We were awake before the alarm - no surprises there - and we were berthed on the port side once again. Britain’s booming car export trade was very much in evidence with three multi storey car parks and two or three open car parks, full of Minis, Jaguars and Range Rovers, due to be shipped out.
We donned our jackets as it was quite cool and damp – and I certainly hadn’t left any other warm clothing out.
A light cooked breakfast, yet more farewells, and back to the cabin for our hand luggage, in time to say yet another farewell to our fantastic cabin steward, Jose. No doubt, he’ll miss my whistle in response to his whistling!
Off to the Wheelhouse Bar and just in time for the call to leave.
Down in the atrium, yet more farewells, then an easy stroll to the luggage area and a surprising lack of efficiency by the security guy in charge of shuffling the taxis. There was a short queue and there were a couple of empty taxis in the centre, so we headed for one of those. Oh no. We were herded back to the queue – which by now had lengthened - as Jobsworth called one taxi at a time to the pick-up area and he wouldn’t call the next until the first was all loaded up and on its way. Quite why he couldn’t deal with more than one at a time is anyone’s guess – but each taxi driver had to pay him £1… Whether this is legal or not, who knows, but as no receipt or ticket was issued, one can only assume the worst.
We then had to wait about 10 minutes for any taxis to arrive. When you consider the amount of hassling by taxi drivers at other ports, this was quite a contrast. When you don’t need a taxi, they are everywhere.
Eventually we did get one (a Prius) and an educated Somalian driver. Nice chap and he quoted £20 to the airport, as it is just outside the city limits and therefore doesn’t have to be metered.
An easy enough run and we asked to be dropped at the Enterprise Car Hire. This is where cruisers may need to take note! Firstly, the actual car pick-up point is in the car park, but he had to drop us off at the drop off point as they can’t stop alongside. So we dragged our luggage (no trolleys) to the kiosk which was open, but no sign of any staff! We waited a couple of minutes and sure enough, two appeared. (Note that they don’t open until 9am anyway, and we were a few minutes early.)
I then left Paula with the luggage and I went with young Alfred, up to a portakabin adjacent to the terminal building, which is where the office is located – shared with Avis, Budget etc. There were several cruisers there already, with luggage, waiting for the various companies to get moving.
Paperwork completed OK and my large compact (Class D) listed as a Vauxhall Astra, Ford Focus or similar and I asked for a Ford Focus, as the asthmatic Astra we had last time (1400cc) wasn’t to my liking at all. Sorry, no Ford Focus…
The nice young lady at the kiosk said that they had a Hyundai, Skoda and I interrupted her and said we’d take the Skoda Octavia which was right outside – and was in fact brand new, silver, diesel, with just 295 miles on the clock.
This turned out to be a great choice. Firstly, the boot was cavernous and swallowed our two full sized cases, two cabin bags and a soft bag with ease. Secondly, there was ample legroom and it was comfortable and still had that brand new car smell. There was a ‘no smoking’ sticker on the screen (last year, the previous hirer was a smoker and the car stank).
We plugged in the Tom-Tom (we have NZ & UK maps on ours) and set off for Nottingham. For some reason, the Tom-Tom was playing up for the first 15 minutes, but it settled down later. A few miles down the road, I checked the fuel gauge and it was on less than half a tank. Someone had forgotten to fill it. I took a photograph of the mileage and the gauge as I didn’t expect to be penalised for leaving it with less than a full tank next Monday.
An easy run along the M27, then the A34 and eventually to the M1. We stopped for a Costa Coffee and a baguette and wandered through the shop and were on our way again in 45 minutes. Once we hit the M1, just north of Northampton, we hit the roadworks and a 50mph speed restriction for several miles as the widening isn’t yet complete, but isn’t far away.
It rained. Hard. Not for too long thank goodness and then it all cleared again.
All arrived safely, just in time for Paula to watch the tennis final – only to find that brother Dave had this notice on the TV… After the usual warm welcome, and with Djokovich up 2 sets, I went up to see son Stewart and grandson Noah, plus Stew’s wife Manu and her mum Tete, who I met for the first time. Another warm welcome.
Back for a delicious turkey dinner complete with roast and also boiled potatoes etc.
So that ends part 1 of the trip, now we have 7 days in the UK, before the Royal Princess cruise around GB.
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