R1200RS + R1250RS Forum
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Fri Aug 04, 2023 1:28 pm
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Just curious as I ponder my next jaunt which could be mainland Europe. I have previously only ever gone by bike via Portsmouth to France and Spain. As the usual and predictable chaos hits Dover (& Folkstone), I have seen lots of pictures of 8 lane queues of cars, I couldn't see any smaller queues of bikes in the pictures. Does Dover also have a separate bike queuing area and therefore you can bypass the car carnage and get more rapidly on ferries? But I also expect on the approach it would be very hard to filter through the traffic anyway. Is using the Tunnel any better? |
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You can filter on the public roads. Once in the port at Dover, the lanes are narrow and split to direct you to the correct ferry operators as they have separate check in booths. There is no fast lane for motorcycles. It's pot luck whether you are loaded on first or last as the ferries often have different configurations.
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Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #2 Yes agree on that. If I recall at Portsmouth they direct bikes off separately, but on reflection that was probably after passport control rather than before to batch load the bikes. And before have very rarely had to queue at Portsmouth. As you say best to opt for the tunnel anyway. |
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Zitat von Becksy im Beitrag #3Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #2 yes, the segregation is only at the dock to batch load the bikes at every port I have used. the best experience I have had recently is using one of the new Brittany Ferries ships, MV Galicia, coming home from Cherbourg. Loaded first, put on the middle of deck 3 between the pillars so plenty of space as just one row of bikes. Once the few trucks stuffed into the bow had left the deck, we were off the boat as deck 3 is the one level with the dock. No dicking about waiting for internal ramps to drop like on the MV Pont Aven where you are put on deck 2, under the main deck. Shame the services to Spain from Portsmouth take 2 nights to get to Bilbao or Santander as Portsmouth is less distance for me to travel. Especially as I have now moved 80 miles north of Cheltenham in Operation Downsize to Avoid Working Again.
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Another vote for Eurotunnel (sorry, LeShuttle as we have to call it now.) I've taken the bike on ferries all over the UK, but never from Dover - my feeling is why would I? The whole tunnel experience is so much quicker and better.
KC100->CB100N->CB250RS--------->DL650AL2->R1200RS->R1250RS
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Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #4 Yes, why is that, noticed that when browsing the timetables earlier this week. Seems strange, what do they do, bob around in the Bay of Biscay for longer than necessary? |
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My take on that, having traveled that route in June (really relaxing way to travel!) Is:
Thunderbird 1
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Zitat von Becksy im Beitrag #6Zitat von wessie im Beitrag #4 Brexit bonus - crew change in Roscoff as they no longer have French crew billeted in Portsmouth As I found, they also do some shorter crossing with the new ships on the Spanish routes during the week to allow crew changes in Cherbourg.
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Zitat von Thunderbird 1 im Beitrag #7 you didn't notice the ship stop at Roscoff whilst you were probably sleeping?
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And some of us Northeners scoot over from Newcastle to Amsterdam with DFDS.
Carpe Diem!
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Zitat von Boxerboy55 im Beitrag #10 Hull to Europoort, Rotterdam is my closest route now I am in Shropshire (temporarily). I won't be using that route because a) P&O b) Europoort is not close to anywhere I want to go c) M62 and d) P&O
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