The beginning of a Leger holiday isn’t our favourite part. It always seems to take forever to reach Dover and since the UK left the EU, the formalities at Dover take a lot more time. And so…

A stupid o’clock (3:30am) alarm, to be ready for a 4:15am taxi, to take us to a 4:45am departure from Cardiff. The taxi arrived early and waited patiently, the feeder coach was there, waiting, so our journey to Stop-24 was relaxed and straightforward arriving at around 10am.

A little entertainment, en route. Picking up passengers in Newport, one group of three had more bags and cases than might be needed for a World Cruise. Three enormous suitcases and about (we didn’t count) 10 assorted large supermarket style plastic bags. The driver nearly had a fit. Somehow or another these were distributed  in and under the coach. Not long after arriving at Stop-24 a Leger “official” came to speak to the group - what happened next? Don’t know.

The Stop-24 exchange was quicker than usual. We made it onto the ferry easily and headed to the Club Lounge (now a part of our “Holiday Essentials”) for some good food & drink, a comfortable, quiet environment and plenty of space on the outside deck.

The journey though Belgium was straightforward, arriving at our hotel (Best Western, Wavre) around 8pm. We’d brought a picnic supper (no restaurant for those who’d failed to read the itinerary) and had a much needed night’s sleep.

 

Tuesday. began with a 05:45 alarm, cases out for 06:30 to set off at 07:30 after a pretty good breakfast for Austria. It was a long, but pleasant day travelling mostly through Germany. We had a very enjoyable lunch in a Nordsee fish restaurant at a service station. Crossing into Austria we arrived at the hotel about 19:00. 

The German autobahn have a fascinating tax. €1 for entry to the toilets. You receive a voucher to redeem with a purchase (if you want to purchase overpriced items). During the trip, we made quite a collection of this valuable, yet worthless, currency.

The hotel was exceptional (except for some construction work on an adjacent site). Large room with a balcony, pleasant staff and excellent food.  (I’m not scoring the food this trip… everything was top marks!)