A long journey home

We were up at 4.30am this morning to drive back to the U.K.  It was raining with very low cloud as we drove down the valley out of the mountains, but as we neared Zürich it was dry and clear. However driving through France we had torrential rain at times, not really summer weather as it was cool and rainy for most of the journey. Blip opportunities were very limited and as most of the day we were either driving or charging I thought I would include an image of what a charging station looks like. We stopped to charge three times and we think it adds about an extra 2 hours to our journey, which is a lot when you already have a very long 12 hour journey but I suppose if we want to save our planet we have to be prepared for this!

We stopped for coffees and to feed Xena and unfortunately the coffee and food stops are not always synchronised with when the car needs to be charged! On one of our charging stops in France at a large E.Leclerc supermarket complex, the one and only public toilet in the shopping complex was sealed off and out of use! So then we had to go find a toilet elsewhere so it was meant quite a few stops today. We did manage to eat our packed lunch while charging the car so at least that was coordinated.

Back in the U.K. Meriel graduated today with her Masters in History from Oxford University. Due to the damn rail strike she could not get to Oxford by train for her graduation so Luke arranged a car to drive her there. She has had an extremely busy week at work due to the coup in Niger, working in the crisis centre in the Foreign Office. She has only been in the Foreign Office for 2 months and the crisis of the coup has been a baptism of fire for her.

We eventually arrived home, too tired to do anything but unpack our things, I did not feel like starting to cook supper at 9pm. While we were unpacking there was an enormous 'explosion' that had us (including Xena) just about jumping out of our skin - a glass panel in the glass balustrade of the upstairs landing had suddenly shattered into a million pieces. Only home for a few minutes and already a problem that needs to be repaired....