Harwich on-street parking

[slowmotion]

I would be very grateful for any advice on this.

Here's the background...

Last year I went on a slow trip from The Hook to Amsterdam, taking the overnight Stena ferry from Harwich. Living in London, I thought it would be easy to put the bike on a train from Liverpool Street to meet up with the ferry in Harwich. It turned out that it was impossible to actually book a reservation for the bike on the train. "Turn up early so you can get a later train if the one you want has no bike spaces" was the best that the train operator could advise. Pretty useless really, if there are large number of cyclists going on the same day!

I made the painful decision to not take the risk of missing the ferry and stuffed the bike in the car, and drove there leaving it at the Harwich International car park. £7.50 per 24 hours ( I think).

Well, compared to the ferry fares, hotel, and all the rest, thirty-odd quid for parking isn't exactly "a hill of beans", but I resented paying it.

I'm going the same way again in September, I hope, and was wondering where I might park the car in Harwich, on the street, and save the parking dosh. The car has zero steal-appeal, and is always parked on the street in London, BTW. It doesn't have to be parked particularly close to the port because I can ride the bike, but I would obviously not like to leave it in some "well dodgy" area. Does anybody have any suggestions?

If anybody has some more up to date information about bike spaces on trains on that route, I would also be very grateful.

Thank-you

 

[rich p]

Not much help, SM, I'm afraid but I went through the same thought processes earlier this year and was advised by someone local not to leave anything unattended in Harwich.
It may have been an unwarranted slur on the good citizens of that sleazy port but I took the hit.
£7.50 a day for peace of mind and the inconvenience it would cause seemed a fair swap to me.

 

[bottlemsher]

Hi slowmotion

I have a contact who lives and works in Harwich

He has offered me in the past space to park on his premises when ever I need it.
When I see him again in 2weeks, I'll ask if it's possible for you to use it.

 

[ASC1951]

When I see him again in 2weeks, I'll ask if it's possible for you to use it.

If you can't, you'll be needing this http://www.parkatmyhouse.co.uk

 

[slowmotion]

Thanks for the replies.

bottlemsher, that's a very kind offer, but it's not really fair on your friend to have the hassle of a complete stranger's motor parked on his property.

I liked the parking space website. For a longer trip, I would be very likely to use it.

It is interesting that a Harwich local advised rich p not to park on the street. I phoned up the Harwich tourist office last year and they said the same. I thought they were just being over-cautious.

I think I'll take the hit at the ferry terminal car-park again. I don't need the aggro of wondering if my motor is being nicked as I pedal up the LF1.