Huxwolds European Vacation - AKA Auf Wiedersehen Bab - Days 0 & 1

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Huxwolds European Vacation - AKA Auf Wiedersehen Bab (Oct 18)
Pre-Travel Day (Sun 28th Oct) & Travel Day (Mon 29th Oct)

The index is here

Pre-Travel Day

We had an early flight from Manchester tomorrow morning, so we’d booked a night in the Travelodge at Knutsford Services (a bargain at about £34 + £3 for WiFi).

We got up early, as we had lots to do to get ready – I started ironing at around 10am and it took me about an hour and a half to work through it all and get the majority packed.

At 12pm, me and Rich popped to Merry Hill as we needed to return a jacket to Superdry (Rich had bought 2 sizes online) and to collect the Euros that we had ordered (£403 for €440)

I also took the opportunity pop into Primark as I wanted a small purse to fit in my bum-bag (£4) and I also grabbed a twin pack of gloves (£1) – a pair each for me and Rich. Our final stop was Asda, for some bits for lunch and room snacks for later.

Back home for lunch and to finish off the washing and last few bits of packing.

We loaded up the car and went to KFC for an early en-route tea at 4:30pm – we got a few extra pieces than usual, so we could have some cold chicken later (I used my Colonel’s Club app offers so it was a bargain at only £10 )...

We had to make a quick stop-off back at home as Tom has forgotten his coat, and we got on the road at 5:30pm, arriving at the Travelodge at about 8pm...

We had our room snacks & showers / baths and sat on the bed to finally book our car hire with Avis - £256 for a compact, 1 driver.

(NB – we’d been pondering for weeks about the driving situation as neither of us had driven abroad before. I was more confident, but Rich isn’t a great passenger, so we were weighing up who would be the best to drive, or whether we should share it – we decided I’d drive in the end)

We also talked about our plans for the week ahead. We’d originally planned to do a half day at Phantasialand when we arrived tomorrow, but agreed we’d probably be tired after an early start and it wouldn’t be the best value for money, so decided to make it a relaxed afternoon instead.

Travel Day

We’d set alarms at 4:30am and 4:45am, and we were all up, dressed and ready to leave by 5:20am.

We arrived at Manchester Airport and were parked up in Long Stay T3 by 6am. It was a 10 minute wait for the shuttle bus, and it was chilly-cold.

Check in was really easy – we used the self-service check in machine and bag drop – our case was 16.5kg, so plenty under the 20kg allowance .

We sat in arrivals until 6:45am as there was no airside smoking area for Rich...

There was a bit of a queue in Security as only 2 lines were operating. Me and Tom both got patted down (the TSA has to ask my permission to check Tom). My tray also got checked, and we realised that this was because there were 2 lighters in our clear bag.

Our gate wasn’t showing on the Departures screen yet, so we took a gamble and sat near gate 54 because there was an earlier Ryan Air flight going from there...

I fancied a coffee, so I nipped to get us some drinks - a Coke from WHSmiths (£2.15) for the boys and a Cappuccino from the little sandwich bar (£2.90) for me.

We took it in turns to pop to the loo at approx 7:45am – our gate still wasn’t showing, and the board was now saying our departure was 8:35am (30 mins delay)

At 8:25am they finally announced our gate (51) – we could see our plane was only just pulling in. We eventually boarded and took off at about 8:45am (45 mins late).

There was quite a bit of turbulence, plus I had to wake Rich from his doze as he was tapping his leg in his sleep, making me feeling a bit queasy – he wasn’t impressed with being woken up .

We landed at Cologne at 11am UK time (12pm Germany), and had a bit of a wait for our case. Then we had a bit of a walk to the car hire centre. We found the Avis desk and I was relieved to see that the key was a Citroen DS one, which meant our car was going to be a DS3 (just like my car ).

We trekked back through terminal to the carpark and found our little black DS3 easily…

I was more scared about driving than I thought I’d be, so asked Rich to sit in the back (as he makes me nervous when I’m driving in the UK). It was quite scary at first, but we were using Google Maps on Rich’s phone and he did a great job of navigating and keeping me calm.

It was about a 20-minute drive to Bruhl – I missed the turn for our hotel, and the next point that I could turn around in was a little carpark, so we stopped so Rich could have a cigarette. My hands were trembling ! It was then just a 2-minute drive back to the hotel, and I managed to park up easily – we’d made it !

Rich had booked the Hotel H+ for the first 2 nights (€287 inc breakfast, pay on arrival)…

Tom and I went in to check in and pay whilst Rich unloaded the car – our room was lovely…

The mini packs of Haribo on the beds was a nice touch ...

We had a short rest until 2:30pm, then headed out for a walk and to find Schlossburger (which Rich had found on Trip Adviser) for an early tea.
We popped into the Netto next door to the hotel first, and ended up buying some pastries to keep us going…

I also got this Cola / Orange drink, as I really like Coke & Fanta mixed, but I think it must've been a diet version as it wasn't very nice...

We walked up past the little carpark I’d pulled into earlier, as this was headed towards Phantasialand and we wanted to see how far it was for tomorrow morning.

We spotted Mystery Castle...

It took us about 40 minutes or so to walk there (slowly) – the boys were really mucking around on the way, pulling silly faces at me as I had the camera out, but I’ve promised I won’t share the photos …

You can actually see right into the “Main Street” part of the park from the bridge above the entrance – it looked lovely and got us really excited about tomorrow…

We walked back towards the hotel, sort of following Google Map in the direction towards Schlossburger. I needed the loo, so we popped into the hotel, had literally a 5-minute rest and headed straight back out again.

It took about 20 minutes to walk down into the main shopping area, where Schlossburger was located. On the way, we walked through a little shopping centre, where there was an Aldi and a C&A…

We had a quick look around the Rewe supermarket...

Then followed Google maps to Schlossburger, which was tucked away in a little back street, that was very stereotypically German…

It was a great little quirky restaurant, with just a few tables – we ordered Cheeseburgers with bacon and regular fries for me and Tom and a Man Burger with large fries for Rich - with 3 Fritz Colas it was great value at €44…

The burgers were lovely - Rich's declared his is joint #1 burger, and Tom put it as his #1. We left a €5 tip.

On the way back to the hotel, we stop in a quirky little gift shop, where I picked out a tree decoration – only €1.95…

We walked back to hotel, calling in at Netto for some Water, Coke and some Haribo (€10.70)...

We rang Mom to let her know we’d arrived safe, and all settled down with our iPads – Rich went to sleep really early, and Tom and I at about 11pm. I woke up at 2am and watched some Netflix until 4am, when I finally dropped back off

Our step count for the day was 25,812

Day 2 (Phantasialand) is here