Austria Winter Wonderland Sunday 09 February 2014

Sunday 09 February

I wanted breakfast at 06:30 this morning but because it is a Sunday 07:00 is the earliest we can have. We shall have to depart slightly later and cut down the stopping times on the way up to Calais.

I come down at 06:50 and most of the group are waiting to go into the restaurant as is another rather loud couple.

It looks like this couple have been on the town all night as they are all over each other in the reception area and don’t seem to mind who is watching! The young lady is dressed in a very short dress with a fine array of tattoos on show and it does make you wonder how much she has cost him!

In the large dining room he can be heard from anywhere having a conversation on his phone with the person on the other end on loud speaker. Not really what you want first thing in the morning. Knob!

We are away by 07:50 and begin our 6¼ hour drive up to Calais. Again it is all motorway via Luxembourg (where another top up of fuel is required!), Belgium and France before arriving in Calais at 15:05 for our 16:20 shuttle.

At the ticket booth we are informed there is a two hour delay and we are now on the 18:20! Not happy and not impressed! There has been a technical problem in the tunnel and it is actually shut at the moment.

This is a real pain but there is nothing we can do but wait.

In the end we are an hour and a half late catching our train, driving onto the M20 at 17:30 local time. We have a short comfort stop at Cobham services where the main attraction seems to be the Southampton team coach we are parked next to! It is lovely but then it should be at a cost of £600,000!

We are finished dropping off in Petersfield by 20:00 and soon back at the yard.

It has been a lovely trip with the only thing missing being actual snow falling while we were there. I really liked the hotel, it was quiet, the staff were lovely, the food excellent and we could park the bus on site. Add in the lovely gesture at breakfast yesterday and we are all happy. I will definitely be back.