Today we pick up Gabi’s sister from the airport. But Christine’s flight is delayed. Because of a possible problem with the plane, it had to be checked by an engineer. By the time this was done, they had lost their place in the queue of planes taking off. It landed at Gatwick almost two hours later than expected. We use the delay to charge at the Supercharger nearby.

So we don’t arrive in Guildford until a good bit after 3 pm. After all, the drive here was already very English: because of traffic jams on the motorway, LucY had us drive over narrow country roads and through charming villages. By now, however, we are really hungry. Five Guys help us out with three burgers.

Freshly energized, we walk along the small canal. Next to the weeping willow waits the “Alice in Wonderland” sculpture in memory of Lewis Carroll, who lived here. And at the lock we watch a houseboat moving from the upper to the lower part. This is very exciting and involves a lot of manual labour.

From here we visit the remains of the old castle. And we are disappointed that we just missed the opening hours. So there is no view from the top of the tower, which is the only building still standing apart from a few remains of the walls.

But the old town is also beautiful. If only it wasn’t so hilly! We make a big turn up and down to get to the small Friary Shopping Centre and back to the car. It’s parked in front of the round building that used to be a branch of “Jamie’s Italian”, where we spent many lovely evenings with Peter and Caroline. It’s still a shame that there’s now a McDonald’s in there instead.

Because of the late lunch, it will only be a small dinner. And that is not pressing. We fully charge LucY’s batteries again and then buy sandwiches. We eat them in the hotel room while we make plans for the weekend: Tomorrow we leave for the Cotswolds and spend the night there, and on Sunday we visit Bath. Good night!