We
slept in late this morning – we needed it - and woke up to another bright sunny day along with a heatwave. It wouldn't have been too
bad if we were able to stay in front of a fan the whole day but
unfortunately we were travelling in our personal sauna. And it was
a good drive from Rijsbergen to the chunnel. Paul had booked a train
and then later amended the booking so that we could catch a later
train. We discovered that we were late for the chunnel check-in and
had to wait an hour for the next available train. We spoke to
someone at the information desk to see if we could get onto an
earlier train as we felt that we had checked in on time. It turns
out that Paul's amendment to the booking didn't work and we had still
been booked on the earlier train – which we had to miss, and miss
the next one that Paul had tried to book us on because it was full,
and take the next available train.
We
wondered how we would cope sitting in our personal sauna until it was
time to drive onto the train but in the end we spent time in a
duty-free shop (looking at books which we didn't get) at the chunnel
terminal and didn't spend too much time in the hot car. Thank
goodness for the airconditioning in the building otherwise we would
have been well stewed by the time we left.
When
we finally got on the train there was a delay by a good 20 minutes to
half an hour due to a technical fault. Later when our tickets were
checked, the train conductor went from vehicle to vehicle advising
its occupants to complain if they wished – the fact that the air
conditioning system was not working on the train and no water was
handed out whilst we waited in the stuffy heat until the technical
fault was fixed. We also think it was for the personnel's benefit
because they have complained many times about the lack of
airconditioning on the train and having to work in hot conditions but
their head office don't listen to them but it may well be that
conditions would improve if customers complained. The woman was
pleasant enough and kept apologising but we were fine with the
circumstances.
We
finally arrived on English soil and headed up the motorway with the
windows open, trying our best to keep cool. A couple of times I put
my feet briefly out of the window to cool them down because the
footwell became too hot.
We
headed up to Bristol and ended up looking for a hotel or BnB to stay
in overnight – it was getting late. We ended up staying in the The
Beaufort Hotel in Raglan, rocking up at reception just as it was
closing. Fortunately the bar was still open so Paul had 2 ice cold
beers whilst I had something less alcoholic. It was good to cool
down.
Unfortunately
for us, the room we are staying overnight in is very warm despite
having a window wide open. There is simply no breeze to cool the
room down and no fans. 😓
I
hope we can get some zzzzz!
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