Are you paying attention?

Every day for the last two years during lockdown, Kim has spent time diligently improving her ability to speak French. So as the world begins to open up our first post-Covid adventure is to…. Holland.

Neither of us know any Dutch but our passports are dusted off, the car has it’s post Covid UK stickers. We are staying in Leiden, with Jacky and Ken, and cycling to see the tulip display at the Kuekenhof gardens. Trips to Delft and Amsterdam are also on the itinerary.

If you have been paying attention to the news over the last couple of days, you will know that the last place you want to be, in the UK, is Dover and that is where we headed for our ferry crossing.

This is where you really do need to pay attention… our original crossing to Dunkirk was scheduled for 8am, DFDS changed it to noon. Bad weather and crashed ships had upset their timetable and that’s without mentioning the P&O debacle. We complained about the noon sailing so DFDS helpfully re-arranged for 8:30 to Calais.

We left home at 4am for the 2 hour journey, made really good time until we were 2 miles from the port and it all started to go wrong.

Dover was at a standstill and we mean the whole of Dover.

You have to feel sympathy for the lorry drivers, hundreds parked up on the Dover approach roads, many of whom had been there without any facilities for over 24 hours, it’s easy to see why they are becoming increasingly relectant to deliver to the UK

Eventually we made it to check in at 11am, and booked on the noon Calais sailing. Yippee, we thought. Ken and Jacky were checked in an hour ahead of us and on the same ferry. Never mind the delays, we were now the correct side of the check in barrier

To cut the rambling short, we drove straight onto an empty ferry which promptly departed early at 11:30 and left Ken and Jacky, in Dover, wondering how on earth they weren’t in France ahead of us.

Amongst the first to disembark, after a 3 hour effortless drive on some lovely roads we reached our first planned stop at Willemstad. We’d stayed there on a previous cycling holiday and it was still beautiful. The sun was out but the wind was bitter so we didn’t stay long.

So we haven’t done much today, other than sit in queues and drive a long way. An early night beckoned and you have to love a hotel that hides cards like this in your bed