Tuesday 13th November 2018

This morning we went to the University of Saarland Hospital to see if we could find a doctor to look at Ann's foot. What we found was a vast complex with every conceivable parking place already filled. We couldn't understand the signs and couldn't have found the A&E Department even if we could have found somewhere to park. We then phoned our travel insurance company who advised us to contact another hospital but as we couldn't find this hospital on our sat nav so we went to another one with a similar name. When we got there every possible parking place was filled and there was literally nowhere we could find to stop. We decided to move on. We crossed from Germany into Luxembourg and then from Luxembourg into Belgium. Finally we crossed into France.

Passengers on cross channel ferries are not allowed to remain in their vehicles during the crossing so as Ann is unable to walk it would not have been possible for us to take a ferry to Britain. Instead we took the channel tunnel where you have to remain in your vehicle during the crossing! Here's the view from our van as we drove onto the platform at Calais. Incidentally there were none of the usual searches and interrogations which you get when travelling by ferry. Presumably the authorities think that if you're willing to pay four times the price of a ferry crossing then you're either not a people smuggler or that you've paid so much for your ticket that you deserve to be able to bring in whatever you like!

Here's the view as we were loading onto the under channel train. We got to Folkestone about 35 minutes after leaving Calais - magic! We went to Folkestone Hospital only to find that they had closed 20 minutes before we got there. There was however a notice in the window saying that the A&E Department at Ashford Hospital was open. We went to Ashford and I found a wheelchair to put Ann in. She was seen by a doctor, told she had an inflamed muscle in her foot, issued with crutches and sent on her way! The NHS is a truly marvellous institution! We came on to Ann's daughter Kerry's house in Kent and parked outside. We had previously phoned Kerry and asked her not to wait up for us.

Today we travelled 402 miles (647 kilometres) excluding the distance we travelled on the under channel train.