For the holiday break we wanted to go to another country and thake the boat with the bikes, at the beginning we had planned to get to Scotland but the night boat was expensive and we couldn’t see all of what we wanted to visit over one week. So we are getting to England, we had talked about it in the article in Voix du Nord and at the same time we’ll join Ian Chisholm who is playing with his band at the Broadstairs Folk Festival. And we’ll sleep in Sandwich!
As opposed to usual we are a bit constrained by the timing; trains and boats don’t wait for us! The first step is getting to Lille-Flandres station, to get to Calais-Ville.
The regional train (TER) is practical; the floor level is at platform level and the space for bicycles is large enough.
The trip is nice, we know the scenery, and everybody has taken books. Corinne brought one about a couple who cycled around the world during 15 years, a book found by Basile at Emmaüs.
We are not camping but the bags are full of books, toys, clothes and food. At Calais the station master helps cross the tracks to climbing the stairs with the bikes.
We arrive at the Calais ferry terminal to embark.
We get into the boat at the beginning, right after the trucks. The ferry is full, it’s impressive to see all these vehicles get onboard. The bikes are attached against the wall with a rope to avoid them falling during the crossing.
We look at the boat departing from the upper deck, weather is nice and we can see far away. It’s like a building on the water, with shops, restaurants, arcade games…
We see the cliffs of Dover and get into the port. When getting off the boat a red line drawn for bicycles shows the way to the city centre, we will picnic on the beach. Little deception for the kids, it’s a pebble beach… that won’t prevent from playing in the water and throw pebbles.
We take the national cycling road 1 that goes along the coast, it starts by climbing the hilly way to the Dover Castle, the Garmin GPS gets crazy and displays 20% !
The reward is on the top: the road oversees the Dover White Cliffs and the view is splendid.
There is no wind, weather is nice, we can’t dream any better to ride. The road is rural and winding, the car drivers are usually careful. Once arrived in St Margaret on Cliffe, the road becomes reserved to cyclists!
We get down the hill over a couple of kilometers into the country side before joining Kingsdown where the coastal route becomes shared between walkers and cyclists.
We follow the beach up to Deal and take back the cycling road that goes through a golf field before reaching Sandwich.
Sandwich is a nice little town with a marina, it still has houses that are several centuries old.
After we left the gear at the hotel we are looking for a restaurant, we find a nice place that works mostly with local products. Basile plays with his cars, girls play Uno.
While coming back to the hotel, we see that the whole city is caring at keeping the historical look, even the local kebob as a nice setup.
The night has been restorative but the morning is rainy! The weather prediction announces the end of showers at 10am, we take the time: first a copious english breakfast, then holiday homework for the kids.
It still drizzles when we start but we don’t have a long way to Broadstairs.
We shouldn’t forget to ride on the left in the morning! First a few kilometers on small roads before joining the cycling road.
The weather is grey but it’s not cold. We reach in Ramsgate the viking road that follows the shore over the cliffs.
We arrive in Broadstairs, the little city is full of music and dance. We lock the bikes and look for a place for lunch, it will be the Beaches Café, a little café decorated Californian style where you could play at looking for the Vokswagen combis!
We cross the beach to get to the festival tents and collect the concert tickets.
The concert takes place at the Sailing Club, the room can fit about about fifty people with a view on the sea. The Twagger Band is an original folk band with two hammer dulcimers, an anglo concertina, bag pipes and whistles, and Ian playing the guitar. The mood is relaxed and Olivine loves the music, especially songs with celtic harp.
The sound is rich in harmonies and the place sounds good, we even sometimes hear the seagulls between the songs.
We then get to the beach, the kids finally have sand!
In the evening we eat with Ian, Tae, their daughter and grandchilds, a great evening in the same restaurant as for lunch. We take back the bikes to get to Ramsgate where we have booked an AirBnB, the view overseeing the sea from the viking road is even nicer in the evening.
The couple that welcomes us is charming and we have a big room in their big house that has some refreshing done. Despite the few kilometers, the sleeping is much welcome.
For the return we take the same road in reverse, along the sea. Corinne has spotted big blackberries, on the other way along a national road, on the only ugly part of the journey, this time we stop to pick some.
We get back in Sandwich to see if the little antique boutique is open, an old convertible Morris waits for us at the front. It starts on quarter turn despite its unrestored aspect.
We cross a golf field that overlooks the cliff, nice composition between the colours of players’ polos, the immaculate green, the grass in the sand track, the blue sky and the sea further down.
Half way through, we stop in Deal to eat even if it’s not noon yet, we won’t be able to wait up to Dover. On the side of the track we see fishermen prepare fish, in the midst of old boats.
We have to climb up to the cliffs of Dover, Basile is pushing well and the 3/4 facing wind will stay polite. 
After the spectacular descent into Dover (this time the Garmin says -13%, that is already a big one) we stop at Emmaüs. We then go back to our pebble beach to wait for the ferry.
We go to the check-in while following the red line (it’s well done for bicycles on this side). The boat is late, we won’t have time to eat in Calais so we will eat while crossing the Channel.
Three cyclists embark with us, they go to Amsterdam while only wearing jeans, with a just a saddle bag each. Once aboard, we are going to the brasserie that is deserted. The dinner is really nice at a window table. Unfortunately the delay has gotten worse and we have missed our train, and the tandem’s derailleur doesn’t work anymore… that won’t spoil our holidays! Quickly booking a hotel, we’ll see if we could get reimbursed a part later. We quit the terminal to Calais center.
After breakfast we ride to the station to get back to Lille. It’s lightly raining and we prefer doing a few hundreds meter to reach Calais-Ville than attempt Calais-Frethun where we could have caughta faster train, we are not real kitted for rain.
Back home, this journey in Kent was stunning. Combining cycling, faily, music and friends, while all spending good times doesn’t happen every day! We’ll go back cycling in England, even if weather was not idea, prediction were precise!