Ferry food

Posted on March 24, 2011 by ferryadmin

One of the great things about travelling by ferry is that you can get some proper food on deck. recently there was a programme about Heston Blumenthal attempting to make great food in the air – and while he did a great job of inventing some dishes – the space was just too small for it to be realistically replicated at every meal time.

On ferries you can even opt for A la carte dining, and start your trip in style.

So, what would be your ideal ferry meal at dinner time? Mine would probably depend on what the destination was to an extent but here’s the kind of thing I like to have:

Starter – something light, maybe some beetroot salad

Mains – steak and chips, or if it’s on the menu, a bit of fish.

Afters – as long as it’s sweet, I’ll eat it

Followed by, of course, coffee.

And if the weather’s ok, maybe an after dinner stroll on deck afterwards.

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Short Haul Holidays

Posted on March 17, 2011 by ferryadmin

Last year there was a lot of noise about the staycation.

This year there’s even been a newspaper article about the daycation, although the claim that daycations are ‘displacing the two week holiday’ is one that I’ll take with a pinch of salt, a few drops of vinegar, and a liberal application of HP Sauce.

I mean, how many of us do a ‘daycation’ pretty much every other Saturday – heading off somewhere new to see what’s on offer? Handy if you also live near a border or the channel – even more to explore.

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Summer 2011 – ferry dreams

Posted on March 11, 2011 by ferryadmin

Well summer’s here at last. Ah, ok only wishful thinking. It’s still cold, and the clocks don’t even go forward for a couple of weeks yet. Ah well, we can still dream of summer holidays.

Last year there was a lot of talk about the so-called ‘staycation’ whereby presumably people had heard a lot of doom and gloom on the news and cheered themselves up by holidaying close and saving a bob or two.

The thing about staycationism is that in some cases it’s perhaps a little defeatist. Like, if you live in Kent, then France is only 20 odd miles away, while Dundee is hundreds of miles away. Similarly, if you’re based in Wick then you’re closer to Stavanger than you are to London.

All of which means that you can probably leave the British Isles easily enough, certainly as easy as some staycation options. And if you get, say, an Amsterdam ferry, then you’ve got the added bonus of actually being overseas and enjoying a bit of foreign culture and new sights as well, without straying too far across the globe.

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Ferry it to Europe, after that?

Posted on February 22, 2011 by ferryadmin

Travelling overland and by ferry is a great way to see Europe. There’s a unique kind of excitement when you arrive at your port of destination. It’s entirely dissimilar from the sea of concrete that meets you at an airport. There is a mystique about the seas that simply can’t be beat for exciting and fun travel.

Once you’re in say France or Germany, travelling by car or train really helps you get the feel of the place. If travelling by car of course you can stop whenever you want, maybe get some food from the shop and have a picnic. Trains obviously have the advantage of someone else doing the driving. Also it’s fun to be in European railway stations if you’re from the UK, because the trains go all over the place, so you’ll see trains bound for Moscow, Berlin, Barcelona, Prague. Makes a bit of an exotic change after always seeing Newcastle, Penrith and Warrington Bank Quay, anyway.

Anyway this general topic got me thinking – what is the longest distance I have ever travelled only using boat/ car / train i.e. not when flying?

Actually, not all that far: Scotland to Italy, and it was the south of Scotland to the northern bit of Italy. It did take ages though.

What about you? What’s your longest over-land trip?

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Ferry destinations: Amsterdam

Posted on February 17, 2011 by ferryadmin

This is a very nice video capturing the vibe of one of our favourite ferry destinations: the lovely city of Amsterdam. In fact just watching it makes us want to hop on a ferry to Holland and go there right now. Can’t do that right now unfortunately, but will do soon.


Watch more Amsterdam videos at tripfilms.com
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Ferry Tales on BBC Alba (Thar an Aiseag)

Posted on February 11, 2011 by ferryadmin

If you live in Scotland you may have been lucky enough to catch the interesting series ‘Thar an Aiseag’ (Ferry Tales) on Gaelic channel BBC Alba (don’t worry if you’re not fluent in Gaelic – there are subtitles!). The series follows the lives on everyone in northern Scotland who either work or rely on the ferry. Its a great programme, episode 3 is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer now (http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/yj6zf/).

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Europe is nearby (relatively speaking)

Posted on January 26, 2011 by ferryadmin

There’s always this quoted statistic about few Americans having passports. There’s no official figure from what I can see, so I’d take any stats you hear about with a large pinch of Granola.

See, the thing about the USA is that it’s massive. You don’t need a passport to travel from Seattle to Miami. And that is one incredible distance for a country. For a European, that would be like driving from Dublin to Moscow (bodies of water notwithstanding).

The great thing about the UK is that the rest of Europe is accessible, and you can choose your mode of transport to suit. Looking at mini cruise deals there’s loads of places that offer something truly different from home – a real chance to get some European culture and enjoy the architecture, the sights and the continental cuisine – Amsterdam, Bruges, Copenhagen and so on. You will of course need a passport though.

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Destination: Belfast

Posted on December 23, 2010 by ferryadmin

Quick tour of Belfast (slideshow)

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Weather permitting? Get the ferry instead…

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ferryadmin

The news about the weather the past few days has been a bit of a misery bulletin, traffic disruption, crowds at St Pancras awaiting news of when their Eurostar journey will finally begin, etc.

It’s not been a great year for people travelling by air either. First we had the Eyjafjallajokul eruption in the spring, which meant some fairly hefty delays for people getting to or from mainland Europe, and now we’ve got masses of snow holding up the airports, with the now familiar picture of snowed-on runways being cleared by JCBs.

Luckily not all means of transport have been held back by the weather – now can you guess which are still running? Yes, the ferries

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Holland or The Netherlands – ferry dream

Posted on December 14, 2010 by ferryadmin

I’ve never really known whether to call The Netherlands Holland or vice versa. But then, given that the only parts of the Netherlands I’ve visited have been the ones that are also in Holland, it would be correct to say that I’ve been to ‘Holland’.

Anyway – regardless of what you call it – it’s a great country to visit and pretty much a dream destination, with its many waterways and maritime history.

Amsterdam forms part of the Randstad the Dutch conurbation that also includes Den Haag, Utrecht, Rotterdam, and others. It’s handy for travellers to be in the Randstad as it means that most of the stuff that Holland has to offer is never too far away. You’re also ideally placed for trips across the border to Belgium or Germany.

Other benefits of ferries to Holland: no waiting round at airports, no baggage weight limit. It’s also one of the cheapest ways to travel and snow is never a concern on the sea, so weather permits where other types of travel can be snowed in.

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