06 April 2023

Sorting out boat travel to the Netherlands

It is so easy to fly! You just book a ticket, which is probably going to be rather cheap. Then you drive to the airport (ok, you need to book parking as well), and get on the plane. You land in an airport that has excellent train connections. So simple!

I have lost a year of my life trying to book train tickets to the Netherlands. It looks like you really need to do that very far in advance. Maybe I should book them for Christmas by now? And it is a bit of a faff; you first have to find your Eurostar tickets, and then you need to book national trains tickets that align with these. And then you have to think about how you get to the nearest railway station in the first place.

I now have been sorting out all the details for my trip to the Netherlands by boat. I managed to book train tickets to and from Hull! And I think I am sorted with regard to transport between the Hull railway station and ferry terminal. The last thing I was struggling with was transport between the ferry terminal in Rotterdam, and anywhere in civilisation. It's not something you can just walk!

I find it a bit disheartening that flying is by far the easiest and cheapest way of moving around. Flights are so bad for the environment, but it takes so much money and time and stubbornness to avoid them! It is easy to imagine that not everyone thinks that's worth it. It would be great if the political will was there to make non-flying travel an easy default option. But I am not going to hold my breath. For now, the best thing I can hope for is getting some routine in organising either train or ferry travel! And that in the future, it won't be the struggle it is now!

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