Europe Day 1

Left the hotel at 6.30am to catch the bus.
Traffic delays and a long wait at the ferry terminal in Dover meant we missed our ferry. We were supposed to cross over to Dunkirk and then drive to Holland. We had to cross to Calais and join another traffic jam.

Nice bus, nice people. Should be fun.

 



Due to a computer problem the blog is now being written on a phone.

 

Most of the day was spent on the bus. EU rules state that bus drivers must rest for 45 minutes every 4.5 hours. So just before we arrived at our hotel we had to stop at a service station for 45 minutes. This meant we had to go straight to Amsterdam for our canal boat ride to get there on time. 

The Police are able to drive up beside the bus and check the last 2 years worth of driving history by WiFi to make sure the driver has had his required rest breaks. The fines are in the thousands.
In Germany the fines are listed as 'minimum' so the police can fine people on the spot for whatever they think is appropriate. So not many traffic offenses and absolutely no arguing.

 
It was a great boat ride and included pizza and beer.


After the boat ride we had 15 minutes to see Amsterdam. Due to our late arrival. It was an interesting sprint past some very interesting shop windows. We were warned not to take photos of the shop windows, if we did and we were lucky, only our camera would end up in the canal.
 


There are a lot of people in this city and even more bicycles.

The houses are tall and narrow due to the land tax that was imposed in the past. As a result the houses have settled in the soft soil over the years and now lean at odd angles, some lean against their neighbours.

After our sprint it was off to the Motel and a well earned beer.