Well, I finally made it home this morning – five days after my first attempt to leave Tel Aviv, last Thursday. I finally got out of Israel on Sunday morning, I think, so it’s taken roughly 48 hours to get back, via plane, mini-bus and train – with overnight stops in Genoa and Paris, and lunch in Geneva yesterday. The trip has had its moments. I’ve never driven through the Alps from the Italian side, and the scenery is astonishing.

I think my last update was posted from Geneva railway station, about this time yesterday. The rest of the journey was relatively straightforward. We got into Paris around nine at night. Found a pleasant little flop house near the Gare du Nord, had dinner (confit de canard, always a good stand-by, since it comes out of a tin) – then got up at 6am to check the Eurostar situation. It is always worth going in person, Although the electronic boards claimed that there were no places on trains available until next Saturday, it was easy enough to secure seats on stand-by. Lots of people have made reservations – and are not turning up, either because they have found some other way to get home, or because they haven’t yet made it to Paris. Read more