1978 Dodge Van, From Rotterdam to Montreal

Loading the RV on the Stefan Batory in Rotterdam

(3 photos)
The Stefan Batory arrived in Rotterdam at 8:00 AM right on schedule, for our trip to London, then across the Atlantic Ocean to Montreal. Someone suggested that we might want to buy marine insurance, but we would have to go across town and see a certain insurance company. About this time we saw them start to lift our RV high above the ship. We could just imagine the conversation with the insurance company, “Where is your camper,” and we would answer, “The last time we saw it, it was a hundred feet in the air on the end of a cable.” They load vehicles all the time, so who needs the insurance. In addition to several campers, the Stefan Batory had a lot of cars on board including a Rolls Royce, and an antique Mercedes-Benz. This is the Stefan Batory’s trip number 132, so they must know how to do it by now.
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We had packed five cartons of goodies, including a couple of very large boxes, five suitcases, a huge Army duffel bag, a large hanging clothes bag, several miscellaneous boxes and bags, and “a partridge in a pear tree.”
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Unload the RV from the Stefan Batory in Montreal

The Stefan Batory arrived at the dock in Montreal at exactly 8:00 AM, and it took three hours to get the vehicles, and all the people unloaded. I took all but one piece of hand luggage to the RV, deep in the ship’s hold last night, so we did not have to carry any heavy things off the ship, and through Canadian customs.

Canadian customs was no problem, they didn’t question our lack of luggage (in our hand), or ask about all the luggage in the camper. No one was allowed off the ship until everyone had been accounted for, and checked off the list. We then walked into the large building where the camper was by then parked, got in and drove to the first gas station that took the Visa card, as we still had no Canadian money.