On the way home

So here we are back in good old blighty, heading north up the motorway from Dover. Our last full day of the holiday was spent in and around Valkenburg. It was good to have a change after three days of theme parks! In the morning we walked along to the little chairlift in the village and went up to the bobsleigh ride which turned out to be tremendous fun. It was not as scary as I had feared because you could control your speed, and its setting was a grassy hillside with views over the village. Everybody loved it. Then we had some shopping time in the very pleasant village centre and I couldn't resist buying a pair of clogs! I went for a traditional pattern and I'm intending to wear them rather than keep them as ornaments. In the afternoon we all went to a swimming pool in a neighbouring village. It was nothing special, by which I mean it was fine but just like any leisure pool in the UK, with river rapids and a flume. While I was standing in the shallow end looking after pupils who had lost their keys or bumped their heads, my thoughts were back in Scotland with our friend Ewan - it was his Mum's funeral in the afternoon and I knew that James and Ally would be there.
By the time we got back to the hotel the pupils were pretty exhausted, not just from today but cumulatively from the last five days! Tempers were fraying and I felt that although it had been a great school trip it was time for it to draw to a close. Thanks to a great deal of effort from Davie the trip has been a success for the pupil with autism; Davie has had quite a challenging job. We had a last night disco and after the pupils were in their rooms (although not asleep!) the teachers sat outside the hotel chatting one last time.
This morning we woke the pupils at six and left the hotel by eight. We were held up by a traffic jam (horses had strayed onto the motorway but none were hurt) but still had time to pay a visit to a cash and carry on the outskirts of Calais to stock up on wine (staff only!) before we got onto the ferry. And so here we are, heading for home. We have been travelling for ten hours and we have about eight hours to go!