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Old 20 Oct 19, 01:42 PM  
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HEMANCLOFTY
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Europa Park(s): Planes, Coaster-Trains & Autobahns (Aug 19) - Day 7

Europa Park(s): Planes, Coaster-Trains & Autobahns (Aug 19)

Day 7 – Tuesday 27th August (Hardervijk, Driving to Cologne & Home)


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Day 6 is Here


We had no real plans for our last day, other than needing to be at the Airport in Cologne in time for our flight at 9:55pm, which would mean leaving Hardevijk early afternoon.

Rich had done a bit of research when booking the hotels – there was a Dolphinarium, but it would’ve been almost €60 for the 3 of us, which seemed a bit steep for just a few hours. We did like the look of the Beach island though, so had decided we’d spend the morning mooching down there.

Tom and I had some of the Chocolate Brioche we’d bought last night for breakfast, and I spent a bit of time rejigging the suitcases to balance the weight and to fit in the bag of toiletries.

I checked us out of the hotel (at about 8:45am) and we took the cases to the car, Rich was a bit concerned about the dodgy tyre with the extra weight of the suitcases, so we decided to go and get some air now to be on the safe side. Parking for the nights was only €1.40 – much cheaper than we thought it would be.

It was just a few minutes’ drive to the petrol station, where it was 50c for the air top up – I think we might’ve bought some cigarettes here too.

Then we drove to the Marina parking area, and mooched around – it was lovely…











It was a couple of minutes’ walk to the Boulevard…









…and a few more minutes to the Beach Island…



















It was already really hot, and there was no shade on the beach, so we headed for the grassy area nearby…



We set out our beach towels and just chilled for an hour – I was really tired so tried to get a bit of sleep before my long drive to Cologne. I didn’t actually sleep, but the rest definitely helped...







We had a few snacks and at 11am decided to walk into town to get some of the nice sausage rolls we’d gotten from the bakery yesterday for lunch…





We also wanted to get some drinks from the Deen Supermarket, so popped in there first. It’s a good think we didn’t do the bakery first as they had probably the best bargain we’ve ever seen – 25c fresh, hot sausage rolls! Yes, 25c each – we bought 8…



We headed back towards the Boulevard, stopping in this lovely area to have a bench picnic…





We were joined by 2 of the friendliest cats we’ve ever seen – they just kept coming up to us and were so affectionate…



Because one had a pearl on it’s collar, I named them Pearl and Earl – then when Pearl slobbered all over Tom’s trousers, this eveolved into Earl and Lady peal of Slobberington…



I mooched over to take some pics of the Roman Fishgate…



And after about half an hour, we decided to mooch back to the car…





I think we paid about €2.50ish for the parking, and we set off just before 12pm…



It was coming up as a 2.5 hour journey but, as usual, I was planning to take it slow and have lots of stops along the way.

Out first stop was just under an hour in – at La Place services...



Tom and I went in to use the loos and I wanted a coffee.

It was 70c to use the loos, but they were very nice, with swanky Dyson washer/dryer system…



The food selection was also very nice - not your typical UK services offering…







So nice that I knew Rich would appreciate it, so I sent Tom out to get him whilst I got my Cappuccino (I didn’t make a note of how much this cost, but I did get 50c off with my loo voucher )…



Rich and Tom came back in, and we sat for a while whilst I had my cappuccino.

They had an Efteling Kids meal deal offer...



...and even this fab little kids area, featuring an Anton Pieck toadstool…



It was about 1:20pm when we got back on the road.

We stopped again at 2:15pm in a layby an the A3– we’d cross the border back into Germany by now. We had the rest of our bargain Deen Sausage rolls…







We hit a few patches of traffic during the 2nd half of the journey, and Googlemaps updated the route a couple of times.

We stopped one more time at about 4pm for Rich to have a smoke – we were about 25 minutes away from the airport, so had plenty of time to spare.

At the airport, we filled up the car (€50 – making our total fuel cost for the trip €110 – not too bad for 1200 km).

Dropping the car off was easy – the guy just scanned a barcode inside the driver’s door and did a visual check, I mentioned the air pressure issue and just had to sign his PED. I think we were all done and in the airport by 5pm.

I weighed the cases on one of the empty bag drop desks – I didn’t make a note of the weight but one was slightly over and one was well under, so I did a bit of rejigging whilst the boys got changed in the loos. I also packed the beach towels and few loose bits we’d had for the day.

Ryan Air bag drop was in terminal 2, so we walked down, but we were told we couldn’t check our cases yet, so we mooched over towards the shops and had to sit on the floor for a while until some chairs became free.

At about 6pm I popped into the Deen shop to get some picnic bits for tea. I got a 6 pack of finger rolls and some ham (€2.95) for Rich, but there wasn’t anything I fancied and Tom had already said he wanted something hot.

Rich enjoyed his rolls, eating 4 now and saving 2 for later.

I popped to the ladies to get changed and freshen up my makeup before squeezing my makeup bag into the case so I wouldn’t have to mess at security.

At about 7:30ish, we dropped off our cases and made our way back to Terminal 1, where we were departing from. I warned Tom that there wasn’t much food choices airside, but he wasn’t hungry yet.

Security was really quick as the airport was very quiet by now.

We had a mooch in Duty Free and bought some cigarettes (approx. €62 for 200), then sat for a while in the main airside area...



They had some really cool smoking pods…



As it started to get darker, there was a lot of lightening – I spent about 10 minutes trying to get a pic, but couldn’t capture it…





Tom was a bit peckish, so we had a look at the limited food choices. He ended up going for a cinnamon roll and a bottle of Coke (€5.50ish)...



I quite fancied the look of the Brockwurst so got one (€3 with a roll)…





It was really nice, the roll was crusty and still warm – it was great value for airport food too, much better than the £3 Burger King fries we’d had on the way out 😊.

At about 9-ish we went through the passport check to our gate (D30). By now the lightening had turned into a full-on rainstorm, and most of the remaining flights of the night were showing as delayed…





Once the rain stopped, they announced that our gate was now D20 and started boarding, and we were in our seats and ready for take-off by 22:30pm, so not too much of a delay…



I don’t have any notes or pics to go on for timings, but I thinks we landed at 22:45pm UK time and it was about 23:30pm when we got back to the car.

After a slight detour (we realised we were going the wrong way on the M25), we stopped at Beaconsfield Xtra services on the M40 just after Midnight for some fuel. I popped into the main building to get a Maccy’s Cappuccino for me and a can of Monster for Rich to keep us going on the drive. I was hungry so also got myself a cheeky Double Cheeseburger.

Rich took it slow on the drive home and I think we got back just before 3am.

Today’s Stats:
Walking: 17.298 steps (= 7.52 miles / 12.11 km)
Driving: c240km (+ c170 miles in the UK)


Final Stats, Summary & Our New Top 10 Coasters is Here

Edited at 04:21 PM.
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