Wednesday August 10 Harwich to Hook of Holland

Evening on the beach with Rotterdam port in the distance

We were awake early after a good night’s sleep, so packed up the van, had a cup of coffee then off to the ferry about 6. Easy drive down with very little traffic as you can imagine at this time of the morning, went through ticketing at 7 then waited at the front of the queue for loading at 8.30am. All very efficient. The Stena Brittanica that we travelled on is 240 metres long, so a tad bigger than the Cook Straight ferries!!!

My history of seasickness is not good (ask Ian about the last time!!) but today I had Heather H’s “magic pills” and the 7 hour trip passed by without any hiccups. Mind you for much of the way the sea was like a millpond. We had paid a bit extra to use the “Stena Plus Lounge” and decided it was well worth it, we sat in a really nice lounge with coffee, wine, juices and nibbles on tap and it was a child free room so very quiet. Didn’t have a wine though…didn’t trust it! The trip passed by very quickly and we also caught up with Michael and Sonny and their family for a good chat and getting more info on Netherlands. Had to put our clocks forward so that made the trip even quicker!!! And the weather is superb, sunny all day.

Couldn’t get over how many wind farms there are in the North Sea, as well as the vast number of boats just sitting in the middle of the sea. They looked like oil carriers.

Rotterdam is a huge port, in fact one of the largest in the world, fascinating to see as we sailed past.

We landed and it didn’t take long to disembark, a little “stress” from me as I set the GPS up for Netherlands, but all went well, the roads were very quiet, Ian kept on the right hand side of the road too, and I managed to navigate to The Jagveld Campsite, less than 10 minutes to the ferry. Wasn’t long and a cold beer was out!

We walked down to the road to the beach, felt so good to have the fresh sea air but didn’t put my toes in although there were some people swimming. Hardy souls I think!

Our first impressions of Netherlands are excellent, with wide streets, very tidy…..and all the bikes! I had heard that there are lots of bikes, but really surprised by the sheer numbers – sorry no photos of them. The majority are cruising type bikes and notice quite a few have wee motors on them. They are very upright and look so different to the mountain bikes that we see all over Rotorua.

Anyway it is good to finally be here..let the adventure really begin!

So lucky with the weather...waiting at the front of the queue to load

Farewell UK, as we pass the historic town of Harwich

The port of Rotterdam

Coming into the port at Hook of Holland

How is this Lynn???!!!