Yes, we Londoners are used to our cold wet weather but in the last couple of weeks we actually had full on snow to deal with too! I was so excited to see the blanket of white outside – for me, snow is the only thing that makes cold weather worth bearing! We might have had big plans for how we would spend our time enjoying the snow -but the snow had other plans for our cities…
All around the country people were almost literally snowed-in. The roads were dangerously icy and caused many accidents and breakdowns for people brave enough to take their cars out and bus and train services were not running well. It was practically impossible for some people to get to the end of their roads let alone across the city to many schools closed for the day (not that the children minded!) Our transport system failed for a few days, the Eurostar disaster was a clear example of that!
The Eurostar tunnel provides the quickest way to travel between France and the UK and we love it! Well we used to… it hasn’t served us very well recently – it didn’t cope well with the snow and many trains broke down and were stuck underground for hours. Carriages had to be evacuated and people walked miles to get out to safety. Sadly,all of this chaos happened right before Christmas and people were struggling to get to their destinations in time for the festivities. Many trains were delayed for DAYS not hours and flights abroad suffered most of all – most had to be cancelled.
So my conclusion: the UK doesn’t ‘do’ snow well! We never seem to be prepared. Roads always become ice rinks – and I always manage to fall (seriously, always!). But no matter how frustrated we get with the snow, we all manage to have some fun in it and there’s no better excuse to stay at home and enjoy it – there’s no day like a snow day!