We’re booked on a 23:00 Stena Line ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland to meet up with a Dutch dragonfly buddy; let’s call him Antonio. We made this trip two years ago in August to meet Antonio for the first time when he guided me to some other Netherland resident dragonflies that I hadn’t yet seen. So we knew something of what to expect.
On that first occasion, Harwich ferry port had recently opened a new duty free shop which we were encouraged to try out. Who was I to complain? I was stunned at the low prices. My experience of the cross channel ferries is that the duty free saved you a little but not a great deal. Here, however, There were litres of my favourite Absolut Swedish vodka for a jaw-dropping £10. Alongside it were litres of a Finnish vodka, Koskenkorva, completely unknown to me, for $9. Well, it just had to be done, we bought one of each.
Being a new shop, I was expecting those prices to have been a sort of introductory offer but was keen to try the shop again. Well, not a bit of it: this time the Koskenkorva, still available, was £8 and there was another Finnish vodka called Finlandia for £9 a litre. OK, we’ll go for those two, just for a taste comparison. (Normal Absolut, i.e. unflavoured, did not appear to be available this time.)
What was available this time really made me look twice. I’m used to BiB [Bag-in-Box] wine, either 3-litre or 5-litre, but here was a 3-litre BiB of French vodka, if you please, for a ludicrous £15. Jeez! It’s an interesting offering ‘cos I think you’d need three people or more in the vehicle to make it a legal import. Sense prevailed and I avoided it.
We equipped ourselves with 4×3-litre BiBs of wine, too, just to keep us going.
Boarding went smoothly and we were soon clambering up 7 flights of stairs from deck 3 to deck 10, where our cabin was. I must say that the Stena line ferry on this route is easily the most impressive that I’ve been on – spotless, neat and tidy, with apparently happy, friendly staff. The only fault I can find is that there were no glasses or cups in the cabin for us to sample our new purchases. Nor did there seem to be a self-service restaurant where we might borrow any glasses.
While searching in vain for glasses, I was amazed to see the same vodkas on sale in the shipboard duty free for very similar prices.
Bother! We’ll just have to sip it from the bottle.
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