Europe - Day Twenty-two

I knew there wasn't going to be much of interest today.   The ride from Rotterdam to the ferry is slightly less than two hours and the earliest boarding time is 4:30pm.  The hotel checkout time was 11am.  Do the maths and you can see I had several hours to fill in and the weather forecast was for rain.

Things didn't go to plan after I vacated the hotel room at 10:30.  I was fitting the rear panniers to the bike when I noticed one of the two front panniers I had left on the bike was open and empty.  Someone had stolen the contents.  One of the front panniers contains my tent and thin Aldi sleeping bag.  The other contains the more attractive folding chair, airbed and pump.  This latter pannier was hard against the railing I had secured the bike to and I suspect that made accessing it slightly more difficult.

The lazy thief had taken the tent and sleeping bag.  Neither were of much value.  Particularly as the thief hadn't taken the tent poles that were secured to the rear carrier rack.

My initial reaction was the thief would quickly realise they had taken little of value and discard it.   Consequentially I went for a brief walk around the local area finding the tent and sleeping bag abandoned by a pillar box.

Any reader who followed my 2024 European trip may remember my route from Rotterdam to the ferry took me under the river.  Today was different.  Komoot took me along the north bank of the river to a crossing which turned out to be a ferry.  I hadn't anticipated that and immediately realised I probably have to pay to cross.  An opportunity to rid myself of some of my collection of Euro coins.  Alas, they would only take payment by card!

A local park with a bench seat under shelter allowed me to wait three hours.  I filled in the time reading my ebook. 

Afterwards I continued cycling through a heavy industrial area and into a strong headwind reaching the ferry terminal just as it opened to accept passengers.

The first control point was to exit Dutch immigration and obtain my boarding pass and cabin key.

The second control point was UK Border Force Immigration and Customs.

The third control point was P&O Ferries acceptance of my boarding pass. 

Then I cycled up the ramp into the ferry vehicle deck where I was directed to secure the bike to a railing. 

All this took much less time that last year and I started to think the ferry may not be fully loaded.

I have (of course) booked the cheapest cabin.  It's the first on entering the accommodation deck which means it will be the noisiest as the majority of passengers will walk past.  No problem; I'll take out my hearing aids.

I can almost touch both cabin walls with my arms outstretched and it's an internal cabin so no view.

 

Last night I didn't sleep very well and I'm hoping the rocking of the ship will allow me a good night.