TAKE ME TO THE TUNNEL!

It's that crazy pre-holiday time of tying up the loose ends before leaving home.  Tomorrow we go through the Tunnel at 9.00am and drive to Neuchatel just inside the Swiss border.  Just the thought of going through the Tunnel is actually much more exciting than the actual experience.  A bit like "Alice in Wonderland", or "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", whether it be rabbit holes or wardrobes, or indeed 20th century tunnels, it has to lead to something out of the ordinary and exciting.  I love the Tunnel - it makes Europe feel just there, within a tantalisingly easy grasp, much more so than the disassociated and disheartening experience of air travel.  As Anthony is fond of quoting "aeroplane travel is for those that can afford the time".  So by this time tomorrow we will have left the Tonka Toy and Lego landscape of post-harvest Hampshire behind us. The towering structures of giant straw bales and the continual hum of tractors and trailers busying about the lanes will be replaced with lofty peaks and gentle meadows - hopefully bathed in soft autumn sunshine, and not glimpsed occasionally through drifting rain and fog!  Still nervous after our last disastrous "Indian summer" epic when we took to sea in the aftermath of Cycline Katya, I have been watching the Swiss weather forecasts with almost OCD type tendencies - occasional showers is what they are forecasting at the moment - I can live with that.