Home after a long journey

We set the alarm for 4.40am to depart by 5am - of course I woke up at 2am and never went back to sleep. So there I was at 3am downloading movies from Netflix to watch on my phone for the journey home, and thinking of all sorts of unimportant problems, as you do when sleep escapes you. 

We had an easy journey through a hot and dry France, with a couple of stops for breakfast, lunch and  Xena. We got to the Eurotunnel at Calais in 10 hours (8.5 hours of driving time), sailed through the French passport control, the Pet Passport check only took a few minutes, and then it was welcome to #brokenBritain as we waited 45 minutes in the hot sun in the car to get through the U.K. passport control - apparently they were having a problem with their ‘ticketing system’. Thank goodness we book Flexi Plus as you cannot be guaranteed of making your booked crossing time with these delays. The Flexi Plus lounge also offers very good snacks, drinks, ice cream and even a doggie biscuit for Xena. When we came out the tunnel on the UK side there were such huge queues of cars waiting to get through the passport control to exit the UK. It never used to be like this before Brexit.

We got home to a very hot and dry Surrey. We have an irrigation system so our garden is still green (installed after losing much of our garden every summer due to the heat and lack of rain in this part of the U.K.) However from Friday there is a hose pipe ban due to the drought in our part of England so the irrigation system will have to be switched off and we will probably lose many plants. 

We also came home to garbage that has not been collected due to a strike by the refuse collection department. Imagine if everyone who was feeling the pressure of increased costs and low salary increases went on strike. The new PM is going to be very busy sorting out these problems! 

I could not take any photos today. The services areas in France are quite ugly and there was nothing to photograph. When we got home I took this photo of Xena, to show how she travels. She travels well although does not like long journeys and sits up the entire way - so if she is looking very tired here it is because she is exactly that, not having slept all day.

We were very sad to leave Switzerland, it was a wonderful stay. But we will be back - to quote Bojo the clown, hasta la vista, baby!