On the Road Again!

With the chosen dates almost set in stone due to dog sitting courtesy of my Aunt Yvonne and Audrey, I have been checking the ferries. When there are only one or two crossings a day on the ones we have chosen, it is important to get them booked. Harwich to the Hook of Holland, the only reasonable North Sea crossing for those of us in the south of England, currently coming in at £253 for the return crossing for me, Claire and Dora, inc cabin, it is filling up. The other is the "cruise" from Hirtshals in Denmark across to Bergen in Norway.  It takes 16 hours and arrives about 1230 (lunchtime) so we should be able to get some deck time and see the scenery slide past.  This one is about £150 for the single journey.   Both crossings are overnight for the most part and so we travel as we sleep.  The alternative, of shorter ferries, will use up more valuable day time. I chose August as a gamble on the Fjord weather and also that once we return from Florida in early June we n...

Earlier, Cal mentioned the ferry deal that he is looking at with P&O. Everyone, that  we know is going. will have received an email asking whether you want in or out, and if in, the details of the bike you will be taking; make and regno. Please let him know by March 19th.

Up bright and early for the 0815 ferry Dover to Calais. One small and significant problem. Our neighbour that was due to take the keys and feed the cat was nowhere to be seen. It was too early to contact Seafrance or even our other neighbour. In the we loaded the car and set off about 9am. Our second neighbour was happy to do it and we always feed her cat when she is away. Sadly as we missed our sailing we have incurred a £19 surcharge on the ferry and a three hour later ferry. Once off the ferry we were soon on the way eastwards. The planned route via Gent, Antwerp, Eindhoven and Venlo, then across into Germany and a northern route into the Ruhr for our first overnight stop in Bochum. The TomTom took us right to the hotel front door. With stops for a snack soup lunch in Belgium and a coffee break in Netherlands we took about five hours Calais to hotel. not bad considering we stuck to about 70mph most of the way and the various roadworks between Antwerp and the Eindhoven turn on the mo...