OT: Channel crossing

[Davey]

Watford would have been perfect for me on this trip!

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Davey writes

Not very accessible during rush hours.

The fiercely opposed freight transfer site; proposed South of St. Albans would be better.

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[The Medway Handyman]

Wotfud is 'oop narf' isn't it?

[Davey]

But neither are there, so it's all moot. By the time one of them is built, I won't have a driving license any more!

Ferries are booked, now to find a decent hotel somewhere east of Calais. I won't pre-book that, as I have no idea what time we'll be leaving the Shuttle terminal. Any decent Autoroute-adjacent hotel chains to look out for in those parts, nothing fancy, Holiday Express type of thing, I suppose? A restaurant inside would be nice. The suggested autoroute route is via Bruges and Brussels. Thanks to all for the help so far.

[Nightjar]

On 06/03/2015 11:06, Davey wrote: ...

A chap I know who doesn't pre-book uses Formula 1 hotels; a bit basic for my tastes though.

[Davey]

Thanks. But the only one near my anticipated route is in Ghent, and quite a way from the Autoroute. Still worth keeping a note of, though.

[Chris French]

We don't use hotels much, but for overnighters en route we often stay in the B&B Hotels chain - cheap for a family of 4, but again, maybe a bit basic for some. The ones we've stayed at don't have restaurants, and we don't bother with the breakfasts anymore (unlike Premier Inn/travelodge over here, where the breakfast is reasonable - and cheap for a family).

[Davey]

That is useful to know, thanks.

[John Miller]

Another vote for BB hotels - there's usually a fast-food type of restaurant nearby and the buffet breakfasts are decent value. If you want a built-in restaurant, the Campanile chain normally have these - often close to a Premiere Classe hotel (same chain, but cheaper)

John M

[Davey]

Thanks for the info. Added to list of chains to look out for, and they have some near our route.

[tim.....]

The problem I found with Campanile is they only offered pre-booked rate on a non-cancellable basis

and if you turn up on the day with no booking they are often full (obviously depends upon season and location)

tim

[Davey]

Hmm. This will be in a couple of weeks, three individuals who hardly know each other travelling in one car. Two or even three separate hotels close to each other would work, if necessary. Pre-booking impossible, due to lack of knowledge of how far we can get from Calais, depending on time of actual 'flight' on Le Shuttle. It's going to be pot luck.

[Theo Markettos]

It was proposed:

(the existing route through West London is too busy, and the tunnels and bridges too low for lorries, hence a new route would be necessary)

Theo

[roteiro93]

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[Davey]

If anyone is interested, the trip went off fine. We arrived early at Le Shuttle's terminal, and caught a 'flight'(!) nearly two hours early, for no extra charge. One of my passengers had spent some time working/living near Brussels, and so we stayed at the Ibis Hotel in Leuwen for the night. The return trip was completed on the Harwich ferry overnight last night. All I have to do now is to return the rental car on Wednesday, and all will be complete. It will be interesting to see how many miles I covered, from Norwich, via Hertford, both ways, and to beyond Stuttgart at the other end. We got all the way there without refuelling (diesel). The built-in Satnav (Vauxhall car) had a few problems, such as it would get us to a place fine, but would not know where it now was when we programmed a new destination; and it thought we had reached our most distant target about 10 K before we actually arrived. Thanks for the help before departure.

[Chris French]

In message , Davey writes

Glad the trip went well.

[Andy Burns]

On my previous car it didn't like to discover it had moved without being driven e.g. recovered on flat-bed lorry when I had a puncture on motorway (no spare tyre, thanks Honda) it took a while to relocate itself, did the chunnel journey confuse it?

[Davey]

The first occasion, it took us perfectly to the Dartford Avis office, including navigating the local one-way system, but when we started up again to head to Folkestone, it didn't know where it was, even though it had brought us right to that spot! When we started the car up to leave the rail car, it had no idea where it was until we got back out into the outside world. Hardly surprising. At one point the next day, we were on a brand new section of Autobahn, still under construction, and it showed bare countryside for that area. That sent the spinning 'recalculating' wheel into a frenzy. And on arrival at Hook of Holland on our return journey, the correct exit from a roundabout to the ferry terminal was blocked by construction, so it took us to the next roundabout and tried to get us through from there, but it was a dead end. We just doubled back and looked for useful road signs, and that worked. The old-fashioned way.

[Brian Gaff]

Just goes to show you really still need good old maps. Its interesting to hear this as I noted some stories for the blind persons devices based on sat navs or phones with sat nave recently as suddenly losing where they were after a long train journey. its as if they have no way to find anunknown location if its further away from the last location than a few miles. Brian

[charles]

my phone doesn't behave like that. It remembers where it was last used, tap the "locate" symbol and it goes to where I am.