The alarm went off at 3:15 am today, nope, that wasn't a typo...3:15! AM! It was worth it, we were leaving our hotel for England. Amazingly our hotel had someone working the breakfast room to feed us before our departure. We had a 4 hour 45 minute journey ahead of us to get to Calais. Needless to say our bus ride was extremely quiet, despite 52 people being on board. Two hours into the ride we stopped at a rest area/truck stop. By French law, coach drivers must take a driving break every few hours. In this case because the driver's day started so early, by this time he was required to take a 45 minute break. Everything is logged by him. He must write down start and end times. In fact the bus will not start without him breathing into a breathalyzer! Genius! Not to mention it adds another layer of security to the ride. The scenery during the ride was beautiful, lots of rolling hills and green fields. There was a thick layer of fog for a fair amount of the ride (at least I could see it during the daylight). We arrived at the ferry port in Calais at about 10:45. This is where we had to go through customs and passport control. It was interesting that the French officials were not nearly as friendly as the English officials. After unloading our bags, we were taken by shuttle bus directly onto the ferry. We ate lunch on the ferry and had our choice of curries, British meat pies or burgers. It was fun to see the students stepping out of their comfort zones and trying new foods. The ferry ride was only about 90 minutes long and well worth the wait for the view of the cliffs of Dover on the other side of the channel. We disembarked, met our transfer bus and drove to Canterbury where we would do a self guided tour of the cathedral and have a bit of free time to walk around the old part of the city. It is a beautiful little city with what appeared to be a large amount of tourism and school groups. The interior of the cathedral was beautiful. The detail of the stone work and stained glass windows was extraordinary. Back on the bus to head to our hotel in Croydon, an area just south of London. We are staying at a Hilton and it is very nice. Some of the larger group went into the city because they leave for the states on Saturday. El Paso opted to stay in the hotel area and have dinner and an early night. Five of us opted for a Chinese restaurant down the street because we were not too thrilled about the other local food choices...McDonald's, TGIFridays or Pizza Hut. And now we call it a night. Our bus day was relaxing, but we still managed to get in almost 14,000 steps. That stunned me considering how much time we spent sitting. Tomorrow is London. It's going to be a busy day seeing the high points of the city and we are all looking forward to it.
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