Travel by car and ferry

I had travelled by ferry before, but I had never driven to the ferry port; let alone from the ferry port on the other side. I was a bit nervous about the last bit! I have practically never driven in the Netherlands. I don’t know the roads. I am totally happy on the rail network, but I have no clue about the motorways! 

The first thing, though, was to get to Hull. I gave myself plenty of time. I had looked on the map; getting there seemed straightforward. Just drive to Manchester, do one left-right manoeuvre to bypass the city over the north, and then just keep driving until the docks in Hull. But it was so far it required at least one break. 

I was quite happily trundling on. I had a toilet break fairly early on. I also wanted a coffee break a bit later, but that seemed complicated. Lay-bys don’t seem to be a thing anymore, and any service station I might want to use was having building work done and not accessible. 

When I got to a nature reserve with beautiful barren hills (some northern end of the Peak District, I think) I just took an arbitrary exit. I found somewhere to park my car. And I could finally have my break. I needed it by then! And it was a combined coffee and lunch break by now. With the windows open for fresh air. And a loo break. In the bracken. 

Lunch break site

From there I drove on. Not too far from Hull I had another loo break. I didn’t know if there were loo facilities in the queue for driving onto the ferry! And then I drove on. The motorway leads you elegantly to the ferry port. And as nothing had gone wrong, and I had taken fewer breaks than intended, I was early. 

I hadn’t done a car check-in before. It was a bit weird, but easy enough. Soon I was parked, and could get to my hut. I decided to do some work there, and then have improvised dinner. Then I had some fresh air, seeing Hull vanish. Then I went to bed. 

The next morning I improvised some breakfast, and topped it up with a coffee and croissant from the ferry cafe. Then I packed. I was nervous! Now I would have to drive to Amersfoort over the Dutch roads. Scary!

Sunrise over the port of Rotterdam 

It went ok. After passport checks I planted myself behind the reassuring bum of a lorry that had come off the same ferry. And I just trundled along. I knew the route was simple: A15, A27, A28, done. But sometimes you still have to pay attention. Sometimes you suddenly have to be in a particular lane or something. But it went largely ok. 

Once I responded too slow and missed my junction. I took the opportunity to just come off at the next one, have a loo break, and recalibrate. And from there, all went well. And soon I was looking for a parking spot near my mum’s. I had made it!