Andy & Gillie's Big Adventure!: Winter is Coming...

Having avoided winter for the last two years, we are now facing the ugly prospect of a British winter in London, as we head back to reality (and work). Sort of.

We certainly had our comeuppance the night we posted the last blog, bragging/complaining/smugly commenting on the heat. That night we experienced not the Mother, but the Extended Family of all thunderstorms. We were woken at about 3.45 with monster flashes of lightning and thunder exploding literally overhead (you know how you count after the lightning to see how far away the storm is when the thunder rumbles – well there was no time between the lightning and thunder and we didn’t need to open our eyes for the flashes). This went on for about three hours, accompanied by someone emptying about a million gigantic buckets of water onto the camper. No leaks though!

Amazingly, the campsite wasn’t washed away and we managed to pack up and push off in good time. As did almost the whole of Italy, it seemed. The road north was very busy and we took a long time reaching Lake Garda for an overnight, before heading into Austria. It was very hot again, by the way.

Our experience in Austria was, well, mixed. Having driven a long way over the Brenner Pass (much easier than we’d expected) in very hot weather (did we already mention that?), we reached our chosen site and turned up at the reception kiosk all smiles, asking if he had space for us for one night. The miserable old git couldn’t have been happier when he told us they were full, and went on to say we shouldn’t be in a campervan, but should be camping in tents. Gave us a right lecture. We told him he was in the wrong job. Bastard. Anyway, we found another glorious campsite overlooked by the Alps, just 15 kilometres further on our way. With really friendly people. Serve him right. Bastard.

We left Austria the next day and started our trek through Germany to Berlin, stopping at a lovely lakeside site and watching people practicing their water skiing skills, or lack of. Then Dresden (or just outside, via a short hop into Czech Republic – because we could)), followed by a long haul to Berlin, where we found another great site right by a canal, an easy ride by bus and train into the city. Again very hot.

Berlin is a big city. We decided to catch a hop-on, hop-off bus and hopped off at Checkpoint Charlie to follow the route of the old Berlin Wall. It was very hot and the wall was quite long, enabling us to see quite a lot of Berlin that the guidebooks don’t show you. It was a sobering experience, but well worth doing. As we caught the wrong train, we didn’t get back to our campsite till nearly 9 pm. Oh well.

The next day saw us cart across Germany to a strange little site just outside Hamburg. Rather foolishly, we listened to the seductive tones of our Google Maps lady offering us the opportunity to save minutes by taking a different route to the one we had chosen and ended up doing just what we didn’t want to - driving right through the centre of Hamburg, Reeperbahn and all! A bit stressful, it has to be said.

From Hamburg it was a trek across the border to Denmark and a place called Ronaes Strand – another lovely (but expensive) campsite on the island of Fyn. We had wanted to stop at a marina camping area in Middelfart, for obvious reasons, but it was full. Anyway, if we had, Gillie would probably never have had the shower ‘experience’ that she did. I’ll leave that hanging in case she wants to expand. If not, it’s something to save for countless dinner parties, no doubt.

The next day, we stopped at Korsør marina after the first of two really expensive bridges through Denmark and experienced one of the best sunsets we have seen in nearly two years of travelling – those of you who inhabit Faceworld will have seen a picture. I’ll include it again here for those who don’t.

After The second-really-expensive Bridge (‘Back to the Beginning’ etc), we drove into Sweden to visit our friends Hans and Eva from Claygate (actually they’re from Sweden and were staying in their summer house at Mellbystrand), where we spent two gorgeous days with great food and a never-to-be-forgotten canoeing trip on the lakes near Ybys. Thanks again for your wonderful hospitality. Looking forward to seeing you both again for our picnic in Bushy Park and the Jam Session from Hell!!!!!

Sadly the time came to say cheerio, and we set off for a long few days driving through northern Germany and on to The Netherlands for the ferry back from Hook of Holland. That’s actually tomorrow, as we’re sitting at another lovely marina in Ijsselstein for our last night. It’s a bit breezy, but pleasant enough to sit out and enjoy a couple of sherbets as we no doubt reminisce over some of the stuff we’ve done and seen.

Sitting on the ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich, finishing off. We hope you’ve enjoyed our journey and happy that you were able to share some of it – however vicariously – with us.

A few observations:

· Italians are marginally worse drivers than Americans. Peruvians have a permanent death wish;

· Most countries don’t understand the concept of the indicator, or indeed simple road ‘manners’;

· We’ve read about 140 books between us – most good, some shite;

· You can’t buy matches from a supermarket in Italy – even if they sell cigarettes;

· Brexit: everyone who fucked up has fucked off;

· Donald Trump is still a *&^%;

· We caught up with old friends in seven different countries and made new ones in 22;

· Added 52 Facefriends

· Had over 9,000 likes for various posts and pix on FB (made that up – it’s been a lot, though!);

· We took over 10,000 photos and have kept (so far) only 7,000+, so dinner parties will be a bundle of laughs in the future;

· This is the 43^rd blog post, with over 2,000 page views and 1,000,000 readers (that last bit was a lie);

· 249,146 words written (that was a lie too);

· From Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, we have visited 23 countries – including our brief return to the UK – seen seven Wonders (Natural and Ancient) of the World;

· We’ve walked or bussed around more than 30 cities, Memphis and Lisbon stand out;

· We’ve seen and done a lot, but we still have things to do, places to see;

· Learnt more than 40 tunes on the ukulele (sort of), so beware if you see me holding something pink and shiny (no, not that!!!);

· Driven 38,935 miles, or 62,660 km, or more than 1½ times around the circumference of the Earth, most of them in flip flops and shorts;

· We still enjoy each other’s company even though we’ve been joined at the hip for nearly two years.

That’s pretty much it. It’s been a blast. Looking forward to seeing some/many of you soon. Please look us up if you’re in London. Lots of love x

PS. The final PS!! This is it; we set sail five minutes ago and are now leaving Europe. Does this sound familiar? I suppose we are ‘Brexitting,’ where did that terrible word come from? We are dressed in jeans, socks and jumpers, our waterproofs are near at hand as it was cold and wet in Holland when we woke up this morning. A sign of things to come perhaps. But no! It is still July and Summer has only just started, even though it feels very Septemberish to us.

We’ve been very lucky with the weather in northern Europe; Germany, Denmark and Sweden have been amazingly warm and sunny. Perhaps we are carrying the sun on our backs and from tomorrow it will be ‘cracking the flags’ in the UK? As we are heading to Edinburgh on Thursday and sitting in a field for three days near Banbury the week after, we certainly hope so.

We’ve had a wonderful time for the last three months and seen parts of Europe that we certainly want to return to. Overall we’ve been away for 22 months, a trip of a lifetime and no regrets whatever. However it’s now time to return to ‘real’ life, whatever that means. We hope it means, sleeping in a bed without climbing up a ladder first, having our own personal shower facilities and not having to keep an eye on how much water is in the tank then having to refill it regularly using a hose!

What we will miss is waking up in the morning and (having climbed down the ladder) sitting outside for breakfast, watching cormorants diving and splashing in the water a few feet from us. Soooo many memories… turn the ferry round!! We’re quite excited really, about coming back and seeing all our friends and family again. Emily will be joining us in a couple of weeks, so lots to look forward to and enjoy.

So it’s goodbye from me and it’s goodbye from him, thanks for being with us…xxxxxx