On Monday morning I was waiting for our bus which should take us to Malo-les-Bains which belongs now to Dunkerque in France. From 1891 to 1969, it was an autonomous municipality, before it merged with Dunkerque. The main feature of Malo-les-Bains is its 4 km beach on the North Sea, which was one of the sites of Operation Dynamo in 1940 (evacuation of British troops following the German breakthrough).
When we had arrived in Dunkerque, a guide came on board of the bus to explain what munition had been found or still found by children and others on the beach. All things which I had experienced from my childhood in Germany where we also found strange things, and were not allowed to touch them, it could have been a bomb or a grenade, and that was in in 1949, when I started school in Bonn. So I closed my ears and googled for other things about Dunkerque.
We drove by bus around Dunkerque and I could shoot some pictures. There I realized that my phone is not practical at all to make a quick photo shoot, because before I had opened it, gave the code, opened the camera, my object was already gone ! I only could take pictures when the bus stopped.
-001.jpg)
.jpg)
Unfortunately the only picture from Dunkerque was the city hall, because the bus made a halt.
-001.jpg)
and these modern houses on our way to Malo les bains.
We stopped at the restaurant "L'Iguane" which was located on the beach and from where we could see the sea. There were not many people probably because it was on a Monday.
-001.jpg)
We occupied three table ranges and fortunately I sat with the funniest one. There was a lady and two gentlemen of 90 and 92 who made us laugh all the time, especially when they had two glasses of wine inside !
The menu was
A White Lady (Dame Blanche)
Beer, water, wine,
As usual the restaurant lasted far too long, so we had no other time to see something else from Malo or Dunkerque then
.jpg)
The beach. Honestly I have to say, I was so full from our lunch that I just sat down and watched the people walking by and forgot to take pictures. That has never happened.
Then we returned to our bus direction the Dunkerque port museum.
I was a bit reluctant to wander one hour around in a ship museum, with probably again war stories, so I googled and decided that it wasn't interesting for me, but I would follow the others of course.
When the guide started to explain and talked and talked, I was still close to the door and 5 min later I disappeared and went outside breathing the fresh sea air and admiring the huge sailing ship " Duchess Anne" ! I would have liked to see its inside but wasn't sure if I could make it in time, so I made a few pictures and sat a while on a bench enjoying the sunshine.
I also saw the habor for the little sailing boats and it looked quite colorful.
When I returned to the museum there were nearly all the people who were with me at the same table outside all sitting on a bench. They also had found it boring. Our two 90 year old oldies entertained us far better and then we all said, you can't keep all that in your mind it's better to google it at home if it is really interesting for the person.
In the restaurant I had met a lady and when we talked about where we were living, it turned out that she is living in the same building as I on the first floor. That was a surprise, so we chatted together and she came with me when we finally arrived in Waterloo and in the garage we exchanged our telephone numbers. I was very tired, was not hungry, but watched a little movie and then I went to bed. I had had no intention to visit Dunkerque, but I had missed the excursion before, so he put me on this trip that way the money wasn't lost.
I didn't know that only now I realize the fact that I grew up amongst ruins and my school was in a metal container, with old wooden benches on which we sat to 3. We were 80 six or seven year old in one class, boys and girls together, but we still learned to read and write. Strange that I had never thought about that until now, when I heard the explanations about Dunkerque.
That's me when I started school at 7, and a similar looking street I took to go to school in Bonn where I lived (stolen from the net)
The next day I had to recover, it was again very hot, fortunately for our excursion it had been ideal, 23°, I had to buy some water and food for little Rosie and then returned home.
I spent my time on the phone, with the pension office, apparently there are papers missing and I had to fill in some questionaries (again) asking the wedding date of my son (??) and his profession. I wonder what that has to do with my pension ?
I also called my friend whom I know also over 50 years, now her husband my has a general cancer, we once used to work together and our husbands were friends. He starts to have the same signs as Rick, I can't help him, but I can help her distracting her and supporting her which she has done with me. All the other "so said friends" have disappeared, it's just like in India where a widow was considered as "dirty", and burned. Fortunately not today anymore, but that's not so sure because on the country side in hidden little villages, there is no control.
The week ended with an internet glitch, that's why I'm so late. Until it worked again, I went to Adeline who couldn't watch TV and we exchanged the latest news!
