Back in Blighty

Well done to anyone who managed to read the entirety of the last post. It was an epic, and I promise this one won’t be quite as long. I have far fewer photographs to choose from anyway.

 

Add 1030 to get our real mileage

When I left you we had just fallen asleep in our hotel room about 45km short of Frankfurt. In the previous two days we had done near enough 1400 miles, splitting that quite equally at about 700 per day, and we had about the same amount ahead of us if we were going to reach Manchester the next day. The alarm was set for 5.30am local time and both of us were sleeping almost straight away.

 

Bedroom view with Thomas in the carpark

I woke in the night to the sound of heavy rain outside and went to stand at the window which was still wide open. Our room looked out over the car park where Thomas was parked which was a good thing as I like to keep an eye on our stuff if possible. I stood watching the rain for a bit then headed back to bed and slept again like a log until the alarm went off and we had to drag ourselves reluctantly out of bed and into the shower to wake up.

 

We are the only people awake in the hotel

I popped out to grab the picture of the trip meter and also looked back up to our room, the only one with light on at this time. Once we had taken (what we thought was) everything out to the car we went into the cafe for a cappuccino before hitting the road. A few miles down that road, back on the motorway, we realised that we had left A’s pillow in the room. What a pain, but there was no suggestion to go back for it.

 

The sunrise as seen in Thomas' wing mirror

The roads were pretty clear and the rain had stopped so it was a good time to be driving and we made good progress partly as I threw the 3000rpm limit out of the window for today. I had bought a flexible return ticket which would allow us (we hoped) to travel across the channel today and getting the earliest ferry possible was the target as we had plenty to do once back in the UK. The sun seemed to take ages to start rising today but when it did the colours were amazing. With Thomas so fully laden there was no way to get pictures to our rear but then A looked in the wing mirror and managed to capture it.

 

Colourful graffiti adds interest to concrete walls

Europe is a very clean and tidy place, sometimes almost comically so with how neat they keep their fields even, and we hadn’t seen much littering or graffiti at all at any point. Now we started to see quite a lot on bridges and all over the sound baffle fences by the motorway. I don’t have a problem with this myself as it brings some colour and interest to grey poured concrete.

 

The bridge over the Rhein

I think this is the last bridge picture of the trip and it marks a landmark in that it is the bridge over the Rhein. I continued driving (indeed, today I drove all the way to the ferry so I’ll stop telling you that now) with not much traffic at any point. It was a pretty quick and easy drive today. We stopped briefly for a leg stretch and some fuel but that was about all the breaks we took.

 

The moment when I was told that I was right

After a while was a real red letter moment when I was proven to be correct that we would be driving through the Netherlands on this journey. Here I am, celebrating the fact that A told me I was right. You should all mark this down in your diaries. No seriously.

 

Proof of us entering The Netherlands

And here is the proof that, the same as on the way out with my parents, we did indeed drive into the Netherlands, once again through a nonexistent border control point. I do love the free movement of people, it is certainly the best thing about the EU; maybe even the only good thing.

 

Another eco bridge

The route only briefly dips into the Netherlands as you cut across what looks like a salient between Germany and Belgium and then you are across the border again and into the dullest country on the planet. There was really very little to see or photograph but we did see more of the eco bridges (this one still in the Netherlands; that is how boring Belgium is. We didn’t take a single photograph the whole time) and wind turbines. There was also a lot of bad driving, particularly around Brussels, and more and more UK vehicles visible on the roads.

 

Dunkirk ferry port in the distance

I never thought I would say this but finally we reached France and things got a little more interesting again. We corrected the destination on the sat nav to the port that we were leaving from, which sadly added a few more minutes to our expected arrival time, and then made our way through many roundabouts until finally we could see the port ahead of us in the distance. At the first stop point we handed over the flexible ticket and received the “that won’t be a problem” answer that we so needed to hear. We then went through two passport check points (the French one barely looking at the passports, the UK one asking us to take them out of their covers – you can see who actually cares about people crossing the border illegally) and then a customs check point which was two blokes stood by the side of the road. They got me to open the back and then asked for the roof box to be opened. I said I would if they would help me shut it again and, with a laugh, they agreed and then he actually did jump up on the running board and give me a hand. Fair play.

 

The ferry that would take us across the channel

We drove round to find our waiting point and were the second car from the front of our row; success. A quick trip into the terminal to use the facilities and then we went and sat back in the car and listened to the sounds of families in the surrounding vehicles and waited. A ferry arrived but then docked quite a way from where we were and not at the ramp in front of us so I thought it wasn’t our boat but when the single boarding control lady came running over to start the loading process and we were directed to drive through what seemed like miles of twisting lanes we eventually started driving up the ramp into the bowels of the ship. We then went up again onto the second deck which was fun as I wasn’t totally sure how tall Thomas was with the roof box on. There was no problem however so we parked up and went in to get some lunch.

 

It was pretty nice, actually

A grabbed a table while I queued to get mine then she went and got her own as I made my way through relatively nice tasting, but vegetarian and quite heavy, lasagne followed by a quite lovely apple crumble. We washed our food down with a bottle of beer each and then went to find somewhere a bit quieter to sit. We found a large circular table that was promising and I tried to doze but then a gaggle of noisy german schoolgirls up the other end of the lounge spent the entire journey shouting, screaming and at one point singing “YMCA” so there was no chance of rest. I gave up eventually and bought a book from the shop.

 

France receding into the distance

While I was trying to doze and failing A went for an explore and found the open air deck where she took some pictures of us leaving France behind. Again, I never thought I’d say this but I can’t wait to come back this way and be heading back home again. It wasn’t that long a crossing and pretty soon we were waiting to get back to the cars, then sat in Thomas waiting to be let off. A was driving so I got to relax after a 7 hour marathon stint.

 

It was even nice weather in England

We were heading into London to collect a load of A’s stuff from one of her friends and we found her house without any difficulty. I was not happy at all to be back and kept muttering to myself about grumpy things but at least the sun was out and I got to rest if not sleep as we drove. It was lovely to meet A’s friend and after I loaded everything into the back of Thomas we went in for a quick brew and a chat before leaving again and making our way up to my parents.

This is where the story gets interesting and I get a bit angry. We got a little confused (the sat nav kept trying to direct us through the centre of London so we were trying to find the Blackwall tunnel on our own) but made really good time and were ahead of the traffic as we finally approached said route under the Thames. We were in a queue with very slow moving or stationary traffic when I heard beeping and saw that a police landrover (Why do you need a landrover in a city!) had stopped in the outside lane, blocking it, and was aggressively manoeuvring to pull in behind us. Immediately my heart sank but I was doing nothing wrong and as we drove through the tunnel I observed that everyone else had their main beams on except this copper.

As soon as we were out of the tunnel there was a blare of sirens and he pulled me over, onto a double red line zone, in a bus stop, and on the exit ramp. He probably could only have found a more dangerous and inconvenient place to stop me if I was on the main runway at Heathrow. Anyway, I pulled in and he got out and made it clear that it was a random stop (yeah, right) and could he have my driving license. After a bit of searching I found my wallet and passed it over and he went and sat in his car for a fair while, then came back and asked more questions about the registration of the vehicle in Bulgaria (of course the real reason he had pulled me, and the reason he had gone to the passenger side window to talk to the driver. His face when he saw Right Hand Drive and that we were British was a picture. Racist pig. Anyway, less anger) and then he got me to pop the bonnet and he phoned someone to ask where the ViN was.

As I knew it would all the paperwork checked out fine so then he went on a close and lengthy inspection of the car and finally found that the back tyres were a little worn. Success! He went back and spent 15 minutes sat in his car while we waited and watched the traffic build up past us. Finally, with some satisfaction (and after putting me under caution, a process I questioned but never received a satisfactory answer for), he was back and handing me a penalty notice for the tyre.

The thing which annoyed me most, paradoxically, is that he said “I won’t check the other tyre as it would be more points on your license” and my temptation to go to the Police Complaints Commission about this seemingly racist decision is really strong. I would bet my bottom dollar that if we had been Bulgarian and not spoken English he would have freely handed the extra fine and points out. What a scumbag.

Anyway, after being held for nearly an hour we were allowed to go on and then went and sat in traffic which had built up as we said while we were sitting their steaming. Fortunately it wasn’t that bad (and we also worked out why the sat nav was being a bit strange; we’d put a “via” in and then forgotten about it so it stopped being confused when we removed that) and once we were on the M1 and then the M6 it was again a really fast journey. We arrived at my parents and went in for half an hour, a brew, and to give them their little gifts and collect my box of work things and then got back in Thomas and A drove us towards Manchester.

At nearly midnight we pulled up to see my mate John stood by the side of the road outside the flat we’ll be staying in for the foreseeable future. He helped us unload (“HOW MUCH BEER!”) and then we all hit the sack pretty much straight away as we were exhausted. I woke up really early the next day and lay there listening to the traffic and thinking about the next few days of busyness as now I had to get Thomas to the garage and also visit a police station. When A woke up I went to make a brew and we were both up and sat in the front room when John emerged, drank the coffee I made him, then headed to work.

 

Turnip ready for chopping

We had brought a turnip from Bulgaria out of our garden and A put together a lovely slow cooker stew which included said turnip. This was cooking all day and it was great to come back in after being out and smell it. The turnip was amazing as we cut it up, really easy to slice and A put it into the pot in large chunks so it wouldn’t disintegrate. One interesting (to me, anyway) thing was that when we brushed the soil away from the roots we found that the little starter pot we had planted the seed in was still there and the roots had grown through the side.

 

There had been a clothes explosion

While the food was cooking and I was slaving away at the previous blog entry A was in the room sorting her clothes. I heard her exclaim “I am missing another bag of clothes!” but when I went through I couldn’t believe that more clothes than that existed! She got it all tidied away really quickly but for a while we had a good laugh at the mess.

 

About the only thing I was looking forward to over here

We headed into town for about midday and walked along the usual route past my old work and towards Rice ‘n’ Three at Moghul’s Taste. The normal serving chap had left (I asked) but a few were there who recognised me and I really enjoyed eating the kerela keema, lamb chops and spinach & potatoes. A did really well with hers and very nearly finished it all. We sat after finishing and let it settle but sadly none of my old colleagues came down so eventually we made our way back to the car through the horrible wind and rain and came back to the flat.

 

Fantastic dark Bulgarian beer

John got back from work quite late and we were all pretty exhausted, and neither myself nor A were hungry in the slightest after the Rice ‘n’ Three at lunch. We sat down and poured a beer and I opened the bottle of Tumna Biera and drank with great relish; it is very nice indeed. A had a small glass but returned to the Svetla and John joined me with the Tumna which he said he liked very much. I am going to have to keep a careful watch on my supplies as I think I didn’t quite buy enough.

 

A lovely bowl of stew

Eventually the food earlier had settled enough for us to want a bowl of stew and it was worth waiting for; tasty from beginning to end and a particular star was the turnip which was sweet and smooth and gorgeous. Not long after eating we headed to bed, still exhausted from the travelling, but slightly more settled in here.

I won’t be blogging as regularly while I’m back in the UK as most of the time there won’t be anything relevant happening. What I am planning, however, is a retrospective post looking back over what has happened, summing up, and marvelling at the progress.

Thank you all so much for reading and I can’t wait to get back over there and start updating this again in earnest. I will not abandon you fully though so til next time.

Ciao ciao.