Up at 6.30am for the start of a long day of travel but with an unlimited breakfast first!
We arrived at the shuttle terminal in good time although we didn’t get moved to an earlier train. Colin drove first today as I had the long journey down to Folkestone yesterday. With the change in clocks we moved an hour forward and arrived in Calais around 11.30am for our long drive which would cover four countries.
The first bit north towards Dunkirk was actually fairly straightforward and we were making good time as we crossed the border into Belgium. The plan was to stop at one of two service stations I had earmarked on the E40 for a coffee and for me to take over the driving. Colin was doing so well that we decided to carry on to the second place to stop. It was at this point that the journey took a turn for the worst as the SatNav warned that although my planned route and it’s route until that point had been the same, heavy traffic meant it would be be quicker to drive through the very centre of Brussels. Big mistake.
It started off not too badly with us heading towards the massive Basilica of the Sacred Heart - in Koekelberg. This vast church forced the road to go either side in a huge oval shape and from then on the driving became more and more complicated, We travelled through what we have since discovered is the worst road tunnel in Belgium - the newly named Annie Cody tunnel. It was deep, dark, fast and very complicated with exits underground. Every now and then we’d come back up into the daylight, have an almost impossible manoeuvre to avoid going down again and then have to go back down again anyway. The SatNav, faltered, flickered and then decided it couldn’t be bothered anymore and returned to a general map setting just as we came to a left hand turn. I held my nerve and managed to reset it at a super fast speed and Colin held his nerve as he battled with BMWs and Mercedes on our tail.
Eventually the road turned East and we reached the suburbs and then left Brussels. It was probably the worst city drive we’ve had. Shortly afterwards we reached the unimpressive service station where the Starbucks coffee tasted better than usual, mainly as we were simply still and not fighting traffic!! Before we set off, I attempted bad German for the first time when I called the hotel with an idea of our arrival time - luckily our host Andrea spoke far better English than my mangled attempts at German.
Over to me now for the last hour and three quarter drive across the border to Germany and our final destination of the day - Monschau. Apart from a lot of very large lorries and constant changes of speed, it wasn’t long before we crossed the border into Germany and the start of the Eiffel National Park. A final hairpin bend before another attempt by the SatNav to sabotage my planned route. I ignored her this time and in a few minutes we were pulling up into a parking bay in our hotel. We cracked the key safe and discovered we have been given one of the nicest rooms with a lovely view over the rushing river. Our cup of tea (using the last of our milk) tasted good.
We could easily have fallen asleep at this time but as the sun came out in the late afternoon we decided to walk into town (with camera) to explore. The town is beautiful and something akin to living in a Grimms fairytale with medieval houses tottering at angles and overhanging the fast flowing river. Every turn bought us to a view better than the last. We explored and then headed to the Zum Haller restaurant. Our host Marco - quite bonkers - was clearly very impressed at my second attempt of the day at German as he and everyone sat at the bar fell about laughing but at least I had brightened their day and our reward was the best table in the house overlooking the river. Monschau mustard soup followed by turkey (in Monschau mustard sauce) was excellent with beers to wash it down. The bill was very good as well. At this stage we were definitely flagging and so called it a day and walked back to our lovely room.
