Hull to Gedney


 Pforzheim to Gedney


Susi and l are happily in the UK at our friend Jill Duffy’s house. We only had one misadventure getting here from Germany, which is a good average compared to the way our luck has gone previously.


 Our good friends Juanita and Bill Harvin picked us up from Phorzheim on the night before we were to leave for the drive to the ferry in Rotterdam and that saved us the trouble of having  to get the airport early next morning . We had a pleasant drive to a nice restaurant in Esslingen where we had a delicious meal and pleasant conversation with both them and the restaurant owner. After the visit, they dropped us off at the airport where we picked up the car and drove back to Pforzheim to get a nice rest and do some final down scaling packing. 


Alas, I inadvertently left Angela the gift of Covid. I guess she didn’t think she was at risk, since she had it before. Being the trooper that she is, she looked at it as an opportunity to get some time to rest before returning to work from her very busy vacation. Sorry Angi!


Our trip to the Rotterdam airport went smoothly, but dropping the car off was a bit mysterious as the signs directed us to the parking lot to park the car off but not to where we needed to turn in the keys. So once we parked the car, I loaded up the luggage trolly and started wandering around following the rental center signs. Eventually, we managed to find the building for rentals, but the desk for Sixth was vacant. The woman for Avis said that the person for Sixth was not there that day, but if we trundled over to the main terminal, we should be able to find the drop box for the key, which we did.


The next challenge was to find a taxi to the ferry. Information woman walked out with me to the taxi stand and explained to the driver what we needed, specifically telling him we needed to get to Rotterdam for the P&O Ferry. No problem he promised but it would cost 100 euros or so. At that point, having experienced carrying luggage and the cat, 100 euros sounded like a good deal as the terminal was supposed to be 24 miles from the airport. S0, we all got loaded up and had a nice ride, but we were taken to the Stenna Ferry terminal. The driver insisted that Stenna and P&O were now one and the same. Okay, so he helped us get everything in the terminal and left.  


Susi and I made a quick pit stop and walked over to the registration window. After the clerk asked us a few questions, she informed us not only that this was the wrong terminal, but the P&O terminal was 40 minutes away and would cost 100 euros to get to. On top of that, there were only two taxis that made that run.One was booked solid and the other couldn’t get to us for at least an hour.  Taxis only take cash. There were no ATM’s in the terminal so I was directed to go across the railroad tracks to the grocery store to replenish my cash supply that had beeb depleted by the first taxi ride.  


In the end, the new person showed up, got us all loaded up and we took off in the midst of the afternoon traffic rush hour to get to the correct terminal.  Despite making a couple of wrong turns and frustrating difficult traffic flow problems, she got us there with time to spare. I gratefully paid her with a nice tip and entered the terminal where from then on we were treated like royalty for the entire trip across to Hull. The trans channel voyage  was like a mini cruise. The large ship had several restaurants, live music and private cabins. We had booked the pet friendly room and they provided bowls and mats for the cat.  


We ended up staying up later than  planned listening to a young man from Hull who played guitar and sang a terrific set of mellow romantic songs in the Sky Lounge. In the morning, we were again treated royally with porters carrying our luggage and the cat in his carrier (oh, it was a much smaller carrier than we struggled with on the plane) down the gang plank to an awaiting taxi. 

This time the driver knew exactly where our rental agency was and dropped us  off early.  So from there it was only a matter of getting used to driving on the left side of the road again and threading our way out of the city traffic to make it to Jill’s place in Gedney. 

 Yesterday, we drove into Peterborough and enjoyed some shopping and coffee breaks while waiting to pick up Susi’s real visa at the post office. That was tricky, because I expected the post office to look like a post office, but was just some windows and kiosks in the back of a book store.  Nevertheless, she got it and one step closer to the goal has been accomplished.


More on our adventure soon

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