M11 Stansted Services

After supporting our niece in Sunday's Edinburgh Marathon, Monday saw us heading down across England and through the Channel Tunnel to begin our visit to my brother here in France.

Heading down the M11 around 7pm we heard a news item on the radio that President Obama was flying in to the UK that evening to avoid any possible disruption from the latest Icelandic volcanic ash cloud; then turning off for a break at the Stansted Services just before 8, we were held up by a police motorcyclist to allow a cavalcade of vehicles to enter the nearby airport, and we immediately (and correctly!) worked out that this was where he must be arriving!

The service area was full of uniformed Police officers and plain-clothes security personnel relaxing over coffee, so we guessed there was not going to be any real 'action' just yet.

We were also by now in a bit of a hurry to get to the Tunnel, so we headed off, but not before I'd spotted the pattern on side of this tanker sitting in the yard outside.