Am off to Trier, Germany’s oldest town, for the Christmas
Markets.
I have 45 passengers and only one pick up point in
Petersfield and am due to depart at 06:15. Luckily I went in early today (at
05:00) as I had to put my own drinks etc on the coach as I’m taking the Plaxton
which is the bus Brian usually drives.
I start it up and discover the fuel has not been topped
up so will have to go to BP garage before picking passengers up.
Am not happy about this as there is no excuse for it not
to have been done.
After filling up I go to the Waitrose car park to await
my flock as they appear sporadically over the next half an hour. We have a
couple of small frights with Steve, one of the taxi drivers, unable to find an
address and a lady who has overslept!
In the end I depart at 06:25. I always allow a little
time for traffic problems so we shouldn’t be late for our shuttle, as long as
we don’t have any traffic problems!!!
I drive straight through to Folkestone, with morning
coffee and biscuits served by Nicola, arriving in time to have a 30 minute
break in the terminal before our train at 09:50. It is very quiet here today
which I am a little surprised about but not complaining about!
Our shuttle leaves bang on time and within 40 minutes we
are driving along the motorway past Calais towards Brussels. Two hours from
Calais we stop at the service area immediately north of Brussels for our lunch
break. I enjoy the thick pea soup which is delicious.
Two and a half hours from here I stop at the first
service area in Luxembourg with the intention of calling the hotel with an
arrival time, giving everybody a break and maybe topping up the fuel as it is
only about £1 a litre. I manage the first two but fuel is a no no with so many
lorries queuing for fuel as well, they must be ten deep at each of the twenty
plus pumps!
By now it is cold and foggy but at least we have less
than an hour to go.
On leaving here we hit the Luxembourg rush hour! Not what
you expect here but the motorway is very busy and with visibility very low due
to the fog it is slow going in stretches. As we leave the motorway and drive
into Trier there is more traffic finally arriving at our hotel, The Mercure, at
18:40. I drop off at the front of the hotel and soon everyone is off and up to
their rooms.
The hotel is in an ideal position for exploring Trier as
one of its most famous monuments, the Porta Nigra, is opposite the hotel and
acts as the beginning of the pedestrianised area where the two Christmas
Markets are.
I wish I could leave
the bus here but have to move it to a parking area. We have dinner booked for
19:45 so I ask the receptionist if he could call me a taxi for twenty minutes
time from the parking area back to the hotel.
I find the parking area and park on a bay where you pay
from 08:00 – 20:00 each day. I use all of my euro coins up putting a ticket on
the coach that will expire at 09:30 in the morning allowing me a bit of a lie
in before I have to move it!
I pick up the worst of the rubbish before locking up for
the night and stand outside waiting for my
taxi. Loads of taxi’s drive by but none want to pick me up! In the end I
walk back through the town to the hotel which only takes about ten minutes!
I take my bags up to my room, dump them, and then whip
downstairs for a quick (and much needed!) beer before dinner.
The restaurant in the hotel offers fantastic views of the
illuminated Porta Nigra and the buildings opposite. Dinner is a buffet but
tonight we are in a room off the main restaurant due to the high number of customers
in the restaurant, there just isn’t room for us.
We have a buffet laid out with starters on one side, main
dishes further down and desserts along another wall. All of the tables are in
seats of tens. Not what we had ordered!! We should be sat at tables of twos,
fours and sixes not big ten seat jobbies!
Anybody who reads my blog must think I am a right old
moaner when it comes to breakfast and dinner in hotels and you may be right!
But I do like meal times to be relaxing and having smaller tables (you can
always make a large one if people want) makes it less intimidating for couples
on their own or those who prefer to sit with friends or on their own.
My other beef with buffet meals is why ask everybody,
especially a group of 45, to come down at the same time. All it does is cause
queues! Why not stagger it over half an hour and we are back to being relaxed.
I do have a moan about it but the head waiter is adamant we all come in at the
same time and there will be no queues. There are! I must admit though the staff
are very good and keep a watchful eye on the buffet and are quick to replenish
any dish that is nearly finished.
The food was good and the only person who seemed to have
an issue with anything was me!
After dinner I went for a stroll into the centre and
around the markets where I think they have the best Christmas atmosphere with
everyone eating and drinking at the various stalls, Christmas music in the air
and a feeling of happiness everywhere. It is lovely.
No comments:
Post a Comment