Even though the weather forecast is not as nice and warm as we had hoped, we are looking forward to our holiday in England. We set off early and make good progress. We make our first charging stop near Nancy. The Tesla charging stations are located in a huge supermarket car park.

During the journey, we listen to the audio version of Patrick Stewart’s biography. The Shakespearean actor and Starship Enterprise captain recorded the audio book himself, and it’s really worth reading or listening to!

We make a second charging stop at a motorway service station before St. Quentin, a little earlier than planned. This time LucY promised too much and probably didn’t take all the parameters – especially the cold weather – into account when calculating the charging stops.

We arrive at the Eurotunnel terminal in the early evening and are amazed. Has our departure time really been pushed back to 4.30 in the morning? That can only be a mistake. Anyway, it’s just our letter’s turn, so we drive to the waiting area. There’s a long queue there and the next train doesn’t leave until 9.30pm.

But it gets worse: due to major problems with the train service today (you’d think this was the first day LeShuttle ran a train across the Channel), there is a huge backlog and extremely long waiting times, as there are almost no trains running. The 4.30 am departure time wasn’t a malfunction, and the letter was our letter, yes, but one or two rounds of the alphabet earlier. We are therefore told to go back to the terminal and wait.

No, that’s just not possible. After travelling all day and with Gabi’s disability, we can’t possibly wait that long in the noisy and draughty terminal. Then a LeShuttle employee suggests to someone that they take the last ferry at 10.30pm instead. When she doesn’t want to help me in any way, I ask for this ferry information. I’d rather cross the water for an hour and a half at this time of night than wait for a train six hours later.

So we get a voucher (after all!) for a free crossing and then set off. And so, two hours later, we are on the boat and off we go. We’re tired, and hungry. As late as we arrive in England, even the motorway service stations are no longer open. At least we can buy sandwiches on the ferry.

We arrive in Folkestone shortly after midnight Swiss time. After a last short charging stop, we finally arrive at the hotel at around 2 am.