Harwich to Hoek van Holland with Stena Line

Just over two months ago when this blog goes live, on 12th September 2025, we started our journey from Peterborough to Dresden, to begin our two-week holiday in Germany. With members of our travel party not being fond of flying or tunnels under water, our options of getting off the island of Great Britain were limited to ferries, however you should know by now that with me involved our plans wouldn’t be as simple as Dover to Calais. No, this trip to Germany was without a car, and as such we decided to make use of one of the UK’s few remaining rail and sail options by sailing onboard Stena Line’s Harwich to Hoek van Holland route.

BHM-GLC Avanti West Coast – 1st Class

The middle of August saw another trip to Scotland for work, however this time our weekend plans meant the trip started from the Midlands, giving me the opportunity to take a different route north. Burton’s location on CrossCountry’s Southwest-Northeast corridor meant I had a choice of heading north via Leeds to the ECML and then up to Edinburgh, or head southwest to Birmingham and travel along my less used route of the West Coast Mainline (WCML). Of course, one option also had the significant downside of a long-distance journey onboard a CrossCountry Voyager and so this blog starts with me arriving at Birmingham New Street ready to start a journey north with Avanti West Coast.

Birmingham Airport – Spotting at Sheldon Country Park

Back in August I made my second trip to Birmingham Airport in a couple of months to go spotting and, with the wind blowing in the opposite direction to my previous visit, this gave me the opportunity to try out the other main spotting location around the airport, Sheldon Country Park. Located around the northern end of the airfield, underneath the approach to runway 15, Sheldon Country Park is a public green space and is a great place to watch arrivals when aircraft are using that runway. Completely free to use, although limited in facilities, the park is easily accessible by both car and public transport.

STR to LHR British Airways Economy

After a great few days away in southern Germany exploring in and around Lindau and the Bodensee, including a lap of the lake visiting four countries in one day, it was unfortunately time to head home. As with our flight out to Germany, we’d be flying back to the UK with British Airways (BA), this time on BA921, their evening flight from Stuttgart to Heathrow.

4 Countries, 1 Day – A Lap of the Bodensee

If you’ve read last week’s post, you’ll know we got up to plenty during our time staying near Lindau. You’ll also know I hinted at a day where, thanks to Lindau’s location on the Bodensee and it being close to the Austria border, we visited four countries in one day. Whilst you don’t have to read that post, I’d certainly recommend it however, as promised, this post is all about the day where we visited Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland all in one day!

Lindau and the Bodensee

Back in August we were fortunate to be able to spend a few days in southern Germany, basing ourselves in the town of Lindau on the northern shore of the Bodensee. Whilst our arrival into Stuttgart on a British Airways flight from Heathrow had been smooth and uneventful, we unfortunately had some issues with our car hire, delaying our departure from the airport. However, we eventually set off on the two-hour drive south via the German autobahns to our accommodation on the outskirts of Lindau, which would be our base for five nights.