Day 1 - England to Rotterdam, Netherlands - 493 miles

The adventure began in England driving down the M6 listening to Liverpool against Benfica on Radio 5 Live. At half time they announced the road ahead of us was closed and would be until at least 11pm. A 12-car pile up was the cause. It is always a sobering thought knowing there are people on the road ahead of you seriously injured and maybe dead. We are travelling mostly without maps and using a Garmin satellite navigation system. This may have been a bad decision with the benefit of hindsight. I rang Chris, my wife, and she guided us off the M6 onto the M42 and away from the crash.

We arrived at the Channel Tunnel without further delay. French border police showed more interest in us than necessary and interviewed us for 15 minutes or so as well as having a cursory look through our luggage in the boot of the car. I guess this may be a sign of things to come as our profile may fit that of two men up to no good. There's no point in getting annoyed by such things and a charm offensive saw us on our way. We arrived in Calais at 4am European time and our initial plan of kipping in the car and waiting for the shops to open (motivated by the possibility of fresh croissants) began to feel less attractive. We tried to book into a hotel but today is Good Friday and they were all full. We then found a quiet car park and tried to get some shut eye. Kit was quickly asleep but I found it impossible. The thought then occured to me that everything was very quiet for early morning in France and I realised it was Good Friday. Maybe our acquiring warm, fresh croissants wasn't such a definite possibility. I woke Kit and we moved on.

We saw dawn as we drove through Belgium. The plan was to stop as soon as I was too tired to go on but there was no suitable place along the road. Driving through Belgium is monotonous at the best of times in my experience but not quite boring as Belgium has more than its fair share of mad drivers, speeding unnecessarily. It's weird. As soon as you cross the border from France to Belgium, they appear. Tailgating, driving too fast, taking the lives of others into their own hands like they've taken a twisted Belgian driver version of the Hippocratic Oath. Mad doctors of the road. We intend to sing songs everywhere we stop and video the results for the blog but neither Belgium nor France provided a single stopping place along the road. They must have known we were coming but we'll get them on the way back. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the drive. I so rarely see the dawn but there is something magic about watching the world awaken.

The sun rose magnificently and blindingly over the road and The Netherlands provided more civilised driving and a perfect stopping place within minutes of crossing the border. We managed 4 hours sound sleep after which we breakfasted on food bought in a garage. We resolved to be adventurous in our food choice and ate a crispy pancake roll which turned out to be filled with saté sauce, diced chicken and vegetables as well as a peppery mince sausage type thing. Junk food, of course, but slightly exoctic and a good start to the culinary part of our adventure.

We arrived in Rotterdam without major problem although we did pay one tunnel toll despite the sat nav being set to avoid tolls. It was only 5 Euros but I hate paying tolls. I know somewhere along the road ahead I am going to have to pay some rip off, extortionate fee for just driving along a road.

We rested up in our hotel before hitting the town. We decided to sing our first song at the hotel and 'treated' the staff to a version of 'Catch Your Train On Time' filmed by hotel manager, Guido Scholten. We didn't attract an audience as such and the staff went about their business as we sang so it was slightly disheartening but Kit sang well and it was nice to get the first one under our belt. The hotel was located on a major junction on the edge of the city. It had secluded, private and free parking round the back. One of my concerns for the trip is parking the car. If anything goes wrong with the car the holiday comes to an end so all our hotels have had to have parking facilities. My only complaint about the hotel was the price of breakfast which we decided to give a miss. I had no idea what we would do for breakfast but those days when it is not included in the hotel price or is too expensive, appear to be ideal opportunities to make things up as we go along.We took the expensive and somewhat scruffy, graffiti-covered Metro into the city centre. Our Metro journeys were our introduction to Rotterdam's yob culture. Groups of noisy youths wandered the city and we saw a number of adults confronting them including one young man actually squaring up to a teenage girl who had kicked over an advertising hoarding outside a restaurant. On the tram back to our hotel at the end of the day a group of older teenagers played the walls of the tram like drums and laughed at adults who told them to be quiet. Everybody we met in Rotterdam was friendly, civilised and relaxed but there was also a tension in the city centre I haven't felt since 1980s Liverpool. Rotterdam's litter reinforced this impression. As did the building site around main Central Station where we arrived. Apparently a grand new station will emerge from the mess.

We walked around the city centre more or less at random and found little to capture the imagination. The main shopping area is, well, a fine example of ugly 1960s planning and like a lot of town centres in England. Despite it being Good Friday most of the shops were open and we explored a record shop. I have a short shopping list for the journey and hope to acquire at least one CD in every country we visit. One of my favourite bands, Bettie Serveert, happen to be Dutch and their new album has been annoyingly released only in the Benelux countries which has resulted in Amazon.co.uk laughingly trying to flog it to the gullible for fifty quid. Very disappointingly the only Dutch record shop we were able to explore did not have a copy but I will surely have more opportunities along the way. I like to buy CDs on my travels. There's a little more magic in buying music in its place of origin but I've never managed to purchase music in Holland. We did manage to find a supermarket and shopped for tomorrow's breakfast as well as acquiring a few essential supplies. I got a few bottles of strange brews I've never tried before which will probably be carried all the way home and Kit bought a box of Earl Grey tea bags. There was a kettle at the hotel and we thought there was a distinct possibility over the next fortnight of occasions when we will be dying for a nice cup of tea.

We decided to eat in a restaurant with seats outside under a gazebo but as we took our seats the weather took a turn for the worse. The clouds darkened ominously. By the time we were served our meals the wind had increased to gale force and the restaurant staff calmly added sides to the gazebo. They had obviously done it a thousand times before. At least the food was good, if expensive. We had Erwten soup which was a green pea soup flavoured with smoked sausage and bacon. For some reason it was served with slices of roast pork on a sweet rye bread open sandwich. It shouldn't have worked but it did. For his main course Kit ordered spare ribs and I had a mixed grill. Kit was hoping for an enormous portion that he couldn't finish and that's exactly what he got. The meal was expensive and I tried to motivate Kit into finishing his meal by telling him the estimated cost in Sterling of the food he left on his plate but he was stuffed. I allowed myself the luxury of a nice beer which was disappointingly not local. Belgian even. I won't be drinking much alcohol on the trip for obvious reasons. Most of Europe has a nil alcohol for drivers policy and that's what I'll be sticking to for the whole of the trip.

It was raining as we headed back to the hotel and we darted between shop fronts to keep dry. I tripped and the heel of my shoe came off. I rather cleverly came with only one pair of shoes hoping to buy some along the way but now I have no shoes at all. I'll be driving in my slippers tomorrow. Back at the hotel we dried off while watching the first episode of the new 'Ashes To Ashes' series on BBC1 which was available in the hotel room and an unexpected bonus. This means my car mad son will be able to watch some of the qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix tomorrow morning before we set off for Rostock.

We were ambivalent about our experience of Rotterdam. On the one hand we met some nice people and ate well but on the other the city was a bit threatening, scruffy and way too expensive.



HOTEL INFO -
Hotel Restaurant Campanile
Koningslaan 2
3067 TG Rotterdam
Tel - 010 2202044

Comments - Situated on the edge of the city and a 20-minute tram ride from the centre. Trams were expensive. There is a nice private car park enclosed by the hotel buildings with good access to the roads in and out of the city. Room was a nice size with twin beds and a desk. The rooms were maisonette-style and reached via an outside staircase rather than an internal corridor. There was a good bathroom and a kettle to make drinks as well as a TV and free internet access. The hotel has a restaurant and offers breakfast for 11 euros. We thought that to be very expensive and didn't bother. We didn't use the restaurant but it looked OK. This hotel would be ideal if you are just passing through and don't particularly want to see the city.

Cost - 45 Euros.
Score - 7/10