Harwich, an option?

For many of us in the UK the ubiquitous Dover to Calais crossing is the start of many a jaunt onto the continent. For those of us slightly North or East who want to forgo the hours of motorway trawling, the general noise and pollution of the south coast and our own joyful road system out of East Anglia that would get us sympathy from any failed former Soviet Republic there is another option.

BEHOLD!

Harwich International.... While the name doesn't exactly conjure up any grand visions of a sleek and modern port facility, gleaming white with pride and the beauty of well maintained cruise liners sparkling in the midday sun it's because none of that will be in any way present. Also it will probably be raining as well just to give you the niggling 50/50 that maybe Dover & it's accompanied Calais jungle might in fact be worth the slog, the port has even got backwards a tad since DFDS (Scandinavian Seaways to us oldies) ended their route to Esbjerg in Denmark all those years ago. Stay with me though!

The port has two sailings a day to the 'Hook of Holland', a morning 9am which frankly drags it's heels all the way there OR it's rather more convenient night sailing which generally kicks off between half past ten and 11pm. My advice? Take the later one, sneak a couple of tins on board to avoid paying 02 arena prices for a cold one and hide out in your cabin. Cabin you say?

Yup, just pay extra and book one and you will thank me later. It is a 9/10 hour crossing (ish) if you take the night route and no matter how good company you manage to find it isn't going to help with the hard lounge chairs that will give you considerable discomfiture when you wake up a few hours later with a furry mouth. In you cross on iffy days (like Wednesday) you can generally screw Stennaline down to about £260 for both ways including your bike and the cabin having a port hole, these are also really a good thing to have especially if you hit a bit of a swell on the way over. This way you can awaken bright eyed and bushy tailed for a day of riding ahead of you, not to mention if your destination is the Baltic or Eastern Europe you are already a day ahead of yourself. Result all round.

With Covid-19 set to be in play for the next three years a nice isolated cabin will no doubt be high on a lot of peoples preferences and at least this way you can be guaranteed a decent nights sleep.