As we drove through a roundabout, not far from where we stayed overnight in Germany, a big, flat motel-style building hove into view. A big sign in the window said that the only people welcomed were ‘real Casanovas’. I have no idea what that means. I assume it’s some sort of just-out-of-town brothel, kind of like a big superstore. But, really, who knows? Not being a Casanova, I guess I’ll never know.
After a few hundred miles, and turning off a motorway, it seemed quite strange that on a roundabout full of toucans, the first thing we saw was the Casanova Club. Apart from a few suspicious aggregator websites, I can’t find any information about the club at all. Maybe, if you are a real Casanova, you just know.
As I said, we’d travelled a few hundred miles to get there. Following a very peaceful crossing of the North Sea, we landed at the Hook of Holland and just kept driving across the Netherlands then, halfway across Germany.
Actually, unlike the wake up you get on the Brittany ferry to St Malo, the Stenaline alarm is much more gentle. It starts with a dawn chorus, then a bit of jaunty sea shanty type music, before an announcement is made regarding the landing time and how long the passengers have for breakfast. Mirinda insisted I head down for a coffee. Well, after taking the girls to the toilet deck.
It was my third trip to the dog toilet and I still hadn’t seen another dog down there. It was quite lucky given Freya’s current state.
While both of them had a wee, that was all until we were standing at the Guest Services desk, about to disembark, when Emma decided to have a poo. In front of lots of people who were lining up to leave the ferry. It was extremely embarrassing.
While I scooped up the poo and took it to the toilet deck, Mirinda explained to the person at Guest Services, that we were only there because they hadn’t made an announcement regarding people with dogs. As I met her on my way back, there was an announcement about people travelling with dogs. Mirinda claimed it was because of her complaint.
This wasn’t Emma’s only poo of the day. She had two more. Freya, on the other hand, settled for only one. At a services, rest stop, far away from crowds.
And, as usual, they both travelled really well. They curled up on the dog bed and slept most of the way. They were very excited every time we stopped but, basically, they only woke up if anything interesting seemed to be happening.
We visited a fair few services on our journey across both countries. At one point, Mirinda was starting to fall asleep and suddenly announced we were stopping for another coffee. It was perfectly strong and kept her awake for the rest of the day.
Then, as I said, we finally arrived at our stop, an Airbnb at a small place called Honerdingen. It’s one of those small estates where a farmer is gradually selling off bits of land. One of those places that Mirinda hates because the developers always chop down all the trees before they start building. This leaves the finished estate devoid of any nature for a while.
At the end of the estate, and the beginning of farmland, there was a house with a garden full of chopped up and dried wood. I pointed and told Mirinda that that’s where all the trees were. After we’d arrived, we had taken the girls for a short walk around ploughed fields, cows and sheep. In fact, a field full of black sheep which just shows where they all are.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they were Casanovas. Every one of them.
All the German restaurants in the area were closed, so we had Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese for dinner. From a restaurant that only took cash or PayPal. No cards. Now that’s very old school. And inconvenient. Still, at least I have a PayPal account.
