What a day. It all started beautifully. A long, leisurely lie in, followed by breakfast at our new favourite bakery, which is just down the road from the Airbnb we stayed at last night. They make the best, freshest multi seed ham and cheese rolls in the world. Seriously.
We then had a two hour drive along German motorways. It was all going well. Then I realised we may not make check in.
The TT Line website claimed that check in closed an hour before sailing. According to Maxine, we would arrive there with ten minutes to spare. This was reduced to two minutes by road works on the A20.
I say works but we didn’t see any evidence of much work, just speed reduction and barriers. It was frustratingly slow and made Mirinda drive faster than her comfort speed after the works.
Then, suddenly, out of nowhere a sleek, no nonsense black car pulled in front of us and a red LED sign told us to follow them because they were the police.
They led us off the motorway and to the entrance to, what looked like, one of those factories in crime thrillers where fake police take that victims.
Mirinda was worried about the possibly fake policemen. She was also worried we wouldn’t make check in so I was instructed to call the ferry line and let them know. Eventually I found out check in closed half an hour before sailing. Unless these were fake policemen, we’d be fine making the ferry.
One policeman showed his ID then asked to see ours. Mirinda said she’d show him hers if he’d move his thumb so she could see his. He laughed at that then showed her properly.
He took our passports and her driving license and checked we were okay. He returned our documents and said we were fine to leave.
Mirinda asked if they picked on us because we had a UK car. He said they were on the look out for stolen cars being driven to Poland and sold on. Apparently minis are popular. Mirinda asked if he thought polish car thieves would usually have two cockerpoos in the car with them. He laughed and said no, that we looked like the perfect family.
(Note to self: when writing a crime drama, have the baddies pose as the perfect family group by including a couple of cockerpoos.)
Anyway, we made the ferry check in then drove all over the place trying to find our lane. I then told Mirinda to head for the long line of trucks that were loading only to be told by a big burley guy in a flouro jacket to go back to our lane and wait. Mirinda told me off for that.
Finally, we were settled in our cabin and heading for Sweden, in a delightfully almost empty ferry.
I was very disappointed that no one wanted to look at our residency cards as we drove off the ferry and went straight to our Airbnb accommodation, 15 minutes along the coast. But more about that tomorrow.
That was enough excitement for one day and we slept.
