roemin around

Well its the end of another trip. We did 4400 miles during the 80 days we were away (should have been able to go around the world I suppose) and stayed on 39 sites in 9 countries. What were the highlights? Impossible to say, there were so many and so varied. Firsts? - Rosemary caught her first fish in the sea, we saw firefly - never seen them before, a ten mile road tunnel under the Alps, a small deer skipping down the road - only ever seen the road signs before! Slovenia and Croatia - never been there before, that's just a few. As a means of keeping everyone informed how/where we were, then the blog seems to have worked, once I gave up looking for WiFi hot-spots and used mobile phone updates instead - but who knows what next years technology will bring.

Back home this morning - in the rain! We actually stopped the night, part way home, in the Thurrock motorway services amongst the juggernauts. Not the most attractive stopover, but it was free (thats another story!) so we treated ourselves to an English breakfast in the cafe before returning. I shall be uploading some more photos to add to earlier blogs over the next few days.

To anyone over a certain age this can only mean one thing - Radio Luxembourg! Remember 'tuning in' on the radio (home made even in my case) to listen to the top twenty countdown on Sunday evening? Were you an Ovaltiney? Well, Radio Luxembourg appeared as a dot on our map of Luxembourg so we just had to go and see what was there. Sure enough there were the old medium wave aerial towers and the transmitter building, maybe even the studio's. So here's the photo that takes me back 50 years.

Its nearly 'gooey gnome' time and we are in Belgium near the French border for our last but one night away. Hope it has stopped raining at home. We visited Ypres to learn something about the 1st WW battles and the huge loss of life that occurred around the Flanders fields. The whole area is a memorial to the soldiers who died here. The Messen gate is just one example and has the names of the 54,000 commonwealth British soldiers who were lost and never found. It made the Daily Express headline of the day 'Killer storm hits Britain - 4 dead' seem completely irrelevant.

We are in Luxembourg now in an area known as little Switzerland, very pretty but no snow. Had a quick look at the Rhine and then crossed the border back into France (and motorway tolls) near Strasbourg. It was a nice day yesterday until about 10pm then we had 3 cracking storms again and another this morning - they seem to be following us around. 255 miles from Calais now and back on schedule. We took the van out for the day and went to Vianden which is near the German border and has a huge castle on the hill overlooking the town. We went 500m up the hill on a chair lift and then walked back down the hill to the castle and into the old town.

We are definitely on our way home now! We are in Germany about half way between Basle in Switzerland and Strasbourg in France, just off the A5 motorway. Judging by the number of NL plates around the site this is a popular route south and stop off for dutch caravaners. The van is creaking under the load of Italian wine and Swiss chocolate (and we still have Belgium and France to shop yet). I will have a day off driving tomorrow while Rosemary does some washing, then it will be off to Luxembourg for a couple of nights before hopefully finally reaching Calais on Wednesday evening for the ferry on Thursday.