An easy start from home as we were packed and mostly ready to go last night. Left the house at 9.45 and drove to Costco to buy sheets (😜) and then back to Mortonhall to leave them, plus the Arran Challenge Cup, in a locker to be collected by Jacques. Finally departed the golf club at 10.40. A completely hassle free journey, top down, all the way to Barburgh Castle which Howard hadn’t seen before. It’s an impressive edifice atop the beach at Bamburgh, overlooking the Farne Islands. Parking the car - 5 pounds for 3 hours - we took our picnic and headed for the beach. Everywhere was busy as it’s a bank holiday but we found a nice spot in the dunes overlooking the sea.
Slightly anxious about the drive south, as there seemed to be traffic congestion on the A1 we headed back to the car and drove on south. And indeed there was a delay but good old Google took us off the main road and we tootled on through country lanes and nice villages. Once back on the main road we arrived at DFDS well before 3pm…..to find not only is DFDS’s booking system down but we seem to have left the coffee flask at home! Grrrhhh!
We had about an hour and a half’s delay with loads of mostly Dutch cars and motorbikes piling in. Eventually about 4.30 they started to load us, in STRICT arrival order, despite the attempted rush by those that had arrived later. The staff were insistent! We were tightly packed on the car deck but managed to squeeze out through the cars and into our cabin. (Mostly Philippine crew) Our cabin was compact and bijou indeed! A very quick turnaround and up to the Sky Bar on deck 11 and we had a drink overlooking the stern and the cars and lorries still being loaded. We had booked dinner for 6.30 thinking that might be 7.30 CET but no, we discovered while on deck that it was 5.30 UK time! So we wandered down for our early dinner. The dining room and buffet food were very nice, and with a bottle of wine at 20 euros we were very happy. A lovely girl called Marta (architecture student from GdaÅ„sk) did a great job of looking after us. The ship departed dock about 5.35pm, about 35 minutes late.
We retired to the bar with the remainder of the wine and enjoyed the live band. But with the threat of bingo at 9 and the wine finished we headed for bed.
Daily drive 148 miles
Total trip 148 miles
