Here we go again off to Holland for the weekend.
These Bulbfield Weekends signal the start of summer for
me and I’m looking forward to going.
Our normal pick-ups go off okay and I’m away from
Guildford at 06:20 and on my way to Dover for our 09:25 sailing to Calais.
A short comfort stop at Clackett Lane services and we
arrive in a surprisingly quiet Dover at 08:25.
It is May Bank Holiday weekend and I thought it would be
a lot busier than this.
No passport or security checks before booking in and
driving to lane 210 ready for imminent boarding. As with the last Bruges trip
we are sailing on the massive Spirit of France, and although busier than two
weeks ago it is still quiet on the boat.
Should be a good crossing as it is a lovely sunny day.
I once again enjoy the full fatboys breakfast! I rarely
have fried breakfast but do enjoy one on the boat. I was up at 03:00 this
morning so by the time I sit down to eat it is over six hours later so no
wonder my little belly is grumbling!
Driving off into a sunny Calais at 12:20 local time I
head towards Dunkirk and then the Belgian border bypassing Ostend, Bruges and
Ghent before reaching the Antwerp ring road.
This is always a busy road and as we approach it the
traffic is moving so I press on and plan to stop about half an hour the other
side at the Belgian/Dutch border.
It is always a relief to drive away from Antwerp because
you know the rest of the journey shouldn’t be too bad, even though the Dutch
have a serious traffic problem, as the heavy holiday traffic should be going
the other way!
Yeah right!!!
We are five minutes away from the border and our stop
when we join the back of a traffic jam. It is
We queue and queue and queue!
It is infuriating and frustrating in equal measure and I
have to pull over onto the hard shoulder to have a wee!! When you gotta go you
gotta go!
When I have finished the traffic hasn’t moved an inch!
I can see the service area signs ahead and am sorely
tempted to drive the mile down the hard shoulder but decide against it, unlike
a Spanish coach! I’m glad I didn’t as a little further on there is a camera across the road trained on the hard
shoulder.
I did go when 500m away though and as we entered the
service area there was another hold up of vehicles queuing to rejoin the
motorway! I end up parking in the car bays as too much of a queue to reach the
bus bays.
It is now 16:00 and have to have a 45 minute break.
By the time we depart at 16:45 the traffic is moving a
bit better and we are soon on our way with only an hour and a half to go.
The cause of the delay has been a serious accident about
a kilometre from the service area.
Twenty minutes later the bloody traffic stops again!!!
We queue and queue and queue again!
Bum!!
Another 45 minute delay due to a broken down lorry! Bum!
As we approach the stricken lorry the traffic is being
filtered into a single lane and a nice Dutch driver beckons me across before I
can see the signs. What a nice man.
We clear this latest set-back and I have a short stop to ring
the hotel with our arrival time of 19:20, the same time as the other group due
in this evening.
I book our dinner for 20:00.
I arrive in Lelystad, a town I don’t know, and for the
first time today put my trust in the magic of sat nav! Don’t know why I bother
as it takes me through a shopping street with large sleeping policemen and then
sends me the wrong way! After a quick detour I pass the hotel, it was spotted
by a passenger, on the wrong side of the road.
I turn around and pull up behind two other coaches one of
which is unloading and is the nice coach that let me out earlier!
He is unloading a lot of Americans with a lot of large
luggage which is all being checked in by the hotel.
I quickly grab our room keys as the Americans queue to
receive theirs individually and hand them out once I’ve unloaded. We give the
porterage a miss as it will be much quicker taking our own cases up and then
have time for a quick wash and change before dinner.
I only have twenty passengers so it doesn’t take too
long.
There are two parking spaces outside the hotel but they
are both taken so I have to go away and park, but not very far mind! About a
minute’s walk away!
Our hotel is the very comfortable Apollo Hotel Lelystad
situated right in the heart of this modern Dutch town. You can tell it is a
modern town as there are very few traffic lights but plenty of roundabouts!
The hotel is good but I’m not so struck on Lelystad, it
feels like I’m on holiday in Basingstoke!
It is a good location for visiting places with it’s close
proximity to the motorway and Amsterdam is less than an hour away.
Dinner is a buffet served on the first floor and on
arrival in the restaurant the lovely waitress Rose offers everyone a welcome
drink at the bar. Usually these welcome drinks are a bit of fizzy wine and
juice but we could have whatever drink we want! Happy with that! And that is
now two hotels on the spin (Academie Bruges the other) that I have been
impressed with our welcome. French hotels please take note!
As I’ve said our dinner is buffet and there is soup, a
good salad buffet and then a hot buffet with fish, meat and pasta. After we
have finished our main course the dessert buffet is brought out and we have a
choice of fresh fruit salad, profiteroles and mouse.
No comments:
Post a Comment