May 18, 2000. And our Wedding Trip begins at 5:00 AM!

Our trip started out on May 18 when we left Holland and went by ferry to the UK (England). 5:00 AM isn't the best time of the day for me, but naturally I was anxious to get started. We had packed the day before and that was fortunate because, as I had explained to Hein, I wouldn't be much good for anything at 5:00 AM. Guess I was pretty excited because I actually was awake (for the most part) and managed well till I was descending the stairs for the last time before leaving and decided to carry the remainder of my coffee on my pink sweater. A quick change of clothes and we were off!

We had to drive about an hour to where our boat for England departed. The map on the right shows the route that we took on the ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich, England. It was a 3 1/2 hour trip and the weather was pretty good with just a light rain so the crossing was smooth. The boat below was the one we were on. It had several restaurants, a couple of bars, a gift shop, and casinos. I was pretty excited about being on this boat because it was a totally different experience for me. Prior to this I had only been on small fishing boats and had only once gotten somewhat seasick so I figured I'd do fine. As you can see, this boat is a catamaran so it rides in the water a little better than a round bottom boat would, but I wasn't prepared for the gentle rolling that it was doing and did get a little queasy till Hein talked me into putting something on my stomach. An Egg McMuffin from McDonalds (I'm not kidding) to the rescue and after a few minutes I was fine.

This boat is actually bigger than it looks in the picture. In addition to the facilities I mentioned above, it had two decks for vehicles. Fortunate for us, since we were taking our car, and BOY do they ever pack them on there.

So, now off to England.        Next page