A Week on the Road part 2

Yesterday I write about our drive to Amsterdam. This is the return journey.

We left Amsterdam last Saturday, playing the Amstelveen escape game. The voice in the dashboard spent an hour trying to make us turn left onto a road that was being dug up, but then we managed to decode some roadsigns and get onto our chosen route.

I had decided to take a different route home, driving past Rotterdam and across the sea defences of Zeeland. This was a great choice, with not too much traffic (Saturday morning, remember) and some excellent traditional wind powered water pumps (windmills). It was breezy - force 8 - but sunny, and the views were excellent. After a lunch stop we progressed (via a new and unmapped autoroute interchange) to Calais, then on to Abbeville via minor roads.

The next day we set off home along the free section of autoroute before rejoining the smaller roads. Many of these are now upgraded to near Autoroute standard, so the trip costs €47 less in tolls, but takes less than an hour longer.

We arrived home at about 15h, having driven 2078km, averaging 60km/h and using 5.5 litres of fuel per 100km.

I love driving long distances, but spending what seems like hours trying to find the correct autoroute entry does nothing for me. We encountered a lot of roadworks in Belgium, which added about four hours to our travelling time in added traffic jams and confusion. Overall, though... ace!