From bustle of Paris we headed north through the countryside to Calais, where our wonderful car GPS took us not to the eurotunnel (chunnel) but to the truck/freight… a tangle of one way roads and roundabouts that once entered provided no obvious way out. Eventually we got to the head of the queue where a bemused traffic director headed us to a way out to the road to the chunnel.

The tunnel is amazing. it’s a drive on – drive off train. so you park on the train, sit in the car (or get out and walk around the foot paths besides the cars) and 35 minutes later you drive off on the other side of the channel. No delays because of bad weather. No getting seasick!  🙂

View from Croft Hill, Leicestershire

After that we hit the motorways and sped to Leicester where our cousin Duncan very kindly accommodated us and showed us around. He lives about 10 km south of Leicester city centre, way out in the country. Lots of public footpaths in all directions past hedgerow edged fields, canals, disused railways. There were signs of habitation from millenia ago – moated sites, roman roads etc… A very relaxing place, which is what we needed after the frenzy of eurofootball-Paris.

Richard III tomb, Leicester Cathedral

Leicester hit the media in 2012 with the discovery of the remains of King Richard III under what is now a carpark, but was previously the gronds of Greyfriar’s Church, so we headed to the Cathedral to see the place where his remains were re-interred.

Archaeological dig, Bradgate Park

Deer, Bradgate Park

Frame knitting machine, Wigston

We enjoyed trips to local parks like Bradgate Park with ruins, archaeological digs, wildlife and scenery, and headed out to the Framework Knitters’ museum at Wigston.

We also headed out to Ironbridge, about 120 km east, a fascinating place, but I’ll leave that for another post.

Lots more photos at https://goo.gl/photos/sJvjaTHbsuhGVm2Z8