Travelling Fletchers

Packing up this morning I felt smug – I thought knew I could pack my bag with space. Turns out, I couldn’t. It took three attempts. Every time I turned round I found something I’d missed. I knew something was off when I had to tighten the straps. On the plus side – I did remember to pack my battery pack somewhere I can actually reach it. Maybe that’s a good omen for the day ahead.

The hotel beds were so comfortable that getting up took some time. I’d planned to be at the port for 8am to sort a new booking – but I didn’t wake up until much later. They say things happen for a reason. Cam and I arrived at the booking office at 9.32, to discover it had been open for just two minutes. We were first through the door.

Ticket booked – we were ready for our day. Or part day. Or, more importantly – brunch.

Kiel sits up on the Baltic coast in northern Germany – a busy port with ferries, the Kiel Canal, and plenty of naval history. It’s known for its sailing week in June and for fish dishes, especially herring. Shame we didn’t have time to explore more.

Things we’ve learnt so far… we need better planning – or no planning at all. Thinking about it now, it would have been better to arrive the night before. That would have given us extra time to explore and some wriggle room for late trains, which we’ve now been told are notorious in Germany (wish us luck for the return).

The other thing we’d probably do next time – and it’s definitely feeling like a “when” not an “if” – is not book in advance. By changing our booking today, the new cruise counted as an upgrade, so we now have a cabin with a window. And it’s cheaper than the original one we booked back in January, which was an internal cabin.

Another tip – make sure you have travel insurance, and one that includes cancellations. Good job we did. We were taught by the best in this respect – thanks to my parents.