A fare price for dicey dash across Europe

Volcanic ash chaos sees Siemens execs cabbing it to Calais

Davis' trip meant several taxi or hire car rides, with the longest costing €791.20

Stranded attending a distributor event in Munich after an Icelandic volcano erupted mid-April, Siemens executives had a 26-hour trip home that included one cab fare of €791 (£682).

The latest tale in a week of disruption by ash from the errant Eyjafjallajökull saw Siemens distribution account director Richard Davis and his colleagues forced to use their creativity to get back to London.

“In all, it was about a 26-hour trip, with no sleep,” said Davis.

Unable to catch a train from Munich because all trains were full or cancelled, they hired a car to travel to Dusseldorf.

“Upon arriving, and realising that it wouldn’t be possible to catch a train from any part of Germany, we then got a taxi all the way to Calais,” he said.

The fare from Dusseldorf to Calais – via the Netherlands and Belgium – was €791.20.

They reached the French ferry port of Calais “very early” on Saturday 17 April, where they had to queue for five hours before being able to get on a Britain-bound boat at six am.

“En route to Calais, we made calls and booked the ferry ahead of time. However, when we arrived at the port, everyone was forced to join the queue to board the next available boat,” said Davis.

Davis had gone to Munich to attend the Siemens VIP Distributor event that finished Wednesday 14 April, and had several meetings scheduled for the Thursday before flying back – by which time all flights in and out of the UK had been cancelled.

“We stayed the night in Munich, and tried again the following morning – realising on Friday that no flights would be heading to the UK any time soon.

"Desperate to get back for a christening on Sunday – where I had the honour of being a godfather – we decided to go by land,” he said.