The best laid plans...

Up at 7
Leave by 8
St Malo at about 9.45-10.00
Portsmouth by 18.30
Didcot services by 20.00

That was the plan. In reality roadworks along the way saw us arrive at St Malo at 10.20, ten minutes before the ferry was due to leave, but with the barriers already down and (in a French manner) the place deserted with no mention at all of where those arriving late should go. A British woman with a small car was already wandering around looking a little worried, so I went and had a chat, and pointed out a distant building which I thought had a Brittany Ferries sign on it.

She went to passport control instead, but appeared at the Brittany Ferries reception a short while after I'd walked in, and was already halfway through transferring us onto the Caen ferry, a two-hour drive away. All of which meant we were leaving about 6 hours later, though arriving in Portsmouth only 3 hours later than planned, which gave us a couple of hours to see some of the D-Day landing beaches. Not really Mel's era-of-interest when it comes to history; but something I've had a fascination with for a long time. Only time for Sword (where mainly British forces landed), and Juno (a Canadian landing site). It all seems slightly incongruous, this strip of golden sand now being one long tourist resort with people sunning themselves all over the place. But thinking on it some more, this was a 'freedom' being fought for by these landings (as all of the monuments remind us) and surely nothing encapsulates this freedom more than people now being able to use the beaches for the most relaxed and easy-going of reasons.

Still seems odd.

Anyway, we did make this ferry, and it was a much nicer boat than the one which took us to France in the first place (with attendant Gannets; an empty helipad area; and swearing truckers in the bar... Good meal, arriving on time, Didcot by 11. And bed.