Return leg part 2 and home

I can here water running as I lay in bed at the le Florence - tipping it down outside but as its 06:00 time still to clear up & stop so roll over and nod off again until 08:00 as no hurry to get up today.

As it happens, at 8 its stopped raining and its down for breakfast, loaded up and on the road for 0915.

If i get me finger out I've got time for a 90 minute stop at the blockhouse at Eperlecques, which is only 25 mins from the ferry.

I've seen the big brown signs for this place everytime I go up or down the A26 but never been in a position to stop & visit ( also there's La Coupole but that'll have to wait for another day and then the mysterious big brown signs on the A26 will no longer hold any mystery).

The blockhouse was built by the Germans in 1943/44 to accommodate over 100 V2 missiles at a time and to launch up to 36 daily. It was never completed as a result repeated bombing, but what was built is staggering in scale.

only about a third of the original design of the bunker was built - up to16 feet thick walls, but they forgot to put in windows to let some light in as its very dark inside.

Inside, with a V2 rocket in position for rolling out and firing, the rocket is 45 foot high. They'll have a problem launching it as they've blocked the door and theres no hole in the roof - at least for the first one they launch, after that they'll be a bloody big one!

Wrecked north side of the complex from bombing - it was the americans that did this particular damage in 1943. The Brits hit the big bunker a year later with a 'tall boy' bomb (dropped 32 hit with1)

The tour is easily completed within 90 mins and I get to the ferry in perfect time for check in at 12:45 - and rolling straight on, no stopping from check in to strapping down. Flat calm crossing and after 6 days away and 1600 miles later, back in Lincoln for 1730. A good trip overall and will be worth repeating in the future with probably a stop in Luxembourg chucked in instead of 3 in Germany, but would try & organise it around a wine festival for definite (if going in October)