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You knew there’d be one, yes? Because I always have trouble traveling. And a tale to tell. . .

While in Rotterdam last week Friend A contacted me to say that Friend B, who I thought was house hunting in the UK, was in fact in hospital in a town near Rotterdam. Naturally, I wanted to visit her, and when I asked Friend A for directions to the hospital (she’d already visited Friend B several times) she suggested that we go together – she would drive so that I could concentrate on the route for when I returned to the hospital on my own for future visits. (Friend A knows me and my bad luck with travel, LOL.)

We went, we visited Friend B, no problem getting there. She was so pleased to see us, and I am pleased to note that she is on the mend and in good spirits. But still, being in hospital for several weeks is boring, so I told her I would visit her the next day. The route was fairly simple and I was completely sure that I could manage it by myself. After all, I had managed to drive from Dunkirk to Rotterdam without any problem (albeit with Oh Patient One in the car with me), so a few miles down the road was going to be a piece of cake.

Well, it WAS a piece of cake. I knew where I was going, I OWNED that main route. Until about 4 miles from the hospital when all of the traffic came to a grinding halt. No problemo, thought I. I’d left Rotterdam in plenty of time to get to the hospital just as visiting time was beginning, I could get caught in a little traffic.

Four miles later in first gear. . .

Picture this: there are four lanes on this route. Two of them are for local traffic feeding into one tunnel, and two are for express traffic into another tunnel. I needed the local traffic tunnel. Guess what? There had been an accident in the local tunnel and it was closed off.

So I kept going, as you do when you are in an express lane. For miles and miles (they do it in kilometers in the Netherlands, but you know what I mean, express is express). Finally, I managed to do a U turn and head back toward the hospital. I’d get off from the opposite direction of the main route, instead. Because the hosptial was signposted from the main route on the other side, it would be on this one, too, right? Wrong! There was a sign for the city center, but not for the hospital.

I didn’t want to end up driving around for hours and hours in the centre of an unknown town, and besides, visiting time was nearly over by now. Plus, I hadn’t been able to print off a map from the internet BECAUSE MY ROTTERDAM INTERNET WAS DOWN FOR MOST OF LAST WEEK. Of course.

So I went home, called her, and apologized profusely. She knew in advance about the tunnel being closed because her husband (who knew an alternate route to the hospital and so therefore didn’t miss visiting time) told her, so she knew it would kill my sense of direction and assumed that I wouldn’t arrive. My friends know me so well!

The next day I got there in one piece. No problem. Whew.