Every now and then we get a job request that leaves us speechless. Following on from our trip to Calais a few months ago a regular client asked us if we could plan a trip for them in the wee early hours of New Year’s Day to… Amsterdam!
We left just after the bells for the longest part of the journey, 470 miles, down to the EuroTunnel in Folkestone. We’ve never seen the roads so quiet before and the journey flew by. With the roads being so quiet we decided to take a couple of extra rest breaks as we were running ahead of schedule!
Even with the extra rest stops we still arrived early at the EuroTunnel, thankfully because it was so quiet they put us on an earlier train!
There is something quite strange, yet amusing, about seeing France with a directional arrow painted on the tarmac!
We drove round and through the UK border check with ease then after a quick Bonne Année to the French passport control we were directed straight onto the train.
The journey flies by, it’s only around 35 minutes. And when the darkness out the windows is replaced by daylight everyone jumps back in their cars to get ready to head straight on the French motorway.
It’s less than 40 miles from the EuroTunnel in Calais to the border with Belgium although we still had a short rest break in one of the quaint picnic stops that are on the French motorways.
Next up was Belgium, other than a small sign and slightly different road markings you’d struggle to notice crossing the border!
We stopped off for lunch in a Belgian service station, they have a much better selection than the service stations back home thats for sure! We couldn’t resist the temptation of some fresh Belgian waffles though!
After our lunch break we only had 90 more miles before reaching Amsterdam. Again the border crossing was so seamless that we actually missed it! This time the only tell tale sign was that the road signs changed from being white in Belgium to a more familiar blue in The Netherlands.
We had finally arrived in Amsterdam, and after navigating the narrow streets of the city we dropped our clients off at their hotel. A total of 744 miles from door to door!
Next up for us was to head to our own hotel just on the outskirts of the city for some much deserved sleep!
After a couple of days rest and recuperation we hit the road again to head back home. As this was a ‘dead leg’ with no returning clients we decided to stop off and explore Brussels. This is where we came across the stunning Notre-Dame de Laeken and we just couldn’t resist getting a picture of our car in front of the stunning, yet imposing, building!
After a couple hours enjoying the delights of Brussels, the food is fantastic, we fought through the rush hour traffic to get back on the motorway network and head down to the EuroTunnel in Calais. Again, boarding the train is seamless, just drive up to the barrier, the camera reads your registration plate and prints off your boarding pass then its onto the UK customs control and straight onto the train, this time we were put on the top deck which is a tight squeeze in a car as large as our long wheelbase Mercedes S Class.
Once off the train you’re directed straight onto the motorway and then it was the long 500 mile drive back to Paisley to rest up for a couple of days.
Here at AYA Executive Travel we are quickly gaining a reputation for being long distance specialists. We are able to plan and execute your journey to anywhere in Europe.
