Road Trip to UK Part One

Haiti Earthquake Support

Before you read my latest entry please spare a thought or prayer for those touched in some way by the recent devastating Haiti earthquake.

I am jinxed as regards writing my blog at the moment.   I have just lost; don’t ask the complete entry that I spent this morning compiling!

I was already struggling to get writing again as I feel that in the wake of the latest world disaster my blog is somewhat insignificant.

Anyway here I am with the second attempt at part one of our recent road trip to the UK.

Since we moved to Italy and started producing our own Olive Oil we have every winter driven back to the UK to distribute the oil to our family and friends.

This year for the first time we had actually booked hotels in advance and decided to take a more leisurely drive through northern Italy, Switzerland and France. We left home mid morning on the 13^th of December an easy first stage taking us to a hotel in Como, Italy  Unlike our trip the previous year, although it got considerably colder as we headed northwards we saw very little actual snow apart from in the vicinity of the San Gottardo Tunnel. I know that some of you will have had more than enough of snow already this winter but that is the subject of the photos I am including with today’s entry, sorry.

 

When we arrived in Nancy, France. on the Monday afternoon it was trying to snow there but the temperatures were plummeting and when we left the next morning there was no snow but it was minus 5C. The snow arrived as it did all over central and northern France just a few days later. Tuesday night was spent in Calais, France with an early morning crossing for the Channel tunnel on Wednesday. It seems we were lucky there to be again just ahead of the bad weather, as just days later there were serious problems caused by the snow and freezing temperatures, causing havoc for many travellers.

We arrived at my in laws home in Surrey just as it started to snow there and by the time we left for the drive south to Salisbury it was completely white everywhere and remained so until south of Basingstoke. Although there had been snow earlier in the day in Salisbury it had been a mere inch or so and had melted by the time we arrived that afternoon. Little did we all know then that it was just a taste of what was going to turn out to be a very cold and snowy winter!

We were to be based in Salisbury for the next two weeks which is where my mother, sister and family plus our youngest daughter and boyfriend all live. That evening my sister at her house provided a welcome supper for us all, lots to catch up on, great to see everyone.

That is enough for part one especially as I feel it is not as well written as this mornings effort but I am impatient to get this posted rather than waste yet more time trying to improve.