The Road to Knowhere

Wimeraux – Camberley

2006-09-01T22:28:00.000Z

Our last day has arrived. Who would have thought it?

To finish as we started Jon went out to the boulongerie and got a croissant and pain au chocolate each for us (everything seems better after a couple of pastries) and we had fresh coffee with it. How many pastries have we eaten this holiday I wonder? Have I eaten my own weight in them perhaps? It has to be close.

Anyway, after the pastry eating, some reading (me) and programming (Jon) we set off for Calais – taking the rather lovely coast road rather than the motorway.

Once we got to Calais we located the shopping centre type place to get some wine. It seemed like what we had to do – fill the van with boxes of french wine – so we did. Well. OK, we didn't actually fill the van (what do you take us for?) We bought 30 bottles of wine and a small box of stubby beers. Pretty restrained eh?

That took up quite a lot of time – and yet I still didn't remember to buy any paprika crisps to take home (love those things – why don't they have them at home?) or any sweets for the journey. Ah well.

We rocked up to the Sea France place – bought our ticket home (€120 – ouch!) and then got in the queue ready for a 5pm sailing. That was it. Time to go home.

I was alright about it all until then – suddenly I realised that this was it, we really were going home and suddenly – I didn't want to :( Of course I knew we had to – we can't afford to travel around in the van forever, and – seriously – my back can't take much more of that bed, but still, the reality of it was a bit sad.

Still. That's the way it goes – and we were on the ferry, nice crossing - pretty calm - and off to blighty before we knew it.

Then it was white cliffs of Dover, M25 and home.

4,150 miles and 47 days after leaving - we were back!

Everything is fine here, there was a lot of post and the garden has gone bonkers, but it's all still standing, there have been no floods or fires - which is good.

It was such a great trip - we had a really great time and saw so much stuff and did so much, but also me & Jon spent a good lot of time together - which we haven't really done in ages - and although we had a few arguments (and a couple were REALLY good ones) we mostly had really good fun together - which was great.

Highly recommended.

Also great was the van - apart from that minor fuel leak in the first week, we haven't had any trouble at all, which is fantastic. Long may it last!

Hope you have enjoyed the blog - look forward to catching up with everyone soon (offers of drinks/running dates/free lunches all welcome) - please come back next year (hopefully) for the sequel :)

The End.

Bruges – Wimeraux

2006-08-31T23:06:00.000Z

I have a cold :(

This morning we cycled into Bruges for the obligatory tour round the city. We soon abandoned the bikes because the place was just too rammed with tourists for them to be practical, it was either that or some kind of collision – it would have been inevitable, they were just wandering all over the place.

So, Bruges is nice. We decided that we are a little jaded from the number of lovely towns that we have seen – it is true – but that Bruges is nice, and that it would probably be a great place to visit in the winter! Also we observed that while some cities we have seen have nice centres but sort of fade pretty quickly once you move away from them, Bruges seemed to be nice all the way out – lots of nice little streets with attractive buildings, a couple of canals, some greenery, etc. It was ridiculously packed with tourists though – worse perhaps than anywhere else we have been the whole holiday, with the exception of Venice maybe.

Still, we had a nice couple of hours just wandering about, having some lunch, nearly buying some Belgian chocolates (but not), seeing this van (potential idea for ours for the future?) that kind of thing. It was still only 1;30 though by the time we were done and recovering the bikes from where we had left them – and by 2pm we were on our way – out of Belgium and back to France for the final few hours of our trip!

We burned down the motorway out of Belgium but took the first turning off and towards the sea when we got into France. We had a little walk on the beach and a bit of a paddle, then we went back to the van, found some internet, got some pastries and sat and had coffee and cake. There has been a lot of that (it is a tradition I will miss!).

We decided then to drive on to Bologne Sur Mer for our last night – near the sea, almost certainly there would be restaurants, not far from Calais. Perfect.

We actually ended up in the town next door – Wimeraux – but I must say that the countryside around there is lovely. Suddenly it is quite hilly (we haven't seen hills for a while – the van wasn't too keen) and green and the sea is there – plus it was sunny – fantastic. Didn't help with the having to go home thing either :(

Still. We were in the municipal campsite – which was fine – and then we were walking along the sea front into town, looking for somewhere to eat, which we found, and then we were eating a 3 course meal (which included the obligatory Moules-Frites) and drinking a bottle of very dry, very cold white wine, and then..........our last dinner was over and we were back in the van looking back at all the photos of our trip and marvelling at how long ago it all seems.

It is a long time I guess – nearly 7 weeks since we left, and we have done (give or take half a mile) 4,000 miles so far!! It's been quite a journey.

All things come to an end though – and I am ready to go home. I might not feel like that tomorrow, but right now I am looking forward to going back to the house, and catching up with everything that has been going on, starting new jobs, sleeping in my own bed, having hot water on tap, all that sort of thing. I guess doing contract work means that neither of us are 'just' going back to doing the same old thing (no offence to all you permies out there – but I'm sure you know what I mean), we don't know what is coming next – which does mean that the come down from the trip isn't so bad. We think. It is going to be quite odd though.

I might even have to stop wearing shorts every day, and my hair might go back to normal (whatever that was). How bizarre. And how is the house – is it OK – and how much post will there be to go through, etc......

Exciting times.

One thing I did want to show you though - before I forget - is this: The 'magic' table - my only souvenir (apart from 2Gb of photos and this blog!) - brilliant don't you think ?

West Kappelle – Bruges

2006-08-30T23:31:00.000Z

This morning before setting off on the day's travels but after packing up the van and having some cheese on toast and a brew, we went for a walk on the beach.

It was lovely - windy and a bit chilly(or bracing for the more northern amongst us), but sunny and pleasant.

The beach is stunning, and if it was a hot sunny day you could definitely imagine spending a day down there soaking up some rays, and even taking a dip in the (chilly) north sea.

I settled for a paddle.

We set off for Bruges then – taking a 6km tunnel across the Westerschelde (a big sea inlet type thing) which was nice.

We rattled through what was the little bit of the Netherlands on the other side, and into Belgium. It was just as we remembered – dreadful roads, and not much else to say for itself. Really, apologies for any Belgians that might ever read this (but why would they?), but it's just not on the list of places to return to. Nothing to recommend it from what we saw.

We stopped in a town not far over the border to see about some lunch and – hopefully – pick up an internet connection. We got the internet, so we had some lunch. Nothing else to say. We carried on to Bruges.

Bruges – from our first impressions (a trip around the ring road) looks quite nice.

We drove around the ring road – thinking there might be some kind of special (and maybe free?) parking for campervans, and just as we were giving up – I saw the sign!! Yay! Free camping car parking right near the town centre. No facilities (well, there was drinking water), but free, and not bad at all. Absolutely rammed with vans – but we got a little tiny space between a British Transit conversion and a patch of grass – just like having a garden!

Jon was busy updating his CV (we have to go back to work apparently) so I took Top Bike and went to get some food and beer. The decision was that we would eat in the van tonight, see Bruges in the morning and then push off to somewhere near Calais for our last night – to include a slap up dinner and, perhaps, a bottle of wine.

I cycled for miles – managed to find a Carrefour supermarket that we had driven past on our way into town. Was all good though – cyclepaths all the way, and a sunny evening. Just right for a trip out on Top Bike. I have been mostly cycling in the highest gear on the middle chain ring on the bike – to simulate riding a single gear town bike. It's my kind of 'fun' and is very good exercise – by the time I got back to the van my buttock muscles were complaining :) Still, got to work off all the lardy pies and beers we have been drinking somehow.

Talking of beers, I bought a selection of Belgian beers for the evening – one bottle of each of 7, 8, 9 and 10% brews. How nice. Just the one bottle of each though – to share – nothing too serious. Also, slightly randomly, chicken burgers for dinner.

It was all good.

Jon finished his CV, we had dinner, the beers were nice and that was that. Another pleasant evening.

Also, we heard from my sister (Helen, you may remember her from such stories as – Amsterdam) that she got the job that she had been for – still at John Lewis (she works at the store in High Wycombe), but doing something new and exciting! Brilliant news – well done bird!

Dordrecht – West Kappelle

2006-08-29T23:21:00.000Z

It has to be said that we didn't actually pay for last night's stay in the end. Not really intending that that would happen, but more that it just didn't happen. There was no one in reception when we went to pay, we hadn't had access to any of their facilities because there wasn't anyone in reception last night when we went to pay and we needed access codes to the toilets, etc.....so, yes, we just drove off. Does that make us bad? Will there be police on the look out for us all over the Netherlands? Let's hope not eh.

So, this morning we decided to head off towards Bruges – with the plan that we will be sailing back to Blighty on Friday!!

We set off from Dordrecht (didn't see much of it in the end) and across the Dutch countryside towards the Belgian border.

The kind of countryside we were passing changed quite a bit – if possible I would say it got flatter and more open (it was already very flat), it definitely got more windy (this was being put to good use with all the windmills that we saw), and the land we were travelling over got interrupted a bit more by sea – and so there were bridges and thin strips of land with roads on and the like.

We stopped for lunch by the side of an inlet we were passing – it was an attractive looking place, although it was nowhere in particular. Also nowhere in particular was the small town we stopped in for a brief walk about, and, I suppose, the place we finally stayed the night in.

After a small detour to see the product of the largest sea protection project in the world (the Delta project), which wasn't really worth it (I mean – it's a big barrage, cool, but ultimately not so much to see really!), we decided not to push on to Bruges tonight but to stop by the seaside!

We ended up in a nice campsite at a place called West Kappelle, right by the seaside on – apparently – the most beautiful bit of coastline in Holland.

We went out for a run to check it out, and I have to say that it does definitely score highly in my list of most scenic places I have ever run. Sand dunes, sea views, sea walls, lighthouse, stunning sandy beach............ lovely. Jon wasn't finding it so lovely mind, but that's because I threw in a few hill sprints up and down the sea defence wall that ran around the 'corner' of the the bit of coast we were on. :) It's good for us. Apparently.

Had something healthy for dinner and no beer (or wine or other alcohol) in an attempt to redeem ourselves (hopeless cause really), and that was it. Nice.

Delft – Dordrecht via Schipol Airport

2006-08-28T23:23:00.000Z

Today was Helen & Andrew's last day of visiting, and it didn't start well. Torrential rains from about 4am coupled with a big thunderstorm meant that they had had another interrupted night's sleep, everything was a bit boggy (there was some concern about getting the van off the pitch) and everything had to be packed up in the rain.

It also meant that we couldn't make a brew or anything in our current state (we now have gas but still no inside plumbing) because it was too wet to cook outside!

So, Helen & Andrew got themselves packed up – wearing the fetching Paris Marathon ponchos – and we went out for 'breakfast' (it was gone 11am) – to Ikea! Well, you know – it was just up the road and we knew that they do really good value food. Infact, in the Rough Guide to Sweden it even says that if you are looking for good value food you can't go far wrong if you go to Ikea restaurants!

It's true as well. We had 4 main courses (meatballs and chips or chicken kebab, veg & chips) and 4 coffees and it was €20 – and it was nice. Can you go wrong?

Of course their clever trick is directing you to the exit through the store, but I managed to resist buying anything, although it was a close call!

After brunch we went to The Hague. It was close and we thought we should – and thought that it might be quite nice/interesting. It wasn't really. There's not so much to see – it's more of a businessy place I suppose, lots of offices and that sort of thing – it's not so attractive as some of the towns we have visited, the one museum we might have gone in was closed on Mondays – you know, all that sort of thing. There are some cool modern buildings there though – really nice in fact. I think I said that already as well – the Dutch have some amazing modern architecture, really striking.

So. After wandering about the shops, Helen buying us a big umbrella (to be kept in the van and no doubt used often) and the final sticker required for the magic table, failing to find a pancake shop and getting a bit bored, we decided to leave. Our intention was to go to Leiden on the way to the airport – which we did – but we stopped at the seaside on the way. Only for 30 minutes, but it was enough for a quick walk on the beach, a tiny paddle in the (North) sea and a face full of sand: it was very windy down there!

Leiden then. Sounded like a nice place in the book, and from what we saw (which was very little in the end) it seemed more like what we had seen in other places and liked – canals, tall houses, etc. What happened though was that we got to the main meeting square (described in the Rough Guide as “ugly” but actually was rather attractive – maybe they were there in the rain or with a hangover or something?) and straight away we spotted a pancake house! Well, I have been going on about having pancakes for a while now, so we couldn't not go in.

Blimey. You would have thought that one pancake surely couldn't be enough – but even Andrew, who could eat for England, was struggling to finish! Of course we all did finish, but it was an effort. They were lovely though – I had a savoury one (bacon, cheese & apple) which I split with Jon who got a sweet one (apple, cinnamon icecream and cream), Helen had something with Grand Marnier, and Andrew had cherries, ice-cream, cream and half a bag of icing sugar. They were amazing, and totally perfect – exactly what we had been looking for!

We waddled out of there and on the way back to the van I spotted a hardware store on the other side of the road where I thought there was potential for some gas hose purchasing. Jon was totally dismissive of the idea, but the other 2 were all for having a look, so we went in. After waving the old bit of pipe at the chap behind the counter and confirming that it was for butane and that we only wanted the same length again (he asked “how many metres” but it's only about 30cm long!), which he seemed to find quite amusing, he went away and came back with just the thing – all for €1.40! Perfect. We like Leiden!

Then we were on our way out of there for the final stretch of motorway up to the airport.

We made it in good time and dropped H&A off for their flight home.

As you can see, they looked gutted to be going home – despite having to sleep in the tent (there were complaints about the ground being too hard), and the rain, they both said they enjoyed themselves and would definitely have carried on for longer if the option had been there. We enjoyed having them to stay also, it was lots of fun! Cheers guys. :)

Then it was just us again, so we drove back south, passed Delft and on to Dordrecht and a small campsite in a nature park, next to a youth hostel. Jon has fixed the new gas pipe onto the various fittings and we can't smell gas – which is a good start – but we will be switching the gas off at bedtime until we are sure it's OK. Good to have everything back together though and the option to cook indoors again – and, not having to rely on sites with electricity again, as we can now run the fridge on gas if we need to.

Relaxing tonight, although can't believe we only have 4 days left – current plan is to be home Friday night! Where did all the time go?

Delft – Gouda - Delft

2006-08-27T23:52:00.000Z

Today was a first – we went out for the day in the van and returned to the same campsite as last night. It wasn't so tricky as it might have been if we had been by ourselves – because we could stash somethings in Helen & Andrew's tent, plus our pitch was well and truly bagged because of it also!

So, slightly hung over, we had bacon sandwiches for breakfast - cooked (in the rain) by Andrew. Good work that man.

Then, we drove to Gouda – famous for cheese, and apparently (according to the Rough Guide) a jolly lovely place. It was nice – although everything was closed (it's Sunday after all) and we didn't really see anything to do with cheese, which we thought was a bit odd. Still, it had all the usual stuff - nice town all, attractive market square, windmill, canals, etc... and we spent a couple of pleasant hours wandering about, admiring the sceneries........all very Dutch that's for sure.

We resisted the lure of the cafes in the square and went back to van for some cheese sandwiches and crispies.

After Gouda we went on to Oudewater, another very lovely looking town – similar sort of thing, canals, houses, windmills, etc – but we were mainly there to see the Witches Weighing house!

Back in the 16^th Century Witches were 'found out' by several different methods (by fire and drowning are probably the ones we know best) and one of those was by weight. If a person (not always ladies you know) was weighed and was suspiciously light, then that was a sure sign that they could fly on a broomstick and was therefore a witch.

In Oudewater the weighmaster wasn't up for any of this nonsense (they were usually bribed to decree that accused individuals weighed just a few pounds) and that weighhouse still survives.

There is an exhibition upstairs in the house – which is a bit lame, but reasonably interesting, however, the main attraction comes after that – being weighed on the original balances that they used to use back in the 16^th century. That was fun. We all had a go, and the lady running the show told us some interesting facts as we went along.

Turns out I'm not a witch (no particular reason, I'm just not), Jon wasn't because he weighed 77kg and that – apparently – is a lucky number, Andrew also wasn't a witch because at 88kg he was too heavy to fly, but Helen – weighing in at 66 kg (part of the sign of the devil) is definitely a witch!! :) It was all good fun, we got certificates to say we weren't (or were in Helen's case) witches, and we were glad we had made the trip.

After that we had coffee and apple cake (I really fancied pancakes all day as I have seen loads of pancake houses – but typically once I mentioned it, we haven't seen anywhere selling them!) out in the square, and then set off back to Delft and the campsite.

H&A were clearly a bit sleepy :)

Nice to get back to the campsite - nice to return somewhere and not have to arse about setting up so much – and especially when you know that the site is nice, as this one was.

Once back Helen & Jon went off to the swimming pool (too cold for me) with Andrew going to observe, and I got ready to go out for a run. Just as I was about to leave the rain came down really hard, and there was a mini thunderstorm. Helen & Jon just stayed in the pool – apparently the water was quite warm, but the rain was really cold and the whole experience was a bit surreal – being in the pool while it was raining so hard, Andrew came back soaked through thinking he should have just gone in the pool after all!

I waited till the storm passed – only 10 minutes or so – and the blue skies were back and went out for a 45 minute run around the area. Something about the Netherlands that you quickly realise is that if you want to get anywhere – follow the cycle paths. I think I might have said that already. Tonight's run was a really good example though. I was trying to get around this lake near the campsite – if I followed the footpath signs I usually ended up coming up to a dead-end, running through puddles, suffering from broken ankles, etc. On the cycle paths, silky smooth tarmac, perfect route around the lake, not a puddle in sight! Incredible.

When I got back from my run (the apple cake was weighing heavy) the others were all back and dried and warm and dinner was on it's way. Andrew took to the stove and made a very marvellous spaghetti bolognaise. Just perfect.

Not so perfect – Helen managed to smash one of the light fittings in the van. There are only 2 lights and one of the clear lenses was smashed when we bought the van, now they both are. How did it happen? Well there were LOTS of mosquitos knocking around in the van (the problem with camping somewhere with so much water I guess) and Helen went to kill one that was on the light and just smashed the plastic! Doh. Still, accidents do happen right (am thinking of numerous things I have broken or split or something on this holiday!).

Anyway, after that excitement we set the table up (our new 4^th 'chair' is the porta-potti, with the lid down obviously – it's a perfect height and surprisingly comfortable :) ) and played some rummy – well, me, Jon & Andrew did – Helen was reading the blog!! She must have read about 25 days worth all in one go! It is odd having someone read something you have written while you sit there though – don't like that so much.

Andrew won at cards. I lost. Bah.

Duinrell – Delft

2006-08-26T23:20:00.000Z

This morning we were up reasonably early, breakfasted, packed up and fed (also the geese were fed by Helen who had insisted on saving all bread crusts to feed them with!) and ready for a day of fun! And it was sunshining!

First up – the amusement park (had to let our breakfast digest before swimming!).

This was good fun – although not the biggest place in the world, it was free and they have a couple of good rides. The first thing we went on was a watery ride (the theme is generally water related) where you sat on a sort of sledge and slid down a water slide – very exciting!

Next was the roller coaster – possibly the most uncomfortable ride ever, especially for tall people as you knees bang on the front of the carriage and your back on the back of the chair. Still fun though :)

After that we had a bit of a walk around - admiring the many displays and things that were around – mostly for the benefit of kids, but still quite nice – and then a couple more rides. The best one was this water ride where you could decide whether you wanted to go on a closed or open boat – interesting.

The boats were five rows of 4 seats – we naturally chose the open boat – and each row had a kind of plastic mac for 4 people – 4 holes for 4 heads – try and imagine it if you can! So. We knew we were going to get wet! And we did. This thing was amazing, you were winched up this slope, round a bend and then DOWN INTO SOME VERY DEEP WATER!!! You should have seen the tidal wave that coming down generated (picture shows it from the side after the event) it was incredible – and we were drenched!! It wasn't so much the depth of the water that was the thing, we discovered afterwards, it was that the boat was on rails all the way through the water – so it didn't just skim across the surface but really plunged straight in!

We went up to the viewing platform afterwards – there was a plastic screen that you could stand behind if you didn't want to get drenched, because you really would – even just doing that was pretty cool – but the ride was tops!!

After that, and a trip on the toboggan ride (not so impressive) and the bumper cars (bumping allowed) we went back to the van to get our swimming stuff and on to the water park.

This place is cool – 8 slides (count 'em) and all indoors – none of this freezing to death trying to enjoy yourself when it just isn't sunny enough really! Anyway, we were in there for the maximum 2 hours – I went on every slide, and was the only one of us to do so – and they were easily as good as I remember from when I was a kid. Brilliant. A real mixture of super quick scary slides and more fun ones – like the 2 that were in the dark and you went on in pairs sat in a double rubber ring!! Excellent.

After all that enjoyment we went back to the van for some lunch and then had a discussion about where to go. Andrew had really wanted to go to Arnhem – and that had been broadly in the plans, but we decided that it wasn't really the best option – if we had done that we wouldn't have really had the time to see things properly because we would need to have done quite a bit of driving. As an alternative we decided to head to Delft and then explore around there.

It was a good choice.

The campsite in Delft is really nice (Delftse Hout), although your approach is straight off the motorway and through an industrial estate, so it looks a bit ropey, it's actually in a bit of a park, nicely laid out, cheap, good facilities and only a 15 minute walk into town – which was a good thing as going out drinking was high on the agenda tonight!

We got pitched up, changed and we were on our way into town with our road beers.

Once in town we had a bit of a walk about, appreciating how nice Delft is (very pretty), then we stopped in a bar for a small beer, then went looking for a bar that was mentioned in the guide book (there's always one!) which we did find eventually – it was OK, but nothing really worth talking about – and then we went for dinner.

That was great.

It was in a really nice building, an old warehouse by the look of it – next to a canal, high ceilings, amazing wood beams – also, great food (I had the biggest pot of mussels ever). So it was fab. After that we went to another bar and then onto our final bar of the evening. When we went in there – at about 11pm – it looked like it was closing for the evening, but by 12am it was absolutely packed!! We seemed to have picked a very popular drinking spot.

We had a few beers, and also something of a local 'speciality' – beer with a Dutch Gin chaser. Apparently it “hits you like a sledghammer”, or so a guy at the bar told Jon while he was getting the round in – and I have to say that I agree. About 30 minutes after drinking it I was ready for my bed!!

It didn't taste so good either – as the expression on Helen's face here probably tells you :)

We did have one game to play – trying to get a piece of paper out from underneath a 50pence piece balanced on the side of a glass, without knocking the coin into the glass. Andrew was a pro at this game, but I managed to do it eventually – getting better as the gin took effect – and then getting worse as the sledgehammer hit home!!

Was fun though – and we left at last orders to walk home.

On the way Jon & Andrew stopped off at a kebab style place to get a pizza. I wasn't in with them while they were ordering but it sounds like an amusing time – almost as amusing as the 'pizza' they got. It was a 'Turkish Pizza' which seemed to comprise a very doughy piece of dough, some filling, and then it was all rolled up, superheated, and served! They weren't impressed, but it didn't stop them polishing the lot off! Boys eh?

By the time we got home it was nearly 3am – and time for bed – I'm too old for these late nights you know :)

Amsterdam - Duinrell

2006-08-25T22:14:00.000Z

Today's Route

This morning the weather was terrible - again - really raining hard and thundering and lightening and everything. This must be unusual weather mustn't it? Surely - product of global warming or something?

Anyway, we got up into the rain, packed up the van and finally left the site just before the 12am deadline. I was getting a bit agitated as the time approached and Helen was still doing her hair - but it all came good in the end.

We took the van around the park that the campsite had been at the bottom of, and parked it in a parking place at the end of the rowing lake we had seen on our cycle travels the other day. There we had our breakfast - bacon sandwiches and a brew - cooked on the outside stove. We had just finished cooking when the heavens opened again (it had been sunny about 3 seconds earlier) and we ate in the 'safety' of the van.

One of the reasons we had chosen that particular car park (reasons for everything) was the bike hire place marked on the map we had - right next door.

After waiting for it to 'brighten up a bit' - which it did - we went over and hired 4 of the finest single speed, back pedal brake only bikes that they had - a bargain €7.50 each for 24 hours! Brilliant. Top Bike and Blue Bike got left behind today - if we were going to do Amsterdam by bike, we really had to do it on town bikes - no other option.

So, bikes at the ready we cycled into town - getting a little bit lost on the way, and occasionally losing Helen because she bottled out of crossing roads unless the little bike lights were green - we had a great time.

The bikes are really cool - so upright and so relaxing, not like 'regular' cycling at all. You feel really high up - so you can look around you and see what's going on, because there is only one gear you just have to do what you can (luckily it's pretty flat around here), and things like the back pedal brake (which I did have on a bike when I was a kid - but that was a long time ago) take a bit of getting used to - but brilliant fun - and the only way to do Amsterdam - and maybe the whole of Holland!!

Certainly the cycle paths in the Netherlands are amazing - I think I said that already - but really they are. They are, I think, better than both the roads and the pavements - and mean that cycling is a really excellent transport option - maybe better than driving in a lot of cases! And I guess that's why everyone seems to cycle!

Anyway, after having to shelter for 10minutes under a tree during a serious downpour and negotiating some slightly dicey car/cycle moments (you are allowed to cycle the wrong way down one-way streets usually – but when the road is only just wide enough for a car by itself – it can be 'fun'!) we did finally make it to the old Jewish quarter of Amsterdam where we locked up the bikes and went along to Anne Frank's house. It was very interesting – and very sad – so exactly as you would expect really, and totally worth putting on your “must see” list if you are visiting Amsterdam.

That took about an hour and up to lunchtime – which turned out to be chips & sausage from a street cart, fantastic, cheap and super lardy – but then, we were cycling so it's all about equal right?

After that we headed back to the van to hand the bikes back and get on our way to the next lot of fun on the agenda.

The cycle back was good (I know, I am going on about the cycling – but it really was good), anyway, we cycled back through a park – Jon showing off his silky skills – stopped off to admire the Olympic Stadium and generally just strolled along enjoying the experience, not getting lost at all, and easily got back before the 6pm 'curfew'.

On our way – 5:30pm, Friday, Amsterdam – rush hour! We didn't really move very quickly for the first 10 miles or so on the motorway, which was a bit frustrating, especially as we didn't really have that far to go, but it did clear for us in the end, I did see this cool sign, and we arrived at Duinrell – our destination – after a trip to the supermarket.

Duinrell is a place we went to a few times as kids – a big campsite on the same site as a small amusement park and (the big attraction) a water park. Also remembered (and still available) was being able to hire go-karts for bombing around the park on! Brilliant. It's not cheap for a night of camping - €49 for the 4 of us – but if you camp you get into the water park for €3.50 each rather than the usual €18.50 each!! It's a good deal when you look at it that way.

Anyway. Our pitch was OK, although I did opt for a no-electricity pitch, as that was what was offered and I thought that would be alright (it usually is), unfortunately when we were parked up and I went to set the fridge to run on gas, it wouldn't light. I couldn't understand it – although we knew were short on gas we thought we had some left, it had been OK earlier on. Jon switched the gas bottles over and still there was nothing going on – I tried lighting the stove – nothing. And then I thought I could smell gas. I smelt the bottle – thinking it might be the regulator leaking, that was fine – and then I smelt inside the cupboard -WWOOOah – and then I felt the pipe leading from the bottle into the van and located a massive hole!!!! I was gassing myself good and proper.

I quickly switched the gas off and opened all the windows, and disaster was averted! Lucky really that the pipe must have gone quite quickly – maybe when Jon changed the bottles - and during the day – rather than when we were sleeping or something, still, it could have had a slow leak for a wile! Scary. Anyway. Nobody died – which is good.

The next problem was that we were left with one empty gas bottle, one nearly empty gas bottle (remaining burning time unknown), no connection in the van, no fridge and only one burner – 2 packets of rapidly defrosting prawns and 4 hungry people!

Jon did try and get some more gas – they sell it at the campsite but only between 10 and 4 (it was 8pm by this time) and even cycled to a garage where he had been told they had it – which they did, but they had shut at 6pm! Bugger.

So, nothing else to do but start cooking the planned prawn curry and see how we got on.

As it went – it was fine. Using the single outdoor burner and our double skillet thingy to cook the curry and then, in the second pan (under the first – if you can imagine what I mean?) to do the rice, it all worked a treat, and the gas didn't run out! Dinner was served with a couple of bottles of Amstel = happy campers :)

Amsterdam

2006-08-24T23:56:00.000Z

This morning Helen & Andrew arrived after a reasonable Easyjet flight from Stanstead - only 15 minutes late!

I went inside with the sign while Jon guarded the van in it's slightly illegally parked position.

I managed to get to the arrivals gate in time - and was stood with the sign waiting for them to come through the doors - unfortunately my attention was diverted by a very enthusiastic reunion going on just as the two of them appeared - so I kind of missed them!! oops. Still, I was there, and they loved the sign that Jon had made - obviously.

So, all in the van and back to the site we stayed on last night - we decided that was the best option - so much more convenient - so we were there and the tent was up in a good time, but - as ever - it had started to rain while we were having a cup of tea and a bit of brunch, and I was having a sly read of this week's Heat mag that Helen had brought (doing well so far), so we hung around a bit longer than anticipated - hoping that it would stop. It didn't really - but we had to go, so we braved it.

On the 15 minute walk to the tram station we got a bit wet - and then, we got a bit wet walking from our arrival point in Amsterdam to our first 'activity' - the Heineken experience!!

What a place :) Apart from the 3 x small beers that you get as part of your entry fee - there is also a show "a day in the life of a beer bottle" (draw your own conclusions) and an opportunity to make a video message and a photo message and.......... it was pretty good fun - if a bit pricey. And we had had some beers - AND, by the time we left it had stopped raining!! Bonus!

Next stop - Van Gogh's museum - which was interesting, although I don't really see what all the fuss is about. I am clearly a bit of a heathen in these matters - how can his paintings be worth so much??

Anyway, it did provoke some discussion - mostly me saying that I didn't see what all the fuss was about, and then the associated debate! Good value.

After that we went for another cheeky beer (actually, Helen had a coffee) and then on to "the Dam", the square where the Amstel Dam used to be - that gave Amsterdam it's name. No dam there now - just a bunch of big buildings, this big monument (perfect for a photo opportunity) and a load of people.

Also, on the way to The Dam, we saw the first of our famous, and very blatent Dutch "coffee bars" not so subtly painted with Bob Marley pictures and the like!

Amsterdam was really interesting - much more so than any of us were really expecting. The little streets and loads of canals were busy and full of shops and bars way out of the town centre (we had thought it would be quite concentrated) and although some bits were obviously a bit more run down than others - it was all really buzzy - brilliant.

Of course after a bit of a walk about we were really heading for the red light district - everyone says you have to go, and really you do!

We stopped on the edge for a beer in a bar with an outside seating area. None of us felt particularly happy there as there seemed to be a lot of drug dealers and / or pimps hanging around at the side of that particular road. But, I suppose it is all part of the experience.

After that beer we were into the district proper - and it is quite amazing. These ladies in the windows, very odd - quite surreal. I tried to take a blog photo, but forgot to turn the flash off and was clearly spotted by the window occupant - I got the finger for my troubles and nothing but a dark blur for the blog - so I haven't bothered. A sign for you instead!

Fascinating place though.

Finally - we saw this condom shop on our travels, and it really amused me - this is a picture of the sort of thing on offer. I mean. Can you imagine???? ;)

After a couple more beers - one in a gay pub, which was a lovely place and I didn't notice that it was anything other than an 'ordinary' place until someone pointed out the two blokes kissing - we caught the tram back and that was the end of our day! Helen and Andrew did really well - having got up at 3am to set off for their flight, the fact that they could still walk back to the campsite was amazing!

It was a good one today - and we have decided to go back in again tomorrow as we didn't see Anne Frank's house, which we really wanted to - and we are thinking that hiring bikes might be an option!! How much fun would that be?

Leersum - Amsterdam

2006-08-23T23:41:00.000Z

Today's Route

Today is my lovely Mum's birthday - Happy Birthday Mum :)

Today is also the day we head to Amsterdam in preparation for Helen & Andrew arriving at the crack of dawn tomorrow for a 5 day stay! More guests - we have been pretty popular this trip, which has been rather marvelous.

Anyway, we left the sunny shiney spot on our nice campsite at a sensible time (well, before 12pm anyway) and headed back past the model sheep on the roundabout in Leersum, and on our way to Amsterdam.

Mostly we just went on the motorway - for ease - and it was pretty uneventful, although we did pass some interesting buildings and a couple of these funky looking structures - I guessed they were some kind of noise reduction barrier, just given the Netherlands style treatment. They have some truly amazing buildings here - and LOADS of sculptures and stuff just knocking about on roundabouts and things - very cool.

We were in the city in good time - enough time to find a carpark with some internet and get some blog updating done!

We also got to use our new time clock thing that you need when parking in all sorts of places on the continent - to show what time you arrived so they know when to start giving you a parking ticket! What fun, just like the locals :)

Some good comments on the blog - many thanks to P for reassuring me that Shandy Bass is still available - a weight off my mind I can tell you, and Will - jealousy is an ugly emotion :)

After that we went to check out a campsite over the other side of Amsterdam from the airport - the vague plan being that we would stay at a site right next to the airport tonight, for convenience, and then head over to this other site (nearer town) tomorrow. The idea of checking it out now was to avoid the problem we had after we picked Tom & Tish in Prague where we spent the best part of an hour arsing around trying to find the campsite we were looking for!

Anyway, campsite found - it was OK, although apparently there were quite a few "No Drugs" notices about, which is nice.

We headed back to our campsite and, after an interesting trip down the longest straightest road with the most speed humps in the world (Jon was well impressed I can tell you!) we found it.

The site is OK - a bit on the scummy side - but close to town and right on the edge of a bit of park, which we were quick to go and investigate on our bikes - blow the cobwebs away after a day of van work.

Nice park - lots of really good signs, lots of water - including this rowing lake - also we were 'chased' at one point by a pack of about 25 runners - which made me really wish I was running so I could join them - but no, I was on Top Bike - and got a good work out as it was :)

After that it was dinner and a relatively early night in preparation for our unusually early start tomorrow - complete with alarm clock setting and everything!! Unheard of!

Maastricht – Leersum (kind of near Utrecht)

2006-08-22T17:02:00.000Z

Today's Route

This morning Helen & Anthony headed off to the sunshine – but not before we had some photos. Helen had bought Anthony some Crocs for his 60^th a couple of weeks ago, so we were 3 pairs at once today – a bit sad – but definitely worthy of a photo!

It was lovely to see them – and I hope that they have a fab holiday – although if they find sunshine too soon, I really don't want to know about it.

They did leave us with a loan item though – their small electric fan heater. Mmmmm. Lovely. Sad that we are using it in the middle of August – but already, after just having it on for a short time last night, I don't know how we managed without one :)

Anyway, they were on there way, and so were we – destination unknown though as we set off – vaguely we needed to be closer to Amsterdam, in preparation for Helen & Andrew visiting on Thursday.

Stopped at a bakery on the way out of town for croissants.

We actually crossed into Belgium again for the first 40km north or so, and then back into the Netherlands – with a more distinct border post this time (I think I am obsessed!). We still didn't really have a plan though. Originally we thought about Arnhem, but I happened to text Helen that's where we were headed, and she said that was on their itinerary for when they are here – so we changed course.

We stopped in some ropey looking town for lunch and found some internet. I was really pleased as the blog hasn't been updated for ages and I thought I would get a nice long session in – get it all up to date. Typical, got internet – Blogger not working. What a pain! Will have to try again another time I suppose.

After all that, we headed off – vaguely towards Utrecht and some greenery we saw marked on the map. We went up a road that was clearly marked on the map as requiring a ferry crossing – which it did and it was fab. OK, so the crossing took maybe 4 minutes or so – but what fun!

First place we looked at to stay was De Gouden Ham – seemed to be some kind of lake / nature reserve kind of thing (I was just intrigued by the chap lying under the tree on the sign), but the 2 campsites we looked into were rammed full of people and didn't really do anything for us – so we pushed on.

Next was a similar affair a bit further north, but Jon wasn't really loving it, so we pushed on again - taking in our first 'proper' windmill – over another car ferry thing and into the national park. Now we were talking.

We found a massive campsite – no idea how much it is going to cost us, reception was closed, find a pitch – sort it out in the morning (apparently), but it is nice. Nice facilities, nice pitches, nice surroundings (trees)........nice.

We also went out for a run – 35 minutes which included some fartlek type things – sprinting between points, running backwards, high knees, etc – got to keep the locals amused – and then Jon made a rather marvellous beef stew for dinner. Perfect.

All I need now is the internet – I have nearly a week's worth of blog updates ready to go, but no way of doing it!

Maastricht

2006-08-21T13:12:00.000Z

This morning we had to be out of the campsite for 11am, so we were – despite my knocking red wine all over the laptop while I was making a cup of tea (I wasn't drinking the wine at the time you understand, it was just hanging around in an unsealed bottle, asking to be knocked over – the laptop is fine though, luckily) and the shenanigans that surrounded that!

We drove towards Maastricht, spotted a large, free car park – stuck the van in it and then cycled into the town centre. Our first experience of cycling in Holland and it is truly amazing.

I know you hear all this stuff about cycling in Holland – is it something like there are twice as many bikes as people or something? But you don't really appreciate it unless you give it a go. The cycle path network is amazing – you can get pretty much anywhere on it, without going on roads. Scooters also use some of the cycle paths and riders of those don't wear helmets (this was a surprise), and you have to watch what is going on all the time because there are scooters and bicycles and from all directions :) Brilliant.

And everyone has a bike, and people are riding their bikes with their friends, or stopped on a corner chatting with friends – all with bikes – it's just normal, and amazing, and so different from home. And nobody rides mountain bikes (no mountains – makes sense) or road bikes – it is all these town bikes, upright riding position, basket on the front (maybe), chain guard, step through frame – brilliant. Great fun.

Anyway. Maastricht – nice place, smaller than we thought it would be, but nice – old, good shops, pleasant stroll, lovely lunch........brill.

At about 2pm, just as we were eating lunch Jon's dad – the lovely Anthony (Tone) – called to say they were at the campsite, so once we had finished lunch and (finally) located a cash machine, bought some cakes and reclaimed our bikes we headed back to the van and then back to the campsite.

Lovely to see the inlaws. They are off to the south, in search of a bit of sun – and who can blame them? It rained pretty much all day today, and heavily – heavier than we have seen it in a while.

Still, lucky for us their van is bigger and more accomodating for 4 people than ours – so it wasn't all bad – also, they had brought me a copy of Heat (doing well) and Hello magazine. I don't think I have ever read Hello before – not sure if I like it, it takes itself a bit seriously I think – not like Heat :)

Eupen (Belgium) – Maastricht (Netherlands) - via Germany

2006-08-20T12:52:00.000Z

It was raining this morning and we had planned a bit of a hike in the nature reserve around the dam. We waited until about 11am – had breakfast, sat about a bit – and it was still raining – but it looked looked like it might be easing up a bit, and we really couldn't hang about any longer – so we decided to go for it anyway. Can't let a bit of rain stop us doing things – otherwise we would never do anything!

So we got all dressed in our waterproof coats – Jon put his walking trousers on and his new waterproof socks, I decided to give my shorts a go at walking – on the basis that I was going to get soaked anyway, why not wear something that would dry quickly afterwards?

It did actually stop raining as we left the van – for about 3 minutes – and then it started pouring even more heavily than before, drenching us completely. Still, it didn't matter – I was wearing my shorts and sunglasses – so was clearly enjoying my holiday, much to the bemusement of the other walkers that we saw.

It was a nice walk – we were out for about 2 hours and just as we got back to the dam it stopped raining and we were pretty much dried out by the time we got back to the van and were ready to head off.

The shorts worked out well I thought.

Next stop – back into Germany for a quick tour of places that I used to live. It might sound like a funny thing to do (I don't know) but I lived in quite a few places when I was younger, and I don't get to see them, and my memory is hopeless, so I thought it might be nice to visit since we were so close – and see if it is how I remember.

Well, we drove back into Germany and were surprised to see loads and loads of windmills – the electricity generating kind – just knocking about in the fields, and round the villages and things. Very interesting (photo isn't so good really, but I wanted to give you an idea of it).

First on our travel agenda was Wassenburg – the place I lived in for 4 years until I was 13 and we moved to Driffield.

The houses we lived in there were brand new at the time, infact half of the estate wasn't even built when we moved in – which provided an excellent playground (sure it wouldn't be allowed these days) for us kids – all that building work going on, although my most enduring memory is suffering for days after a couple of us thought it was a great idea to be playing trampolining on a load of rolls of fibreglass insulation. Ooooo that was painful!

Anyway, I located the estate really easily – the petrol station where I used to buy chewing gum was still there, the shop where we bought sweets, the bus stop we used to catch the school bus from, even the bouncy horse thing in the playground – all the same. The estate itself seemed so much smaller than I remember – but I suppose I was smaller myself, which is probably why. Nothing much had changed though.

The RAF station my dad was at at the time – RAF Wildenrath – closed not long after we left and the houses we lived in were sold. They are mostly identical to how they were then – not even much in the way of doors or windows have been changed, which I find a real suprise.

It was good though – a real trip down memory lane.

Our next success (we had a couple of failures) were the flats where we lived when I was really little – like 5 or 6 – which it turns out are now practically in the car park of Berusia Monchengladbachs stadium - infact, I think probably the stadium is parked right on top of where my primary school was!! Interesting though - liked that one.

And finally – despite having actually given up (I couldn't remember the name of the town I was looking for until I saw it on a motorway sign) – I managed to find my first secondary school – Kent School - a very cool place that (apparently) used to be a mental institution years ago (I'm sure that's not a PC way of describing it) and then was used by the Nazis during the war and was really quite creepy and so extra specially brilliant when you were a kid!

It must have been empty for going on 15 years I would reckon – the school having merged with another and then eventually closed down, I guess as bases closed and numbers of pupils fell. Unfortunately we couldn't get into it – I was a bit gutted as I had seen on the internet previously some guy who had been to see it and it had just been open – but when we were there it was all heavily fenced off although you could see that the doors of the buildings themselves were flapping about in the breeze – someone obviously doesn't want people in there. Shame though – would have been really cool to explore – there were always loads of stories when we were kids about bodies of nazis floating in the lowest cellars, and boxes of ammunition and guns being held in higher floors. Of course there was always someone who had seen these things too :)

Enough of that though. It was great. Boring for eveyone apart from me - Jon was very patient though :)

On to the Netherlands though – through near Roermond (another non-border, we weren't even sure which country we were in for a while) and then down to Maastricht. We decided to drive all the way to Maastricht so that we would be there and ready for when my inlaws arrive tomorrow.

We had hoped to find somewhere in Maastricht to park – but it doesn't look like that's the way they do things in the Netherlands, so we ended up out of town in a slightly odd campsite (not really recommended) where not only did we have to give a €20 deposit (what for?) and pay a €1 “administration” charge, but you had to pay for the showers and everything. Not great. Still, it was late and we needed somewhere to stay – and that was that.

Diekirch (Luxembourg) – Eupen (Belgium)

2006-08-19T12:42:00.000Z

Today's Route

Last night we had a reckoning up of all the campsites we have stayed in so far – trying to decide on the worst and best of the bunch. Obviously you tend to be swayed by things such as price (free is always going to boost somewhere's ratings) and showers – but largely we agreed on the basics.

In the bottom slot we actually had a couple of contenders – Jon thought that the car park place we parked in at Grado in Italy was bad – and the first campsite we stayed at in Czech (“Your Car is not Safe”), whereas I thought the campsite in Heidelberg was the worst – although it did have the upside of being by the river, part of the site was like sleeping beneath an underpass, the showers were something else, and the grass hadn't been cut for months by the look of it. :)

Best campsites – Jon was a big fan of the one we stayed at in Austria by the lake on his birthday, I preferred the lake at St Dizier in France and the camp we did that night, the river stop was also a favourite (both of those were free though), but the Austria site definitely won for amazingness of facilities – flowers in the bathrooms and everything. Very upmarket.

Anyway.

We had sunshine this morning (we seem to get it either in the morning or the afternoon – not both), so we went out for a run. We ran along the river, crossed over a bridge and then ran back again – it was about 7km loop. I wanted to do a longer run today, so Jon packed it in after one loop, I carried on for a second. It was hard work – I haven't run more than about 45 minutes at a time since we have been away, so the 1hr 10 minutes I was out this morning – in the blazing sun with nothing but a coffee, a swig of water and a banana to fuel me was tough. Still. It's in the bank now.

Jon was internetting when I got back – so I had a shower and then managed to get just 20 minutes of the remaining internet time after that. This wasn't much time to do any blog – infact I only managed to do one day, which is quite frustrating. It was still sunny though. So not all bad. Oh, but I sat on my sunglasses and broke them – bugger. Lucky it was my £7 from Sainsburys sunnies – and they are from last year (so unfashionable), so maybe it was a blessing? Sorry to see them go though – they have been great.

We finally left the site at 2pm or so – heading off for Belgium. So many countries, so little time! Almost as soon as we set off the weather changed – the clouds rolled over and it started to rain. This is a common theme – so common in fact that I have pretty much stopped mentioning it (it's dull isn't it? Complaining about the weather?).

We crossed through the Belgian border without really realising – but, again, you could tell that something had changed. Most noticeably the roads were awful – and I mean really, really bad. Couldn't figure out why.

Decided not long after we had crossed into Belgium that we really needed to participate in the custom of the country – eating a cone of chips (with mayonnaise) purchased from a Friterie. Of course by this time we had passed about a zillion Friteries, and then once we decided we wanted chippies – we couldn't find anywhere selling them! Typical. Eventually though, we got lucky, and it was great.

Haven't had chips in a while (or at least that's what it feels like – is probably a total lie!) so they were really smashing – and the mayonnaise – mmmmmmmmmmm.

We passed through some pleasant looking Belgian towns – but the weather was grey and so there was nothing really to tempt us to stay (pleasant but not that pleasant). We ended up in the town of Eupen, not a bad looking place – but nowhere obvious to park up (in a previous town – Malmedy – I had spotted a camping car parking place, but we didn't really want to stay there – so we didn't make use of it), so we headed towards a lake that we could see on the map.

Went a few miles down this windy road and came out on top of a dam crossing the lake – van on dam as it were. As we turned the corner into the car park we saw that there were about 8 other campervans already parked up and looking settled for the night – so we perched in between a couple of the big ones, and set up. Perfect.

We had a bit of a wander about – there was a small bar/cafe thing, and a climbing wall (Jon seen here trying it out – just like Spiderman eh?), the dam and a big map of all of the marked routes and paths through the surrounding woodland – something for us to do tomorrow morning.

We had a small selection of Belgian beers with us to try out – obtained from the Carrefour in some random town we passed through. Actually, in that same Carrefour they had a whole load of “Top Bike” branded bike accessories, AND a super swanky £250 Top Bike Bike. Not as good as my Top Bike obviously – and the majority of the accessories were about as much as we had paid for my bike – but interesting all the same.

Interesting as well – they had some nice city bikes – you know, the sit up and beg type that they ride round these parts through town? I really fancy one of those as my van bike – so if we do get one (Holland is our favourite bet for that), what to do with Top Bike? Give it away (would anyone want it?) just abandon it? Doesn't seem right some how.

Anyway. Belgian beer – yes, very interesting. We had one that was cherry pop flavour – literally – I hadn't noticed that it was actually only 1% abv so it was a bit like cherry flavoured Shandy Bass (do they still sell that?) and, actually, I liked it :).

Then another one that was 7.2% and was interesting, and then finally we had some Olvo – which Jon poured in the true European way to produce a foaming top worthy of a blog photo!

Also we played games this evening – first time out for the amazing 6-in-1 games 'kit' that I bought in Tesco for the bargain £2.99. OK, so it's a bit (a lot) rubbish – but it does the job, and it was very funny when I opened it up first time and realised how rubbish it is. But then, what was I expecting for 3 quid?

Anyway. Snakes and ladders first up and the first game Jon kicked my ass – and I mean big time. This picture was taken at the end of that game, there had been no sliding down snakes or anything – he just raced up the board and won before I even got off the starting blocks. Luckily though, I clawed it back and won 2-1. Woo.

He won at Ludo though :(

Our lives – I tell you, it's none stop really.

Trier (Germany) – Diekirch (Luxembourg)

2006-08-18T12:27:00.000Z

Today's Route

We followed our now tried and tested sightseeing routine – we got up, moved the van to some free parking (although it turned out we didn't pay for last night in the end anyway), utilised the McDonald's facilities – but avoided any bacon & egg McMuffins (a close call), unhitched the bikes and cycled into Trier town centre.

We were – it has to be said – expecting great things from Trier. Apparently the oldest city in Germany it was a big roman town (Capital of the Western Roman Empire no less) and is supposed to be pretty cool. Well, it was nice – but it wasn't all that :) It's that city snobbery thing again – too many lovely places have been visited, and it's impossible not to judge them all against each other in some way.

All the same, it was a nice place and we enjoyed a coffee & croissant breakfast, a stroll around, a trip into the Porta Nigra (a big Roman church/gate type affair), and then – resisting all further pastries and cakes – we bought some bread and went back to the van for a modest sandwich lunch. How virtuous we are.

Then it was time for a change of country – today we were mostly visiting Luxembourg – a totally unknown quantity.

We got over the (not very noticeable) border from Germany and stopped in a petrol station so that Jon could check the tyre pressures and I could get me an 'L' sticker for the table. We didn't realise until we drove off that the petrol station we had stopped in was the first of about 12 – all along that first stretch of road over the border. It was pretty obvious that the main reason was the price of petrol, some 30cents/litre cheaper than just over the border! Never really seen anything like that before though – very interesting.

You kind of think that all these places with virtually non-existent borders (in terms of no passport checks and, in many cases, no sign of there ever having been any) and histories of constant upheaval and changes in ownership would all be ver similar – so that you would hardly know that you had changed country at all. It just isn't the case.

Luxembourg is distinctly different from Germany – it would be difficult to say why – but it is. Trust me.

Anyway. We drove through a bit of Luxembourg the country to get to the capital city – Luxembourg City.

An interesting approach where the roads were very straight and tree lined, the buildings were all new and shiny – looked lovely. The city centre was quite different – very dramatic with 2 big wooded valleys running through it, and buildings perched on top of the hills on the sides. Very nice. We parked the van (eventually) and had a stroll about – leered at the amazing cakes in the amazing cake shop (but didn't buy any), enjoyed the scenery, took some photos, didn't go on the mini-train (€12 each!), etc.

Not amazing, but pleasant, not as boring as some might think, but maybe not as interesting as you might hope – if you see what I mean (at all?). We waited until we were back at the van for refreshments – a cup of tea and half a scheeball each – did the job a treat.

That done we were off to find a campsite – heading north through Luxembourg to Diekirch – famous for it's beer (served everywhere), via Aldi where Jon was despatched to buy dinner – coming back with pizza (requiring cooking) and tinned pineapple. Interesting. Still, this was going to be a chance to try our double skillet as an 'oven' – something that was one of it's selling points when I got it.

Anyhow, we reached Diekirch, found the campsite – and parked up in the slightly cheaper (€5) camping car spots which are actually outside the gates of the campsite itself, but have full facilities and are quite pleasant.

Had a great shower – much needed after what has felt like a hard day of touristing!

The pizza was a success – cooked in batches it was just like it had been cooked in the oven – better maybe because the base was extra crispy. Served with a load of salad, an almost virtuous meal.

At about 10pm I got a bit bored with reading my book and waiting for Jon to finish programming (working on holiday – dedicated?), especially as he had claimed he was only going to do it for 15 minutes – nearly 2 hours ago! So, after dragging him out of the laptop we went for a walk, finally locating downtown Diekirch and enjoying a small beer in the main square which was packed with other people enjoying Friday night fun. Lovely.

Heidelberg – Trier

2006-08-17T12:55:00.000Z

Today's Route

A good start to the day. We didn't have to check out until 2pm which meant that we could leave the van on site and cycle into Heidelberg for a look – avoiding the usual driving around for 2 hours, arguing like cat and dog, trying (and often failing) to find somewhere to park!

It was about 5 miles to town – a long way on Top Bike I can tell you – and then Jon decided he wanted to cycle up to the castle (what's wrong with walking like everyone else?), so that's what we did. Jon burned off on the blue bike, and I laboured away on Top Bike. I made it though – slowly but surely – buns of steel though if this carried on though I can tell you!

The castle was alright – although, it has to be said, that the we enjoyed the walk around the outside bits better (including the worst statue/fountain we have ever seen) than the 'main' paid for bit.

It's a really impressive looking place – lots of bits added on through the years – but most of it just isn't accessible to tourists. Which is quite disappointing. Still, were were there for an hour and the weather was good and it was nice. And then going back down the hill on Top Bike – also nice, although I don't really like going down hill (too scared) so I don't really get the return on investment that I made in going up!

Once at the bottom though we found the newer bit of town and the shops – tethered the bikes and went looking for food. We found this place – half fish shop, half fish fast food shop! Excellent idea, and really great place. We had a couple of lovely fishy sandwiches which were perfect and something a bit different from our usual ham & cheese combos!

A further stroll down the high street to admire the town square and the big church, and then – time for tea and cake. This is a tradition I have definitely grown to love – and it seems to be a pretty common theme across all the countries we have been to. The lovely waitress at the place we stopped at (sitting outside in the sun) was very patient with my hopeless german, but didn't speak to me in English – which was great. We had a massive piece of cake each and coffee and then we were stuffed. Mmmmmmm.

After that, time to collect the bikes and cycle back to the van – extra fast to try and burn off those cake calories.

We intended to drive from Heidelberg to Trier – or try and get as close as possible. This would leave us very close to Luxembourg (our next destination) and also, a chap in the next door van last night had told us about a cheap motorhome parking arrangement that sounded pretty good (excellent showers he told us), so that's what we were aiming for.

After about 5 minutes on the motorway Jon was bored of driving, so I took over and he sat in the passenger seat programming. This is not very interesting for me – although when I am co-pilot I mainly don't do anything – like reading or anything (I thought I would) – I just look out of the window, and point things out to Jon now and then. It's very relaxing. Still, Jon can't talk if he is programming, so I had to talk to myself for a bit, and play a game I used to do when I was a kid in Germany – guessing where the cars are from from their numberplates. I know, it's sad – but when needs must right?

So, time passed quite well, we were on the motorway and just 30km from Trier – but I didn't want to go just on the motorway, I wanted to cut off it and down to the Mosel valley road for a bit – so that we didn't miss out entirely on the scenic route. Naturally the map I had chosen the other day was woefully inadequate for the sort of small roads that I wanted to go on (the turn off couldn't be found) – and as Jon was in the navigator's chair, I got it in the neck. The upshot was stopping for petrol and buying a complete road atlas of Germany which did the job much better.

A run down a beautiful (but windy and narrow) little road lead us to the river, the grapevine lined valley sides and a nice wide road along the bottom. Very nice. It started to rain a bit though – which was a shame – but the sceneries were lovely, and after a while we just had to stop for a cup of tea and half a schneeball each to soak it up. Marvellous.

It wasn't far to Trier from there – and we did find (we think) the camping place that the chap was talking about – just as the heavens opened and a massive thunderstorm started up. Of course I was desperate for the loo – so sprinted off through the rain to the next door campsite where we were supposed to be able to use the facilities (according to the bloke from next door that was). You clearly needed a key to get into the facilities, and I didn't have one – and it was raining, hard, and I REALLY needed to get in – like right now. Luckily, just as I was contemplating the nearest bush – someone came out of the toilets, so I snuck in through the opened door! Lucky.

Back at the van: we were parked up, plugged into the electric and waiting for the rain to stop so we could try and figure out what the score was. When it did I went out to look at the sign. Very confusing - €5 / night + €2 / night electric + €6/night/person for toilet key + €10 deposit per key........... it all looked a bit much really. Jon went out to check the situation in the campsite next door. No-one on reception. We didn't know what else to do – about paying or anything, so we did nothing. What else can you do?

Alive!

2006-08-16T14:24:00.000Z

Hello, we are still alive - just been busy (Tom & Tish visiting), without internet and generally time just seems to be passing by!

I have updated 5 days (I think) and still have 2 to go! Where has the last week gone?

Difficult to believe that we only have just over 2 weeks left until we have to be home - it's been quite a journey so far!

Still, so far all is good - we are in Germany, the van seems to be OK, although we have both noticed a few odd noises creeping in - we are hopeful that we will make it home without any major mishaps.

The weather continues to be a bit disappointing, but not as bad as it has been - although it is largely grey, the rain is mostly holding off.

So, all in all - it's great!

Hope you enjoy reading the blog updates - keep those comments coming :)

x

Rothenburg – Heidelberg

2006-08-16T11:28:00.000Z

Today's Route

In order to justify the Schneeball purchases Jon made me go running. Can you believe it? 5 weeks on holiday and suddenly it is Jon that is insisting on the running and not me. Things are bad :( I didn't really want to go – it was raining and I just don't like running in the morning anyway – usually too hungry and too creaky. Still, I did go, of course I did – and it was great. We ran around the outside of the walls that we had walked on yesterday – about 30 minutes – including some killer hills and a bit of fartlek at the end. As always, was glad to have done it once it was over :)

We bought Schneeballs before we went back tot he van – 2 each – but saved them till later......

After drying off (it was raining remember?) we headed out of town – next stop Heidelberg. We started our journey on the famous “Romantische Strasse” - a road that runs through Bavaria taking in some of the most lovely of it's scenery and towns (apparently). The bit we went on was indeed very lovely – and we enjoyed looking at the sceneries very much (thankyou).

Nothing much else happened on the road – we tried desperately to find some internet at some of the larger towns we passed through, without any success – and then, as were at some lights in some totally random place, I struck gold – and we parked up for a cup of tea, half a Scheeball each and some blog updating! Brilliant.

And the Schneeballs? Well, they are basically evil – pastry bits, stuck together with a 'filling' (mine was (apparently) champagne truffle, Jon's marzipan) deep fried and then covered in sugar or chocolate or nuts or...........well, maybe you get the idea. Interesting. Maybe a little disappointing – not quite what we expected - but pleasant and very filling!

After about an hour and a half I finallly had the blog up to date and Jon (who had been sitting on a bench in the sunshine (I know – sunshine, we couldn't believe it either) reading his book) was still not dead from boredom – we pressed on for Heidelberg.

We got there at about 7pm and after the ritual arsing about trying to find the campsite, driving past it, going round again, etc – we were in and settled. As we had been running this morning and not showered as were in a car park rather than a campsite – getting clean was priority #1. I wish I had taken a photo of the shower set up – I meant to – but then I suppose that may have looked a bit odd! They were odd though, really, really odd. I mean – we have been all over, and these were by far the worst showers of anywhere. It wasn't the actual shower that was the problem – it was the curtains, or lack of them. I can't describe it – but lets just say, I was glad I was the only person in there!

So. We were clean, it was sunny, we were on a campsite and parked up by the river Neckar, watching the canal barges and the hot air balloon – and things were good. Dinner was good, the last of our Staropramen was good, doing 2 loads of washing and drying for €5 was great, all great. Great.

Also great is our next bit of plan – we have Helen & Andrew coming to meet us in Amsterdam next Thursday, which is great, but also we are now going to meet Jon's parents, my lovely in-laws – Helen & Tone – who will be just starting their next big campervan tour - in Maastricht next Monday night! Brilliant. It's all working out so well :)

Tomorrow – Heidelberg.

Nuremberg – Rothenburg ob der Tauber

2006-08-15T11:08:00.000Z

Today's Route

This morning we left the campsite (passing the fascinating looking "Cowboys and Indians Club") and went to the Kongresshalle – the uncompleted building commissioned by Hitler to be part of the complex where his massive rallies of power were held.

A fascinating place to visit, although not really for the building itself (had it been finished it would have been amazing, but to be honest, the best view of it is from outside where it is incredibly imposing and just gigantic) but for the tour that takes you through the history of how the Third Reich came about and what happened before, during and after the war.

Really interesting - and pretty chilling as well - it's done as an audio tour, with lots of videos of survivors and participants in the war and lots of exhibits and the like , and you do get to see inside the Kongresshalle – which is interesting. More interesting is that the current building is 39m high – it was planned to be another 30m higher! I don't think the photos do it justice either – it is very, very large!

We were there for about 3 hours anyway – well worth €5 each, and a big recommendation for a trip if you are passing.

After that – with plenty of food for thought and lots to discuss – we set off for a campsite we found in the book – somewhere near Rothenburg – apparently a big tourist attraction. We ended up in Rothenburg (that wasn't actually part of the plan) and discovered a motorhome car park where we could stay for the night for a bargain €6 – so we did that – us and about 30 other vans, although ours really stood out as not being one of the 'standard' white motorhomes! We were dwarfed for sure.

The big bonus was that we were really close to town – and we were saving money – which meant that we could cycle into the town centre, have a stroll and – with the money we were 'saving' from not staying on a campsite, we could eat out :) What a bonus.

The town was lovely – really nice.

We cycled around a bit and then ditched the bikes and went on the walk around the city walls.

Apparently there are 24 towers around the walls – the oldest being from the early 14^th century, the rest from a bit later on I suppose. Still, there were all different and all lovely – and the views from some of the locations, especially the gardens of the oldest tower were spectacular and suprising – deep wooded valleys!

We hadn't noticed that coming in from the other side of town, there it had been quite flat! Well worth a stroll though.

After that we had worked up quite an appetite – well, Jon had, and he gets quite grumpy when he gets hungry, so action was required. We ended up in a chinese restaurant (when in Rome... ha ha) and that was just perfect :)

On our final stroll – back to collect the bikes – we noticed a number of shops selling what we assumed must be the local speciality – Schneeballen, definitely a sweet thing, but what and how we weren't sure. Certainly there was a wide variety – and definitely some were coming our way.

Tomorrow!

Bamberg – Nurembourg

2006-08-14T23:06:00.000Z

Today's Route

Jon was up at 8am this morning (unprecendented) and out on his bike to town to get some Euros and breakfast. He did well – he came back with the money, croissants and raisin bread for 4 and an idea of where we could park the van in town! Marvellous.

We had to take a trip into Bamburg. The Rough Guide reckons it to be one of the most beautiful towns in the world!! How can you not go and see that? And how can it possibly live up to that sort of build up?

We walked through the newish bit of town and out towards the older bit – with the impressive looking houses, an amazing bridge and all manner of churches and that sort of thing.

It was really very attractive looking place, although I think that Ceske Krumlov was nicer looking – well, if it hadn't been for the tourists it would have been. I was out voted though – the other 3 reckoned it was up there in the most lovely looking towns in the world that they had visited, so who was I to argue?

Certainly it's worth a visit if you happen to be passing.

The other thing that was mentioned about the town in the guide book was one of it's beers. Like a lot of the surrounding areas, Bamburg is a brewing town (as well as other things) and produces a particular ale called Rauchbeir – basically, smoked beer! It certainly was an interesting tasting brew – Jon liked it though, I was back on afternoon driving duties :)

The afternoon saw us mainly just driving down the motorway to Nuremburg airport. Did you even know there was an airport there? No, me neither – but there is, and we found it – despite the torrential rain - and safely deposited Tom & Tish there for their flight home. It was nice to see them – thanks for coming guys – and big thanks to Tish for not only bringing me the requested copy of Heat magazine, but also OK and Grazia! Fab. She can come again :)

After that we headed into Nuremberg itself – looking out for a campsite that was in the book and sounded quite nice. After a bit of messing about we did find the site – and it is nice, owned by Knaus which is interesting (they make caravans) but in the woods, very close to the main sites of interest in Nuremberg which are the buildings and general location of the massive Nazi rallies. Once we had set up the van we hopped on our bikes for a scout around.

At the end of the massive road where we had turned off for the campsite was the incredible Congresshall, which we plan to visit tomorrow, and then around the lake from there was the Zepplin Field and incredible 'stage' where Hitler used to stand and give his speeches at these huge rallies.

Jon took a picture of me on the plinth – you can only just about make me out – that's how big this place was! Incredible.

After that, checking out the lie of the land (great place, fantastic cycle/walking paths chock full of walkers and roller bladers and cyclists) when we got back to the van I decided to go for a 30 minute run to try and perk myself up a bit. The last 4 days of visitors & lots of beer seem to have taken their toll!

The run worked!

After that though – an early night. Lovely.

Frantiskovy Lazne (CZ – Bamburg (Germany)

2006-08-13T23:54:00.000Z

We had coffee and bread buns for breakfast – and it was perfect. Well, nearly perfect. Unfortunately it was too cold for a swim in the lake – that would have made it perfect!

We were out of the site by 11am and on our way into town. We could see from the small town plan that we had that the town of Frantiskovy Lazne had something that appeared to be spas marked on it, but we weren't really sure what it was going to be. We soon discovered that each one of the symbols was where there was an outlet for the spa water – must have been about 10 of them around the town.

We tried about 5 of the waters (you could just help youself, it was just pouring out of a spout in most cases) and it was interesting how they all tasted slightly different, despite being so close together – you kind of thought that actually they were all from the same place, but maybe not! Mostly it was all cold and slightly fizzy - not particularly pleasant or unpleasant - just interesting!

That was fun though – although no miracles happened after just a couple of mouthfuls. There were loads of people filling water bottles and things though – obviously believers!

Funny town though – the only way we could describe it was that it just looked perfect – and that made it look really strange. Having seen a fair bit of CZ before, and seeing that it generally looked a bit run down – or at least a mixture of new and run down – this town was all nicely painted and neat and pretty and – well – perfect. Very odd. Certainly the photo doesn't do it justice.

Anyway, after lunch we went into the swimming baths in town. We weren't sure whether there was any spa water involved – the building had a spa water tap in their foyer, but other than that we weren't convinced – largely because the tell tale sulphur smell was missing (thankfully). It was fun though. There were a couple of slides, an outdoor pool (a bit chilly for that) and a bunch of indoor stuff – a pool, jacuzzis, a 'cave', etc. All good fun and a really nice way to spend an hour or so.

We were well chilled out when we came out of there, and more so after enjoying the local custom of coffee and cake before we headed out of Czech Republic and on to Germany.

Our border crossing was interesting. We got pulled over and a big german police man with a moustache asked us how many cigarettes we were carrying (none) and then got us to open up most of our cupboards and the glove box so that he could have a look inside. Not sure what that achieved really because if we were smuggling cigarettes there were plenty of places that he didn't look that they could have gone. We decided that he was just checking us out – and thankfully we passed and were on our way!

A new country.

Funny for me – I was born in Germany when my dad was stationed out there – and spent about 8 years living there in total between the ages of 0 and 13, but I haven't been back since we left – so it is all very familiar and yet unfamiliar – if you see what I mean? Totally recognisable though – nowhere, I think, is quite like Germany.

We ended up driving quite a way – I really fancied stopping in Bamburg, as it had a really good write up in the book, and it left us with only 60km to Nuremburg airport for Tom & Tish tomorrow. We made it though – and finally tracked down the campsite by 7:30pm! We got pitched up, had a beer and then went in search of food. They had a restaurant on the site, but there was only one problem – they didn't take cards and we were all out of Euros! Hopeless.

So we walked to the nearest village, found a bar/restaurant, ascertained that they took Visa, managed to get the guy to persuade his chef to stay on (they had just finished) to make us all a schnitzel and chips, and we were in. It was fab too. Massive schnitzel (breaded pork) and loads of chips and – the healthy option – a side salad :) Plus, beer and everything. We were stuffed and happy when we left there for the stroll back to the site! A good ending to a nice day.

Prague – Frantiskovy Lazne

2006-08-12T23:45:00.000Z

We were up and out by 11am and on our way to Pilzn – famous for Pilsner beer, apparently the best beer in the world! Quite a claim, and one we definitely had to check out.

First things first – we needed food and beer – so we did what any normal people do, we stopped at Tesco! OK, so the second time round wasn't quite as exciting (for us) as it was the other day – but it is still a bit of a novelty. Didn't notice the carp tank this time.

We stocked up on food and a crate of beers – 20 x 0.5l bottles of Staropramen, including the crate and bottle deposit came to around £4.50!! Bonza!

We ate our breakfast in the car park – sausage croissants (the food just gets more and more evil!) and off we went.

Plzen came just over an hour down the motorway – and we saw the brewery on our way into town. I volunteered to drive after lunch so that Jon could enjoy the local brew. It was alright (I had a little taste – zero alcohol allowed when driving in CZ though, so it was only a small taste) but to be honest, I preferred the Budvar in the last beer town we visited!

We were in the beer cellar at the brewery – a marvellous place that you can imagine rammed full of people on a Saturday night, all enjoy the local lager (~50p a pint still) and having a jolly time! We ate in there as well – a mixed bag of stuff including Tom having half a duck, and me with my goulash in a bread bowl thing. Mmmm. Fab.

After that we had a walk into the town, to see what was there. The old town centre is pretty much all that is left of the historic part of the town – mostly due to bombings during the war. It's nice though – and continues the trends that we have seen of big market squares, extravagant churches, fantastically painted buildings with slightly “Wild Western” style frontages. It was a little bit odd though in that there seemed to be a heavy rock band warming up on a stage in the market square, and a wedding going on in the church in the middle of the square – someone from the wedding party actually went and asked the band to turn it down a bit – so that they could hear themselves exchanging vows I suppose.

We did fork over 30 Kc each to go up the church tower – and, although it was a big climb up some really obnoxious steps – the view was worth it. Also they had some information on the church on the way up – all about how the tower had suffered many great fires, mostly due to being struck by lightening, with the worst being in the 1865 though , where the tower was struck by lightening twice in the same night and the bells ended up a melted mass on the ground floor! A sorry tale if ever you heard one.

After that it was back to the van and on our way. Originally we had thought we would stay the night in Plzen, but there really wasn't that much to see other than what we already had, so we decided to push on to somewhere a bit more lovely.

We ended up doing quite a hike – through the rain (the weather really hasn't improved, it's cold and wet mostly) ending up in a campsite near one of the spa towns - Frantiskovy Lazne. The site is quite interesting. It has it's own swimming lake and is really very attractive – set in the woods, there are fire pits available and wood around the outside of the site that you can help yourself to and (if you came prepared) chop to burn. The site was in the camping book – which claimed that it had 3 toilet blocks – 2 old and one refurbished. Well, we searched for the refurbished one but didn't find it – so had to manage with the old cabins, complete with spiders and unusual toilet doors – with windows in, like my Nan's old front room doors (although most of you won't have any idea what they were like of course!).

Anyway, it was mostly fine.

We had a bit of a fire – Tish bartered a bottle of beer for a lend of next door's axe, and Jon massacred a lump of wood so that he could get things going – which he did very successfully. The crate of beer we had bought earlier was going down pretty well, and we made dinner – rather than eating out.

We had just finished eating when it started to rain – we had done pretty well really – so we moved inside for some cards and more beer. First time we had had 4 people in the van and it was pretty entertaining. 3 isn't so bad – 2 on the bench seat and one on the captains chair – but to provide the additional seat we had to use a deck chair over the top of the potty!! Pretty cool that it fit so well over the potty, but not the greatest solution! Plus, with the table up and the four of us round it – it was pretty cosy!

Prague

2006-08-11T23:27:00.000Z

Up early and out for a run I was – off down the river along the lovely cycling path away from Prague. We were deliberately (and very impressively I think) avoiding seeing anything Praguish until Tom & Tish arrived – didn't want to spoil it.

Anyway, a 40 minute run left me tired – and my bruised toe was a bit sore – but it was done, and I felt pretty good about it! Also, the slightly dodgy looking showers turned out to be amazing – like one of those drenching shower things that you get at posh gyms – just that the surroundings were a bit less salubrious!

By 10:45 we were off and on our way to the airport – Tom had said that he was on the 11am flight. We got to the airport and looked on the arrivals board (terminal 1) – no flights at 11am from the UK. Hmm. We reasoned that probably he meant the 10:30am flight – so they would be out by 11am. So we hung around for AGES – but all the flights had been delayed, so we weren't surprised that they were late. But then – my phone went. It was Tom - “I'm at the airport, where are you.....etc”. Slight moment of panic that he was at another airport – but in reality he was in Terminal 2, of course they had flown via Amsterdam – just that Tom hadn't told me that. Grrrr. Anyway, it was all sorted and we picked them up and we were on our way.

The campsite marked on the map and recommended in the camping book was really close to the airport and looked really nice – and in fact we could see campervans in the distance, but we really couldn't find our way to it. We drove up and down this dual carriageway trying to see how it worked – and totally failed – and we had just given up when – BINGO – we found it! Always the way. Anyway, luckily the site was worth it – nice, peaceful, near a lake and a park and a short walk from the main road and the trams into town.

Tom and Tish got their (brand new) tent up in a good time and we were on our way into Prague.

We fare dodged on the tram (again, nor our fault – no obvious way of buying tickets) and got off near the middle somewhere with the idea that we needed to eat before anything else.

We strolled into the first restaurant we came across – which was, naturally, the most expensive restaurant in the world. We had already ordered a beer before we looked at the menu – the foie gras and other assorted delicacies and associated price tag had us handing the menus back double quick – and only staying to finish our beers!

Across the road we found something more like a pub and had really good meals and beers for a lot less money!

2 pints in and we were off on the sightseeing trail.

We saw the main square, we stopped to see the 'amazing' clockworkings as the church clock struck the hour (actually, they were rubbish), had coffee and cake, strolled across the famous bridge, saw a humourous tableau of two chaps weeing in a pond (photo) and then up to the castle for a wander around,

a picture with one of their guards (poor chap) .

It was all very nice.

Eventually we stopped and had a beer, and then another beer, and then we had pizza – and more beer :)

After that we got a taxi back to the van (a £6 extravagance) and our travel weary chums went off to bed – as did we – ready for more adventures tomorrow.

Ceske Budejovice – Prague

2006-08-10T23:22:00.000Z

This morning's most remarkable thing was a trip to Tesco! We couldn't resist really – it seemed so odd seeing something so familiar in such an unfamiliar setting. It was just like at home as well – well, apart from the language thing obviously.

We bought 2 new outside chairs and some beer – I nearly bought a hairdryer (all the bathrooms of the campsites have plugs in them, and my hair would really, really love to be dried properly I think – might look a bit less 'free style' that way) but I do already own a small hairdryer – I just didn't think it was worth bringing it away with me. Next time. Jon was thinking about buying some hair clippers as his hair needed cutting – but they were really pricey, so he went and got a hair cut instead – at the in Tesco hair dresser! A much cheaper option.

The beer though – great stuff 7Kr a 0.5l bottle – less than 20p, and that's for a bottle of Staropramen – one of the most expensive beers you can buy on draft at home. Makes you think really. Well, makes me think – mostly “fill the van with crates of it” :) Stuck to 2 bottles. Restraint being my middle name and all!

Also in Tesco was the fresh carp stand – a bit like the fish counter at Tesco at home (infact mostly it was like that) but also including a tank of live carp so that you could select your catch for dinner. Interesting idea. And yes, I was playing the tourist this morning – taking photos in Tesco – whatever next?

Had a text from Tom this morning as well about this thing with the flights – looks like they might be late arriving tomorrow - which will be a shame. Still, no point worrying about these things until they happen.

So, finished in Tesco we headed out of town – only to be flagged down by a policeman about 5 minutes down the road. Nothing terrible though – we just didn't have our lights on – something that is compulsory in CZ as of 1 July this year. We remedied that and were waved off on our way.

30km up the road we stopped for lunch – pulled off the main road to a parking place by a lake that I had spotted on the map. It was lovely. The most amazing thing though was that, in the lake right in front of where we were parked, there were zillions of fish. To start with Jon though they were reeds just poking up through the surface – but once they started leaping out of the water it was pretty obvious that they were fish! It was incredible, there were so many of them.

Lunch over we went a bit further up the road to check out another lake – lovely – not really a swimming lake (a bit murky looking for that) but chock full of butterflies flitting about and frogs leaping out of your way – 'mazing – nature :)

Anyway, eventually we made it to Prague – and straight into the campsite recommended in the Rough Guide – apparently the “oldest and nicest” campsite in Prague. You know what I'm going to say next right? If this is the nicest campsite, what must the others be like? It's not so bad, I mean it's by the river and all – but it's also got a mighty fine view of the motorway on the other side of the river, and the shower block is a bit – well – shall we say “authentic”. Still, it was easy to find, we have a river side pitch and that's it.

So, we had some dinner and then headed out for a walk along the river, stopping at the far point for a beer at a random bar. We ended up staying for a second (ridiculously cheap) beer because it had started raining and we were waiting for it to pass :) Excuses eh? We did go home eventually though.

Linz (Austria) – Ceske Budejovice(Czech Republic)

2006-08-09T23:55:00.000Z

We had a plan in advance today – well, the startings of one anyway. Off to the ARS Electronica Museum in Linz this morning, and then off to CZ after that.

It all started well – the first peek out of the van showed that the sun was shining and the sky was blue, and it was warm inside the van – which was also promising. We got packed up and headed into Linz – getting a bit lost on the way (nothing new there then) we did find the car park we had been in yesterday – which happened to be right next to the museum – another good sign.

The museum was good fun – and only half price to get in. The best thing they had was a kind of artificial, electronic world that you could interact with. One very cool thing was these cubes that you used with a videoing thing (difficult to explain) which you then put on the world and you were then electronically inserted into it. So there we were – me & Jon – dancing around on this world, with all manner of other things, including computer generated 'people' and also plasticine models that you could have scanned in (picture of our snake/apple creation attached). Of course the only reason we figured out what to do (well, I say figured out) was because this little Austrian kid – speaking sickeningly perfect English – took pity on us and showed us what to do! Good job we're not embarrassed easily.

So that was good fun.

Also there was free wi-fi in the cafe – so I got some good blogging updates done – and there were laptops with internet available elsewhere in the building, so Jon had something to amuse him while I did that!

Great.

And it was still sunny when we left the building.

So, we headed out of Linz and off to Czech Republic – stopping at a supermarket for lunch supplies on the way. That was a bit embarrassing – I got to the check out (Jon had gone in search of a pharmacy for some contact lense solution) only to find that they only took Maestro cards – which meant that my credit card was not good, and my 'new' switch card (which is now visa) wouldn't work either. Hm. So, with a bit of hopeless German and a bit of arm waving the lady took my shopping back and told me where to find a cash point. Of course I couldn't find the cash point, and Jon still wasn't back, so I stood around like a lemon waiting for him. When he finally turned up we managed to cobble together the €22 that I needed and retrieved the food!

Lunch in the car park over (we get all the best locations) we headed back on our way, passing through endless pretty towns and over rolling hills covered with crops and pine trees – very nice.

The border appeared pretty suddenly – as these things do – seemingly across the middle of a town. We passed through one side and thought we were home free – in front of us was what looked like a derelict building with a raised barrier on it and Jon was accelerating away when I suddenly noticed the “Stop” and “Polizei” signs on the building and the man sat in the window. I shouted “STOP” as Jon flew past the window at about 40mph, which he did (although he did ask “why?”). And we backed up to the window. Of course I was left to do the sheepish looking as I handed the passports over, and the bloke looked VERY unimpressed and took ages typing things into his computer and looking at me sternly. Still, we got through eventually – and it could have been worse – we could have been shot at! :)

So. The Czech Republic (must stop calling it Czechoslovakia) – immediately different from where we were in Austria. Definitely a poorer looking country, but still very lovely sceneries.

The most interesting scenery in the first few miles after the border were the prostitutes – wasn't really expecting that – but there they were, at each of maybe 15 road junctions on this main road into the country was one prostitute selling their wares! Just like where I used to live in Nottingham really :)

Our first port of call in CZ was Cesky Krumlov – a famously attractive town that apparently hasn't changed all that much in the last 300 years or so. First impressions were good – only marred by my smacking my toe on a massive rock on the walk into town. Jon was typically sympathetic, even when I showed evidence of blood spilling from the top of the nail – hopeless really. It was only later when my toe turned black that I got anything like a bit of sympathy.

Anyway, I limped on – bravely – and we had a good walk around the town. The most interesting thing is that all the houses look amazing, but the decoration of them (the bricks and things) are all painted on! How unusual is that? Very interesting looking place though – but totally touristy, all the shops and bars and everything – all for tourists – not a bank or grocers or anything in that part of town, so pretty, but not very realistic – if you see what I mean.

Anyway, that done we got back to the van and made a plan – heading to Ceske Budejovice – the place where they make Budvar (or the original Budweiser) beer, camping, maybe going out for dinner and a couple of cheeky pints (well it seemed rude not to).

We got to the campsite after a bit of a drive around the town and eventually a stop to buy a map – we had no chance otherwise. The site is – well – interesting. Cheap, you have to say that - £9 for the night, but a little bit basic I think is how you would describe it. Also, I was a bit peturbed to see this sign – not something you would think that a campsite would advertise really! Still, it was fine – we had electricity, the toilet block was clean and the showers hot and free. No problem.

We took the bikes and headed into town. The old Top Bike is a real treat on the cobbled streets I can tell you (painful). We locked them up in the market square (the bikes that is) which is apparently one of the largest in Europe. Certainly a nice looking place – more of the crazy painted buildings, definitely large – plenty of bars and things around the edge, lovely. We were headed for the most famous place to eat and drink in the town – as listed in both the Rough Guide and the map that we bought earlier. We did find it. Looked like it had been closed for years!!

So, we ended up in the “Original Budvar Bar” which was great. We liked it in there. We had a couple of pints of Budvar, Jon ordered what we thought was sausage but turned out to be a roasted leg of pork and I had the barman's recommendation of steak in Pilsner sauce – which was lovely. The best bit though – the bill. I know that CZ is supposed to be cheap – but I didn't really believe it. Beer really is 50p a pint, and 2 huge meals with 2 beers each was a measly £12 in total! Bonza.

We stopped in on another hostelry before going home – just to get the full experience you understand – and it wasn't so good in terms of service – they seemed in a bit of a hurry to get us out of there (?), but the beer was still excellent and cheap – so no real complaints here.

After a bit of photography messing about in the square, there was a quick cycle home and that was our day done.

It was a good one today :)

Vienna - Linz

2006-08-08T23:50:00.000Z

Today's Route

It rained all night last night, and the awning blew itself against the van and was tap tapping against it all night. When eventually I could take it no more and got up to see what it was (I thought it was the table that was also propped against the van) when I opened the van door I got a face full of awning fabric – which was a bit of an unpleasant suprise. Of course then I couldn't shut the door again because the awning was right there – so I had to go outside (it was about 3am) to sort it out. Grr.

Also, Jon was having trouble sleeping because there was a loud dripping in his corner of the van – so he decided to try sleeping upside down (that is with his feet at the head end, rather than on his hands or anything) which was a bit disruptive. So all in all – it wasn't a good night and we got out of bed a bit tired and a bit grouchy this morning. Hmm.

On the up though, at 9am when I first ventured out, it wasn't raining! In fact, I thought I saw a bit of sunshine, and people were emerging hopefully from their vans – squinting at the sky.

Unfortunately, by the time we had been to the supermarket to get breakfast and put the coffee on, but before we had taken the – now dry – awning down, it started to rain again! It's just not funny any more.

12pm check out and we were on the road again – today we were intending to get to the Czech Republic. Our original plan was to go to Bratislava in Slovakia – about 30km east of Vienna, but given the weather and our feelings on city visits from yesterday, we decided not to bother. We will be travelling another 100miles or so today – surely we can get away from the rain?? Unless it's following us............... (but I can see blue sky ahead - go that way!!!)

Turned out we ended the day in Linz - not far from the Czech border. We didn't get here until about 4pm (it was a big travelling day at 130 miles), and then spent an hour in a car park having lunch and updating the blog. We decided to stay in the city as there is a technology museum that (predictably) isn't open on Tuesdays that we would like to visit, and it's late.

The campsite in Linz is actually about 10km outside it - near a lake (which is nice) but also near the motorway (which isn't so nice) but the site is cheap (€18 ) and reasonably pleasant despite it's main road vista!

Once we were pitched up on our VERY boggy pitch, we went for a run round the lake. It was really nice as it goes - a paved path round the lake was marked in half KM's to give a total of 3.46km round - so we went round twice. It was hard work - but we definately need it. Less beer for a couple of days I think!!

Actually, I say a couple of days - but today's news is that Tom & Tish are coming out to visit on Friday morning. They are joining us for Prague - Nuremburg, flying home Monday evening - so I think we definately need a couple of dry days before they arrive!!

Should be fun though - looking forward to it!

Vienna

2006-08-07T23:30:00.000Z

Jon nipped over to the supermarket first thing and picked up a couple of croissants and a couple of tubs of fresh fruit salad for our breakfasts. This is the kind of compromise I like – the evil of the croissants clearly balanced up by the healthiness of the fruit :) Perfect.

Vienna today then.

Oh, and it was raining.

We hopped on a bus from just outside the campsite and didn't buy a ticket. We didn't know how to, and nobody seemed bothered, so we just sat quietly and hoped there wouldn't be any inspectors about.

The bus stopped somewhere near the town centre and everyone got off – so we did too. We were at a metro station, so we went down into it and bought a 24 hour travel card thingy - €5 each, which isn't bad – and then we were legit, and not fare dodgers. We caught the metro to St Stephansplatz – the place where it is all happening (apparently). So there's a church there and a square and some shops. And it was raining.

So we walked down the shopping street, and we were already fed up with the rain (did I mention that it was raining?) – so we stopped for coffee.

There's only so long you can drag that out for though (no matter how attractively presented the drinks are), especially when all the newspapers are in German and, although you can guess at what they are saying, it gets a bit wearing after a while – so we had to go back out in the rain.

We walked about a bit more and then it was time to stop for lunch. We stopped at this place, it looked alright – and it was – although we had got a bit confused and thought the menu was all about sausages (I think it was the "Weiner" thing that got us - although obviously (well, you know - with hindsight it's obvious) that refers to Vienna (Wien in German)) but actually it was all about chicken. Luckily the chap brought us menu translations before we ordered – so we didn't get a suprise when our food arrived!!

I had been telling Jon the day before how I remember from living in Germany when I was a kid that there seemed to be a lot of half chicken & chips on the menus – and that's what we got today. Lovely. :)

Then it was back out into the rain.

We did our best – we walked around the Hofbrunner a bit, admired the old buildings, etc – but the rain was just miserable, and really we decided that there wasn't all that much that made Vienna special. It was nice, but nothing amazing – and not so different from, say, London. But really it was the rain. It didn't stop all day.

Inevitably (predictably?) we ended up in a pub.

There was some confusion – Austrian / Australian (not really) but at least we bought Austrian beer and not Fosters!! It was a nice place, and Jon managed to get the Australian barmaid to lend us the staff pack of cards so we could have a game of cribbage (the Silver Lining challenge) which I won – 2-1.

3 x 0.5litres of beer later we were a little confused, and still a bit damp (jeans take forever to dry out don't they?) and back out in the rain looking for somewhere to eat.

We got a tube to another tube station and came above ground to see what there was – nothing (but rain), so back into the tube and back to the place where we had got off the bus in the morning.

A bit of a walk and we found a nice sushi place (I know, real Austrian experience today), where they made your stuff to order, it was quite cheap, reasonably healthy and it was dry :)

A walk back up to the bus stop - buying a German copy of Runner's World on the way (well, I couldn't resist it could I?), caught the right bus back to the campsite and got off in the right place and everything (are we learning?) and back into the van – which was still standing (as was the awning amazingly) despite being surrounded by a small moat by now :( Stupid rain.

We did arse around a bit taking a couple of photos for the blog (beer is so bad for you isn't it?), and we had a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits, but mainly it was just bed time – miserable weather (I bet you are hoping it stops raining soon aren't you? So I'll stop moaning on about the rain? He he :) ).

Shame about Vienna though – although we have decided not to concentrate on stopping at cities any more. The only places we are definitely going are Prague and Amsterdam. Prague is supposed to be great – everyone says so – and Amsterdam is supposed to be cool also, and that's where we are meeting up with Helen & Andrew when they come over. Otherwise, although the Rough Guide mainly concentrates on cities – so I suppose that's why we have too – unless you are into churches and old buildings, or you are there for a reason – Opera, ballet, beer, whatever - there usually isn't much worth bothering about in most places.

We are more of the lakes/mountains/countryside types – so at least we have got that straightened out!

Graz - Vienna

2006-08-06T23:23:00.000Z

Today's Route

I finally went for a run this morning – 40 minutes including 2 trips up the hill to Schloss St Peter – it was very, very hard work. It's like I forgot how to run – not funny at all :( Still, I did do it – and saw about 20 other runners on my way around – only managed to get a smile or a “Morgan” out of 4 of them though although I did try with all of them! Maybe runners in Austria just aren't sociable (a bit like round Camberley to be honest) or maybe it was the pain of the hill that did it?

Anyway, I got back to the van and Jon was still in bed – but he got up on my return and went to the pool for a swim - just him and the ducks! I was tempted (I mean, how often do you get the chance to have the largest outdoor pool in Europe to yourself?) but I felt a bit cold after my run so I opted for a hot shower instead. I did make Jon a cup of hot coffee though (in our new expresso 'maker' and take it pool side :) The lap of luxury!

We checked out at 12pm and grabbed a couple of pastries and some fuel from a petrol station (EVERYTHING else is closed on a Sunday – just like the olden days in the UK!) and headed off to Vienna. It was quite a trek – 180km – and nothing much happened on the way. No kamakaze lorries, no run away caravans, nothing – not even any traffic jams. We stopped half way in a parking place for some beans & sausage on toast, and then pushed on.

We got to Vienna at about 3:30pm – found the campsite first time (only 1 U-turn required – a daily record we believe) and set up our pitch – in the sunshine!! Ooooo, it was nice to see some sun – it's been days and days since the last sun – maybe even as far back as Italy? Can that really be true? I think it might be you know. My tan...................... :(

Anyway, the sun meant that I could put all the clothes that hadn't finished drying this morning back out to dry (even on holiday there are chores to be done you know!), and we put the awning up (although we couldn't get the pegs in the stoney ground so we had to use the water containers to hold it down instead) and it was all looking good.

We were just deciding what to do – we had never arrived anywhere so early before – and what do you know? It started to rain. Bah. We decided to just hang around then – previous ideas of 'doing' Vienna that afternoon were postponed hoping for sunnier weather tomorrow.

We did venture out on our bikes in search of food and found a pizza takeaway – so we had pizza and beer back in the van, then a couple of games of cards (Jon won the long awaited deciding game in the Lakes Plate challenge) and a game of “Wordrop” a game that Helen & Andrew had bought for the van. As you might see in this photo – Jon found the game stimulating! OK, he didn't. Sorry guys, but it just went on too long and we lost the will to live about half way through. We did finish it though – despite Jon almost begging me to concede (he never would, obviously) I refused – so we pushed on to the bitter end. Jon won, and Wordrop has gone back in the cupboard :)

Villach - Graz

2006-08-05T23:06:00.000Z

Today's Route

We were really late up this morning – 11am!! Shocker. But then we were late to bed after our meal out, and ..... no excuses really – just extra lazy.

We had all good intentions of running or cycling this morning, but both felt a bit less keen when it actually came to it, so instead we had coffee & croissants sat by the lake, and then decided that we had to have a swim, which we did.

The lake is lovely – really still, really clear and really, really invigorating (some might call it COLD). Brrrrrr. Had to be done – but was a real surprise after the relative heat of the Italian lakes – there was definitely no hanging about here, we swam over to the island, had a bit of a rest and then swam straight back to get warm and dry.

Then it was on the road again – destination Vienna.

For some reason we thought we had seen signs to Vienna telling us it was 180km from Villach, so imagine our surprise when the first sign we saw said it was 310km!! Not much chance of us making that today! Graz (Austria's second city) was our revised destination. Even that started to look a bit unlikely though when we came to a complete stop on the motorway – lots of people were out of their cars – which is never a good sign!

Eventually we got through the jam – turned out that there were traffic lights just before a small tunnel – and they were changing to red to stop people for some reason. All seemed a bit odd – being that we were on the motorway and all – but I'm sure there was a jolly good reason for it. Even once we got through the tunnel in question the traffic was pretty slow for about 10 miles because of road works – we wondered whether the lights on the tunnel were so that people didn't end up stationery inside it, maybe?

Anyway, we eventually reached Graz and on the way into town stopped at a supermarket, and then another one, and then.......well, can you believe that all shops shut at about 5:30pm on a Saturday? And don't open at all on Sunday? We are going to be going hungry this weekend!!

Graz seems nice, but there was a distinct lack of campsites. With a flash of brilliance I consulted the camp site book we have – which has been of minimal use so far – and it came up trumps – a campsite 6k out of Graz itself, and right next to Europe's largest open air pool no less. When we eventually found the place (there was some loss of sense of humour which we won't go into) there was a real treat in store – entry to the pool is free for campers, and – even better – despite it being 6:45pm, it's still open – infact it doesn't really look like it closes to campsite users as we have our own gate into the place!!

We were changed and in the pool super quick – it was cold, but amazing. It is about 110 x 100m, has pebbles on the bottom and is lovely. We did a bit of swimming and then got out for a hot shower - perfect. Highly recommend this place if you like swimming – not so easy to find though, we would have had no chance if I hadn't found it in the book!

Nothing else though. Did some clothes washing, fingers crossed for no more rain else we are going to be stuck with a load of wet clothes and no practical way of drying them – well, the ones that won't go in the tumble dryer – and that was it.

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Villach, Austria

2006-08-04T22:38:00.000Z

Today we said goodbye to Slovenia. It was a shame, and we both felt a bit sad that we had spent so little time here – but the weather was so bad that we decided there was no point hanging around – we may as well push on to Austria and then definitely plan a revisit some time in the future.

Although we didn't see that much of Slovenia, it has been a surprise hit with both of us – and we would definitely recommend it for a visit. Not even sure why exactly – although it's picturesque, friendly, modern and a bit different – which all helps! Also, for some reason the language has stuck right in my head. Italian just wasn't doing it for me – I was hopeless and hardly spoke 2 words to anyone the whole time we were there – but Slovenian is great. I was thanking people (Hvala) and greeting people (Dober dan) all over the place! Not exactly a wide ranging vocabulary, but a start!

So, after I had been down the road on the bike in the rain and bought some sausages and bread to make Jon a birthday breakfast (picture of the birthday boy looking a year older), Jon had done some birthday coding, I updated the blog and used up our 2 hours of paid for internet time, we packed up all the wet stuff (the groundsheet, awning and my poor towel that got left outside were the worst things) and headed off into the rain.........

We stopped off on the way to the Austrian border at the town of Bled – which is on the lake of the same name and is apparently the number #1 Slovenian tourist destination (I have a feeling I previously said the caves were that, but that isn't right). A pretty place (and probably much, much more so in the sunshine!) it was quite quiet and quite lovely.

Unlike my poncho - which isn't all that lovely, and looks almost as stupid as my free Tour de France cap seen in a previous photo :) Still, ponchos are the only way forward in this weather - despite looking REALLY stupid.

The lake itself was nice – small compared with previous lakes we have seen (see how we are now suffering from lake snobbery?) and the town of Bled had everything you might need – but, it wasn't immediately obvious why it was such a popular tourist spot. Still, I'm sure a good helping of sun would have helped us see it!

Tourist duties done we pushed on up the motorway, stopping briefly to spend our remaining Slovenian money on petrol, a sticker for the table and some wine, crisps & birthday cake for Jon !!

The border crossing was another unremarkable thing – and we weren't all that sure whether we had changed countries or not – especially as we went straight from what we thought might have been the border, into a tunnel through the mountains and then.............. well, out into Austria!

A new country.

And it wasn't raining. Bonus. Still no sunshine though – my tan is fading fast :(

We didn't go far – just to Villach and the Faakersee (a lake). A really, really stunning place. We got a place at a nice campsite on the lake edge – infact our spot was only a couple of spaces from the lake, so it was really lovely – potentially our best stop over yet.

After setting up we had a walk to the lake and a bit of a paddle, then it was back to the van for Slovinian champagne and some Slovian cheesy doodles (or their version of them), then into the restaurant for a birthday dinner for Jon – all ordered in my slightly rubbish German (it's been a long time) and a couple of beers. No idea what my dinner was – but it was very nice and their were chips involved – which is always a bonus.

We haven't really been eating out that much – trying to conserve money as much as possible – although travelling with the van is a cheaper option than trying to do the same thing staying in hotels, it's not really what I would call a cheap option. At the beginning of this week – after Will & Jo had gone – we tried to figure out a budget, because we had been spending quite a bit of cash, especially over the weekend. We did manage to come up with something, and have been quite good at sticking to it. Pretty much, we are spending about as much money as we would be at home – so, if we can stick to that sort of level we will be OK.

Our biggest expenses are – unsuprisingly I suppose – petrol and campsites. Food is mainly supermarket stuff, and we haven't really been eating or drinking out that much (apart from the odd cocktail stop!) so that helps. We did decide to eat out at least once in each country though – to be sure of sampling the local cuisine, also there is only so much pasta you can eat :)

Rain!!

2006-08-04T11:07:00.000Z

Just a quick one - I have updated up until yesterday, and so far today there is nothing to talk about - unless you find rain interesting!

Only thing is - it's Jon's birthday! So I did brave the weather to cycle to the nearest shop and buy sausages and bread for a 'special' birthday breakfast. I think we are pushing off to Austria in a minute (Jon tells me) as there isn't much to do here in this weather. Such a shame as it seems really nice.

Still, as a bonus we do have internet from our van - first campsite yet to offer that - and Blogger has sorted out it's photo thing so there is plenty for you to catch up with!

Thanks for all the comments as well - Tone, there was an abandoned VW camper at the site in Verona - we thought of you when we saw it, did discuss whether we could tow it home with us, also, Billingham is your youngest son (I'm sure you knew that), DK - no excuses, get out there and do it, we could probably sell you a nice - reasonably low mileage - campervan in about September :) Everyone else - keep reading, keep commenting - and no laughing about the rain OK?

It's better than work!!!

x

Postojna - Ljubjlana

2006-08-03T22:57:00.000Z

This morning we had breakfast (fresh coffee, naturally), checked out of the campsite, parked the van just outside the gates and cycled down to the caves. Must have been about 3 miles of slight undulations - more down than up though I would say.

The caves were good - they are the number 1 tourist attraction in Slovenia apparently, and it turns out I have been before when I was younger. Luckily (as with Venice) I don't remember - so I may as well not have been before.

Anyway, the caves - €17 each to get in, a 2km train ride into the caves, guided walk around the caves, 2km train ride out again. Lovely.

Unfortunately when we came out of the caves it was raining. Hard. And we had to cycle back up the hill to the campsite.

To postpone the inevitable, we had some lunch and then - well - we had to go.

Jeans and rain and cycling aren't nice, but then neither is the "Top Bike" and a big hill - but we made it, and of course we have dry clothes in the van.

After that we set off - staying off the motorway this time - to Ljubljana - passing some nice countryside on the way. Unfortunately it didn't stop raining the whole time, nor when we actually got to Ljubljana - which is a shame as we didn't really feel like walking about. So, we sat in a car park and got internet instead - not so exciting it has to be said - but more civilised than normal.

Once I had failed (again) to get the photos on the blog we pushed off to the local campsite - another very nice place just north of the town Laguna Camping
but of course then there was the rain............ another night in the van!!

Photos

2006-08-03T15:29:00.000Z

We are currently in Ljubljana in Slovenia - it is raining and it is cold (18degrees) and for the first time we have internet from the van - but, and this is a big but - the photo whatnot for Blogger is still not working!!

Gah.

Thanks to all that let me know the photos aren't working, it's not my fault, but I have decided not to post any more words until I can put photos with them - it's just not the same otherwise.

Is very disappointing as it was going so well.

Still, Slovenia is nice.

Looking forward to more sunshine though - can already feel my tan fading!!!

Oh, and it's looking like our itinerary could be changing some time soon - we are a bit behind. Supposed to be in Vienna by the weekend, and we are a long way off (and the Slovenian roads are a bit lumpy to say the least), but will keep you posted.

Are having fun though - don't worry about that - and since we passed out of Italy yesterday and into a new country we are allowed to drink again (the dry week turned into no drinking until we left Italy) and as 1litre of rather nice Slovenian Merlot is a mere £1.50 - well, it would be rude not to wouldn't it really? :)

x

Grado (Italy) – Postojna (Slovenia)

2006-08-02T22:36:00.000Z

No route today - Google maps doesn't appear to have any detail at all on Slovenia!!

It wasn't raining this morning when we got up – although Jon didn't actually get up until gone 10, and I had already been sitting in the captain's chair reading for nearly 2 hours by then. Still, we are on holiday – so lie ins are allowed.

When Jon finally got up we decided that a little run might be nice along the sea front – where we cycled yesterday. We moved the van to a free parking place (we are never sure how much time we have paid for at these motorhome places) and set out. Last night, and this morning we had got 'in' to the beach front through a big gate – last night we had run out of the otherside, throught some turnstile things. This morning, the turnstile things were in action, and we couldn't get out, so we turned around and headed home – checking out all alternative exits – all barred!!! Looked like we were trapped inside this weird beach place. Even the gate that we had come in through looked to be relocked when we got to it – but luckily it had just been closed and the chain draped around it – we just let ourselves out!!! Turns out that you have to pay to get in that section of the beach – not just barge your way through like we did :) Anywya, free again, we carried on down the sea front, and then turned around and did a bit of interval training on the way home.

We made use of the free (but cold) showers in the beachside toilet block, and got back to the van in time for lunch. Eventually, we were on our way out of Grado – a bit disappointed – but then seaside towns are always a bit depressing unless the sun is shining – and this was no exception.

Trieste was next.

A nice drive along a quiet road – most of it coastal – and with a short couple of stops at the side of the road to look at the buoys (we are assuming they were attached to fishing nets - there were loads of them) and for me to pose by the sea in the force 10 gales, and we were in Trieste.

The guide book talked about 'faded grandeur' and I suppose that was about right. I really liked it though – lots of big old buildings, near the sea, backed by mountains, loads of coffee shops, plenty of people but not packed – really nice.

We stopped for a coffee, and Jon decided this was the place to buy the van some ground coffee (Trieste is, apparently, famed for it's coffee) and managed to ask, in Italian, for 500g of their house blend!! Of course we don't have anything in the van suitable for making coffee, so we nipped into a department store and bought the van an expresso making thing. Lucky van – it gets so many presents :)

That done we headed off to Slovenia!!

How exciting – a new country and everything.

Just before we got to the border, we stopped for petrol, and I finally managed to get my Italian car sticker – it wasn't that easy though. I spotted that the petrol station had some, but they were under the counter, so I pointed to them and asked the man if I could have one and he said no!! I knew that he didn't want to give me one because I wasn't Italian and he thought I wanted to put it on the back of the van. But how to explain? I tried "souvenir" thinking the Italian word might be quite similar - but he wasn't having any of it! Eventually one of his mates came in and joined in and when I repeated "souvenir" she turned to the guy and said "Souvenira" or something along those lines - and suddenly it was all smiles. Because obviously their word and ours are SO different!

Anyway, on to Slovenia.

Through the border with no problems and onto a new motorway - not too far though, which was good because it is really windy and the van hates it - just down the road to Postojna, home of the famous caves which we are going to look at tomorrow.

Staying on a nice campsite in the woods near the caves - looks a bit like the places we stayed in Canada - lots of trees and things - and it is cold, a mere 17degrees! Brrrrr.

Haven't done much since we got here, just had some very nice wine (as previously mentioned), had a mooch around the campsite, and that's about it. More Slovenia tomorrow!

Venice - Grado

2006-08-01T22:29:00.000Z

Today's Route

At about 7am it started raining really, really heavily so I got up to close the roof of the van and the side windows (it's not really designed for water tightness and ventilation at the same time – it has to be said), at about 7:30am there was some lightening and the BIGGEST thunder you ever heard – 2 bangs in succession, like a cannon – and then more rain. It was still raining at coffee time at 9am, but had stopped by 9:30, so we braved it and headed to Venice.

I have been twice before – Jon has never been – but my memory is rubbish and it was a long time ago since I went, so it was all good.

First things first, we took a water bus to St Mark's square (€5 each for a single trip) and had a bit of a wander about – trying to avoid the massive crowds until we finally had to give in and go into the square itself. It was packed. And, we were both a bit unsure why. I mean, as squares go I suppose it's quite impressive, but it's not all that amazing. Still – it had to be done.

We spent another couple of hours just wandering about the little streets and then getting soaked when it started to rain – heavily.

Shame really because Venice is a really attractive place to be – especially once you get out of the main touristy areas and just wander about. The buildings are really very glamourous in a slightly faded way, and the canals, bridges, piazzas and boats all make it somewhere quite unique. But in the rain, it's not somewhere to hang around – I don't think anywhere is – but we have been really lucky so far, this is the first daytime rain we have had apart from the downpour the day we went walking in Chamonix. Not too bad I think.

By 3pm we were back in the van and back on the road with a bunch of pastries to keep us going!

In good news, Jon managed to 'fix' the CD player. It is the header unit and multi changer I used to have in my old Golf – many moons ago – and in that car it the multi-changer stood upright in the boot. In the van it is lying down – and it turns out that there is a dial that needs to be turned to change the orientation of the damper springs. Now that's done, it's perfect – so we have all the tunes that Will brought us on our 3 CD “Verona Mix” pack (thanks dude).

It's nice that it's cooler today – although it's typical that it was absolutely scorchingly hot over night until the rain started, and by then it was nearly time to get up. C'est la vie I suppose.

In other news, my sister (Helen) and boyfriend (Andrew) have their flights booked for Amsterdam – they are over for a full 5 days, so we need an itinerary for them. One day in Amsterdam, and then 4 days of travelling about. Not sure what yet – but apparently my Mum & George (both of whom have travelled about a lot around there) had the maps out last night and were coming up with some good suggestions – so keep that up guys :)

Also, Will is thinking he might try and meet up with us again, and potentially James (Jon's other brother) on weekend of 20^th August – so we need another itinerary overhaul tonight I think. Will let you know how it's looking.

Finally, in random ramblings, I am failing in my search for an “I”- Italian car sticker (like our “GB” I mean). I got an “F” for France and stuck it our table – so then I decided I should have one for each country we visit (not sure how I am going to get one for Switzerland mind you), but it's looking pretty rubbish if I can't get Italy........... hmm.

We ended up in Grado – billed by the Rough Guide to Italy has having one of the best beaches in that part of Italy, we decided to give it a go. We ended up camping in another motorhome car park – which was functional (electricity, water, etc) and cheap but not exactly pretty. Still, does it matter? We thought not.

After setting up we got the bikes down and went to check out the area – a bit of a ride down the sea front, and then back to the van for dinner and the “thunder and lightening show”. Honestly, I haven't seen lightening like that in years – it was incredible, and the storm went on for about 2 hours all together. The only bad bit of it was that the joker that had been parked up next to us but had pushed off at about 9pm, when it was pouring with rain, left the electricity box wide open after unplugging his van!!! Er, Hello – electricity and water don't mix dumb ass – so I braved the rains to go shut it, before anything bad happened :)

Funny being confined to the van – not bad, but different.

Fingers crossed for a return to sunshine tomorrow!

Desenzano Del Garda - Venice

2006-07-31T23:11:00.000Z

Today's Route

By the time Jon opened the van door at 9am this morning Will & Jo had already got up and been in the pool for a cooling swim. Apparently it was VERY hot in their tent last night!

Today is mostly about W&J going home :( So this morning there was packing up to be done, then we stopped off in Desenzano for a coffee and some breakfast, and then it was pretty much off to the airport and they were away. Back to just the 2 of us.

Before we left the airport though I wanted to finish updating the blog, however, as I said earlier, my efforts were being thwarted at every turn today.

Generally I write the words for the blog in OpenOffice Writer (marvellous but free “Word” like package)and then just have to spend my time when I get internet connection uploading the photos that I have previously downloaded onto the laptop. This saves me a lot of time – which is good because usually time is short, either because the internet connection is limited or, more often, because it's very boring for Jon to be sitting about waiting while I blog and he will only put up with it for so long before getting seriously grumpy. I don't blame him, it is dull.

Anyway, today I had 2 problems when updating the blog. First was that the photo uploading thing in Blogger was playing silly buggers and only working intermittently, making things very slow going, secondly (and worse), I didn't realise that if I deleted the photos from where they were on my hard drive originally before I published the post, they deleted them from the blog as well. So, I had spent ages putting the photos in, and then thought that I would be good and do a bit of housekeeping and – BANG – all the photos unloaded themselves. Bollocks. (actually, this later turned out to be just something to do with the problem with Blogger - doesn't stop it being a right pain though).

Anyway, eventually I managed to sort it all out (you live and learn right) before Jon imploded with boredom and before the laptop battery went flat – so it all worked out fine in the end.

Once that was finally done we decided to just push off down the Autostrada and see how far we got. If nothing else we wanted to get back past Verona and into some new parts of the country as we had effectively backtracked to get back to the airport.

Heading east along the A4 and I was just fiddling with the radio (Jon was driving) and when I look up we are heading for a lorry that appears to be driving sideways. Actually, it was driving sideways and straight into another lorry infront of it!! We stopped a good distance away (stopping distances you see, very important) and then drove around the mess (once someone finally let us in) and on our way again.

It's one of those things where – although I know it's not right – I wish I had had my camera to hand!

My heart was clattering after that though – with no engine in front of us and definitely no airbags, I don't really thing a front on smash into a lorry would do us much good!! Jon was right on it though, and we were fine. Phew.

Other things of note on the journey – the annoyingness of the CD player skipping over every lump in the road, the car that seemed to have unhooked itself from it's caravan on the other carriageway, and the temperature – scorching – 39 degrees in the sun at 1pm!

As there isn't much else going on, let me tell you about my Croc shoes . You might have seen about these in the likes of Heat magazine (if that's your bag) but basically they are lightweight summery comfy shoes and they are very, very cool. By all accounts all the stars have them, and so do me & Jon :) Just like movie stars. Mine are orange (as you see) and Jon's are lime green – and I have never had a pair of shoes that elicit so much attention. We had a man complement us on them in Chamonix, I have had people staring openly at my feet, children pointing my shoes out to their parents in supermarkets – quite incredible. But they are brilliant. Really comfortable all day long, walking, in the sea, in the shower, just knocking about and they are orange and are not made out of crocodiles at all!! Does it get any better than that?

Also, I forgot to tell you a slightly humorous story. When we were in Chamonix I bought a load of postcards to send (I still have some postcard duties despite this) and some stamps and everything. The other day, in the middle of the night, I realised that, because I hadn't got around to writing the 'cards, and because I was now in Italy, the French stamps I had bought were absolutely useless!! Stupid girl. So now what do I do? Get Italian stamps and send the week old postcards from another country, or not? Answers on a postcard please ;)

So, all of that drivel was to pass the time while we were on the autostrada – type and drive – well, I wasn't driving (that would be obviously dangerous) but you know what I mean.

The motorway is practical and quick but very dull.

We hadn't really decided where we were going to end up tonight – in the end we settled on Venice!! Initially Jon hadn't been that keen on stopping off in Venice – for some reason he wasn't really interested – but as we were driving right past it, and it was coming up to 6pm he changed his mind and we headed towards town. Venice is a funny place – quite apart from the canals and stuff – the provision for parking and cars is – as you might imagine – quite limited, but there is a dual carriageway from the 'mainland' to Venice, so they obviously expect some visitors to arrive in cars. Eventually we figured it out and found the campervan parking place – all part of Tronchetto car park, apparently the largest car park in Europe no less! Anyway, we were basically spending the night in a big car park with a bunch of other campervans – it was OK, not cheap, but it did mean that we could stay overnight and also spend the morning and early afternoon tomorrow looking round Venice – plus there was electicity and water available, so it was all good.

Didn't do anything though – too knackered (visitors and very tiring :) ) so another adhoc dinner (chilli made with hot dog sausages and mixed beans from the store cupboard) and early to bed.

Venice tomorrow.

Airport

2006-07-31T13:34:00.000Z

Just at the airport now having dropped Will & Jo off for their flight home. Will update later but have just completed the last 3 days worth and it has been a total nightmare (the blog updating that is, not the last 3 days!).

Anyway, we had a great time - thanks to Will & Jo for coming out to visit, hope you enjoy the blog - lots of photos of Will, never met anyone who likes having their photo taken as much as he does :)

Off this afternoon across Italy and heading towards Slovenia - new plan is to go through Slovenia up to Austria! Looking forward to that, should be a bit different.

So far we have travelled 1300 miles and been away just over 2 weeks - time seems to be racing by, but we still have 5 weeks and a couple of thousand more miles to go!

The adventure continues........

x

Verona – Desenzo del Garda

2006-07-30T11:14:00.000Z

Today's Route

Today's plan involved potentially doing some walking in the hills around Lake Garda, but also we didn't want to go too far north around the lake because on Monday we have to go back to Brescia to drop Will & Jo back at the airport.

We actually left the campsite just after 10am – which, was pretty good considering how late we got to bed and how much red wine we drank! Oh, the photo shows Will "riding" our now broken outside lounging chair - this was the only way to 'sit' in the chair after one of the essential metal arms snapped off last night. Jon was the culprit, he reckoned it "just broke". Yeah right :)

Drove to Garda (of Lake Garda fame) and straight through it. Stopped at a supermarket for lunch supplies and then at the side of the lake for lunch. We did have a little swim – just to cool down – ate lunch and then had a walk along the lake front. Another really attractive place – although quite tourist orientated with lots of restaurants and bars along the front.

We sat for a while and laughed at a couple in an inflatable dinghy who were clearly not getting anywhere fast.and then headed back to the van for the next excitement – Aqua Paradise.

For a mere €19 each (yes, I know – spending money like water) we were admitted to this water park. It was heaving – as you would probably predict for a hot Sunday at the end of July and that meant that there were big queues for all the rides. Everything was water based fun (incase you hadn't guessed) but was – we decided – not that great. We went on all the rides, and some were fun, some weren't, Jo & Jon bailed out of doing the extra high slide (and I don't blame them, it was really painful) and we finished the afternoon with a couple of races. It was fun though – despite being a bit rubbish. Campsite tonight – back round the West side of the lake, so that we are in the right place for our return to Brescia airport tomorrow.

Nothing much going on – Will, Jo & Jon are playing pairs and drinking wine – I am writing the blog and not drinking any wine – I had plenty last night and my poor old liver is creaking with it!

It's a problem though isn't it? When you go on holiday you tend to have a beer most nights – right? Because you are eating out, or walking about, or whatever. Well, that's all well and good until you are going to be away for 7 weeks – and then suddenly drinking every night of your holiday is looking a bit bad for you. We are going to have a dry week once W&J have gone – well, at least until we get out of Italy :)

Manerba del Garda – Verona

2006-07-29T11:12:00.000Z

Today's Route

Despite feeling the effects of the Hell Bier/cocktail combo from last night, Jon and I were up and out for a run by 8:30am. Not too far – only 25 minutes – but mostly up hill, so I reckon that counts at least double :) Was nice though – actually went up to the town centre, which we hadn't seen, and admired the pretty hill top houses and little shops and the amazing view of the lake and the mountains in the distance. What a beautiful place to live.

From the run we went straight down to the beach to meet Will & Jo who were enjoying their first pre-breakfast holiday swim, and got straight in there. It's amazing how you can pass so much time just messing about in a lake. Diving off a rock, underwater swimming and handstand competitions, some swimming – just, you know, messing about. Really nice.

We left the site about 11pm after a bit of breakfast and headed to Verona. We didn't really have a clear plan at this point, it was more that we would get there, maybe camp, maybe not – have a walk about, see what you need to see in Verona............ it wasn't the best plan for sure.

We did take the Autostrada again though – much less painful than the evil back roads and relatively cheap. Also it meant that the time we saved we could use later in messing around and around Verona trying to find somewhere to camp, and then (failing that) somewhere to park, and ........... it's a familiar story.

We did manage to find somewhere to park and went for a walk into town. Lunch was first on the agenda although the first café we sat at (in the piazza facing the Arena) was, inexplicably, closed for lunch!!! How can that be??

Anyway, we did manage to eat, and also formulate something of a plan. When in Verona you are supposed to go to the opera – it's famous for that – which is held in the Verona Amphitheatre (the third largest Roman Amphitheatre don't you know). So, we decided that if we could get tickets to the opera we would stay, if we didn't, we would take the van somewhere else. A visit to the tourist information office and we knew where there was an alternative campsite and how we could get from there into town on a bus – bonza. All we needed now was the tickets.

Back to the theatre and queuing up for the last minute/returns/cancellation type tickets. We had no idea what we were up for – how much the tickets were going to be – what the opera would be like, anything.

We bought 4 un-numbered tickets in zone E. The un-numbered tickets are basically the cheap seats at the back – sitting on the stone steps, just like in Roman times!! Great fun, and for only €26 each, if we really hated it we wouldn't feel so bad about spending that sort of money. Seated tickets were about €100 as a comparison.

The plan was coming together – all that was left was an ice-cream, a trip to Juliet (of Romeo and Juliet fame)'s house so that Will could get a photo of himself holding her right tit (no kidding, everyone was doing it!) then back to the van and on for the quest for a campsite.

Appropriately we are staying at the Romeo & Guillet campsite on the Corso Milano about 7km from the city centre. A funny campsite, really big but no-one around and loads and loads of dead leaves on the ground – like autumn come early. They do have a pool though, but that required us to purchase 4 rather fetching swimming hats before we could enjoy it – as you can see, they are rather marvellous!

A quick swim, dressed, packed lunch and wine assembled, camping mat and waterproofs packed (it was thundering and raining when we left) and we caught the bus to town.

Arriving at the Arena at about 8:30, we were queuing to get in when Jon spotted someone he used to work with at Digital Steps standing a couple of metres behind us!! Small world eh?

We got into the Arena and it was amazing. We found a good spot on the stone seats (it was already pretty crowded) and set up camp. It got much more crowded, but it was a really impressive sight – especially with people lighting candles as it got dark.

Once the opera started we were pretty hemmed in and couldn't even manage to dispense our red wine from our wine box without disturbing everyone (it sounded just like one of us was having a wee right there and then) – so all picnic preparing (baguette, cheese, salami, crisps) had to wait until between acts.

The opera itself was Tosca – I won't tell you the plot incase it spoils it for you – but it doesn't have a happy ending, let's just say that.

And what was it like? Well, it was amazing that the singers were there in the amphitheatre and singing without any amplification and we could hear it all, the music was good, and the atmosphere was really worth going for alone (imagine, 2000 years ago gladiators were fighting lions down there, etc.) but, I have to say that I don't think I would go again. A big part of the problem is not understanding the language – so you really don't know what's going on, but also, personally, I just can't stand the noise that female opera singers make – it goes right through me.

We all agreed that it was a great experience though. Well worth doing if you get the chance.

A cocktail in the Piazza afterwards with everyone else and a taxi home and that was our night over and done with. Brilliant.

Iseo – Manerba del Garda (via the airport)

2006-07-28T11:06:00.000Z

Today's Route

Today we were picking Will & Jo up from the optimistically named Verona Brescia airport. Optimistic because, in true Ryanair fashion, the airport is nowhere near Verona at all. God job I thought to check with Will last night which airport it was though – otherwise we would have got to Verona and then had to back track about 40km, which wouldn't have been that funny.

Anyway.

We were up and about quite late, got a couple of croissant for breakfast, and pushed off towards the airport about 12pm. On the way there we stopped off at a MASSIVE supermarket and bought some supplies – including some entertainingly names “Hell Bier” - and had a small look in the next door Decathlon sports super store . Ooooo. Like a kid in a toy shop – but restricted self to a pair of surf shorts, a new seat post for my “Top Bike” (stupidly, a quarter of the original price of the bike!), some swim flipper things and some insoles for my running shoes. Restrained I thought :)

Got to the airport at about 2pm and the flight was revisedly due at 15:18 – 35 minutes late – but that was OK as it gave me time to update the blog. For the first time this holiday I paid for my broadband access (€6 / hour) but needs must!

On the way to the airport I checked my email using my mobile phone and had a bit of a suprise. An email from my lovely friend Julie (of Arctic Sweden fame) is pregnant - thought to be an Arctic conception :) Congratulations to her and her lovely fiance Robin - hope it all goes well for you and I will definately get knitting !

Back at the airport............ Jon had made a sign to greet W&J with at the airport – stupidly I didn't take a photo for the blog (very slack, sorry) but it was a great sign – made out of the paper bag the morning croissants had come in bordered with black duck tape. What more could you ask for?

So, it's kind of odd greeting people at the airport in a foreign country – it's not like when you meet someone on home turf – but it's nice to see familiar faces in an unfamiliar place. Photo is of Will & Jo on their way to Stanstead airport - they took it, not me (that would have been pretty impossible for me to do now wouldn't it?)

This morning we had been talking about how it was going to be odd to speak to other people – for nearly 2 weeks it had just been the 2 of us and the occasional chat to someone in a language that we usually don't speak – but nice. Should be nice.

Will & Jo arrive, and give us presents – a copy of Heat magazine for me (they know the way to my heart) and a copy of today's Times for Jon, and a sticker for the van - we get in the van and head up to Lake Garda – our destination of choice for the first night.

We stayed in a place called Manerba del Garda in a nice enough campsite called La Rocca. The site was right on the side of the lake and had it's own pebbled beach and some good swimming fun. As soon as we had got pitched up we were in for a swim to cool off.

Lovely.

Dinner was pasta (when in Rome etc) and Hell Bier, and then we went to the site bar for a cocktail.

Now the bad bit. Will was just in the middle of the punchline of a particularly bad joke when Jon looked shocked and was waving his had around. He had just noticed that he was no longer wearing his wedding ring!!!! This was a bit of a downer on the evening as you might imagine, but what can you do? That's not to say that I wasn't a bit upset about it – as was Jon – but these things happen I suppose.

Looking at the photographic evidence later on was pretty inconclusive, but in the photo taken when we got out of the sea this afternoon it was gone – so the best guess is that it is now at the bottom of Lake Garda :(

At least this solves my dilemma about what to buy Jon for his forthcoming birthday I suppose.

PS. I have changed the comments options so that you can post comments without being a member of blogger - I didn't realise you could do that, but you can, so if you fancy it - please leave a comment!

Monza – Iseo

2006-07-27T23:19:00.000Z

This morning we were super good. I woke Jon up at 8:30am with my phone alarm playing MC Hammer's "You Can't Touch This" and we ran down to get our bikes from the station. Was only 17 minutes of running and then 5 back, but it was nice – and the bikes were where we had left them and still intact, which was a bonus. (Picture of my bike for you - "Top Bike" no less!)

We had been back a little while, and I had taken out and hung up the washing I had put on before we left (so organised) and I decided I wanted to do a bit more running. Jon said he would come with me, and so we set off round the park we were camping in. Hadn't realised until we cycled back through it how nice it was – and it seemed a shame to waste it.

It was pretty hot by then though – about 10am. We ran about 3km and were, we thought, on a route all the way around the perimeter of the park – at least that's what the map said. HAVE WE NOT LEARNED YET? Don't pay any attention to the maps – they are all nonsense. Although the park map showed a path all the way round, after about 6km we discovered that we couldn't complete our circuit because of the racing track and a wall – no go.

What else to do but walk a bit and run a bit, find another map, cut through the middle of the racing track (no-one seemed bothered even though we clearly shouldn't have been there) and out through a hole in the fence the other side. We made it back to the campsite with another 50 minutes of running and a bit of walking under our belts, and the welcome discovery that check out time was 2pm not 12pm which I had originally thought.

Funny how you can make the time stretch – if we had had to check out at 12 we would have done, but because we didn't we were rushing around to get packed away at 1:45pm! And it's not like we have much to do or anything, well - apart from having our breakfast of beans and sausage on toast :)

So, we were back on the road and heading through Monza in the vain hope of finding the one place in that area that sold Camping Gaz bottles. All we did though was manage to get ourselves nearly stuck in a very narrow alley!

No luck on the Gaz.

After the last couple of days of nightmare navigation, we decided to take the Autostrada to Bergamo – our next destination – paying for the 'pleasure' of hopefully not getting lost. Finding the Autostrada wasn't all that easy, but once we did it was all plain sailing.

Bergamo was nice – we had a ride on the funicular up to the castle, and a wander round that and the old town. All very pleasant.

Nowhere to stay though – so we pushed off to Lago d'Iseo a few km northeast of Bergamo.

We found a nice campsite near Iseo – nice but totally rammed full of people. We had been warned before we set off that campsites in Italy were like this – but this was our first real experience of it. There are lots of caravans there that are set up for the season by Italian families – they have huge awnings on, stuffed full of 'real' (rather than camping) furniture, fridge freezers, televisions and even washing machines!! But it was alright. And we arrived in time to have a swim in the lovely circular pool (must have been about 25m diameter) before it closed.

Also – extra bonus – the on site shop had a Gaz bottle the right size, so now we are fully gazzed up!

Some pasta and a bottle of wine and we cycled down into Iseo town to see what was going on. Nice place. Lots of nice little cafes and things down by the water, and loads of people just milling around. Lovely.

We picked a seat in one place that did cocktails (I am getting a bit of a taste for them) and finished the Cribbage “Lecco Cup” challenge – which Jon won. :(

We also got 2 games into the “Lakes Plate” challenge – finished up 1 all on that – so all to play for!

A good day today. Seemed to do loads, and not so stressful – which is good.

Milan (cont)...........

2006-07-26T23:00:00.000Z

So, as I said ealier, we were in Milan today. We did really well – got up and had breakfast and then off on our bikes to a train station near by (we actually found it and everything) and caught a train to Milan.

The station we started at was Biassimo-Lesmo-Parco and it was about 35 minutes into Milan Garibaldi station. Easy. And, we didn't pay. We didn't mean to fare dodge – just that the machine at the station looked like it hadn't worked for years, and no-one came to ask for tickets – so we just didn't bother (we later found out – when we bought tickets for the train home that it was only €3.40 for both of us – so hardly saved ourselves a fortune!).

Milan was nice – although really we just mooched about a bit – very slowly because it was so hot – and saw some of the sights.

The castle (notice the free wi-fi tree that Jon is sat under)

The Duomo Church thing

The McDonalds Bar (what is the world coming to?)

The crazy glass dome thing

and a load of scooters.

Definitely have to get a scooter when we get home – always say that after a visit to Italy – never done it yet :)

So, it was a nice day – we headed back to the station in plenty of time, stopping for a small beer on the way......

We bought tickets back to our station, distracted slightly by the chap at the ticket machine next to us not only being the most impatient man in the world (he was hassling the chap buying tickets before him and then was showing his displeasure at the speed of the machine when it was his turn) but also, and really, really humorously, getting his credit card stuck in the machine because he tried to put it in the place where you were supposed to put money notes :) Ha ha ha.

Shouldn't laugh really, but it was so funny, especially because he was so very impatient.

Anyway, we bought our tickets – the machine was not very easy to navigate – and legged it for the train that the machine had told us – the 19:12 to Lecco.

On the train - all going well – making lots of jokes about ending up in Rome, etc. First few stations we recognised, not so sure about the next couple – but then, we weren't paying that much attention on the way there – starting to get a bit nervous, been on the train a bit of a long while now, did it take that long on the way there? Jon claims to recognise a pile of gravel that we pass, but then the train rounds a corner and there is an impressive vista between a couple of mountains. Bugger. We definitely would have remembered that. Where are we going????

I get a bit of a flap on, and make Jon go and ask the guard. We are on the wrong train and we have to wait until it gets to Lecco at the end of the line, catch a train back towards Milan and hope for the best. No trains back to where we started at this time of night though. Arse. On the up though, at least the guy didn't ask for the extra €25 that we theoretically owed for our extra travels!! Off at Lecco, feeling a bit stupid, 30 minutes to wait for the next train – decide a) to get off at Monza and get a taxi and b) to risk not buying train tickets (NOW we are fare dodgers). Of course now, for the first time in a week and a half, it's cold, and I am wearing shorts and a vest top. Jon offers me his woolly hat – which I decline.

Just before the train arrives a couple of chaps in police uniform show up and wait ..... we are convinced they are ticket inspectors – but by now it's too late to go to the ticket machine, so we decide that if they are, we will just bluff it.

Tense times.

To cut a long story short – it was fine. We got to Monza without tickets, got off, straight into a taxi (cost us €20 but it could have been worse, we could have ended up stuck in Milan or something) and back to the van with the plan to fetch the bikes in the morning.

We celebrated with some pasta and fresh pesto, and a bottle of the weirdest wine you ever tasted – fizzy red wine. Interesting.

What a day though.

We can't decide why it is that we are so rubbish at finding our way places at the moment. We are blaming the heat!!

Milan

2006-07-26T14:51:00.000Z

Just a quick one - more another time - sat under a tree in the centre of Milan, found free wi-fi first time of trying (I can feel the vibes) and have updated the last 3 days of our trip.

It is very hot at the moment.

Too hot (~38degrees) - but Milan is quite nice, and we have sightseeing to do - so I'll catch you later.

x

Orta San Giulio - Monza (eventually!)

2006-07-25T13:49:00.000Z

Today's Route

We moved from the car park/over night camping spot to another car park a bit down the road as soon as we got up. It was quite late – 9:30am, but we had been mostly trying to steal back some of the sleep that had been robbed from us because of the extra hot weather. You know how it is, you just lie there thinking that if you don't move you will some how get cold? Well, it's like that in the van, except that the bed is only ¾ width and we can only have so many windows open due to the risk of insects/murderers that sort of thing. Last night there was also a bit of a rain storm – which is franckly cruel, because we were then waiting for the cool that usually follows – it didn't.

Also, further bad news – the fridge has either completely packed up or it just can't cope with the temperatures (I know how it feels). It's been pretty rubbish since we started out – more so than on our pre-Europe test trips. We can't figure it out. Anyway, last night it wasn't even trying, and by midday today everything in the fridge may as well have been outside. The cheese had melted, the margarine was long gone..........I'm sure you get the picture. It's a real problem. Jon tried to take it out – apparently if you take the fridge out and turn it upside down it often fixes it – unfortunately we don't know how to take it out, but if anyone has any ideas??

Anyway, that aside, the car parking place had a really nice little terrace beach type thing next to it – so we were straight in the lake for a cool off. Pretty much we spent the next 5 hours alternately swimming and reading, and maybe getting a little bit sun burned – but only a bit. Honest.

My worst sun burned bit is where my watch was for the first week. I admit I have taken my watch off now and am trying to get rid of the tan line at least a bit – it was just too obvious. This is incredibly vain I know – and really annoying for Jon because I just can't live without knowing what the time is, so I am constantly asking. I keep thinking that I will have to put my watch back on, and now that the mark has had a bit of sun to it, maybe I will.

At about 3pm we headed off – next stop Milan, or at least the idea was to head for Monza, where apparently there was a camp site, with the plan to catch a train into Milan tomorrow and see what it was like. Of course, things are never quite so simple.

It was all going so well – Jon was driving, I was navigating – we were going alright, we even saw a sign for Monza and then............. it all went wrong, and we don't even know how. The thing is that Italian sign posts are, quite frankly, crap. At one junction the place you are heading for will be signed, at the next – it won't, so you think that it must be just straight on, otherwise they would have told you – right? Nah. Course not.

We ended up in Milan, although we really wanted to avoid it, and we were there for nearly 2 hours, trying to find our way out! Now I type it I want to laugh, it was so ridiculous. We were trying to follow signs in the general direction of out of town, but then we would see a sign pointing us back the other way, or wouldn't see a sign until we drove past the junction, and the traffic lights – well, we have decided that – hang the expense – we are going to take the toll motorways from now on, it's just got to be easier. (This photo is of the 2 lane road we were on - how many lanes of traffic can you see???)

Luckily (miraculously) despite me being in a faint state of panic, our senses of humour didn't leave us today, and – against all the odds – we not only found Monza, but we also found the campsite – right next to the Formula 1 racing circuit (I can see the stands as I sit here outside the van). The fact that it took us nearly 6 hours to cover 50 miles can be quickly skirted over, as can the fact that I am being bitten even further to death (I had a bad one last night) because I am sat in my chair outside the van. These insects seem to respect neither citronella candles or 50% DEET insect repellent. Aaaaargh.

Dinner was a little inpromptu – burger and mashed potato (it was supposed to be potato salad but the potatoes cooked faster than I expected), with a bottle of extra warm rose wine (think mulled wine temperature and you wouldn't be far off), our first, and original gas bottle finally ran out (we were beginning to think it was magic) and the fridge appears to be working in some shape or form now we are plugged into the electricity (all mod-cons here you know, and rightly so at €22 a night!). It's a nice place though, and now we are here things are back to being pretty relaxed.

The van is doing us proud – the engine only really gets hot when we are going up hill, today it was braving the 40 degree heat (I kid you not) without any trouble at all. Not bad for a 21 year old!

Tomorrow our plan is still to go into Milan – if we can find a train station – and then head off so that we make it to Verona on Thursday, to give us time to scout it out before Will & Jo get there, or, more realistically, to find our way there and out to the airport in time!!

Italy is still not going that well for us :(

Then again - it beats work :)

Brussons – Orta San Guilio

2006-07-24T13:36:00.000Z

Today's route

Today was a funny one.

We woke up at a reasonable time and didn't end up paying for the night (half expected a rude awakening by a traffic warden or something at 6am – didn't happen), so that went some way to easing yesterday's parting with money pains!

We headed straight off after a brew – nothing much to keep us in Brussons.

The hill down was interesting – knowing that we had a bit of an issue with the brakes once they get hot, Jon was mainly taking it very slowly in 2^nd gear and using the engine to keep us slow. It meant that we had quite a few scary Italian overtaking moments, and it was all a bit slow and noisy – but we did get down without dying, which has to be a bonus right?

Our next destination was Lago D'Orta – a smallish lake just past Turin.

I was driving.

It was hot, Italian sign posting and maps are rubbish, it took us about 3 days to travel 40 miles. Senses of humour were missing presumed dead. It wasn't pretty.

Luckily though, we did find the lake in the end and somewhere along the way we had stopped at a Carrefore supermarket and bought a second bicycle for the van. Where else (well, apart from China probably) can you go and get your day's shopping – including a bike – and still only pay €89? Honestly. The bike isn't the greatest – it weighs a bit and the seat post isn't long enough, but it was only €49 so what can you expect??

Anyway, back to the lake.

We were heading for Orta – the main town on the lake, but found a car park and a bit of beach access on the way so we took the opportunity for a quick swim. Quite marvellous.

On reaching Orta we burned towards the town centre – maybe deliberately not understanding the “no access except for residents” signs on the way in. Unfortunately there was a chap in a fluoro jacket ready to stop us – pointing at the sign and making me complete a 27 point turn in the worlds smallest space and with no power steering. Driving the van is lovely but it is a bit of a full body work out!

Unabashed we headed back up the hill to some camping car parking we had spotted, paid our €5 for the night and then took the bikes down into town.

What a nice place. If you get the chance – happen to be passing perhaps – take a look. Interestingly the town centre is traffic free, it's all little streets and pastel painted buildings, with cafes looking out over the lake and the Isla d'Orta (an island village in the middle of the lake). Really very pretty. Having decided that since cocktails were as pricey as the beer at one of these cafes, we opted for cocktails (obviously). I had a strawberry daiquiri and Jon had a Caiprainia. So sophisticated.

After that and the deciding game of cribbage for the heavily contested “King of the mountains” cup (which I won) we had to cycle back up the hill. I can assure you that there is quite a bit of difference between a £30 bike and anything else – especially when you are trying to get it up a hill!! I was worried that the cranks would snap, that the gears were going to break, that the chain would come off.............. actually, it was fine, a bit of clicking and creaking but ultmately fine, and I was really pleased that I managed to cycle all the way up this really steep hill (and I mean like Everest really) withough walking! New thinking is that if I ride this bike around all holiday, by the time I get home and back on my own bike I will be INCREDIBLY fast. That's the theory anyway :)

Chamonix (France) to Brussons (Italy)

2006-07-23T13:19:00.000Z

Today's route

We did reasonably well this morning – up at 9am and out for a trip up Mont Blanc, or at least part of the way up it.

We walked from the campsite, via the boulangerie for a pain au chocolat (2 stone heavier when I get back!) to the Telepherique l'Aguille du Midi. Basically this is a cable car that takes you – via the lower level Le Plan de l'Aguille – to a rocky pinnacle 3,842m above sea level and with a fantastic view of Mont Blanc.

The painful bit is at the bottom – the price. Please, look away now if you are of a northern disposition (George, you particularly won't like this!) - it is €36 EACH for the return trip – that's about £25!! Talk about living on bread and water for the rest of the month :)

Still, it was worth it, and once we got back to the bottom, we agreed that having been up there we would still have done it – if you see what I mean, so if you get the chance – do it!

What's up there? Well, the view of Mont Blanc (4,810m) and other peaks – all above 4,000m (and when you think that the highest mountain in the UK is just over 1,000m high, that kind of puts it into perspective), the Bosson glacier, snow, not much in the way of oxygen, blue skies, cool temperatures..... it was really nice.

You can't get off the 'base station' so there is no wandering about in the snow or on the glacier – which is a bit of a disappointment, but not all that suprising really. There did seem to be quite a few groups down on the snow – organised trips I guess – and we said that we would like to come back and walk to the top of the mountain. Would be very hard work mind you – especially because of the thinness of the air.

Don't know how many of you have been up to that height. Years ago I went on a trip to Venezuela with some chaps I worked and lived with and we took a trip on the highest cable car in the world (not that I am showing off or anything) and walked from the top, over a little bit of a hill and down the other side (we were in the Andes). I remember we walked about 100m – we were at 4,000m altitude or there abouts – and I was finished. But, I was very unfit at the time – so this time around..... well, of course I had to try sprinting up 3 flights of stairs – just to see what happened. I can assure you, the fact that I didn't fall back down the stairs is a miracle. It was so hard. More the lack of 'go' in your muscles and the incredible dizziness than not actually being able to breath. Very interesting :)

After about an hour of wandering about and taking too many mountain photos we headed back down, stopping for a bit of walk at the next station down (a mere 2300m) and then all the way to Chamonix.

By then it was lunchtime – obligatory baguette/ham/cheese purchased, back to the van for that – shower, packed up and on the road by the 2:30pm camp site kicking out time.

Onto the next phase of the adventure.

One week after setting off from Camberley we headed to the Mont Blanc tunnel that would take us from France into Italy for the bagainous sum of €42 one way!! Today was not a good day on the money front!

It was a good tunnel though – if that's your kind of thing.

So, Italy then. Well, the Italian side of the Alps is much like the French side, but we both decided that actually (and against all expectations) we had preferred France. I think because Chamonix was so nice and because we at least had a bit of French language that we could use, we felt more comfortable, in Italy it was a totally different story. Aside from anything else, the surroundings – whilst largely mountains and wooden chalet type buildings – had a lot of building work and a big motorway running right through it. Not very scenic.

Trying to navigate from our large scale atlas of Europe and copping a scan at the rough guide to Italy I decided to take us to Bossons – apparently a really lovely place in a nice valley and with a view of the Matterhorn.

Well, it was a nice place – but it was 1,000m up a windy mountain road.

For anyone that has never driven in Italy – you won't believe it when I tell you that despite there being endless hairpin bends, it just doesn't stop the Italians overtaking you. It is the craziest thing you have ever seen. That, the fact that the cars coming down the hill are largely on your side of the road when you see them (quite scary), and our general nervousness about the van's ability to keep itself cool when it's 36degrees outside and 20km of up hill does not make for a relaxing ride!!

Of course it was fine. We got to Bossons and found a special parking place for camper vans - €5 for 24 hours apparently, but there was no means of paying, so we didn't. We set up and had a walk into 'town'.

This place – the carpark and the road back to the bottom – was heaving. But, it has to be said, we just couldn't understand it. Don't get me wrong – it was a nice little place, there was a lake (no swimming though) and mountains – all the required things, but it just wasn't that great. Shame.

So far – France is definitely winning.

In other news, we did spend some time planning out the rest of our trip – broadly though you understand, always room for change – and mostly because my sister Helen & soon to be brother-in-law Andrew are coming out to visit us somewhere on our travels and we needed to decide where.

The original idea was Berlin – but I didn't realise how far Berlin was from Blighty, and as they are coming the last weekend of the trip – the one before we have to be home – we need to be somewhere we can make it home from in that time. After much deliberation, a bit of string, and a marker pen we decided on Amsterdam – which is good.

Broadly the rest of our plan is – weekend 2 - Verona, 3 – Vienna, 4 – Prague, 5 – Berlin, 6 – Amsterdam, 7 – home.

If anyone fancies a trip out to see us – that's where we will be, probably :)

Also, thankyou for all the emails letting me know that you are reading - is good to know, but also a little scary - how can I possibly keep this up for another 6 weeks? It's a bit like the Big Brother house, you don't really know if anyone is still watching :)

Chamonix

2006-07-22T19:33:00.000Z

We decided to stay for a whole 'nother day today and tonight and go walking. We had all bright ideas of getting up early and going off – but of course that didn't really happen. Not that it mattered so much and we are – after all – on holiday.

We planned to get the Brevent cable car up to the first station, Planpraz (1999m) and then walk up to the next cable car station (2525m) and see how that went and then make further plans. We had the worlds most rubbish 'walking' routes map – from the tourist information office (€4) but once we got up to the top (€12 each for a return trip) it was fine – all the routes are well sign posted.

The thing we weren't sure about was exactly how difficult the bits marked on the map as “Dangers” really were. Turns out – at least where we walked – they were rubbish “Dangers” not dangerous at all. Maybe it was a bit narrow or something, but hardly scary stuff!!

Took us about an hour to walk up to the Le Brevent cable car station – it was pretty hard work, 500m up in about 2km of across, with the air a little on the thin side and it was still 26 degrees, despite being so high up (we have a new thermometer – so we now know these things!).

Still, it was a nice walk.

And we saw lots of paragliders.

And the cable car.

And opposite where we were there was Mont Blanc and it's chums.

And yes, I was wearing a really stupid (but free from the Tour Caravan) hat.

Once we got to the second station and had our picnic lunch of baguettes with ham & cheese (what else would it be?) we decided to walk all the way back down to Chamonix. This was really hard on the knees – and Jon was suffering from battered toe syndrome – something so incidental sounding and yet ridiculously painful. I was alright mostly because I didn't bring my walking boots, preferring to bring my Inov8 Flyrocs instead (love those shoes). Marvellous.

We had a stop at about 2000m altitude for a cup of coffee at the retreat (like a cabin thing where you can stay but also they do refreshments and have a toilet and that sort of thing) at Bel-Lachat. Very nice it was too. (You can see it's precarious looking balcony above Jon's head in this photo).

Took us ages to get down to town – nearly 4 hours, but we did lose 1500m in height during that time! Also, it started raining about 1 hour from home – so we got drenched. But, so what? It was still warm, we were still on holiday, and skin is pretty waterproof :) Only down side was that our towels and things were hung up outside the van 'drying'. Not so dry any more!!

Oh, and there were crickets - lots of them - and no, I'm not going to give up being an accountant to become a nature photographer, or any other kind of photographer - I'm just not very good at it :(

Just enjoying a glass of rose wine now – updating the blog words and charging the laptop before we head into town to try and find some internet so I can publish. There is an Irish pub at the end of the road that claims to have free wireless – Jon joked that meant old fashioned radio, I hope it's not that!!!
......................

And it isn't - currently nursing one beer in "Jekylls Irish Pub" while updating this!! accountant through and through :) Hope everyone is well & enjoying the blog - no idea whether I can keep this up for a whole 7 weeks, but also can't believe that we have been away nearly a week already! Definately getting into the swing of things, and really enjoying it.

My tan is coming along nicely - although we have to alternate driving days because otherwise one arm is definately darker than the other :) These are the only sorts of thing we need to worry about at the moment - and that's brilliant.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go up the Mont Blanc side of the mountains on the cable car, and then we will probably be heading through the Mont Blanc tunnel and into Italy. Who knows what sort of internet we might or might not find there - but all attempts will be made !

One final thing - the only comment I have received so far on the blog is from my sister, Helen, who has to be one of the least frequent internet users I know!! Go Helen I say, and more comments please (or emails) - if only to see that people are reading this and I'm not just blethering away to myself. Although, that would be situation pretty normal, blah, blah, blah ............... OK. I'm stopping now! :)

x

Current Cribbage Score: Jon 1-1 Trish

Cluses to Chamonix

2006-07-21T19:28:00.000Z

Today's route

We have to be in Verona to meet Will & Jo (Jon's youngest brother & his girlfriend – and that's Will's girlfriend, not Jon's!) next Friday – the 28^th July, so, looking at the map we decided that it really wasn't going to be practical to go with our original plan which was to head down to the south of France before heading into Italy. It was going to mean – at best – another week of driving 100 miles a day, and, although we had managed to do that so far, it wasn't the best fun it has to be said. So, we decided to come to Chamonix instead – partly on the recommendation of our friend Nic, and partly because some mountains, some beers and somewhere near by sounded like a top notch idea.

And so here we are.

44km down the road from Cluses we find Chamonix, a nice enough place, especially when you see some out of season ski resorts! Here there are plenty of shops, restaurants, bars, people, mountains, glaciers, the "petit train", sunshine and wireless internet!

I don't know what you know about wireless internet – but there are pretty much 2 types that we are interested in: secured and unsecured. The secured stuff is password protected and you have no hope of getting onto someone's internet in that case – unless you have the password, obviously. The unsecured type is someone using wireless internet with no protection (as it were). Either they are doing it on purpose – so that other people can use it – or because they don't know how to secure it or, like with hotels and things, so that people can use it but for a fee. So, you can imagine which type we are interested in!! Unfortunately signals are fickle things, and you can (and we have) spent quite some time this holiday driving and walking around trying to pick up a signal we can use. Today we found one – for a while, and I managed to get a whole day of blog uploaded, and was working on the next day and...................gone. And then the laptop battery went flat. Very frustrating.

So that's how it works – and why sometimes there will be blog, and sometimes there won't!

Anyhow. After a trip on the mini-train and the blog/laptop thing (there were a couple of beers involved in the mean time) we had a mooch about the place and then stopped for some dinner – a meat fondue. Do you know what that's like? Well, there is no cheese involved, I can assure you of that. Instead of the big bowl of melting cheese you get a big pot of hot oil, then you have a plate of raw meat, some sauces, bread and chips. Basically you skewer your meat – stick it in the oil until it's cooked how you like it, and then eat it. A nice way to eat, very sociable.

We stopped at a bar called 'Monkey' on the way home from town - just for Robin :)

Our campsite for this evening (and tomorrow as well we are thinking) is very nice. It has a really 'young' feel about it – and yes, I know that makes me sound about 100, but if you were here you would know what I mean. There are mainly tents – only one or 2 'camping cars', no caravans, lots of people backpacking, a nice communal sitting area near the amenities block, a strip of plugs to charge your mobile phone – just nice. Highly recommended if you are vising Chamonix – Les Arolles Campsite.

Current Cribbage Score: Jon 1-0 Trish

Chens-sur-Leman to Cluses

2006-07-20T19:18:00.000Z

Today's route

So it turns out we weren't in Switzerland over night after all. How stupid did we feel? I was wondering about it – we passed through a sort of checkpoint thing on our way out of Hermance (14km from Geneva) whilst looking for a campsite recommended in our very old, but gratefully borrowed (thanks Nic) copy of the Rough Guide to Europe. Of course we didn't understand any of the words on this checkpoint, and there wasn't a barrier or anything, so we just drove round it – thinking maybe it was for lorries or something, maybe a noise restriction thing or the like (I don't know, make your own story up :) ). And then, when we were at the campsite (which was lovely by the way) when I asked how much it was the guy quoted in Euros. At the time we thought it was just because we were so close to France or something, actually it turned out we were so close to France were were actually back in France!! It came to me this morning, all the pieces, and when I looked at the map ..... confirmed!! Doh.

Anyway.

Had a run this morning – 35 minutes for me, 10 for Jon – he had to dash back to the site for a call of nature (any of the runners amongst you will know what that's like), to make up for it, he took the bike and went to the boulongerie to get the obligatory croissants and baguette (one handed cycling required) while I was finishing up my run (6 x hill sprints, just for good measure). After a great warm shower (no lake swimming this morning – didn't really look that inviting) and breakfast we headed off (forgetting about the dirty water container under the van on the way out – it's fine though, please don't panic) – today was the day for the Tour de France!!

Our plan was to head south to Samoens to try and catch the riders going up the Col de Joux Plane – the final climb of that day's stage, and a staggering 11.7km at an incline of 8.5%! And it was baking hot.

We got to the village at about 1pm, the Tour “Caravan” was due through at about 3pm – so we had plenty of time. We parked up with a load of other people at the side of the road, but then decided to hike on up the hill so we could see the riders climbing. It was really hard work – and that was after sitting around all day in the van – imagining doing a climb like that on a bike having done 175km already that day, and a couple of thousand or so over the previous 2 ½ weeks was just incredible. Impossible to imagine really.

We walked for a couple of km up hill and found a reasonably shady spot on the hill, with a bunch of other people. It was perfect.

About about 3pm the Caravan came up the hill – basically this is a bunch of Tour sponsors driving cars or decorated vehicles up the hill throwing free stuff, playing music, waving, etc. Jon had confidently predicted that I would love it. He was completely right, I did love it – all that free tat, including these rather lovely rubber bangly things - obviously going to welded to my arm from now on!!

I was in my element really. Of course there were some risks – I was wearing shorts & a bikini top and was a sitting target for the chap spraying water from the back of a float :)

Eventually the cyclists came up the hill and they looked like they were really feeling it by then – unsuprisingly. There were a couple of guys in a breakaway off the front, and then a couple of minutes behind that came a small group with the yellow jersey rider in. For about 40 minutes after that there were single riders or small groups until finally the peleton (main group of riders) finished it all up.

Was it exciting? And was it worth the mad dash down France – feeling like there was a bunch of stuff we might have like to have stopped and seen but couldn't because we had this deadline to meet and had to get on? Well I think so, yes. Although, I must admit it wasn't quite as exciting as I thought it might be – maybe because a lot of the big names from previous years weren't there, and maybe because where we were there weren't big crowds of people, it was great to see though – it's such an amazing competition, and all those men with sexy cycling legs :)

By the time we got back to the van, drove over all the stuff stored under the van (second time today, my fault this time though) and finally set off – it was about 7pm. We then spent the best part of 2 hours trying to find somewhere to stay – all the near by campsites were full (unsuprisingly), there were no good car parks or river banks to pitch up on, things were looking a bit sorry. We went through Verchaix (full), Taninges (full) and finally the site at Cluses managed to fit us onto a small bit of grass near the main entrance. Sorted.

It was quite a nice pitch as it goes, and the site was alright – although it did appear to be on the industrial side of Cluses – there were lots of trees and the facilities were nice enough. We also had enough space by the side of the van to try the sun canopy – which we are very pleased with!

Dinner, wine, shower in the dark (how was I to know they were going to switch all the lights off at 11:30pm?), bed – no plan for the morning.

Riverbank near Dole to Geneva (or there abouts)

2006-07-19T15:32:00.000Z

Today's route

Today dawned clear and bright – for a change :) – and, first things first, we had a swim in the river. Excellent way of getting cool and clean.

Nothing else to do we decided to head off and get to Lons-le-Saunier for breakfast. We did that very successfully – coffee, croissant, baguette for later, copy of the Tour de France hand-book so we could figure out where we were going to try and catch up with it.

Still too much petrol (remember the leak?).

Onwards to Clairvaux-Les-Lacs and a good Aires with water & waste disposal and a good shady patch of flat ground for petrol leak fixing.

Jon's good like that – once the van was up on it's chocks (to give a bit more clearance) and he had clamped off the hose with his home-made hose clamping mechanism – fashioned out of a pair of long nosed pliers and a bungy, the old hose was off and the new one on in no time. Brilliant.

Lunchtime by then though – and they don't call it Clairvaux-Les-Lacs for nothing! There was a fantastic lake – really blue, amazingly warm, beach – everything, and we really enjoyed our swim in that one (are you jealous yet?)

Onwards – up hill this time. Suddenly everything got a bit more alpine and bit more steep. Essentially skiing territory in the winter – beautiful alpine villages, amazing sceneries, brilliant. And the van was coping well. Up hill was slow but steady (I was generous and kept pulling over to let people past) and although the van wasn't so great on the hairpins, it was OK if you slowed right down.

The only 'slight' problem was the sudden and rather dramatic loss of brakes. Mmm, yes, it was a bit scary, and yes, I was a bit surprised – but it was OK, and, luckily, near the bottom of the hill. We decided that the problem was the amount of braking I had been doing – we must have descended nearly 1000m in about 10km, and there was a lot of hairpins and the like – heating up the brake fluid and so we lost the brakes. And, when I say lost – there was a bit of braking available, if you pumped the pedal :) Once we had stopped and let things cool down a bit it was all back to normal. For now anyway.

Next excitement was Switzerland. There we were, minding our own business – next thing you know we are at the border! Most unexpected. A nice border chap asked me where we were going, and I told him Geneva and he said “on you go then” in a very cheery manner. So far everyone has been lovely.

We made it to Geneva alive!! Bonus. Parked up and headed into town with the primary aim of finding some internet so I could update the blog. It's a bit sad that isn't it? But necessary. On the way into town I had been picking up unsecured networks all over the place – unlike in France where I didn't find any. We found somewhere eventually – and I managed to update the first 2 days, and then it was gone. So apologies if it's not very pretty – the photos take an age to upload and can only be done while on line – and if there are bits missing or spelling mistakes, but it was the best I could do at the time. Hopefully things will improve, although I guess they could get worse!

We didn't get to see much of Geneva , although we had a nice walk along the lake front. It was already 8:30pm by the time we got back to the van, so we had to go straight off to find somewhere to stay. Apparently it is illegal to camp outside of official campsites in Switzerland, so we thought maybe tonight was the night to pay!

After trying one campsite which had been closed for about 30 seconds but refused to let us in (********), we ended up in a municipal park further up the road. We were just starting to lose hope – when we found it. And it's great. The park chap is really friendly and admiring of our van, we have electricity for the first time – a toilet block with showers & everything, the lake (Geneva?) at the bottom of the hill and, apparently, a bakery for croissants 200m up the road, not only that but we had pasta and salad for dinner, and all 4 of the 'Badger's Sett' of beers that Helen and Andrew bought us (thanks guys) – could it be any better?

Well, if there were no mosquitos – that would be better!

Anyone got a method for stopping them?

St Dizier to Dole/Parcey/the side of a river somewhere.....

2006-07-18T15:09:00.000Z

Today's route
This morning we were ultra keen – we got up at 8am and went for a run from the van – just 30 minutes, but then we are on holiday! Was really lovely, round the lake shore, across an amazingly long footbridge and back again. When we got back to the van we picked up our towels & swimming goggles and went straight into the the deserted lake. It was amazing. Still really warm but a really perfect way to cool off after the run.

After a quick shower (fully facilities at this beach) we went back to the van for a spot of breakfast – bacon & egg sandwiches :)

The only slight downer was that when Jon pulled the folding table out from under the van where we had stored it over night, it had a bit of petrol on it. Jon was confident that it was just a bit of overspill though because it was hot – so we didn't worry about it (you can tell there is more to that story though can't you?).

At about 11am we set off from our 'campsite' (still no money paid for overnights so far) and headed for our next destination for decision making – Dijon.

It was a really lovely drive, lots of really long straight tree-lined roads, miles and miles of hedge-less fields of wheat – and the occasional crop of sunflowers.

We saw plenty of memorials along the way, but one really caught our eye and we headed up to it for a look. It was closed (as are most things between 12 & 2pm in France) so we sat in the shade and had our typically French lunch of baguette, ham & cheese. Here's the thing though – while I was sitting eating my lunch, I spotted the unmistakeable dripping of petrol from under the van!! Jon was dispatched to investigate. Conclusion: hole in pipe. Solution: Duck tape. Outcome: leaking duck taped pipe. Yesss, well, that didn't work – but the idea was there. Round #2 saw Jon repairing the pipe with a bit of carrier bag and a few zip ties – this was, of course, only a temporary measure, but seemed to work pretty well – no drips.

Anyway, that done, we pushed off and were looking out for whatever the French version of Halfords might be to get some replacement hose. 'Roady' was the answer – and, after the nice French chap came out to measure our hose with his vernier calipers and then, even nicer, gave us a bit of hose and a couple of jubilee clips for nothing (how cool is that?) we were back on the road to try and burn some petrol before Jon could do the repairs (there was a good chance of spillage otherwise).

Dijon was nice – although I don't seem to have any photos. Perhaps because we weren't there long and were mostly involved in trying to find wireless internet to update the blog. Can you believe – France is hopeless for 'borrowing' wireless internet – or even finding internet cafes. Maybe they don't do internet in France?

We totally failed on the internet, but we did have a small beer – which was nice.

We still had too much fuel, so we left Dijon (once we had relocated the van – took us 20 minutes!) and headed south to Dole - looking for a campsite marked on our map. We found it, drove round it, got gawped at, didn't find any spaces, and drove out again. Very odd.

After a couple more attempts at finding somewhere to stay, Jon randomly pulled into the car park of a restaurant by a river . No idea where we were really (although looking on Multimap just now were were on the river just south of Parcey I think, just off the N5 south of Dole). Just out of the car park was a kind of grass layby kind of thing – over looking the river – reasonably flat....... well, we decided that no-one would worry if we stayed over night. I mean, what harm were we doing? So we stayed. And nobody bothered us – apart from the mosquitos (and, if you can imagine it, we were locked inside the van with all the doors and windows closed – it's 30 degrees, even at 10pm!). Still, it was free (again).

Caudry – St Dizier

2006-07-17T18:01:00.000Z

Today's route
So we left our car park style camping spot and headed straight off. Typically we got to the next village down (Le Cateau-Cambresis) and found a similar style car park place for motor homes – but this one had a "Raclet" with the services on it. These things are great – they are like big bollards with water, electricity, waste water and chemical disposal toilet options all in one place. We took advantage of everything but the electricity, and filled our on board tank to the top (first time for that) getting soaked in the process, and we emptied our various 'receptacles'. Brilliant.

A few villages along and we came across something else to make the Fimotel car park even more of a depressing first night stop – the Aires at Catillon-sur-Sambre. Although not the biggest parking space, and light on facilities apart from electricity, it was right by a canal and was really lovely. Bugger. Still, we did stop and enjoy the sceneries for a while – enjoying our croissant, pain au chocolat and coffee as we did.

It was too hot to stay long though – so we pushed on..............

When we got to Riems we stopped for something to eat and a bit of a walk around. Because of our tight timetable, we decided that tours of champagne houses were off the menu (shame), but a small walk was a good thing. We chose a brasserie by the Place de Maison de Ville (where we were parked) and sat down. When the chap came to take our order and Jon asked for the menu (he's much better at the foreign talking thing than me) the guy obviously thought we were bonkers – and, in a very French manner, said “c'est fini”. Imagine – a brasserie only serving food at lunchtime!! Crazy talk.

Anyway, we got a baguette from somewhere and had a wander about – great looking cathedral, but not much else to see (or that we saw). Not as terrible a place as the Rough Guide would have you think though – they described it as 'dreary'. Wouldn't agree with that.

So. On our way again and I get to try my hand at a bit of driving “En Francais”. Easy. Much easier in our right hand drive van on the wrong side of the road than in a left hand drive car on the wrong side of the road. My only attempt at that was in Rome on our honey moon – and it wasn't good :).

Scenery was pretty much as the photo - lots and lots of rolling hills with fields and fields of corn. Really rural. Really nice.

Eventually we reached St Dizier, and spent a while driving around trying to pick up an unsecured wireless connection so we could access the internet – completely unsuccessful! Also unsuccessful on finding a supermarket, despite trying pretty much every road out of town. We gave up and headed for the lake – our main reason for being here. Jon's parent's friends, Ros & Darrell, had given us a fantastic list of places they recommended to stay while in France, and the Lac du Der-Chantecoq was one of them.

And it is fantastic. We swung off the road into a field to join 2 other campervans and a couple of cars. Opposite there is a park, cafe and toilets & showers and - most importantly – a beach!! It was 7pm when we got here and we went straight down to the beach and into the lake. It was fantastic. You just can't believe how warm it still was at that time of night. Not only was it warm enough to swim, but it was still plenty hot and sunny enough to lounge on the beach with a beer afterwards and dry off !! Fantastic.

We decided that staying over night in the field was going to be OK. There were no signs saying we shouldn't and one of the other vans was still there showing no signs of leaving.

We cooked outside – risotto with choizo, onions & garlic + side salad and fruit salad for afters. All brilliant, including the bottle of white wine, until about 9pm when the mosquitos appeared from nowhere and the liberal sprayings of insect repellant were doing nothing to keep them away. So we moved inside, which is where I am now – and then played kill the mosquite for a while. Lovely game that. Is hot though with all the windows closed......

Away we go..............

2006-07-16T17:46:00.000Z

Today's route

Start Place: Camberley, UK (home)

Mileage:63102

Time: 11:30am (ish)

So, here we go then – just left the house and currently heading down the M3 on our way to Dover. We did quite well – set a leaving time of 11:45am, and we actually left at 11:30 – admitedly we did have to go back home after visiting Halfords (to buy a bike lock) because I had left my favourite top on the line to dry, and hadn't taken it in – but, you know, these things happen right?

The van is packed to the hilt. Not in a “spilling over” kind of way – but definitely in a “made use of all available space” kind of way. I thought we were going to have loads of room – after putting everything but the clothes in yesterday it was looking pretty good, but once the clothes went in – crowded!

On the clothes, we have a box each – one of those fold down ones – and the rule was one box each. Well, Jon managed that – me, well – I've got the box of clothes, plus a bag of underwear and a 'special' bag of running kit :) It's much more difficult when your a girl – you need so much more in the way of clothes!!

We bought an inverter for the van – so that we can power up the laptop from the cigarette lighter as we go, so far so good I say.

What else?

Well, last night we went to Guilfest and that was fantastic. Well, to be a bit more specific – A-ha were fantastic. I can't believe how close we were (Jon was very understanding) and how lovely Morten Harket still is :) Sad. I know.

What do you know – on the M25 and there is a traffic jam! It's Sunday, where are all these people going???? I don't like the jam though – gives me something to panic about (missing our 1515 ferry) – like I need anything else !

So, we got the ferry and arrived in Calais at about 17:45 local time – now we were really doing it!! Our plan is to make it down to Morzine in time for the Thursday stage of the Tour de France – so that really means not too much hanging around in the north, and more driving.

It's one of the things we keep saying – we mustn't spend our whole time driving – because it is really easy to do that.

Anyway, we headed south, flicking cherry stones out of the windows as we went, and were striking for the Aire de Camping Car shown in our book at Caudry. We had no idea what it would be like – but the book said it would be free, and this is always a good thing! So, we rock into Caudry, we drive round a few times (much to the amusement of the locals – we are quite a novelty I think) and eventually we head back out of town to where we saw a map at the side of the road. While we are peering at the map a chap on the other side of the road called over and asked if we wanted any help – and with a bit of pointing, a bit of bad french (us) and bad english (him) we managed to point out where we wanted to be and he told us how to get there! How lovely, and really unexpected, that someone took so much trouble to help us out. Nice.

So, the Aire at Caudry – Fimotel. Well, if I tell you that Fimotel is a sort of Hotel that, bizarrely, is completely closed on a Sunday night, and that the place to 'camp' is a fenced enclosure just big enough for about 8 vans – then probably you are getting the idea. The book lead us to believe that there would be some facilities – the usual stuff (apparently) water, waste disposal, toilets and electricity – all for free. Unfortunately there was nothing, apart from some slightly weird dutch campers with a HUGE dog, and a mangy cat. Still, it didn't really matter, we are pretty much self sufficient (we do have a Porta-Potti after all) and all we wanted to do by then (9pm) was have dinner and go to bed.

So we did.

First try out for the silver screens – or thermo-mats as I believe they are officially known :) Idea was that they would help stop us heating up so much in the morning – but they had the added bonus of making the van pretty dark inside, which was great.

T-2

2006-07-14T11:26:00.000Z

So, apparently we are leaving in 2 days, and now I am a bit scared. I know that probably sounds a bit stupid - but I am.

Not only does it seem like I have LOADS of stuff to do before we are ready to leave (washing, clean the house, pay the credit cards, do something with the plants, pack the van, repack the van, check the list, recheck the list, repack the van, go running, worry about stuff..................) but I don't know what it's going to be like to be away for so long.

I mean, OK, it's not like going away for 6 months or something - and I know people do that - but 7 weeks is a long time. Neither of us has ever been away for that long, and I don't know what it's going to be like. It's stupid though - I'm sure it's going to be brilliant, but - you know me, I like a good worry :)

Of course I have all this stuff to do, and what am I doing? Writing this. Crazy.

What I really should do is go out for a run - but I am lacking motivation today. I haven't done any exercise since Sunday because I have been in London all week doing my 'teacher training' for my new 'part-time' job as an accountancy tutor with BPP starting in September when we get back. Had a really good week as it goes - but am a bit nervous about actually teaching people - 60 people in the class, 6 hours of me teaching them about management accounting!! Frightening. For all of us.

But yes. I really should go and do some chores...................

T-3

2006-07-13T11:23:00.000Z

The van is back - and is running like a dream.

We have brakes and everything! The timing has been 'done', the fan belt tightened, and it has been checked over and pronounced healthy - brilliant. It has also done another 200 miles, taking us to about 2000 since we bought it in April - more than it had done in the last 3 years in total!! How crazy is that?

T-5

2006-07-11T11:19:00.000Z

Jon has taken the van to Hereford to enjoy the delights of his dad's well stocked garage and very welcome help (cheers Tone!). Of course you may remember that we didn't really have much in the way of functioning braking system - because some of the brake fluid had been drained out and then the nipple broke... well, the decision was that the nipple was broke but there was no leaking - so we bled the brakes (well, I sat in the drivers side and pressed the brake peddle when instructed), and Jon drove it today.

He got there safely I'm sure you will be glad to hear.

I didn't know if everyone had seen a picture of the van - so here it is:

T -7

2006-07-09T11:02:00.000Z

Bad news - the van is broken. Well, I don't know about broken - but it's definately not happy.

I had been harping on about there being something a bit 'funny' and 'unusual' about the brakes for a while. I am not so good at describing or guessing what the problem actually is, but I am pretty good at noticing that something isn't quite right and describing it in my own particular manner (Will's "Egg shaped wheels" being the best example).

Anyway, my inability to diagnose the problem but insistance on keep bringing these things up with Jon drives him mad. By telling him something is wrong he knows he needs to fix it, but my not being able to tell him what to fix is a bit annoying. Apparently.

So, the brakes. Well, after sifting through all the paperwork that came with the van Jon decided that the pads were probably fine but that the brake fluid needed changing. This was all good, and Jon was braving the road and bleeding the brakes (the disadvantages of only having on road parking) until...........one of the bleed nipples (sounds painful I always think) broke off. This was not good news.

Even worse news because we were supposed to be going up to visit Helen & Andrew in High Wycombe that afternoon - staying over and then running the Wycombe Half marathon the next day. Oh, and to make things even better we sold the Golf the day before, so the van is our only form of transport.

Marvellous.

Still, these things happen right - so, an alternative plan.

Tom was coming to run the half marathon on Sunday, so I persuaded him to come pick us up 'on his way' from Bristol. And he did - which was marvellous. We would have been well stumped otherwise.

So we went to Wycombe, had a couple of beers and some good dinner (pasta, obviously) and went to bed late. Perfect racing preparation.

The race was pretty good - Wycombe Half Marathon the weather was pretty perfect - coolish and wet, there was a fair field ~900 or so, and there was pretty good crowd support most of the way round. It was only me & tom that ran it, the others came out and supported at various points, which was nice. It was pretty tough work though - a big hill to start with (I hate hills) and then another 12 miles or so.....mmm. I definately didn't have the legs for it - after racing on Wednesday as well, and not doing much in the way of long runs in ages, I suffered from about 9 miles onwards. Still, I was only a minute slower than my half PB, so I was pretty pleased with that all things considered!

The Big Trip T -10

2006-07-06T10:53:00.000Z

So, I think we have decided that we are going to leave next Sunday - the 16th - after going to Guilfest on Saturday. It's good to have a definite date, but difficult to imagine that we are actually going.

Seems like we have been talking about it for ages, and yet we are still here!

Anyway. I have made a list - a big list, biggest list you've ever seen I would think - and now all we have to figure out is how we are going to get all the things on the list into the van. A trailer might be the only answer :)

I keep telling myself it's going to be fine, and Jon keeps telling me to stop panicking. But then, if I didn't do the pancking, who would?? Of course then jon says there is nothing to panic about, but that doesn't really help.

Not much left to buy now though - which is good news: this 'cheap holiday' thing is a bit of a joke to be honest, or at least it is the way I do it :)

Sweden #9 - Stockholm and Home

2006-06-04T23:59:00.000Z

Saturday was nice. We had a bit of a lay in but still made it down to breakfast in plenty of time. Breakfast was good - a buffet with lots of fruit and bread and cheese, pickled herring - obviously - bacon, eggs....... nice.

After breakfast we went out for some sightseeing. We took a walk into the old town, which was really nice, and ended up at a ferry terminal. Robin had suggested that we went over to the Skansen open air museum, and as it was such a stunning day (blue skies & sunshine) that seemed like a really good idea.

Funny place that Skansen - they took a load of real houses from all different parts of Sweden, dismantled them and reassembled them in the park. Inside each house is a person dressed in the appropriate type of costume, and they talk to you - telling you about who would have lived in the house and that sort of thing. They also have animals - we were especially liking the bears and the pretty hopeless Wolverine (I'm sorry - but if you can't even 'hunt' down the piece of meat the keep has just thrown you, it's no wonder you are nearly extinct!!).

We had some hot dogs for lunch and then left - only so many reconstructed houses you can cope with in one day!! It was nice though - worth a visit if you happen to be passing.

I had found out that it was the Stockholm marathon on that Saturday, and really wanted to have a bit of a watch and a cheer - so we walked back along the marathon route until we found a nice bar by the river. We had a couple of pear ciders and did a bit of clapping - much more civilised that actually running the race!

We had to be back at the hotel in time for our 6pm ice bar 'appointment'. That was fun. Total gimmick - but why not? If nothing else - just look at the crazy outfits they give you to wear! How cool are they?

We had a selection of cocktails and stayed the full 45 minutes (but it was really cold at -5degC, even though I was wearing my lovely Rab Phantom underneath my silver poncho) and then went outside to get warm.

We had a bit of a wander, a beer, a wander and finally found somewhere to eat. A very nice Italian restaurant. Good food, nice wine, cheery waiters, it was lovely.

We stopped off at the food festival for a couple of pints of pear cider on the way back to the hotel, had a couple of cheeky vodkas and a game of cards in the bar and then off to bed when they kicked us out at 1am! 1am?? I tell you.

Probably for the best though, as well as insisting that we went out to get some - I had started taking photographs of cheez doodles. And that's just not right.

Sunday was just one of those days - the day when you have to go home, the day when really, despite having quite a lot of time, really it is all about the going home.

The hotel had a great place for storing bags, so we ditched all of our rucksacks and went out for some shopping. Didn't buy much - a massive handbag, and a heat mat thing and a log book/journal for the van.

Julie & Robin left for the airport at about 3pm.

We were waiting for the 19:45 bus back to the Vasterus. We spent a lot of time on the sofa in the hotel lobby - reading. I went out for a run in the end to pass the time when Jon was having a little snooze. It was a nice run - along the river - about 60 minutes, which seemed perfect. My legs felt OK, my ankles were a bit battered feeling from the walking, but generally, not too bad. I was glad I had been.

By the time I got back and changed it was time to leave the hotel, get some food and catch the bus to the airport. This was all really easy and we were at the airport, checked in and waiting to go in plenty of time. The plane, however, was late - but only 30 minutes or so.

The flight was unmemorable apart from the assault we suffered on our ears. When we got on the plane there were 3 seats empty quite near the front, so I headed for those. Didn't realise that we were surrounded on 3 sides by small children. To be fair the kids in front and to the side were fine apart from the occasional squeak - the kid behind - GEEEEZZZZZ. There were 2 kids behind us - a little boy, maybe 4 or so, and a much smaller girl - maybe 18 months or so. The girl did not stop screaming the whole trip, and her parents didn't seem to be doing anything to even try and quiet her down. It was that kind of ear splitting, brain frazzling scream as well.

I thought Jon was going to go mad.

I thought I was going to go mad.

Eventually it was over though - and we were off the plane, out of the airport, into the taxi, car was still outside the hotel - and had all of it's wheels - onto the motorway and home by 2am ready for me to be at work at 9am the same morning.

What an adventure.

---some time after----

Jon shaved his beard off 2 weeks after starting it - it was pretty bushy by then, and I refused to go any where near it (have you ever kissed a man with a beard? horrid (in my opinion - other people may of course think differently)), also his moutache was looking decidedly ginger (doesn't matter what you say Vaughan - it was).

Anyway, no point having gone through all that not to have some fun with it in the process of removal right? How scary is this photo??

Sweden #8 - Kiruna to Stockholm

2006-06-02T23:59:00.000Z

Our flight wasn't until 1pm so we had plenty of time. Everyone made it down to breakfast and it was fantastic to have something other than appley oatmeal to eat!!

It was still quite early, so we just went back to our rooms for a while - Jon watched a bit of TV and, after my breakfast had gone down a bit, I decided to go for a run. I didn't go far - I was pretty knackered as it goes, my ankles especially - but I did do 25 minutes and ran around a good portion of Kiruna.

Just after 12 we got a taxi to the airport - and that was alright. Not much to do there, a tat shop and a restaurant, but it was OK. We nearly got caught out with our gas bottle. Had just left it packed in Jon's bag. There I was staring vacantly at the display case behind the check in desks, looking at the gas cannisters, looking at the warning sign, finally realising that - hang on, we've got one of those!! So, we had to throw it away - which was mostly a shame because we never got to find out how long it lasted. It did last us 4 full days of breakfast, lunch & dinner - all cooked meals, all hot water for coffee and then a bit more. Pretty good.

Flight back to Stockholm was fine.

Got the fast train back from the airport to the town centre. I was all for taking the bus - the fast train costs for one person about the same as for 4 on the bus, but no no, it had to be the fast train! It was fast, I will give it that.

When we got to Stockholm we collected our 'nice' bags from the locker & the hotel was just outside the station. We were staying in the Nordic Sea Hotel
which was really nice - kind of minimalist, good comfy beds, serious curtains (we really appreciated that)........

Didn't do much for the rest of the evening - went for a walk, had some nice dinner, had a small amount to drink and went to bed early. Party animals.

Oddest thing was how busy everything seemed to be.

For days of our hike we didn't see anyone at all until we got back to Abisko (on the first day we saw a mountain biker and there was another couple camping at Abiskojaure). We didn't see any other human footprints in the snow (we did see reindeer and wolf tracks), so we were totally alone and it was incredibly quiet. Being in Stockholm with loads of people and loads of noise took a bit of getting used to.......

Sweden #7 - Lapporten to Kiruna via Abisko

2006-06-01T23:59:00.000Z

Waking up and heading out of the tent this morning I was really, really confused. My eyes and brain didn't really seem to be connected and I was having a bit of trouble processing what I could see.

The cloud was really low, and everything was really white - but I was convinced that the patch of snow just below our tents was absolutely MASSIVE and I just couldn't understand how or why. Of course the answer was that it wasn't massive, it was just some kind of optical illusion, or sleep deprivation or something.

The view was pretty odd. This photo is taken down towards Abisko looking to the Torne River. It looks like a massive waterfall - what it really is is the mountains on the far side of the lake - which we can't see because of the low clouds - being reflected in the water. Very strange.

Not a good night for sleeping. Even worse than normal in the tent. It was REALLY cold - even Jon slept with his down jacket on last night - and we were on a slope so I had to sleep on my left side all night, feeling like I was gripping onto my thermarest to stop me sliding into Jon. Not great.

Still, it was the last night in the tent (probably) and it was all down hill to Abisko.

Spirits were pretty high this morning as well - even though we all agreed (so constantly that at times you had to think we were trying to convince ourselves!) that we were enjoying ourselves - 5 days of walking and 4 of camping was pretty hard core for us, and we were ready to head back to civilisation.

There was some time for sitting and admiring the views though,

and for admiring Jon's burgeoning beard - seen here obscuring the wonders of nature (or is it in itself a wonder of nature??)

Because we could see Abisko (at the bottom of the hill in the above photo) we thought it wouldn't take us long to get there.

It was, after all, only 10km and it was down.

Somehow though it took us 4 hours!!

Imagine our joy though when we got there. Walking into 'town' and spotting the restaurant/bar, putting our rucksacks down, ordering burger & chips & beer, eating & drinking something that hadn't needed rehydrating first.

I tell you, it was amazing.

Needless to say, we were a little drunk by the time we rolled out to catch the train to Kiruna (it didn't take more than a pint for me - but the chaps were drinking Jaegermeister, so it was inevitable really), but where me & Julie were sensible (is this the first time ever?) and just enjoyed some Cheez Doodles and water on the train - the boys were in the buffet car, keeping the party going.

When we got to Kiruna we found a hotel - Robin was insistant that wherever we stayed had to have a sauna and a jacuzzi (how Swedish), so that's what we had.

In the jacuzzi (after the sauna) Robin had got some beers and wine in - it was all very civilized - if a little bit unusual (and VERY unbritish) but I think that Robin & Jon got a bit too cozy!!

After all that excitement we got dressed and went into town. It was very quiet and there seemed to be only one option for eating - an Irish pub!!

It was alright, we ordered too much food & couldn't eat it all, we had a couple more beers, Robin started falling asleep, we went back to the hotel, to a real bed, and curtains!

Sweden #6 - Field to Lapporten

2006-05-31T23:59:00.000Z

From our field we walked on. Today was the day we would find out whether we were could get through the route that we had chosed. There was some doubt. Robin thought that it might be too snow bound for us to pass through Lapporten - and if that was the case we were going to be a bit stumped and left with a lot more walking ahead of us.

But, looking on the bright side - it was probably going to be OK.

Worst thing was having to put wet socks & boots back on. My right boot had sprung a leak the day before, and although the water seemed to be flowing in quite freely , it didn't seem to be draining or drying the same way! Very unpleasant.

We had managed to camp right beside the track, so we set off along that - heading slightly up hill and around a mountain. We lost the track really quickly, there was more and more snow to deal with - and at one point a very fast flowing river that we couldn't cross where the track suggested we should.

It wasn't such a big deal this day though because the landscape was so barren that we could see the moutain that we had to walk around, it was just a matter of trying to hit on the right height.

We made good progress - the open landscape meant that walking was pretty easy - and just before lunch we rounded the corner and saw Lapporten in all it's glory! It was quite a moment. Apart from the fact that it was immediately clear we were going to be fine to walk through it (phew), it was the place we had been heading to for days, and now we were here!

After a couple of photos we carried on a bit further, locating a grassy plain type thing (very odd) as a place to stop for lunch. Getting a bit sick of the food by now, and the dayglo yellow of the chicken curry we had today didn't really help. You have to eat though - because you have to walk, so no refusals allowed! It's not that bad to be fair, it's just it all tastes a bit the same, and it's all quite greasy. Best bit - the chocolate bar for afters!

Actually, Jon was spot on about the chocolate bars. If you remember, while we were still in Luton I was worried that we had too many? Well, we didn't - it worked out perfectly.

Anyway, lunch over I was keen to get on. It was much colder at this height (1000m) and having wet feet wasn't really helping.

Talking of cold, did I mention my PHD down jacket ? I know I did - but it deserves another mention. How did I ever manage without a down jacket? And how does this one get to be so small (and I mean tiny) and yet so incredibly warm? I seriously would have been so much colder and so much more miserable without it - could be my best ever buy I think..........and that's quite an accolade!

It looked like we didn't have far to go - we were going to camp for the night at the end of the second lake - the 'opening' of Lapporten (Gate to Lapland), and we could see the lakes so how hard could it be?

It took us AGES.

Those lakes must have been 3 km long each - so we didn't get to the other side for a good couple of hours. And, even then, the ground was so rocky that we couldn't pitch our tents anyway.

We walked another km or so before finding somewhere even slightly suitable to stop - and even then it wasn't perfect.

There was some urgency about getting the tents up. We could see a band of rain coming towards us, and it looked mean. We got the tents up and were inside just as it hit - only it was snow, not rain!! Our first snow!

There wasn't much, just enough to quickly coat the ground and our badly erected tent, but it was enough to make us feel like proper arctic explorers - even though, technically, being on the Abisko side of Lapporten we were not longer in the wilds of Lapland.

That evening we could see Abisko down below us, and spirits were high. Higher still after the remaining bottle of vodka was consumed, sweeted up a bit with some of Robins blueberry soup! It was too cold to stand around socialising though, and after the vodka (drunk sitting on the sitting rock), the teeth brushing (on the teeth brushing rock) and the pre-tent visit (behind the toilet rock) we just went to bed.

Sweden #5 - hut to field

2006-05-30T23:59:00.001Z

I was awake for ages, and trying to make enough noise to just wake everyone up but without it being obvious - you know? Well, eventually (about 9:30am) everyone else did start waking up - and our day got going.

Oatmeal for breakfast (with chocolate coated raisins in for an extra treat), coffee, pack up the rucksacks, visit the toilets, and - eventually - off we went.

A word about the toilets. They are 'long drop' toilets - basically a wooden platform with a hole in, a toilet seat (and a lid) and below - a long drop into a hole. They are alright, especially in the Arctic where the temperatures are pretty low, but don't look into the hole, and don't drop anything in there that you might want back - because you really wouldn't want to try and retrieve it :)

We did decide that they had possibly the most scenic view of any toilets we had ever sat on......

So, we left the huts behind - bouyed up because it was such a nice thing to find and enjoy. Again, we had a vague plan that we would try to get to the point where the Lapporten trail split from the trail we were on at that point - with the thinking that we would camp there for the night. We reckoned it was probably about 15km again.

The hike out from the huts up the hill to try and re-find the track was a bit of a rude awakening - but, I guess it got us all warmed up.

After battling through some evil bushes (I guess you have to be a bit evil to survive in that kind of environment) up a steep bank we did locate the trail again. It was much less distinct now, and there were no more boards to help us over the boggy bits.

The day passed much like the previous one - although now, we had snow to contend with!!

It was just in patches where it must have been more sheltered or thicker or whatever - it just hadn't melted away like the majority. Mostly it was fine, a bit slippery (obviously) but fine. Occasionally though, you would hit a squidgy bit and sink in - sometimes up to your knees, now and then up to your arse!! It was the suprise that was the thing - you thought you were fine, fine, fine, ooooooooo sunken.

We also had a situation where we couldn't cross the river with the trail - because the snow had formed a kind of cliff down to the river and it was too dangerous for us to follow. That was a bit of a bind. We had already had some trouble keeping on the track because it was not very clear in places, also - where you had to cross a snow patch, often the track would go in at one height, and carry on somewhere else - but we missed it. So we seemed to be constantly going up and down the slope (we were walking around the hill) trying to relocate the trail.

The snow cliff occasion we had to walk down hill quite a way to find somewhere safe to cross - and we never really recovered. We were trying to find a hut marked on the map as a place to stop for lunch.

We crossed the river and headed back up the slope to try and find the track again. It was really hard going. Aside from the the gradient, there were also evil trees, and rocks and water. We must have been nearly on the track and nearly seeing the hut when we got a bit nervy and thought we were too high - and started to descend again!!! Finally, Jon got out his GPS and we got a grid reference so we knew where we were - too low. Back up the hill and there we were - the hut.

Disappointingly the hut was rubbish, or at least it was full of rubbish. It was more like a sort of mound hut, and was grim. We sat outside for lunch instead. A shame.

The afternoon carried on much as the morning had - constantly losing the trail as we crossed loads of snow patches, and rivers and the track was fading in and out.

We were all starting to get a bit tired - Julie especially - so Robin decided to take on her rucksack as well as his own!! Quite a feat.

We didn't quite make it to the track junction, we made it to the 'forth' river - which was nearly there. It was amazing. Just when we had decided that 8pm was quite late enough for us (no worries about it getting dark at least!) we came across what really looked like a camping field. All day the terrain had been rocks and bogs (again), but here we were in a pretty level, soft grass field!! Perfect.

We pitched up and just got into our respective tents and made dinner. The weather was a bit cold and windy and we were tired - no socialising on this night!

Sweden #4 - Abiskojaure to a hut somewhere

2006-05-29T23:59:00.000Z

And it was cold - it was cold over night, but then it was like a furnace in the morning when the sun was blazing into our tents. We were up by 9:30 - no-one could stand to be in their tent anymore it was so hot.

Breakfast was the soon to be legendary apple oatmeal stuff and coffee sat in the sunshine. Tents down and everything packed away, we finally left camp at about 11:30am for, what we thought, would be another 14km walk.

We had decided to head off on the Kungsladen start with and then to follow a smaller trail with the vague plan of ending our trek through Lapporten (more about that later) and back down into Abisko in time for the train to Kiruna on Thursday evening. Our only real worry was whether it was all a bit too far, and whether the Lapporten trail might be too snow bound for us to pass. We had no idea - but we were going to give it a go anyway!

The first couple of miles of the day were uphill - the first hills we had had really, and a fairly a pretty gentle introduction to them.

The landscape was pretty barren, and getting more so the higher we got. We quickly lost the trees and the vegetation was definately more 'scrubby' in nature. I guess this is what Tundra looks like. I remember vaguely doing something about that in GCSE Geography, and here I was - experiencing it first hand!! To be honest, it reminded me of the North Yorkshire moors. Is that wrong??

We did see our first wildlife up here though - some reindeer. There was a lot of debate about what they were, but we decided - definately reindeer. You can't imagine the excitement - intense.

Despite all the snow you can see knocking about, it was quite a warm day - on the uphill stretches I was wearing just a vest on my top half and was still roasting. It wasn't what we had expected at all. But it didn't last long. Once we got out of the direct sunlight - behind a mountain or when the clouds rolled over - the temperature dropped significantly.

We walked for about 3 hours on the Kungsladen, heading for some huts that we saw marked on the map, before stopping for lunch. We had a bit of trouble finding the huts - they are really well camoflaged (!), and when we did they were all locked up.

Not tourist huts - reindeer herders huts!!

It gave us a bit of shelter though and there was some wood for a fire, so we spent about an hour there, had chicken curry & rice and a brew and a chocolate bar - marvellous.

The scenery at that point was fantastic. We were on a broad plain but with huge snow capped mountains surrounding us.

Made me feel very small.

After lunch we pushed on - taking a bit of a soggy detour around an unexpected lake entrant - but finally sorting it out and getting onto our new track.

This track was much less distinct than what we had been used to, and was quite soggy. There were a few boards laid out, but much fewer and far between.

Our goal for that evening was to reach the huts at Peiggaluoppal that we could see marked on our map. We saw them from a long way away, but it seemed to take forever to get there. Also, we didn't know what we were going to find when we did reach them - would they be locked, would there be anywhere to pitch the tent (the ground was alternating between rocks, bogs, and rocky bogs)........ it wouldn't have been quite so bad except that the huts were about 1km down from the track - so if it had all been a nightmare, we would have had to slog back up the hill to the track to carry on. Ooooo. The excitement.

So, at about 6:30pm we reached the huts. And they were amazing. In the one hut there was some rubbish bins and some wood, axe, saw for fire making, there was a hut with 2 toilets in and the piece de resistance - the sleeping hut! This place was fantastic. 2 benches - one either side - just wide enough for 2 sleeping mats on each, a wood burning stove, a table, window, double thickness door, clothes line and even a visitor's book!! You can't even imagine how fantastic it was to find this place. We were a bit tired, a bit hungry, a bit.... you know, and then - we found the hut.

Apparently these things are maintained and restocked by the Swedish government - and what a great idea.

So, the boys got the fire going, we got some hot water on for a brew (cup-a-soup) hung our soggy socks up to dry, put out our sleeping apparatus, and got some dinner going.

It was so nice - really warm.

The only cold bit was having to go an get the water from the river - but that was a constant throughout our trip. Holding a metal water bottle (tip - take plastic!) in freezing, snow fuelled rivers until it's full - 4 times - is enough for you to wonder whether your fingers are still attached. Brrrr.

So, dinner over, we went to bed. It was only 10pm but we were all sleepy, so we went to sleep. It was funny - to start with, with the door shut it was like a sauna in there, but it cooled down really quickly.

Big bonus - it was dark in the hut!! You really appreciate the small things.