Day 15: Kiel (Germany) –> Hook of Holland (Netherlands)

If the crossing was rough last night, we slept through it.

We did feel it a little bit rolling once we left the protection of the Oslo fjord, but we think that was as much due to the location of our cabin towards the bow of the ship as much as anything.

Today we need to blast through Germany and Netherlands to catch our overnight ferry to the United Kingdom.

We were placed on the lower deck yesterday alongside the trucks and freight. Ferry companies tend to look at the 911 being low and unable to go up the steep ramps to the car decks above – but with the front axle lift option – we are actually well able to do so.

We are not stopped at any checkpoint on exiting the ferry and are quickly onto the streets of Kiel – one of the first cars off the boat.

We head straight for the autobahn network to start making progress towards the Netherlands.

Unfortunately, the tunnels under the Elbe are closed and we are forced onto the streets of Hamburg. Fortunately, our PCM handled the re-routing well and helped us navigate through the city and over one of the few bridges that cross the river as an alternative to the tunnel.

We start to make up progress once we are back onto the autobahn network. As we're timing our arrival at the port later – we don't want to arrive too early, so keep our speeds to a comfortable 180 km/h.

Additionally some light rain is falling intermittently which increases stopping distances.

Once we're past Hamburg, the traffic remains light which helps with our progress. Even though we're not pushing our car too hard – we still are consuming plenty of fuel at these speeds and also being in "sports" mode.

We pull in at a convenient fuel station on the autobahn – always extra expensive – and pick up some Esso 98 octane fuel – our first time using this brand.

This should do us until we're in England tomorrow.

It isn't too long before we've reached the Dutch border and their painfully slow 100 km/h speed limits during the day.

We pull into a random stop.

And walk through the "scary" tunnel under the motorway to the other side.

And pick up some junk food.

It is only then that we realise that we're stopped and parked at the same place we randomly stopped on our way to Denmark two weeks ago in the mist. Of course that time we were already on this side of the road and didn't need to use the tunnel.

Also, someone has thrown a toilet away – as you do!

Continuing on, we easily make the port – with an hour or two to spare – and get into the queue to check-in and board.

They allow boarding very early on this ship – and we're soon settling down in our cabin for the overnight crossing.

Stats

Today we did 629 km over 6:55 hours, with an average speed of 91 km/h, consuming 11.5 litres/100 km.