The concluding post

I type this as we near Newcastle, another quiet crossing weather-wise. 

The drive to the Dutch border was long and tiring on Germany’s A3 (autobahn).  Very heavy traffic along most of the route and a fair amount of road works too where we crawled for nearly an hour.  When Mr G flicked through Elly’s travel log he noticed that when we returned from Roth in 2009 we did an evening drive to get to the border and recalled we’d made the decision when we’d seen how slow the traffic was on a daytime run into Roth.  Clearly the traffic conditions haven’t improved in the five years hence and if we do this route again we’ll remember (I hope) not to attempt in daylight hours!

The weirdest hotel I've ever seen, Hilton on stilts outside Frankfurt Airport!

Another Schloss

Our layby stop afforded a wonderful sunrise …

The drive to the port was uneventful and we arrived with lots of time to spare.  It was warm and fairly sunny although very windy on dock side.  

New

Super-efficient European roads - showing mpg at nearly 60 mph

And the original!

Another racing memory (Almere)

Whilst we sat on the quayside waiting to board about 20 tall ships came in and moored, some 4 deep, to the quay, and there was much merriment amongst the crews aboard the various ships; most looked to be teenage/young adults so perhaps it was a skills training event.  It seems they have been doing a Race of the Classics, will have to google me thinks . Mr Google says it's a Dutch organisation that races annually between Rotherdam, Ipswich and Amsterdam in the Spring for students, and October for young professionals.

First in line!

And again!

Our vessel

Rather more romantic ships!

Not the most scenic place to spend time!

All aboard

Mooring 4 deep

Safely stowed

Impressive ships

A barge like we saw on the Main loaded with 36 containers (that's 36 less lorries) 

An auspiciously named one :-)

A few days later ...

After we disembarked we drove 100  miles or so down to Scarborough, Filey and Bridlington then double-backed to Whitby and then back to Scarborough for our planned night stop.  I have to say we hit an all time low at this point as the areas we had driven through didn't speak to us at all in terms of making a new home.

Monday morning we set off heading north again driving through Pickering, Thirsk, Howardian Hills, Easingwold etc and neared York before joining the A1.  This area we found more welcoming and we both felt somewhat better about the process ahead of us.  

Having left from Scarborough around 10 we made it as far as the Drumochter Summit on the A9 before deciding that pushing on to arrive back in Forres that day was not wise.  By now it was dark and raining and the final 80 miles are the most challenging to drive, especially across the unlit, narrow Dava Moor. 

We were awake around 5 am and within 30 mins the winds really increased with heavy rain.  The forecast storm from the hurricane was making itself felt so we set off immediately and actually drove the long way back going via Inverness in order to avoid the exposed moors.  Driving Elly in high winds isn't something I choose, there is nothing quite like the stomach-churning feeling of the steering going light!

We arrived back in Forres just before 9 to an Under Offer for sale board in the garden.  It all feels totally surreal.

One thing the last few days has shown us clearly is just how depleted we have become over the last few years (in fact it has been about a decade of a lot of stress and not many compensating positives). We have nothing in reserve at all and situations that wouldn't normally even register can reduce us to tears.  We have set a plan to spend some months recovering once we leave here, with no thoughts of where to be longer term. 

We may yet be doing a Dutch and heading south to Spain until the Spring, an experience which will no doubt require blogging!

And finally the statistics for the journey.  Unfortunately, for some unknown reason the trip meter reset itself some 35 miles short of the port but we calculate we drove 3,300 miles, averaged 35 mpg and spent 85 hours driving along on our trip which lasted 36 days (35 nights including 6 in a villa and two on the ferry).

Au revoir 

Cavegirl and Mr G (navigator extraordinaire and Chief Photographer)