The past couple of days have been quite stressful, but all’s gone to plan thank goodness.
Yesterday morning the removal men were round first thing to take our furniture into storage. Some final bits such as crockery were put up in the loft, other stuff loaded into the car to be taken to the van, and whatever was left was put out for the binmen. We then cleaned the house from top to bottom, before saying farewell to the neighbours and driving up to Colchester.
The van is now pretty full, and finding a home for everything is a bit of a challenge. We’ve erred on the side of caution and brought quite a few things we probably don’t need, so we’ll be ‘losing’ some stuff as we go.
Last night we were so knackered that we were in bed by 9:30. This morning we were up fairly early so that we could offload the car. I’d already registered the car online, and had been given a quotation which was quite a bit less than if I were selling via Autotrader, but that’s the price you have to pay for getting paid on the spot. The guy knocked us down for paint chippings on the bonnet, a small chip in the windscreen and a scuffed wheel, but the price we got was reasonable under the circumstances. Fortunately for us the bloke was quite short, and so didn’t notice the dent on the roof… he’ll be furious when he spots that 🙂
We needed to get back to the campsite, but none of the cab firms were answering the phone. One firm cracked me up… “please leave a message and we’ll call you back” – yeah, right! In the absence of a cab we took the half hour walk into town and caught a bus back to the van.
The start of the drive to Canterbury was a nightmare, as the A12 was closed in both directions for roadworks, and it took about 90 minutes to go less than ten miles. Once through the roadworks we were fine, even the Dartford Crossing was clear. We stopped off at a service station where Carol bought a supply of Percy Pigs for when we’re away, and we’re now parked up at the Canterbury park and ride.
No photos today, but I’ll take some tomorrow, when we go through the tunnel and make our way to Arras.
Mike
Arras is nice with the two large squares. The french fry shop on the corner of the square is good value and so are the WW1 museum in town and Wellington Barracks if you have time. The town hall is a wonderful building too and worth a look inside
The roads in France will be enjoyable
Good luck
Cheers Jon. It will be a flying visit to Arras, but we hope to make it into the old town!
Percy pigs? I wonder who you get that from!
Yes, I wonder who??!!