Following on from part one of the return trip…the day started at 0800; hot chocolate was all fixed and ready to go, Simon and Julia had already been arguing . . . here we go again!
We had gassed up the night before so it was straight onto Malmö and the bridge to Kopenhagen. Traffic was reasonably light and the roads were good and clear so we barrelled along at 80 mph until we hit fog about half way down Denmark. Fog aside we made Rødby in good time and got onto the ferry within 10 minutes of arriving. A coffee, cuddly toy and some sweets for Simon and we were in Germany. Again the roads were largely clear of ice and snow so we kept up a good pace and soon discussion turned to what route to take back home.
The Hook of Holland ferry was the more luxurious but distinctly expensive choice at £270 compared to the anticipated £60 for Calais – Dover, but the total driving distance was starting to look daunting. Hook of Holland should come in at 900 miles arriving back in England at 0700 having had a good kip on the ferry. If we went for Calais we would be adding a good 2 or 3 hundred miles onto the trip and would be driving through the night with an eta in Norfolk of 2 or 3 am.
We decided to put off the decision until after Hamburg. We nearly didn’t make it that far, just as I was reaching for another banana from the back of the car hazard lights came on all over the place; the Merc on the inside slammed its brakes on. Jenny performed well under pressure and stopped before we hit the car in front. My ranting at the mad German drivers came to an abrupt halt as a Doberman trotted past the left hand side of the car into the traffic screeching to a halt behind us. Once we were underway again we saw a couple of police cars heading the other way hopefully to herd the dog into a safe place rather than officiate at an accident.
At Hamburg Marie cracked and said she would pay for the Hook of Holland ferry much to my relief. We had to get there by 2130 which should have proved no issue had there not been an accident in a tunnel 20 kilometres from the port. A twenty minute wait in traffic was followed by a detour into Rotterdam which we escaped from thanks to a very well informed garage attendant who gave us some expert directions back to the main road.
The plan had been to get a Mac D’s before getting onto the ferry but we couldn’t find one so ended up eating some less than satisfying food on the ferry.
All is now set for a fry up on the way home from Harwich and the final two hours drive home.
