Day 2 Wednesday 

On Stenna ferry on our way to Holland. The captain said the forecast for the crossing is moderate to fresh.

It was an eventful morning to get here by 8:15am which is when the gate closed. Up at 5:45am shower and pack. Breakfast at 6:30am a short walk to the ferry terminal and straight onto the ferry. We were the last people to book in, even though we were early. Suddenly John realised he didn’t have his jacket. I telephoned the Premier Inn and they found it in reception along with our back door key, which incidentally had a very large fluffy key ring attached. They are going to keep it for us until we come back in three weeks time when we will be staying with them again. The stewards seem to think storm Doris will be heading for Europe with us. Time for John to buy a new coat. 

Finding the train station in the Hoek of Holland was easy, it was just outside the door of the ferry terminal. The instructions on our printed rail ticket stated that we had to scan the barcode into the reader at the station before boarding the train. Unfortunately we could not find a scanner on the platform (there was only one platform) and it was pouring down with rain. Our printed tickets were in danger of getting soaked and disintegrating so we decided to get on the first train that arrived. It sat at the station for a while before departing and a person wearing railway uniform walked into our carriage so I decided to ask him what to do about our ticket. He wasn’t interested and waved his hands and said ‘Poo Poo Poo’ whatever that meant, so we didn’t worry anymore. 

On arriving in Rotterdam the station was very big but we found our way out and to our hotel which was the Holiday Inn Express. Booking in was easy, our room was on the third floor. We got into the lift but none of the buttons would work, it wasn’t until another guest arrived and explained that we needed to swipe our key card on the reader which allowed us to activate the lift buttons. The room was lovely we dumped our bags had showers then went out to find something to eat. It was absolutely pouring with rain, I think storm Doris had reached Rotterdam.