June 30

    We found ourselves with an empty day, so we backtracked toward Cambridge to go to the Duxford Imperial War Museum. This is a huge, impressive place at Duxford Air Field, used by the Royal Air Force and hundreds of  American pilots during WWII, especially the Battle of Britain. The museum consists of eight huge airplane hanger-like buildings,  two of them fairly new construction, to show off the impressive collection of all kinds of aircraft. One building explained the principles of flight and had a piece of Orville and Wilber Wright’s first airplane. We walked through a preproduction Concorde with its testing equipment still in place. Another building was dedicated to the Battle of Britain, another to US Air Force aircraft,  and still another to land warfare, with an emphasis on D-Day. These buildings were strung out along the still operational air field, and we put a few miles on our shoes going from one to another and all the way back again. It was a remarkable place.


        IMG_5213           IMG_5219


    Then we drove on to the small campground in Colchester where we had stayed at the beginning of our trip, because we knew they had wifi and a dump for our black tank waiting for us. The owner was delighted to see us and wanted to know if we had made it to the royal wedding. They are also located only 35 miles from the Harwich ferry, where we were headed the next day. We drove into the little town, parked by the beach and walked around a little before heading to the port to get in line for the ferry to Denmark. From there we will make our way north to Norway and our daughter and her family.


                                                   IMG_5236_2


    Now that we are successfully on and off the ferry, we can tell of our concern. We had made a reservation from Harwich to Esjberg, Denmark, back in February or March, via the internet, with a Danish ferry company--the only one that sailed to Denmark. They sent an email saying something about not allowing loose LP gas bottles; Susan responded that we had a fixed LP tank; they asked “How big?” Susan told them . . . and they said they would have to check with the captain!  A couple of days later they told us, “ Your tank is too big. We have cancelled your reservation and refunded your payment.”

    This was, shall we say, disheartening: We thought we would have to return to The Netherlands on the other ferry and drive all the way to Norway. So when we got to Harwich, England, at the start of our trip, after our ferry from the Netherlands (with a company that never asked about LP gas), we decided to drop by the Denmark ferry office in Harwich and ask about reservations. The staff there asked us nothing about LP gas (and we didn’t mention it), so we ended up making (in person) the exact same reservation we’d had cancelled on us (via email). At the end of our stay in the UK, we showed up at the dock on June 30. At the first check-in, we were asked if we had any loose tanks. At the second, someone checked that our gas was shut off . . . and waved us on. Huge sigh of relief. We were on our way to Denmark, Rover tucked safely away in the belly of the whale. (Three vehicles ahead was a fuel tanker truck, be it noted.) 


                                                    IMG_5240