An update on my journey back to the UK: Yesterday I managed to get a flight to Rome, so I finally got out of Israel. Anything in mainland Europe sounded good. My calculation was that there are two seas between Israel and Britain, and I would have crossed one of them.

The next part of the plan was to take a train to France from Rome. But at the airport they told us all international trains were booked until Wednesday – or possibly Friday. Oh, and there was a rail strike in southern France. Read more