Five countries in one day.

Our tour coach to Germany with John our driver.

Monday morning and we arose at the ungodly hour of 02.30hrs to catch our coach at 04.00hrs to the German Christmas Markets in Cologne in Germany. There was a bit of snow around but not enough to give us concern of the trip being a non event. The coach was on time which was a wonder as the driver had started off from Skegness around midnight and he wasn’t doing the pick ups in what I would consider the logical order.

After leaving March he headed off to Huntingdon, Ely and then Cambridge but in doing so came back almost to March after leaving Huntingdon before heading to Ely. He was doing so much back tracking it was taking longer than necessary. At Cambridge we changed drivers to our full time tour coach driver due to the first being a temporary fill in driver (thank goodness).We had a good run down to Dover where we caught the 10.00hrs sailing to Calais.

The ferry crossing wasn’t too bad but there was a swell running about mid channel which had passengers swaying around and having to hang onto hand rails to go anywhere. France was sporting a good coating of snow and we had more snow falls throughout the day. We made an unscheduled stop at PJ’s chocolate factory in Belgium to give the driver his rest break. Plenty of chocolate was purchased but the smokers among us were complaining that the cigarette’s were no cheaper than in the UK.

After leaving Belgium and travelling across Holland and into Germany we became slower and slower due to more frequent and heavier snow falls. Another stop was made to refill the fuel tank and empty many rather full bladders. The on-board facilities were deemed for emergency only. We eventually arrived at our hotel in Brodenbach at 21.00hrs, 2 hours late. Luckily the hotel kept the dining room open so we could get a hot meal. It transpired that 2 other coaches also arrived late after us causing untold problems for the hotel.

This is what greeted our arrival in Germany.

We actually felt quite sorry for the passengers who had boarded the coach at Skegness as they had been on the coach for 21 hours allowing for the one hour time change between Britain and Europe. We felt jaded even though we had had 6 hours less travel than them.

More to come tomorrow…