It’s the fourth time that we travel to the UK this year. And what a year it was! We’ve met a lot of wonderful friends and made new ones, met Benedict Cumberbatch at Sherlocked convention and seen him again as Hamlet on the stage, and Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, stars of Back to the Future with its 30 year anniversary AND the date they travel to in the future. Wow!

We’re very excited when we leave for the UK at a quarter past nine in the morning. Heavy traffic and rain throughout half of Switzerland didn’t manage to dampen our good spirits. Then, in France, the autumn sun started shining. The leaves of the trees around the motorway changed colours already and made the landscape look quite magical. Which is very difficult in a country often flat and boring.

We made very good progress, stopping only for petrol and a loo break. Our newest gadget is a token on our windscreen so that the tolls on the French motorway are automatically deducted from my bank account. We no longer have to stop at the toll booths which is more than convenient.

We arrived in Calais at a quarter past five but had to wait for our train leaving an hour later. We couldn’t change onto an earlier one due to delays in departure. A quarter to six (we’ve gained one hour when entering the UK), we were already on the British motorway and heading for London. Two and a half hours later, we’ve arrived at our hotel opposite the British Library and near St Pancras station. Gabi asked for the same room that we had last time as we were really happy with it. We left for a take away meal from Leon’s and then went to bed.