Boxing Day, Lille in France

Adventuring we do go, adventuring we do go, hi ho we got up very early the next day. We had arranged a very nice taxi company to collect us at 7am to drive us to the bus stop in Cambridge. Where we were to catch a bus to London at 7.45am and get a train to Lille at around midday. True we did have an hour or so to kill once we reached London but we wanted to allow time to get lost and found again before the train left. The experience really was quite interesting, to compare it with flight. I must say I found it a bit more relaxing, sure you still have customs etc but it was easier and not so many people. We just walked through, got a new stamp in our passport (yippy) and sat in the lounge area having hot chocolate.



The train was also very nice, only an hour and forty minutes to Lille. Ben and I watched the scenery go by and when we were in the tunnel we watched his new Red Dwarf dvd. All very pleasant. After arriving at Lille train station we walked to the hotel, a mere few blocks away and found that Mecure hotels up to standard yet again. Very nice and it included yummy french breakfast as well. Our first adventuring in Lille was to locate the Christmas markets, of course which we did and shop. We enjoyed the lovely hot drinks on offer, I had hot apple juice, super warming and boy did we need it. Ben had the spiced wine. It was all very magical with the darkness, twinkling lights, carols and smells of roasting chesnuts. I did my very transaction with the french and it went well, well not the language as such but we got what we paid for. Ben, who can at least read the french and has a better understanding of how it should sound did not want to enter into this world as he did not want to appear the dreadful tourist with no ability to speak the language. So it was up to me to be the bold and unbashful tourist and it was amazing, quite liberating really. I now feel I could fluffy my way through an language transaction for snacks as you basically know what they are saying anyway, do you want a bag with that etc and you just smile and shake your head. Though I must say we are going to try our hardest to get some German into our head before adventuring again.



The second day of our tour we walked and walked. We looked at the architecture, gardens and markets and even went into an art gallery before surcoming to the cold and going back to the hotel. That night was spent at the Christmas markets also where we went on the fairess wheel. Boy does it go very high into the sky and it make a terrible noise as well and swung in the wind. We were pleased to find the ground after that though it was fun in some odd way. We also brought some snacks this night as well, Ben had a crepe with hazel nut chocolate filling and I had a fruit dipped in chocolate. I was going to have the waffles but we had eaten quite a lot of cheese and bread already.



Our other discoveries during this trip included the oldest bakery in Lille where Ben had a real chocolate eclair and I had a custard pastry thing with raspberries on top, yummy. We also checked out the chocolate shops which appeared to be almost as numerous as the bakeries. This was also very tasty stop. We went to the biggest market as well which was very odd. Think paddy's market but about three times as big and outside. The stalls sometimes didn't even have tables. One was a frenzy of all this women going through a huge pile of lose sheets. It was quite incredible and I did try out my buying power here as well and we got Ben some nice warm gloves. After this we were a bit tired out and so we went to wait for our train. This trip has definitely helped us in our approach to travel in Europe. We have learn a lot and will never under estimate the cold again, it was very hard going as we don't spend nearly that much time outside in England so 3 degrees was much colder than home. All fun though and we look forward to our next adventure which we believe will be Lyon.