Day 77 Back to the UK
I had a very difficult nights sleep without the use of my CPAP machine but we were still up and ready bt 6am. Taking the bags down stairs we met Asa as he had just arrived at the hotel. We placed our luggage in his car. We were soon sitting down for the buffet breakfast that I had booked for all of us at 6:30am. It was such a relief to know that we were no longer going to be stuck in France.
At sometime after 7am we got into the cars and Asa followed me to the fuel station to top off the fuel tank before dropping of the Avis hire car at the railway station. It was only a few minuted later we were making our way around to the Pet reception at Eurotunnel to check in Tucker so that he could travel. Our deadline of 11am was met. No onto the border control and customs. Once through these we were now booked on a train at 9:15am. Asa ignored the wait, which I couldn’t believe, and drove around to start the boarding process. He turned the ticket over that should have been visible and no-one questioned it. We are now sitting in the queue for the next train…. it was approximately 8:30am]
At the point I asked Tina to put the blue badge we had been using at the hotel into her handbag. Where is the handbag the cry came. Tine had left it on the chair when we left the breakfast area. Decided we could risk turning around and going back as we may miss the deadline. I contacted the assistance company who made a call to the hotel and they had possession of the bag and agreed to post it to us if we paid for the postage. I had no hesitation in agreeing to this.
The journey through the tunnel and back home was uneventful. We had never travelled through the tunnel on the upper deck in a car. A new experience!
We were soon home and totally relieved that we had managed to overcome all of the problems in the last couple of days. Now we must wait for the van to be repatriated to the UK and to the garage in Southampton.
P.S. We waited a week to see if the postal charge for the return of the handbag had been charged to the credit card. Nothing had happened so I asked our friends who were returning from their winter break to detour and see if the bag was still at the hotel. It was all packed up and in the boot of someone car ready to be posted. We met Terry & Brenda the following day and had lunch and retrieve the missing bag. I had been missing my reading glasses that I had placed for safe keeping in Tina’s bag.