I told you it was cold yesterday! We had 15cm of snow overnight, here is the Motel car park with our hire car (on the right). Quite a few roads closed, but I insisted we get on the move as there was more snow forecast for the end of the week and we needed to be back in London.

Rae was quite hesitant at first, but soon got the hang of it. The leon's traction control and front wheel drive were brilliant. The main road (A31) had been gritted (spread with rock salt) and was not too bad. The original plan had been to head north from Alton to get on to the M4 and approach Heathrow as directly as possible.

With the snow closing a lot of the B roads, plan 'B' was implemented and we followed the A 31 east. The problem was when we got to Farnham, there had been a truck accident and the road was closed from there on. So it was North through Aldershot and Farnborough on the A331 to the M4.

London was brought to a total standstill on Monday, this was the heaviest snow fall in the capital in seventeen years. I had managed to book accommodation in Slough, close to Heathrow so we could drop off the car on Tuesday morning, and then at one of the hotels on the strip at Heathrow so we would not have to get up too early on Friday. Willesden Green (Nat and Laura's) is nearly two hours by train from Heathrow and with the threat of more snow I wanted to be close enough to yell at someone if the flight was delayed. The basic issue is, that despite what you may believe England (especially the south) is not equiped to handle heavy snow fall. On Monday morning there were no buses or trains running in London. Neither the Buses or trains could leave their depots, not to mention the fact that there was no way for drivers to get in too work. In any event we had a very picturesque ending to our travels.