Both en route from Dover to Calais and on our return journey, we sailed on P&O's largest passenger ferry "Spirit of Britain".
Built at a cost of £157million, it has three vehicle decks instead of two, its increase in freight capacity is even more impressive. At 700 feet long and almost 100 feet wide, it is as big as a ferry can be for current port restrictions and can carry more than 1,000 cars as well as 2,000 passengers. It can take up to 180 articulated lorries at once, and judging by the number of lorries rolling on in front of us en route, it must have been at full capacity of lorries, leaving just enough room for our coach at the rear.
In fact, if the vehicles are parked bumper to bumper, the Spirit of Britain has an astonishing 2.33 miles of parking on board. It also has a number of restaurant , bars and lounges for passengers to relax in en route, although personally I prefer to be out on deck.
Mind you it did not stop us from being held up for over an hour at sea just off the coast of Dover on our return journey due to bad weather, which prevented it from docking.
The only time on holiday we had to show our passports, was at the port of Calais en route home, where we had to disembark the coach and individually pass through British immigration control.
As for our all inclusive (including drinks) holiday to Lake Como, we had a lovely time and it was one of our best coach holidays to date. We had a great driver who was very knowledgable and informative as we travelled through France, Switzerland and Italy both on en route and on our excursions. One of which included a train ride on the Bernina Express across the Swiss Alps to St Moritz, we also had excursions to Lucarno in Switzerland plus visits to Como, Bellagio and Bergamo in Italy.
There were also lake tours both by coach and boat, to relax and enjoy the views of quaint lakeside ports and villages, the villa's of the rich and famous and magnificent mountain scenery.
The weather was shirt sleeve weather all week, the locals said their summer had come late in October, as for the rest of the year the weather had been terrible. We had booked a balcony room with a Lake view, but on arrival had been upgraded to a superior balcony lake view room.
Even although it was late October, the hotel was fully booked with 3 coaches from the company we booked with in the UK and four from Germany. The food was the only let down, being buffet style it was always going to be a scramble at meal times, always managed to find something for each course which suited our palate. Thoroughly enjoyed the Italian ice cream (Gelato) of which there was a choice of approx 10 flavours to choose from, at both lunch and dinner. Packed lunches available if required when on excursions.
I am at the moment trying to sort out my photo's of which I took hundreds into albums, for those who may be interested I have posted a link to those I have sorted so far, but it is an ongoing exercise that may take me a few weeks to complete.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/delboyalb ... 237758782/
In the meantime here are a just a few.
View of hotel from Lake Como.
View of Lake Como from Hotel Room Balcony.
Typical view from Lake, this was next door to Hotel.
Villa La Casinella lies on the shores of the Punta Balbianello was once used as a retreat by Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson and is now owned by Richard Branson.
Bernina express and the Swiss Alps excursion to St Moritz Switzerland
Our Hotel Room
View of Bellagio, through rooms casement doors.
Sent from my iPad
