En Route to Switzerland - Day 1

Slept well after a dose of Stugeron and then back to the 7 Seas restaurant for an enormous breakfast.

Arrived in Imjuiden on time and disembarked having had quite a laugh watching a couple trying to locate their car, I really can't imagine why when people get onto these boats they don't make a mental note of the door number that they are parked closest to, it's far easier to do it this way than to have to check every single car deck!

Disembarked at about 10:30 which was a little bit later than we had anticipated but no matter we were soon on the road. We had been looking forward to using the built in satellite navigation system in the X-Trail and it was a bit alarming when we got off the boat that it didn't seem to want to work out where we were. Eventually, having stopped for a short while, it managed to lock onto a position and all went well from there.

Lorena has never really enjoyed navigating on these trips and it has in the past led to some significant challenges and the availability of satellite navigation was intended to make this aspect of the trip a whole lot more enjoyable and so it proved to be from then on, navigating our route went without a hitch from here on.

We had decided before we set off on this trip that unlike in previous years we would break the journey part way rather than drive all the way to Kandersteg in one journey. We have decided to cover about 400 miles and then try to find somewhere to stay so that is the plan we followed. The 1st hotel we tried which was off the autobahn we were following have no vacancies and we were forced to continue, a bit like a modern-day version of Mary and Joseph. We found a room at our next stop which was absolutely fine, I don't quite know what sort of price I was expecting to pay but the room for the 2 of us with breakfast came in at €100 which didn't seem too bad given where it was and it was certainly a big step up in quality from a Travelodge back in the UK.

Soon got nicely settled after a bite to eat and woke up fully refreshed and ready to complete our journey.