Rotterdam to Hull - Day 01 - Tuesday 23rd December 2025 - UK Christmas - Day 01/07 - Christmas Eve Eve
- eusts6
- Jan 3
- 3 min read
It started with just another workday, coffee at 07:00, and reading my mail. Today was a half day, so just a couple of emails to read and answer, and make plans for my return in the new year and final setup of "out-of-office."
Once back home, I had a luxurious lunch of fried eggs and toast with Kerrygold, along with orange juice. I still had some last-minute packing to do and some cleaning. The hoover tube fell all the way down the stairs and almost broke my glass cabinet, so I decided to stop cleaning!
I took the bus to the Koemarkt in Schiedam and then the tram to Rotterdam Centraal. I was one hour early. As Rotterdam CS didn't have any bars, I went to the Marriott Hotel for a glass of red wine. Even though I was an hour too early, my glass of red was not savored but rushed as I had 20 minutes left to go to the bus. People were already boarding, and the guy had a clipboard with names.
The bus left punctually at 17:00 as planned and drove through Schiedam on the way before driving on the motorway past the oil refineries, which looked like Christmas trees in the dark. Once we arrived at the P&O terminal, I was ushered forward and ended up at passport control and walked onboard, only to be sent back. My QR code was not a check-in, so a Filipino worker had to accompany me back downstairs to actually check in, where I was given my key card and went straight back to my room on deck 9.
I unpacked a few essentials and then explored the boat. I went all the way up to Deck 12 and out onto the "Sun Deck" in the dark and cold, where I spoke to a friendly English guy called Andy. I was to bump into him a few times that night.
I explored the boat, called "The Pride of Rotterdam," which I had actually been on in 2001 when it was new. I used it back then to start a new life. I had been on it a total of 4 times during the period 2001-2002, but somehow it seemed more luxurious back then. I ate simply this time. My 2001 trip was somewhere around September or October 2001, just after the 9/11 incident. I had driven overland and sea with my red Fiat Punto and my ex-mother-in-law. I was somehow overly generous back then, and we went to the luxury restaurant, bought luxury wines, and stayed in the luxury cabin all the time, believing I was broke.
I returned to deck 12 and bumped into Andy and his wife from South Africa. They kindly invited me to join them for a drink, and I found out they live in Ranelagh, where I had some wild student parties back in the late '80s.
I had heard that there was a pub quiz, so I bid them farewell and went looking for the venue, which was supposed to be on deck 8. Bingo, but no quiz. I also found the buffet restaurant, and for 20 pounds, I could eat quite nicely. The mashed potatoes were especially nice!
The bingo was loud, the music in the so-called Irish bar was bad, so I again returned to Deck 12 for a pint and contemplated how much life had changed in 24 years since my first time on the boat. Unlike my first trip, I returned to bed early for the night.
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