We really enjoyed London. We had a great hotel in Kensington which was close to the underground except we picked the weekend where they were doing construction on that line which was a bit unfortunate but meant we got to go in red double decker buses instead.

We saw all the usual sights, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace and of course the all important M&M world! We did a fair bit of walking in London, one day just deciding to start walking from the hotel and we ended up at Big Ben (which just checking Google now… is about 5.5 kms). We had surprisingly nice weather most of the time.

We also went to a Hillsong church service on the Sunday which was held at a theater with a big gold Freddy Mercury statue on it which was definitely a new church experience for us. The church was full of lovely Australians.

Ironically, as we walked around London in general we didn’t hear a lot of English being spoken especially compared to some of the other major cities we’d been to on our travels. Despite this we were very conscious of the fact that we should be careful what we were saying to each other while we were out and about. We’d sort of gotten used saying things out loud in the hope that no one could understand us.

Before returning to our hotel one evening we had a quick look at Harrods (the department store where you used to be able to buy pet lions) which was great to see but our wallets remained safely in our pockets. Another discovery we made was a Whole Foods Market store which I fell in love with immediately and wish they would open in Australia. It’s basically a overpriced “healthy” supermarket but with a market type feel.

We really enjoyed our stay in London and not just because we had a hotel room instead of our camper. It is a beautiful, diverse city with so much history. I would definitely come back if i had the chance.

This ended our Europe part of our trip. We spent one night in an airport motel before flying to the US.

We’ve spent two nights in Amsterdam, braving the weather to see the sights. Seriously missing blue sky!

From here we will go my my Opa’s for a week and we will be doing boring stuff like cleaning out the camper to get it ready to sell and attempting to repack our suitcases under 23kgs. So I probably won’t be writing any blogs. From there we fly to London, spend four nights there and then fly to the States! Our adventure continues!

We’re a bit sad at having to say goodbye to our little red campervan where we’ve spent half of our married life and that has taken us all these kilometres/miles but at the same time looking forward to having space and bathrooms and real beds!

It was great to spend two days with my Oma, so glad that she got a chance to get to know Aaron a little bit better. From Kapelle we drove to Den Haag (The Hague). I lived in Den Haag for 6 months in 2005 so it was fun to come back with Aaron. Unfortunately the weather has not been good and we weren’t able to do quite as much as I wanted to.

We did manage to go to church where I used to go which was possibly the shortest church service we’ve ever been to! Then into the city for lunch and fresh stroopwafels which is a Dutch biscuit with two cookie layers sandwiched together with caramel syrup. You can buy them in packets but warm and made on the spot is significantly better! Yum!

Today we went to Scheveningen beach which was one of my favourite spots when I lived here. It was a lot quieter than I remembered but that’s because I went there a lot in the summer.

We made a quick stop at the Peace Palace on our way back to the camper.

Tomorrow we head to Amsterdam.

So after spending 4 months in Europe we figure we must have some worthwhile knowledge to be shared. Here’s our top 10 tips for driving in Europe:

1. Always follow the GPS.
2. Don’t always follow the GPS- sometimes your gut instinct is correct.
3. Learn your left from right.
4. Don’t drive on Hardangerfjordveg in Norway unless you’re ready to meet your Maker- the road name says it all!
5. Drive a car less than 2m high.
6. Drive a car that runs on LPG.
7. Watch out for bikes!
8. Don’t take more than 5 seconds to leave after getting back in your car after paying for petrol.
9. Don’t get out of your car and punch the person who honks at you 5 seconds after you get back in your car after paying for petrol.
10. Don’t assume that the car hurtling towards you in your lane is going to hit you.

Two of these photos are courtesy of Google, I’ll let you guess which ones.

After thawing out in Glasgow and buying a much needed heater, we set off for the coastal resort town of Southport. It made us laugh that the English think this is a good beach. I tried telling Aaron that just because its different doesn’t mean it’s a bad beach but even I couldn’t make that sound convincing. The caravan park was almost full when we got there which to us is just crazy seeing as everyone else there was English and it didn’t seem like nice camping weather to us! I had an interesting conversation with a man while doing the dishes and he commented “well, if the sun was out it would be sweltering!” Really? Sweltering? Not the word I would have used! We spent 5 nights here mostly so that Aaron could do uni work and I spent my days reading, shopping and staying warm and dry. We also were able to have some lovely Skype conversations with our families and friends.

Our next stop was Bath where we spent our sightseeing day looking at what else? But baths of course! Bath gets its name because of the underground hot spring where the Romans built a bathhouse. It was very interesting to visit.

After two nights there we went to Oxford via Stonehenge. It was great to see Stonehenge, would have liked to not lose some limbs due to frostbite though! (Just kidding obviously). Aaron kept getting mistaking for a photographer too. Or perhaps he has more Facebook/Instagram followers than he thought and is being recognised! We stayed near Oxford for four nights, Aaron again hard at work (the end is in sight!) and me staying warm. Sorry, we’re starting to become a bit boring…

From Oxford we drove to Harwich where the next day we would catch the ferry back to the Netherlands. We enjoyed our ferry trip despite a bit of seasickness, the water was quite choppy. It was more of a mini cruise ship then a ferry and it turned out we had accidentally booked luxury lounge tickets where we had peace and quiet from the high school kids on an excursion (although not from their teachers who sat in the lounge and complained about work :-p) and got free drinks and snacks. How can you “accidentally” book lounge tickets? I hear you all asking… Well… Unclear websites? The website wasn’t very clear whether you had to book separate tickets for our car and for the passengers or if passengers were included with a car. So we booked our car and the cheapest seats assuming that’s what we had to do. The “cheapest seats” turned out to be the luxury lounge as everyone else had free seats. Couldn’t do much about it by that time so we enjoyed it very much!

Now we are staying with my Oma for two nights. It’s lovely to see her again and of course our never ending joy at real beds and bathrooms. (“We’re like normal people!” Aaron says).

Could be a good children’s book title, hey?

The first thing we learned about Scotland is that it is cold! Ridiculously cold!

As I said, our first night was in a random place because we didn’t quite make it Edinburgh so that’s where we set out to in the morning. Because we made it there so early, we did a bit of exploring that afternoon and went to the movies that night. We were excited about the movies because they were in English! The next morning was Sunday so we went to church and then a bit more sightseeing in the afternoon, where we saw the Edinburgh Castle and the older side of town. Edinburgh is a beautiful city but I thought it did feel that it was a bit grey and not just because of the weather.

From Edinburgh we drove to Inverness stopping in Stirling to visit the National Wallace Monument (and have lunch). As Braveheart is Aaron’s favourite movie of all time we had to stop here! The monument consists of a tower with 4 levels and a total of 246 steps! Apart from all those stairs we enjoyed our visit here. The tower overlooks some of the important battle fields in the Scottish War of Independence and it houses Wallace’s original sword which was probably the highlight.

We arrived in Inverness and got a beautiful camping spot right on the river. It hadn’t been cold enough to buy a heater in Edinburgh but we were really regretting that decision now! We spent two nights freezing and one day exploring Loch Ness. We went to a very average exhibition on the Loch Ness and then had a look at a castle and the lake in general. We didn’t see the monster. According to the exhibition we went to there is no possible way we could have seen it either but we were still a little bit hopeful.

From Inverness we drove to Glasgow where we spent 3 nights in a hostel thawing out and getting sick. Aaron did some uni work too. We were meant to do some sightseeing but our room was too warm and cosy! From there back to England.

From Paris we drove to Calais, spent the night there and then got on the EuroShuttle in the morning to go to England. I was a bit nervous about going in a train under the sea but the whole thing went really smoothly and quickly.

We were very excited to be in England and have everything in English, the only thing we had to get used to was now driving on the left hand side of the road in a right hand drive car (massive blind spot). We spent our first night in Cambridge and enjoyed an evening of walking around the shops, finding a SIM card and eating out. Everything felt very typically English, exactly how we were expecting it.

The next day we drove to York and stopped on the way for a walk around Sherwood Forest which was fun. We enjoyed chatting to an older lady about our travels in the laundry room that night and then went into York the next morning. Aaron enjoyed visiting a music store and playing guitar for the first time since we’ve left. After lunch we set off again attempting to reach Edinburgh that night but we had to stop about an hour and a half before then as I was too tired to drive further. Our campsite that night came complete with its own castle which was a nice touch.

I better start a new Scotland blog before I go further or I’ll get an trouble for calling it the same country!

From South France we spent a day driving to Geneva. Our campsite here was not very good, right next to a quarry and near the airport but all the ones on the lake didn’t have any public transport. Geneva has a great system where visitors who stay at a hotel or campsite get free public transport for the length of the stay so we definitely wanted to make use of that!

We spent one day sightseeing in Geneva, although there’s not a whole lot to see… But it’s a very pretty city that reminded us a little bit of Canberra. There’s a lake and its surrounded by mountains and its not very busy. They also have a fountain in the middle of the lake! The Canberra one is much bigger but Geneva has the whole crystal clear, swim-able water thing happening for it. (The fact that it reminded us so much of Canberra didn’t help our homesickness!) We had a nice picnic near the lake and the fountain then wandered around for a bit. We also had a look at the outside of the United Nations building.

The next day we had a good sleep in and then headed back into the city and had a short visit with my cousin who is studying in Geneva which was very nice. Then we wandered in the park for a bit and used the free wifi there.

Switzerland is a beautiful country that we really would have liked to spend more time in but we’re slowly running out of time! We’re heading to the UK on the 10th of October and we still want to see Paris so we must continue on!

It took two nights to get out of Italy, we had one night near Florence again and one in San Remo. It was nice to see the ocean in San Remo but we were appalled by how expensive the campsite would have been had we not had our ACSI camping discount card. The site we had, which was tiny, in the middle of summer, would have been 50€! It’s ok Dad, we only paid 16.

Anyway, from there we crossed the border into France and found a spot on the coast in a place called Les Issembres, in between Cannes and St Tropez. While the beaches here are no where near as nice as our beloved Aldinga, it was a very nice spot. I was hoping for some good swimming weather but we only ended up swimming once. It seems like autumn has finally caught up to us. We stayed here for a week so that Aaron could get some uni work done (because the internet was good! yay!) and I read lots of books.

Elky: We’re staying in Bracciano will this train ticket take us there?
Tourist information guy: Where?
Elky: Bracciano
Tourist information guy: St Peter’s Basilica?
Elky: No Bracciano. (thinking- yes, we’re staying at St Peter’s Basilica? I didn’t know you could stay there!)
Tourist information guy: Is it in Italy?
Elky: yes…

This dialogue basically sums up our experience in Rome. We got lost. People who were supposed to know stuff didn’t. Public transport was useless.

We had heard that driving in Rome is dangerous so we aimed to find a campsite far enough away to avoid actually driving in Rome but close enough to have public transport into the city. The campsite in our guide promised both public transport and Internet. It did have public transport… but the bus to the train station only went every 2-3 hours and trying to park the van at the station was impossible. So we couldn’t get into the city till about 11am every day that we were there unless we wanted to get up at 6am (and we’re on holidays so no thank you!). The last bus back to the campsite was at 6pm and despite catching the train at 4 from Rome, we still missed it the first day and if it wasn’t for a nice Dutch couple who had driven to the station we would probably still be walking back to the campsite.

The two days that we spent in Rome we managed to see the Colosseum and the Vatican. We enjoyed the Colosseum, it was big and old and you could imagine gladiators fighting there and it was everything it should be. We were disappointed with the Vatican museum and the Sistine chapel, mostly because we paid too much for tickets (guess you can’t be a real tourist if you don’t get ripped off at least once!) but also there were just too many people which meant you couldn’t really appreciate it. We’re also not huge art buffs so I guess it just wasn’t our thing.

There were lots of things that we would have liked to see and do in Rome but with public transport the way it was it just wasn’t possible. We would like to come back one day but maybe we’ll stay in a 5 star hotel in the middle of the city and get a private tour guide. Haha, that would be nice wouldn’t it?

We hit a bit of a slump after Rome. Aaron got the flu and we started to get homesick/comfort sick. We’re missing our familes and friends and we’re getting a little bit tired of living in a van and having no space and things being confusing and difficult. We keep saying maybe we need a holiday from our holiday, haha. Well, where better to recover than the south of France?!

If all roads lead to Rome, we’re happy that they also lead out!

From Venice ( or there abouts) we drove to a spot just outside Florence.
Despite the slowest ticket machine in the world we managed to get on a train into Florence the next morning. All we really knew about Florence is that that’s where the David statue is but I found it quite a beautiful city that really made you feel a bit like you’re in the middle ages. We did head straight for the gallery where the statue is and stood in line for a good one and a half hours but we were expecting that. We had a delightful distraction when we ran into a friend from Canberra, she wisely had pre booked tickets so unfortunately for us she had to go rather quickly. The statue of David is very impressive which we were happy about after waiting so long. Being the art enthusiasts that we are that’s really about all we saw as we were quite hungry by this time!

For the rest of the day we just walked around and saw beautiful unique churches, some castles and more statues. Again I don’t really have the words to describe it properly but it was well worth the trip.

We decided that catching the train to Pisa was handier and cheaper than driving there so that’s what we did the following day. The friend we had run into had warned us that there’s basically nothing to do in Pisa besides see the tower so we figured we might as well make it a day trip rather than an overnight stop. Especially seeing as we had the Florence train station figured out by now! So that’s what we did. Got on the train, saw the tower, had lunch and went back. I think what I enjoyed most about Pisa was standing with my back to the tower and watching all the tourists attempt to take photos holding it up or pushing it down because it basically just looks like a field of people doing yoga or tai chi, it’s very funny to watch. We obviously had to join in but as you’ll see from our attempts I’m not sure how successful we were!

From Switzerland we drove a looooong way to Venice in one day (about 600kms). Unfortunately our gps took us about 50 kms in the wrong direction and even then we couldn’t find the caravan park that we wanted… and we couldn’t find it on the map either. We ended up completely exhausted in a massive caravan village on the coast complete with 2 restaurants, 3 ice cream shops, a supermarket, hairdresser, handbag shop, glassware, general store (but with no good Internet or information on how to get into Venice!) just before a massive storm hit. We were on the coast so our first glimpse of the Mediterranean was grey and gloomy! We ended up staying there 2 nights but spent most of the day trying to figure out how to get into Venice. Eventually we ended up driving the next morning to a different campsite right near the port where the boat went from and going straight into Venice once we’d parked the van.

Venice is unlike any place I’ve ever been to. Obviously the fact that there are no cars makes it very different to start with. Then the millions of tourists- I’m not actually sure if we met a local Venetian all day! But aside from that it’s just an amazing place. We just enjoyed wandering the streets and watching the canals. We did go on a massively overpriced gondola ride but it’s such a once in a lifetime opportunity that you just have to do it! And it was a lot of fun!

I know I haven’t written much because it’s a hard place to describe but it was our favourite stop in Italy. I’ll just have to let the pictures do the talking, although even they won’t do it justice.

We have one amusing story about pizza. When we went out for dinner at the campsite we weren’t sure whether to order one or two pizzas or what the done thing in Italy is. We ended up ordering one each and the waiter didn’t seem to mind. When we went out for lunch in Venice there were also two French girls there who wanted to share a pizza. They were told by the waiter that they had to order one each. Then the manager came along and told them very firmly that they had to order one each! So apparently the done thing is to have one each! Thankfully they are thin base pizzas so it’s quite manageable if you’re hungry!

From Salzburg we drove to a beautiful camping spot on Lake Constance (Badensee for our European readers) where we stayed 3 nights just relaxing, swimming and in Aaron’s case doing some uni work. Not only was the location beautiful but the bathrooms were the nicest campsite ones we’ve come across!

I love Austria. I’d move here in a heartbeat if all my family and friends could come too. We’d swim in the crystal clear lakes in summer, go skiing in winter, make ourselves fat on schnitzel (with noodles), cheese, apple strudel, gelati, Mozart kugeln, live in cute Austrian houses with flowers on all the railings and just generally be in awe of the beautiful scenery (and these are just some of my favorites things).

We started our Austrian travels in Vienna, although we stayed just outside it in a town called Klosterneuberg where the caravan park overlooked a beautiful cathedral and convent. Having arrived there on a Saturday night we again tried an international church on Sunday morning. Despite getting there almost an hour late because we got on the wrong train, (it had the same number and destination as the one we were supposed to go on so it was a bit confusing!) we were forgiven by the pastor who insisted it happens all the time and enjoyed a chat with an Australian family from Perth about how scary driving in Europe is.

Monday we set out to do some sightseeing, made our first souvenir purchase and walked around the beautiful old streets looking for somewhere to have lunch and could only find gelati cafes on every corner. Eventually we found somewhere to eat and then caught the tram to an area where all the important buildings are about a one minute walk from each other. We were content just to look at the outside of them. We then caught the tram back to the main cathedral, St Stephans, and caught a claustrophobic elevator to the top tower where we were rewarded with a nice view over Vienna. Then some more shopping and then “home”.

Tuesday we drove from Vienna to Salzburg which was covered in fog. We stayed at a campsite in St Gilgen right near the clearest lake I have ever seen. Unfortunately from this campsite it wasn’t very easy to get into Salzburg so the next day we moved spots. We had planned to do the Sound of Music tour on Wednesday but when we got up the weather was still miserable so we waited till the next day and we’re glad we did as Thursday was bright and sunny. The Sound of Music tour has been on my bucket list ever since I’ve known it’s existed and I really enjoyed it! Our tour guide had a very Australian sense of humour and didn’t try to make us sing (which I’d heard some of them do- I wouldn’t have minded but I think Aaron would have jumped out the moving bus).

We decided to climb every mountain and do the Eagles Nest tour on Friday with the same tour company. The SS built Eagles Nest high up in the Bavarian mountains, so actually in Germany, as a birthday present or Hitler but Hitler hated going there because he was scared of heights. They used it as a conference centre but now its just used by tourists for the fabulous views. It was definitely worth going there. We met some other Aussies, including one from Victor Harbor, on the tour and had lunch with them which was fun even if as a group we did add to the stereotype of Australians being loud and racist. Oops! We did a bit of Salzburg sightseeing that afternoon and it really is a beautiful city. It’s a lot smaller than I had expected, only about 100,000 and something people.

Sunday we headed to Switzerland but I was very sad to leave Austria.
Adieu, adieu to you and you and you!

(Sorry, all the Eagles nest photos are on Aaron’s iPad, check out his Facebook or Instagram to see some of them).

From Dresden we drove to a place called Bolkow, stayed the night there and then onto Krakow. Both these days were fairly tiring driving days as we tended to be going through small towns a lot rather than major highways. This is nice in some ways as you get to see more of how people live but it does make the days long. The other reason that made driving difficult is that our gps only works for West Europe and while we had downloaded an East Europe gps app onto the iPad it wasn’t as easy to use and we got lost both times trying to find the campsites. I was exhausted both nights and the first day in Krakow we just rested at the campsite and did some washing.

The next day we went into Krakow for some sightseeing. We found the public transport not as easy as in other cities we’ve been to so far- for example when we asked at the caravan park how often the bus goes into the city we were answered with “sometimes you have to wait 5 minutes, sometimes 20” but we figured it out eventually.

The main thing I wanted to visit in Krakow was the Oskar Schlinder factory which is now a WWII in Krakow museum. (Oskar Schlinder, made famous in the movie Schlinder’s List, was a Nazi but used his factory to rescue a thousand Jews from concentration camps). The museum was very well done and took you through rooms in chronological order of how the war impacted the Jews in Krakow. It was good background information for our trip to Auschwitz the following day.

Auschwitz was our main reason for going to Poland and while Aaron was eager to put his history degree to use I still hadn’t made up my mind if I wanted to go or not. I eventually decided to but I don’t think anything prepares you for it. There really aren’t any words to describe the horrors people went through in these death camps. Going there makes the whole thing very real, not just something you learn about at school or in documentaries, and the sheer volume of people who died there is just unthinkable. It was a very somber experience and something we talked about for several days afterwards.

From Auschwitz we drove to Slovakia for one night and then headed to Vienna. On the way we stopped at Bojnice Castle which is an amazing castle which we enjoyed walking around through the gardens. We had lunch in the town there with castle views. Then we drove to Vienna, Austria.

Saturday morning we set off for Dresden, Germany. We picked Dresden because it was the largest city about 200 kms from Prague. What we still can’t get used to here is that 200 kms doesn’t necessarily mean 2 hours driving like it does in Australia. Our campsite was a little bit out of the city of Prague in a small town which being a Saturday meant there was a market and we got stuck in a traffic jam about 3 minutes into our trip. Thankfully it didn’t take too long to get out of. About an hour later there was an accident on the highway and we got detoured through more small towns and another traffic jam, this time which lasted about an hour. Late afternoon we arrived in Dresden, still with the task of finding a hospital ahead of us.

Fortunately the hospital was a short drive from the campsite. Our first challenge was the information office where the man spoke no English but eventually was able to point us in the direction of the emergency room. After this we most people spoke English so that was very helpful. Their main concern seemed to be that because we didn’t have German insurance (only travel insurance) we would have to pay in cash that day but that didn’t bother us as we had already anticipated that. Anyway, I’ll cut this short because it’s not very interesting but after several X-rays it was determined that the ankle wasn’t broken or fractured but that it was a torn ligament. Aaron has a splint to wear for 6 weeks and crutches if he wants them (which we mostly took as we thought they might come in handy at crowded touristy places but he hasn’t used them at all yet).

Sunday morning we found another international church with very welcoming people from all different countries and an Australian family who were also visiting that day. They were having a church lunch that day which provided us not only with free lunch but more opportunities to talk to people which we enjoyed. The only mildly embarrassing thing was that they all asked things like “how are you enjoying Dresden?” or “what are you doing in Dresden?” and then we had to sheepishly answer back “um… we only came for the hospital…”

After two nights in Dresden, we set out for Poland.

From the castle we drove to Prague. Our first impressions of the Czech Republic was that it looked like a mix between Australia- flat with lots of brown fields and what we imagine a Soviet country would look like- with grey factories and run down buildings, not that we would say that to any Czech people! We found out later that they were in the middle of a heat wave which was unusual for them and therefore the dead fields.

We ended up stayed in Prague for a week, mostly so that Aaron had some time to work on uni assignments. We had a great campsite with a pool so I was entertained while Aaron was hard at work. The campsite also had a ridiculously cheap restaurant which we ate at a couple of times. We had read that it’s rude to say that things are cheap in the Czech Republic because it implies a bad economy but it really was cheap!!!

The Sunday that we were there we went to an international church and made friends with a young American couple who invited us out for lunch and then offered to show us around the city a bit. It was really nice of them to give up their Sunday afternoon for us and it’s always nice to be shown a city from people who actually live there as they know all the best spots… to get ice cream!

On the last day that we were there, a Friday, we went on an actual tour with a guide around the city. Prague really is a beautiful city full of amazing buildings and a huge amount of history. Apparently a lot of movies get filmed there as well, Mission Impossible and XXX being two that we had actually heard of. We also went on a boat ride with a really funny guide who while we were passing a small canal with ducks sleeping on either side commented “this is like McDonalds drive thru for a Czech!” (Duck is one of their traditional meals).

After all the walking we did on our tour Aaron realised that yes, maybe he should get his ankle looked at as it wasn’t getting any better. Because I understand German a tiny bit better than I understand Czech and the chances of the doctor speaking English was higher we decided the best thing to do was head back to Germany even though our original plan was to head up to Poland. So Saturday we headed back to Germany to the city of Dresden.

Berlin has been an adventure! When we first got to the campsite we wanted to stay at they didn’t have any room but there was a hostel there as well which we ended up staying in for 2 nights. This worked out better for Aaron’s ankle anyway which by this time was quite sore & swollen. We debated going to the hospital but decided not to.

The next day we used public transport to visit my old neighbours Carsten & Verena. They took us out to lunch at a Turkish place & then Carsten took us sightseeing in their car. We saw the section of the Berlin wall that is still up, the Jewish memorial, the Brandenburg gate and the Reichstag.

The next day we set out to find a new campsite which proved more difficult than we thought it would be. It didn’t help that our gps had decided to give up. The first one we got to was full. By the time we got to the next one it was the reception was closed for 2 hours. ( a lot of caravan parks here have what’s called a middag pause, sort of like a siesta, no one is allowed to drive their cars & you have to be as quiet as possible) The carpark was a nice shady spot and it looked like the caravan park had room so we thought we would have lunch and read for a bit and wait for the reception to open. However once the reception was open & we walked through the caravan park to get there, we felt like we’d walked into a ghost town. There was literally no one there. There were caravans but no people. It was very creepy. There was someone at reception but they didn’t speak English & jus told us there was no room, even though there clearly was. We were pretty discouraged at this point but thinking back on it we are glad we didn’t stay at that weird place. We sat in the carpark a little while longer trying to figure out where to try next. Then I decided our van would look much better with a big dent in it by backing into a tree. While we were recovering from that a Polish family came up to us asking if we knew of any other campsites because they had been rejected by the creepy caravan park as well. We bonded over our mutual rejection & told them where we were going to try next. Thankfully the next caravan park was normal & had room. But that was Monday which we felt had been a bit of a waste of the day but anyway!

Tuesday we set out to do some more sightseeing. We did one of those hop on/hop off buses which meant Aaron didn’t have to walk as much & that was fun. We went to Checkpoint Charlie & the museum there which is filled with amazing stories of how people escaped from the East to the West. Things like homemade scuba tanks, two suitcases joined together to fit one person inside & a flying fox that was used along the power lines are some examples of how people escaped. Unfortunately the museum was very hot & stuffy and we didn’t spend as much time there as we would have liked to.

We found that without Carsten as our tour guide it was a bit harder to get by with my very limited German. We’ve been a bit spoilt in the Scandinavian countries where everyone speaks English. Here we get a very mixed response.

Wednesday we did some shopping & then had dinner at Carsten & Verena’s. I really liked the area where they lived, I probably could never live there myself, but it was cool to see. Its a very multicultural, busy, colourful area. We are finding it hard to imagine that cities like New York are going to be even bigger & even busier!

From Berlin we travelled south to stay in a castle hotel for my birthday. It’s a beautiful area and we’ve really enjoyed the luxury of a ensuite & comfortable bed. It’s fun to imagine what the castle would have been like hundreds of years ago. Yesterday we visited other castle ruins nearby. We’ve been here two nights now & are driving to Prague this afternoon which is only about 150kms from here.

Till then, Elky

Photos are still refusing to work, sorry!

Ok, trying to catch up on the blog, its hard to remember what we’ve done when we’re this far behind!

We spent a day sightseeing Oslo which we both enjoyed. We went on a boat to a Viking ship museum which had excavated boats, treasures & skeletons from the 1100s or something like that. The amount of detail in all the wood carving is amazing. We also visited the Nobel Peace museum, mostly because it has to be done. The Oslo town hall is where the Nobel Peace prize is given out so that was cool too.

We were in Oslo on a Sunday so after 4 weeks of backsliding we went to the Oslo International Church which we enjoyed. It was pretty small & everyone had to introduce themselves & say which county they were from. As soon as the service was over a girl comes up to talk to us & it turns out she lived in Adelaide for 3 years & went to the same uni Aaron did around the same time. So we had a long chat with her about cultural differences & such things.

After Oslo we spent 2 days driving in the direction of Stockholm but as I wasn’t feeling very well we never made it to the city but spent our time at the caravan park doing some washing & relaxing which was kind of nice but nothing very exciting to tell.

We then spent 3 days driving to Berlin. One exciting thing that happened on this trip was that on the middle day we managed 3 meals in 3 countries: breakfast in Sweden, lunch in Denmark, dinner in Germany which for me has been a bucket list item since year 7. The meals were not very exciting so we may have to do it again later on in our trip.

The only other “exciting” thing that happened was that Aaron sprained his ankle quite badly the first night in Germany but more on that in the next installment. Also all the Oslo photos are on Aaron’s iPad so I can’t post any here, sorry!

Hi again!

Yes, we havent posted a blog for a while, yes we are slack, yes to everything else, but its not our fault!

Im trialing a new blogging app…and it seems to lack a spell check and im too tired to bother proof reading this…so no giggles please! Also the images arent working at the moment…so bear with me.

This is the best internet connection we have had for a while and thus is the first blog we have…bothered to post for a while.

Ok! Where did we leave off…(quickly reads last blog post.) Copenhagen? Okay, we’ve been to sweden and most of norway since then!

Okay, enough of this banter, you want details! Details you shall have!

After ditching denmark, we travelled to sweden and stayed in a random camping spot which would have benefitted from less boggy grass, in our case at least. This photo actually makes it look really nice though…

Swedish Campsite

We then set out the next day and found a better campsite in a nice forest and didnt have any trouble with the bears, which was pleasant.

That very day we stumbled upon an ancient ruin of a medievel castle (after following the signs) and explored it with great joy and enthusiasm. That was fun i guess. This castle was built on a cliff overlooking a massive lake so i guess i can see why they built it there

Lake something-or-other

Yes. Thats a lake.

The next day we kind of stayed around the same area and went to visit some aquaduct which was important for some reason. We had the honour of watching some kyakers pass through the ..water..gates? Nixon was nowhere to be seen. Cool stuff as you can imagine.

We then went to an old barrow and checked it out, which i did find a little more interesting, but then we ran back to the car after hearing some growling. Must have been those bears again…

That night we stayed in a denmark sized caravan park, at the foot of some mountain and looking out over some lake.

The next day was fairly uneventful, we drove as far as we could to the norwegian border and stayed there for the night in another caravan park on a lake. We didnt visit the volvo gods, who apparently lived nearby, but we might on the way back.

FINALLY we crossed over to norway after staying near the volvo gods and it has been amazing here. The scenery is breathtaking everywhere you look here, its just beautiful. There are also tunnels here which are very kindly built to allow you to go through mountains instead of around them, which is not fun. 25 km tunnels with stuff all lighting isnt very fun either, but i guess its better than getting squashed between a bus and a cliff, like we almost did.

Amazing looking Fjords in Norway

We stopped in Oslo for 5 seconds before continuing on to Bergen, which was an amazing, two day drive. We got so high that we got to actually get out and er…play..in the snow! Pretty cool considering its actually summer here (you wouldnt know it though, im currently stuck inside a kiosk while a terential downpour stands between me and the camper)

Lord Snow

Bergen was best visited by train and then foot, as our camper was too hard to fit into normal car parks. We wandered around, had pizza in a chinese shop then decided to catch the cable car up to the top of high hrothgar or whatever it was called. Epic view up there and stacks of walking trails, it made us feel like proper hikers!

Instead of walking down, we decided to be lazy and caught the cable car back down. It felt less safe with more people in it than last time.

View over Bergen

Since then we have travelled back to Oslo and are currently waiting for the rain to stop so we can go back to our little home.

See ya later!

Aaron

We realise this post is a bit late but we’ve been feeling blog lazy this week.

Wednesday we caught the train from our campsite to Copenhagen to spend the day there. It was the hottest day we’ve had so far, apparently it was about 25 but it felt much hotter!

We wandered through the city, trying to stay in the shade, up to the Amalienborg Palace which is the royal residence. We didn’t see Fredrick or Mary (I’m actually not sure if that’s where they live) but we did see the changing of the guard which although not spectacular was fun to watch. After that we set off in search of food and had a very expensive hamburger. We would have liked to go on a canal tour but the line was too long to wait in the heat.

We then walked in the direction of Rosenburg Castle but first stopped off in the park just in front of it. As previously mentioned it was boiling hot & the Danes seemed to have flocked to the park to sun bake and play in the fountains. Since it seemed an acceptable practice, we dangled our feet in one of the fountains for a little while. Once we’d cooled off a bit we went to the castle, which is more like a museum now although some of the rooms are preserved in the same way they were when the kings lived there. In the basement you can see some of the royal treasury and the wealth there is quite astounding. The castle was probably the highlight of my day, although I think Aaron’s was the fountain!

We took most of our pictures from the day on my actual camera so we don’t have any to post here. Despite the heat, we enjoyed visiting Copenhagen & it was a nice city.

Wednesday was our last day in Denmark but I’ll write about Sweden in the next blog.

Till then, Elky

When I was a kid, my brother & I loved Lego (he obviously loved it more than me, to the point that he still collects it) & we used to love getting the latest Lego catalogues & wishing we had all the money in the world to buy all the sets we wanted. In these catalogues there would also be one page advertising Legoland which was very far away but looked amazing. Yesterday Aaron & I got to go there & I have to admit that it was really the only thing I had on the agenda for Denmark. It’s basically a theme park for small children but also has lots of Lego models of all kinds of things but mostly landmarks in Europe & the US. A comment from Aaron was “Oh, so that’s what Amsterdam looks like!” (seeing as we actually haven’t been there yet).

We had read on another traveller’s blog that it’s actually free to get in half an hour before the rides shut but the park still stays open for another hour after that & seeing as we weren’t there for the rides we thought we’d give this a go. I was a bit worried that the information was incorrect or that we would be the only freeloaders there but this wasn’t the case at all & after lining up for 10 minutes or so with the other freeloaders we were allowed in, saving us around €80.

Denmark is a country that makes us want to be kids again. Every caravan park we have been to has these amazing playgrounds full of equipment that’s no longer legal in Australia. Legoland also made us want to be kids again or at least have some of our own so we didn’t look so out of place. We considered asking someone if we could just borrow their child for an hour or so but thought the language barrier might be an issue… or the lawsuit… Anyways we had a lot of fun!

Before I finish this blog which my husband desperately wants me to as we need to go to the shops I need to tell you about what happened on our way to the campsite yesterday afternoon. Apparently 1/4 left on our petrol gauge actually means empty so halfway through a roundabout in the Danish countryside the car stopped working… Neither Aaron or I have ever run out of petrol in Australia but of course it would happen in a foreign country! According to Serena the nearest petrol station was 5kms away. Aaron decided to door knock on a couple of nearby houses to see if anyone could help us. While no one had diesel on them, one man was able to tell us that there was a petrol station just 1km down the road. Aaron set off, while I got to stay & read my book. About 45 mins later a quad bike comes roaring up next to me… with Aaron sitting on the back! Aaron waved his new Danish friend goodbye & I begged him to explain. Unfortunately this petrol station was nothing more than 2 petrol pumps with automatic payment so there were no jerry cans for sale. Aaron again had to ask around for help and eventually one man said, “wait here, I’ll be back in 5 mins”. He comes back & said “this guy will help you” & our knight in shining armour filled up a jerry can & took Aaron back on his quad. I found the whole situation very amusing as Aaron thinks motorbikes are dangerous & here he was riding on the back of one, without a helmet, half on the highway & half on the bike path. We’re very thankful that the situation wasn’t worse though! Lesson learned: fill up the car earlier & carry a spare jerry can.

Today we drove across the three main islands of Denmark tojust outside Copenhagen where we will stay two nights. We had to drive across a very long bridge joining two of the islands which was quite an experience. Tomorrow we’ll catch the train into Copenhagen & explore.

Till then, Elky

Due to some issues with the blog client, we haven’t been able to upload anything since getting to Denmark, but it appears all good now! Thanks jbng!

Anywho, Denmark is amazing, we’ve been here for 4 nights now, generally just driving from one historical thing to another, with the exception of a wildlife park we went to on Saturday, which is far less lame than it sounds. There are basically just boardwalks barely keeping you above well…massive brown bears!

That was cool, much cooler than losing our car keys on the first night we got here!? We found them after 3 hours, don’t ask Elky where…

Annoyances like that aside, Denmark is gorgeous, I’ve been loving the scenery and can’t help but picture Vikings running everywhere yelling and carrying on.

We also went to a ‘Viking village’ which was basically a reconstructed village with costume actors walking around. It was actually really well done.

Today we are off to legoland so let’s see how that goes…then through Copenhagen on our way to Sweden, which is exciting!

Pumped iz brew!

Aaron.

As you may have guessed, Germany is totally different to Holland.

Everybody drives really fast here, Australian cops would love it!

We only stayed for one night in a place I think was called westerstede, about 25 km out of Oldenburg as we are simply on our way through to Denmark which we hope to arrive in today, although by the time this posts, we would have already gotten there and used the wifi to upload this blog. As I write, Elky is struggling to push our camper past 110 on a road where most people cruise at 160, it’s a great feeling. We just passed a sign cheerily saying ‘finger vom handy’ … I’m not sure what that means.

Camping was only €11 which was great until construction workers started digging up ground next to us at some silly hour, then when I showed my face they asked us to move…I think…his English wasn’t much better than my German.

Anyway, this is making me feel car sick…

We will visit Germany properly on our way out of Scandinavia.

Thanks for calling.

Aaron

Hello again,

We have been more or less under house arrest for the last few days because the fridge in camper doesn’t seem to be working. Well it is working when the engine is on, but doesn’t want to work just on the battery when the engine is switched off, which is a problem!

Why is this a problem? I’m glad you asked!

A fridge that only works while driving is only useful to travelers who never stop driving, because as soon as you stop, the food begins to warm up again…slowly and starts to go off…slowly.

We have been staying at Elkys uncles caravan park since saturday and are hopefully getting it fixed today so we can finally drive to Denmark. Exciting stuff.

On another note, a friend of mine who shall remain initialed only TB (not tuberculosis) has asked for an economic climate report of each country we visit, so I shall try to sum up holland based on the 3 shops I’ve been to since landing in this very flat country:

1. Insect repellant is not cheap

2. Petrol is not cheap.

3. Everything else is cheap.

Food prices are phenomenal here compared to Australia, even when you take the €/aus$ into account, it’s still great.

A packet of strawberries is around $5 in aus, but here they are €1! Which is $1.20 aus approx.

We went to an IKEAish camping store yesterday to buy supplies, such as iPad chargers. Luckily Elky can understand Dutch, because they told us to go turn our lights off after being there for 45 mins! Luckily the engine still worked.

Anyway, we are off to see if we can get our fridge working today…I guess I’ll mention it when/ if it gets fixed.

I’m Veronica Corningstone and thanks for stopping by.

Aaron.

Since arriving on Monday we have slept lots, been awake at odd hours, been hungry at even odder (yes, I know that’s not a word) hours, visited my relatives and bought a new home!

My dad, who is here for 2 months, arrived a week before us and had been looking for a campervan for us already. He found a great one on the way down from where he was staying to my Oma’s and we picked it up on Friday. It’s a red Mercedes- probably the only one we will ever own in our lives. Dad was very concerned with finding one that had a long enough bed, which is a common problem for tall people like my dad and Aaron. What he didn’t think about was that with our campervan Aaron is actually too tall for the driver’s seat due to the oversized steering wheel & that you can’t move the seat back very far because the kitchen bench is directly behind it. We thought about trying to sell this one & buying another one but everything else about this one is great & that meant delaying our trip until we found another good one so we’ve decided to keep it. Which means that I will be doing all the driving! Having never driven on the other side of the road before (well, Aaron hasn’t either but males are supposed to pick this sort of thing up quickly, aren’t they?) it was quite daunting at first. Dad gave me a quick driving lesson & it felt exactly like the first time I drove a car on the road when I was 17. I am starting to get the hang of it though, haven’t crashed it yet & even did some overtaking at 120kms so I think we’re going to be ok.

After picking it up it was already quite late so we found a caravan park nearby & stayed the night there. We had bought some things that we needed but still needed a few basics like an electricity cord so I think the park owner thought we were a bit crazy. Nevertheless we survived our first night quite well. The first thing we did the next morning after getting lost on the way to the shops is buy a GPS! Her name is Serena & she is my new best friend. After that we drove to my Opa’s, spent the afternoon with him & then drove to my uncle’s caravan park. His caravan park is in the north of Holland in a small town called Vierhuizen, which directly translates to Four Houses. While it does have more than that, it is a very small town with not much to do but we’ve been enjoying the small bits of sunshine & are looking forward to eating out in my uncle’s pub tonight. Today being Sunday all the shops are closed so we have to wait till tomorrow to stock up our camper with some more essentials (like the electricity cord that we still don’t have- stupid tourists that we are!) and then if everything is in order we will probably leave here on Tuesday.

Well, I think I’ve probably bored you enough with all those details but at least there were no obscure movie references :-p

Till next time, Elky

We have arrived! … Yesterday!

After a horribly long flight from Singapore to Germany, a connecting flight to Amsterdam and then almost 3 hours worth of navigating a somewhat confusing public transport system (not just confusing because it was all in Dutch) we finally arrived at Elkys grandmas house in Kapelle, a lovely little village in southern holland.

Being absolutely wasted after so much travel, we didn’t do much and really just ate then slept.
It’s weird here though, coming from an Australian winter, because it really doesn’t get dark here at all…at least not until around 11pm or so (apparently, we were in bed by 8pm), then is shining brightly as if it was lunchtime at freaking 5:30 in the morning! This is madness! This is HOLLAND!

We walked to the shops today, such a great little town, I keep feeling like we are walking through a purpose built tourist town, but no, this is what their houses actually look like everywhere. (see below for a photo I took from google images of a street down the road from me)

We got to our first european supermarket, and it is incredibly cheap here for food that kinda tastes better than ours back home. Awkward.

Tomorrow we are picking up our campervan, or the day after… Or something.

Anyway…I still seem to be the only one posting blogs…Elky might one day if we’re lucky :-p

Smiley.

Poking tongue.

Aaron.

Well today was our final day in Australia before going away for 6 months…so crazy!

We spent the day with Justin and Steph, my lovely brother and sister in laws. We got up to some super crazy stuff! Including but not limited to:

1. Riding the ferry

2. Walking through Lunar Park without buying anything

3. Buying overpriced macaroons

4. Arguing with the barman over the meaning of ‘2 for 1’

All in all it was a great day which we ended with a literal bang as we watched fireworks being fired off for several minutes over Darling Harbour.

I can’t believe how crazy the trains are in Sydney! They have like double decker trains and multi story stations! Small town Adelaide has never even heard of such wonders! Crazy!

Anyway, bed time for me, we have a massive flight tomorrow…can’t wait.

Auf weirdersen….?

Aaron

Aghh!

For those of you who don’t know, my darling wife and I are leaving on Sunday 8th of July to visit Europe and the USA and we shan’t mean to come back…at lest until January sometime.

We felt it was necessary and clever to chronicle our 6 month journey via the blog you are now reading.

Twas a cold and frosty morning at the Eschauzier Farm