When I said 6 o’clock I thought that was a civilised hour. I should have known better. My 6 o’clock and Charlie’s 6 o’clock are very, very different. Mine was Gin o’clock; his was sparrow’s fart.

So that’s how we landed getting up at 2.15am on Friday morning in order to catch the 6am EuroTunnel train from Folkestone for the start of our epic tour round Europe.

I fear that if Charlie’s and my communication does not get any better – it will be a very long 24 days.

First port of call and feeling pretty blooming grumpy was the terminal at EuroTunnel where we shot past the ticket machine and came to an abrupt halt right in front of the barrier, which of course would not go up.

With the clock ticking and a fractious family just itching to boil over it was just as well that the lovely ladies on duty had seen it all before. Deftly handling the situation they sweetly sorted the ticket, checked that we did not want to board earlier and sent us smiling on our way.

After a bit of sustenance and a decent cup of tea and feeling a lot more human it was the off. Scampering first to poke our heads through a series of holes for silly end of the pier pictures but in a sophisticated French way – instead of fat ladies it was the Mona Lisa and the Three Musketeers. Not quite sure how this celebrates 20 years of EuroTunnel but is got us off in the right mood – and judging by the number of other folk trying it out it certainly helped everyone else too.

With big Thule box on top we were channelled down various lanes, none of which made any sense to me and suddenly this was it…suddenly we were beyond the point of no return: Europe – here we come!