From Berlin to London via Geneva and Calais (Using Boats on Business Trips, Part IX).

Imagine you’re in Berlin and need to get to a meeting near Geneva Airport. How will you get there? Any idiot would choose the flight from Berlin Tegel to Geneva - about 1hr 45 minutes, via EasyJet. 

A more specialized idiot would take three trains in the course of ten increasingly scenic hours. The first train, and the prettiest, is at the top of this piece.

Once in Geneva, who could pass up the opportunity presented by the lovely yellow mouettes on Lake Geneva? 

Mouette does not mean little soft thing, but gull - as in sea, as in La Mer, as in Charles Trenet singing about ‘ces oiseaux blancs,’ presumably because mouette didn’t quite fit. Here’s Mr Trenet, boldly going where Bobby Darin would follow.

The mouettes are free, which makes them far and away the best value in Geneva, especially compared to the 35 euros the 10-minute taxi to my meeting cost. (More than the EasyJet airfare? Best not to check).

So you’re on the mouette and you send your email to a co-worker who’s fast asleep in Los Angeles, et voilà, you have a legit Business on Boats blog post.

Pausing only to note the obsessive and precise pollarding of the Genevan trees, you head for the train to Calais and a bigger boat, with a connection in Paris.

Sadly the overhead power on the SNCF train to Paris flowed falteringly, so I made it only as far as Lille, with an unplanned overnight stay at the delightful Hermitage Gantois.

Next morning another train took me on to Calais and the Gothic splendor of its town hall:

Then a brisk one-mile walk to the P&O Ferry terminal:

where I’m one of four foot passengers on the shuttle bus:

Ship ahoy. Plenty of room to park in front:

Even on a sunny morning it’s chilly on deck, which accounts for the roof-top bar being closed. I’m getting used to boats in winter.

In the food court, the appeal of pie and chips is challenged only by half-price cheese sandwiches. (Another thing not to look into too closely).

There are dozens of ships per day on this route, mostly moving container lorries aka 18-or-so-wheelers. How Brexit affects this traffic remains to be seen. No bets taken here.

And here’s our destination - the white cliffs of Blighty:

and the sheltering arms of the plucky Old Country. Huzzah!

Now onwards to London, which involves yet more trains. Again I say, Huzzah!