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!