I had worried that with temperatures below zero, I would get cold in Minsk, so last week I purchased the world’s thickest (well, Primark’s thickest) pyjamas. But the Hotel Minsk isn’t skimping on the heating – last night was like one long hot flush. We get up and set off for some sightseeing. One of the first things you notice about Belarus – jaywalking is not a thing. You stand and wait for the light to go green, even if this means waiting for hours when there isn’t a car in sight. Then, when the light finally does go green, still nobody moves. This is either because they’ve been there for so long they’ve forgotten where they’ve going, or because they’ve frozen to the spot and can no longer move. We start by heading to the ... read more

It’s Saturday – parkrun day and today we’re running in the grounds of Fontainebleau castle. To be more precise; 2 laps of an ornamental lake at the entrance to the château. My fitness has declined due to injury so I’m not looking forward to it. But I meet a lovely lady called Christine from Kingston and we pootle round together. It takes a very slow 47 minutes but we chat the whole way so the time flies by. We speed up towards the end when our respective families come and encourage us to run more and talk less. Then it’s time to drive the 225 miles to Calais. It’s hot and first we have to circumnavigate Paris. Today’s soundtrack is Hadestown – appropriate for a Parisian motorway on a Saturday morning. We reach the Tunnel and ... read more

It’s time to start the drive back to London. It’s over 600 miles so we’ve divided it into 3 chunks. Our first overnight stop is Besançon. We set off from Zurich with musical accompaniment for 4 hours of driving/culture. By the time we reach our hotel, we have covered Tudor history (Six), Greek Mythology (Hadestown) and American history (Hamilton). The hotel is difficult to spot, requiring 3 (increasingly irate) circuits of the one way system to locate it. I briefly hope our arrival will stop daughter no 2 from reciting the lyrics of every musical in the world, but we’re in the birthplace of Victor Hugo. It’s mid afternoon, so locating a restaurant that’s still open takes a while, but we find a crêperie which serves an awesome Roquefort pasta. Besançon is a fortified city in ... read more

The experiment is over. Time to load the equipment back into the van. After a final trip to the PSI café, we set off for Horgen, a town on the shores of Lake Zürich. The Italians were in charge of loading the pumps but at the first few roundabouts there are creaks and clunks. So we end up in General Electric car park for half an hour resecuring everything. It’s a hot drive – the temperature is pushing 30 degrees so once in Horgen, we head straight for the Sportbad; a 50m open air pool with adjacent lake swimming area. We relax and swim in the pool. Daughter no 2 swims in the lake but I wuss out and make do with sitting semi emerged on the steps. Then we check into our B&B. We’ve been ... read more

It’s time to start our 900 mile drive home. First stop, brunch in Como. After 4 circuits of town trying to find a parking space, we picnic on the shores of Lake Como. Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery, was from Como. There is a museum in his honour, Tempio Voltiano, on the shore. Plus you can walk along a jetty to the Life Electric sculpture in the middle of the lake. It’s not a very pleasant walk - both the jetty and the lake are covered in debris. We stroll along the prom until we reach the funicular. From here you can, theoretically, travel 720m up the hillside for a stunning view of the lake. However, the old man declares the queue is too long so we return to the van and continue to our ... read more