2003, Last Day

Day sixteen 17th June

On the the A4 and then round the Brussels ring road the R0 onto the A1 to Antwerp. At Antwerp the A1 changes to the A1/A12/ then back to the A1 as we exit Antwerp and then changes again to the A16 as we enter Holland, then finally on to the A15 for Rotterdam. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well its not that easy, the roads are a lot busier in Belgium and Holland, we got stuck in two sets of road works and we got it wrong at Antwerp and ended up in the city. I think we got onto the ring road going west instead of east and as I couldn't see a way to get back to right way, I took the first tuning off the ring road.

The way off the motorway was quite a long road and I couldn't see the way back up, to go back where we had come from. By the time we found somewhere to pull over we did not know exactly where we where (something GPS has fixed, with that, even when you are lost, you still know where you are, if you know what I mean). We studied the AutoRoute map but still could not work out exactly where we where as there were no road signs to be found. So we carried on along this road until we decided we were getting nowhere and tuned off to check the map again. We spotted a large shopping centre and thought this would be a good place to find out where we where, so we parked up but could not find it on the map, eventually I spotted a road sign over a dual carriageway and ran over to read it. Eureka, there was a road name so we could find it on the map but there where still a couple of problems to overcome.

We could not get out of the car park, all the exits had height barriers, we drove all over and I began to wonder how we got in. Eventually I drove over a grass verge and curb to get out. Then back at the motorway I could not find the way on and drove round the same roads several times, before I eventually managed to get in the right lane at a set of lights, at a very dodgy junction, this enable me to get onto the motorway slip road.

Only problems from there was a massive traffic jam, we had given ourselves plenty of time but I did start to worry we would not make the ferry but just then, it all cleared and we arrived in plenty of time. The driver of road sweeper had a bit of fun with us, on the way into the port, as he had Netherland plates and RHD and we had GB plates and LHD, shrugging his shoulders and pretending to be confused, then he started laughing.