France!

It was an early start this morning - very early! 1.00am to be precise, when we had a text from our son to say the alarm service had rung hi to report a mains failure. We've had a problem with our electrics at home and the electrician had spent two and a half days, last week, fixing it, or so we & he thought! After a sleepless night a flurry of phone calls resulted in the electrician picking up a key from mother-in-law and going to the house. Meanwhile LB & I set off to the Tunnel terminus by a circuitous route due to my wrongly programming the gps.
Disappointingly the first train we could get was at 10.20 about an hour later than we had hoped. It gave us chance to ring home and find the electrics were sorted and to give the alarm centre the electricians number so we won't be bothered by them again this trip. The final hitch was missing the security check & being pulled out of the queue to go back & be tested for explosives!


After the usual wait & chat to fellow biking travellers we boarded the train, reaching Calais at about 12.30.

At last we felt we were really on our way. We made a determined effort to push on, with minimal stops for fuel, drink & cereal bar & covering 400 miles. Dole was reached at about 6.00 & we booked into the Etap, not least because of the free wifi. Another long motorway trek is planned for tomorrow and then we'll be able to relax a bit . So far we're loving it, & this is supposed to be the boring bit!

Elvie