Hooray , it's another roadtrip

At last, we are off again. After failing to get away to Corsica earlier in he summer, we are back on the road. It's a great feeling, although I'm always just a little apprehensive about embarking on a long journey. The more I learn about vehicle maintenance, the more l know what there is to go wrong. The result: more tools and more spare parts. At least this landy isn't complicated, plus I can slide underneath without needing to lift it.

We have picked Hull-Rotterdam because it’s only 85 miles to Hull and then we are on-board, plus the nice people at P&O held our previous payment as credit and we used it to rebook this trip.

So here we are, boarding the Pride of Rotterdam at the rear (due to our 2.7m height with the box). We are dwarfed by motor homes and camper vans and later by a desirable Sprinter 4x4 on its way home to Germany plus many others that completely fill the deck in all directions.

The Skylounge is an early call, just to get the trip off to a good start. Although we soon move away from a group of three loud English bikers who are so excited about their trip that they are effing and blinding at full volume. Oh I wish the pianist would start - that’s something I don’t get to say often.

The crossing is calm and we resist the temptation to “dance the night away at the disco, beginning at 23:30”. We know that the same voice will come back throught the cabin loudspeaker in the morning at 07:00 which feels like 06:00. Why do they need to tell us that breakfast is served? Maybe the disco dancers need an alarm call but we do not.

Disembarkation is supposed to start at 08:45 but here at deck 3, at the bottom, we are held for sometime and then eventually join the queues outside for passport control.

This proves to be a tedious wait, not only for us non-EU-ers but also the proper Europeans whose queue takes as long as ours to get through. It’s nearly an hour before we jump out and press our fingers to the print reader and have yet another mug shot taken. It’s harder for us legals to get through than it is for the boat people. All’s good; we pass the checks and at least the guy is friendly. Dank u wel! Customs is unmanned and we drive through with no worries and onto the A15.

It’s busy and I need the full 10.2” of the iPad screen to be able to navigate through the lanes as we pass through intersections. We go with the flow and so that means about 110 km/hr. It’s only an hour to the first planned stop and we happily park for a wander around a fortified town. It’s on an island of reclaimed land, with water all around. The first café we see is grabbed and we have coffee and cake for a mid morning pick us up.

It’s not raining (weather forecast said it would be) and we get to the overnight stop at Heusen, yet another island old town and pass through the barrier with the code sent to us at noon, following our booking of last night.

This is a parkplatz and is beautifully situated next to a busy waterway and within shouting distance of the old town bars, although thankfully the effing and blinding bikers are somewhere else. “At least it isn’t effing raining” had been the last thing I heard as we descended to the depths of car deck 3.

It has been an amazing switch from the busy motorway network to what feels like real Holland. We’ve already seen plenty of windmills. I assume they are redundant but they are kept in very presentable condition.

There’s so much agriculture and an incredible amount of water. I have no idea if it’s salt or fresh. I assume it’s fresh, so far from the sea and the waterways are full of shipping here at Heusden there’s a big marina and some of the craft nip in and out of the main waterway to the north side of the parkplatz. The main event though, happens every 5-10 minutes when a huge barge comes along. These monsters are over 100m long and they go up and down with their loads, plus a car or two at the stern. It’s a big business.

We walk into and around the town and then literally walk around it on the earth works above the moats, that separate it from the rest of the land.

A few dozen cannon have been placed onto new carriages but these were only cast in the early 19C Were cannon still used then? Maybe they were.

As we’ve seen on other trips, the Dutch have a lovely way of leaving their rooms very visible to the passer-by. It seems to normal to walk along the road, looking into a shop window or two and then find yourself staring into a house, with the occupier sitting there doing whatever.

This is a special town and it has its own character and charm. It’s very nice.

The main square has several ‘eateries’ and we make a note of the most appropriate one and come back in the early evening. We drink fine pilsner and share a starter of bread and dips, very well sold to us by the waitress. She’s skilled in the technique of up-selling.