Singing the praises of internet!

I'm just back from a trip to the UK.  (Well actually, back from a PLANNED trip to the UK and an UNPLANNED trip through France!!)  Along with a group of friends, I took the ferry from Santander to Portsmouth 8 days ago.  The plan was to visit the New Forest area, with a shortish motorbike ride each day and some cultural visits and pub lunches.

Lyndhurst, UK  (Photo from TripAdvisor)

That all changed when I heard on the radio that Brittany Ferries had decided to cancel all its ferry sailings till further notice!

Suspension of Brittany Ferries' Services

We ended up taking a ferry from Dover to Calais and then riding 1,300 kilometres down through France over two days.

We're back in Cantabria now, safe and sound.

Our original trip was planned using some of our previous knowledge, plus a lot of research done using the internet.  For some visits, we had bought our tickets in advance.  The hotel and pub meals were booked in advance too.

The route through France was also helped a lot by access to the internet - while we stopped for lunch, we checked out hotels and booked them online so that when we arrived we knew where we were going, and very importantly, that we had enough rooms (there were 11 of us in the party and we needed 6 rooms, plus somewhere to park the 5 motorbikes and the van securely).

I was very impressed by the Hotel de l'Europe - its location, rooms (small but confortable) and especially  the covered area for parking bikes - a storm broke just as we arrived!!!  I find I am using Tripadvisor more and more to find out things like this!

And I still keep thinking (as I do so often!) - How did we exist before internet?

(I certainly wouldn't be talking to you via this blog!!!)