We embarked on our first ever Roller Disco Road Trip. Orrell to Rotterdam and back with a few stops along the way.
I drove us to Ramsgate Ferry Terminal where we jumped on the ferry to Ostende, Belgium. Over 500 miles and more than 10 hours traveling later and we'd finally arrived at our destination, a hostel in the centre of Rotterdam. My first experience of driving in a different country on the *wrong* side road had passed without incident (with the exception of inhaling a Nurofen tablet into my nasal passage - which I advise you all from doing as it was really uncomfortable).
Breakfast then a leisurely skate around Rotterdam to get our bearings, along the way we met up with a few fellow skaters from London who were rolling around the Erasmus Bridge area. In the afternoon we took a drive to Dutch Water Dreams to ride the FlowRider. Then the evening was spent at the Quadsk8 Roller Disco Rotterdam at HAL4 only after we'd walked for an hour and gone it a complete circle thanks to Google Maps trying to find the venue. It was a fantastic evening with many of our other UK friends in attendance as the UK invaded the Quadsk8 Roller Disco. The music stopped and it was time to head back to the hostel, so we walked back to take in a bit more of the Rotterdam air. It took us over an hour but we'd made it back in one piece. Time for sleep.
Our short trip was over and it was time head back to the UK for the last stage of the road trip. We'd arrived at Ostende Ferry Terminal with plenty of time before it was time to board the ferry so we all got our skates on and rolled around the cars in the waiting area, much to the amusement of the other passengers :) On the Ferry home we got an unexpected treat from the Belgische Luchtmacht (Belgian Air Force / Belgian Air Component) as a H-3 Sea King RS04 conducted a training exercise. We managed to get in some skating on the top deck of the ferry which was fun. Back on on home soil now, time to head to the big smoke for the Saturday night Vauxhall Roller Disco at the Renaissance Rooms. We had planned another stop off at another rink on the way home but we were all pretty tired and decided to just head home.
You can view all of the photos of the Road Trip or watch a slideshow.
Copyright © Andrew Disley under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.