The Rest of Our Week at Warp Speed.

Without too much ado, this is a very quick overview of the rest of this week - with not much rest in between!  

We drove to chunnel via Belgium and France at midday and caught our chunnel train (er... also called Eurotunnel) without any hassles.  Usually the Eurotunnel terminal is heaving, more so during term time but fortunately it was somewhat quieter when children are back at school.

We arrive in England and stayed at Meon Valley Hotel, Golf & Country Club.  On the way to the hotel we were hungry so we stopped to pick up a salad which we were able to eat in our hotel room.

Paul had business to attend to in Southampton on Thursday and left me in the hotel to continue catching up on my blogs.  I could have gone for a swim in the hotel swimming pool but decided not to.  

That evening we had dinner at Samuel's Rest, a pub/restaurant.  The meal was delicious - fish pie.  It was very filling though!

On Friday we drove up to Wales to pick up our post and stayed with our friends:  Sue, Ian and their daughter Lindsay.  It was really good to see them again - more so because they are an extension of our family by marriage.  

Unfortunately we couldn't stay any longer in the UK because Paul has a course to attend on Monday so we headed back to Rijsbergen via the chunnel on Saturday.  We arrived back at Paul's mum's place quite late in the evening but it was good to be back.  

In England and car hiccups.

Our route from the Netherlands to Wales.

Yesterday we caught the Chunnel train from Calais to Dover without any hiccups but there were delays on the motorway up to Wales because of some accidents.  Fortunately it didn't delay us too much and I was able to make it to a nurse's appointment well in time.

We are staying with friends for a couple of days and it was good to see them again when we arrived at their house.  Their dog, Kai, made us feel right at home; as did the 3 cats - elderly Strawberry and Lightning, and younger Tigger.

Kai (foreground) and Tigger (zzzing near the fireplace)

Paul booked the car in at a garage to first get a new left headlight washer fitted and then an MOT
(roadworthy).  Instead of hanging around at the garage while the car to get sorted we hired a van (cheaper than a car but it drove well!) so that we could get around and about for the day.  Sometime just after lunch I had an appointment for a routine eye test.  My reading glasses will have to be updated but my distance vision is still fine and the glasses didn't need to be updated.

Back at the garage we discovered that nobody there had listened to the instructions/read the instructions we had specifically noted regarding the car.  The car failed its MOT on the basis that the headlight washer wasn't working - BUT it should have been fixed prior to going through MOT.  Needless to say, the part was not in stock and has been ordered in for tomorrow, and another MOT organised for after the re-fit.

We ended up extending the van rental - fortunately it hadn't been booked by someone else.

Tomorrow is another day.

Rijsbergen, Netherlands to Raglan, Wales

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!