We arrived at Stena dock in Harwich about an hour before last boarding, and were beckoned to an empty waiting lane, ominously numbered “13”. An hour later, only 5 vehicles were behind us, vs a couple of hundred cars in the first 12 lanes, which duly boarded the ferry first. Fair enough, they separate out vehicles with trailers.
Competition Results
Now , for those eager for results of the ferry-off-boarding results in Hoek v Holland – here they come ! ( All timings are verified by independent track marshals and by our personal VAR service (Verdaasdonk Assured Results) ).
In first place : heavy trucks. You don’t mess with them
Second over the chequered drawbridge : a grudge match between your basic family cars and some aggressive campervan drivers. We were some distance behind them.
However, in the confusion , we then somehow finished up in the shortest queue for passport control , leading to a dilemma as to how to represent the results fairly.
Time to exit the ferry itself was 13 minutes and 20 seconds.
However, we were then through passport control and onto official Dutch soil in an impressive 24 minutes 41 seconds.
Winners !
We hereby announce the winner as ….
Paul ( whose 12’10” was eerily close to the actual ferry-exit time)
And also –
Dave (27’36” being only a gnat’s crotchet over the time onto Dutch soil )
Honorable mention goes to Sue, whose ” less than half an hour” was also technically correct , but slightly let down by lack of specificity. Better luck next time, Sue !
Your prizes will be in the post , at some point, when I’ve worked out how best to share a T-Shirt between two recipients.
And finally – here’s a nice picture of an authentic Dutch windmill, proud centre piece of this campsite . Good night, campers !
