Chapter 4 - DAY 1 - London to Amsterdam

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Today we were up at 4.30 to get organised and across to the Thistle Marble Arch for our 5.45am tour start. All goes smoothly and we are on the bus and away 5 minutes early.

SOUTH TO DOVER
We headed south out of London, past the Black Heath which contains the mass graves of people who died during the Black Plague; we also crossed the line which defines Greenwich Mean Time. We passed through Kent which was very flat with lots of farms. Considering England’s population is around 50 million and their land mass is roughly the same as New Zealand there is an incredible amount of green space - farms, forests, moors, dales. it also gives an idea of just how intensely populated the areas where people live are.

After a couple of hours we could see the English Channel and White Cliffs of Dover. Because we had a good run down to the coast we were able to get on the 8.10 sailing. It was a P&O Ship, a very big one and there weren’t many people on board – plenty of space. There were great views of the White Cliffs as we sailed off towards the French port of Calais.

WELCOME TO EUROPE
Another smooth crossing, we actually haven’t had a bad one yet. From Calais we drove straight through France and Belgium before we reached our first comfort stop just over the border in the Netherlands. We got a bit of a surprise as the Police were doing random passport checks and our coach was singled out. Fortunately we had been warned to keep our passports on us so there were no hassles. With the EEC we don’t have to get our passport stamped at each country we visit – which in a way is disappointing as we were looking forward to coming home with our passports full of stamps from around Europe.

On our way through France and Belgium we passed Dunkirk (WW2) and Passendale - particularly significant to New Zealanders (WW1) two 'famous' battlefields – even though we just passed through it provided two very sobering moments on the coach.

Then it was about another 2 hours or so cruising down a 6 lane (for the most part)motorway to reach Amsterdam. Apparently the roads in the Netherlands and Germany are the most congested in Europe, but we had a good run. As you can imagine the landscape was extremely flat so not a lot of photo opportunities –just a couple of windmills near the road. On our way into the city we had a reasonable view of Ajax football Stadium.

Our Hotel, Movenpick is a 20 story modern hotel in the new part of town. Near the port so we have great views of the ships, boats and barges as they go back and forwards along the waterway.

We had meet and greet drinks at dinner in the hotel so people could take time to get themselves organised, get their bearings etc.

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Photos

Good Bye England
White Cliffs in the background as our Ferry heads to Europe.

...Hello Europe
Calais France, our fisrt sight of Europe

Morvenpick Hotel
Our accomodation in Amsterdam