44 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
44 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
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title: 'Day 2: Almere (NL) to Doncaster (UK)'
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date: 2013-06-09T14:32:52+02:00
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Tags: []
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Categories: []
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---
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## Four (or Six, depending on who you ask) Countries!
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We've pretty much closed out our first Real Day[tm] of travels. This beautiful Sunday morning we left Almere NL at 9:19am, a car packed full
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of goodies (food and otherwise), and we were destined for Doncaster UK. The first part of the trip was to Calais FR. Getting there was okay
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except for a weird 45min complete stand-still near Jabbeke BE. There were construction works on the road there, and I think maybe a car had
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broken down on the one-lane passthrough, so folks had to manouvre around it, or push the car suitably far into the shoulder for the other
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traffic to pass. As soon as we passed it though, it was smooth sailing to Calais.
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We got there pretty early, as we had a 3:50pm train. When we rocked up to the gates, the LCD screen flashed 'Welcome Mr Van Pelt!" which we
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both thought was pretty awesome - they have cameras reading the license plates and retrieving the reservations that way. We were offered a
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choice to go on an earlier train if we wanted to, so we moved our departure time back to 2:50pm. We ate some chicken (3 "halbe hendl" each),
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and then made our way onto the train. It was very very (very!) tight, with less than 50mm on each side of the tires, and a metal ledge which
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I tried very hard not to hit, so as to not damage the rims even more :) It was OK.
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Then came the exciting part. England and driving on the Wrong Side[tm]. Actually it wasn't that bad. I trailed a guy from Berne for a few
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miles on the high way and then decided to overtake him and go for it. The drive itself was pleasant and no major traffic, despite having to
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go all the way around London. In total it would be some 240 miles from Folkestone UK to Doncaster UK. Easy peasy! Paul and I switched
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drivers after about 130 miles, and he took the second part. Just before we hit Doncaster, we hit 1024 miles on the trip odometer, which of
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course we had to take pictures of.
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{{< image src="/img/map-day2.png" width="600px" >}}
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When we arrived at our Campanile, the room was ready, already paid for, and checkin was easy. We bashed around a bit with the Savage [Paul
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and I both made a little movie of it], and then went for dinner. The place Google Maps suggested had been since closed, so we drove into
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town to find some grub. After walking up and down the main street, we settled for a Tex-Mex joint. You may ask: why would you eat
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texan/mexican food in Doncaster UK? I may say: good fucking question.
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It's now 10:10pm and I'm beat. I will take a shower and pass out in this overly squishy bed. Tomorrow, we go to Edinburgh.
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* Pim has now been in: CH, DE, NL, BE, FR, UK.
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* Paul has been in: NL, BE, FR, UK.
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By the way: in further posts, we are _so totally_ calling Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland out in an ever growing list of countries
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we're visiting on this roadtrip!!
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**Posted by Pim van Pelt at 2:10 PM**
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