Sun 13.Jun.2010
Bayeux, Normandy, France
Photos: Sun. 13.Jun, Bayeux, Normandy.
The big fancy house down the road
Text: Tuesday morning 15.Jun,
Bournemouth, England.
[What a ramble this turned into! Feel free to skip it all and just look at the pictures.]
Broken clouds in Bayeux early Monday morning, with patches of
cheering
sun.
That changed crossing the Marshlands National Park (something like
that) into the Cotentin
Peninsula - heavy dark sky, intermittent drizzle.
Add to that the dingy city of Cherbourg. A shared cab with a nice
old
man from train to ferry
stations. A long delay departing: "We're sorry, we have a full load
today. It took a long time to get everything [sic] aboard."
Rather an anti-climactic departure from France. Then we need to re-live
the last hour, as we jump backwards into English time.
By the banks of the river Aude
Poole harbour sits on a huge bay with a very narrow entrance. The
high-speed ferry slowed to 10 knots for in-bay travel.
Approaching the bay entrance, there are even white chalk cliffs on the
left. Beautiful!
Southwest Rail sold me a ticket with a magnetic strip like a BART
ticket or credit card. More like BART than I realized - at Bournemouth
I had to feed the ticket into the exit gate before it would let me off the
platform.
Bournemouth station is in a rather chaotic transit hub, with very
little of the sort of information for newcomers that you come to expect
at continental stations. I asked around and found an ATM. Pounds in my
pocket - an improvement. More asking around - some freebie maps, very
difficult to correlate with my surroundings or with each other.
Finally, the bus ticket office. Buy yr ticket from the driver. The stop
over there where the blue bus is. Wait there. Wait I did, for most of
an hour.
Downtown display
Bless the bus - it had a scrolling lights display, telling the next
stop. After half an hour, Beaulieu Rd
(BEW-lee, so help me) showed up.
It began to rain as I got off the bus. I still had my umbrella from
Slovenia. I found my B&B, and whaddya know, nobody home! No answer
to the bell, or knocking. A sheltered porch at least. So I took off my
pack and waited.
About 15 minutes later the rain stopped and the nice owner-couple
showed up and apologized profusely but they hadn't known when I was
arriving (I was well overdue)
and they needed groceries for next breakfast. What the hey, no harm
done.
My host pointed me toward a shopping area, internet connection, and a
fish & chips shop called Chez
Fred which I enjoyed greatly. By evening I was so at peace with
world that I actually did unnecessary walking to explore my
neighborhood (Alum Chine)
before going to bed.
Street scenes
I repeat, these pictures are all still France. This post has two
parallel time streams, the visual and the verbal.
My li'l shopping neighborhood is called Westbourne Village, my laundry
is being washed and dried a mere 100 m or so away, by attendants, just
like in Greece, 'cept for costing a lot more here.
Unless the rain cuts in, I'll go explore the strip by the ocean front
when it is done.
If a real meteo-miracle cuts in, I may get some photos to illustrate
what a lush pretty neighborhood Alum Chine is. I have only today and
tomorrow left here. Then I am
Fromeward bound.
Hasta next post.
By the Aude again
The view from home
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf