.
No comments:
Post a Comment