Merry Christmas all

I realise it's slightly late but I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forwards to the New Year. A couple of photos to amuse - I received some bootees (yes, really) from my parents, as did my sister. An odd choice perhaps, but they are indeed warm, and of course at the cutting edge of fashion.

But the most amazing thing ever was the joy that is SingStar - if there wasn't already reason enough to leave London for the beauty of the countryside and of course the company of les Griffs then there is now! T&E this means you. I still haven't forgotten being humbled to the strains of Belinda Carlisle - it's payback time. And of course I won't spend my jobless days practising like a maniac...

In sadder news W and I have decided to forgo drinking for January once again, so as well as being foul weatherwise we shall no doubt complain about the lack of booze to compensate for being cooped up indoors. Again, SingStar will have to come to the rescue, though sober karaoke is not something I have hitherto been familiar with.

And no more of this then.

Kept in the dark

Apparently Will has been moonlighting and actually using his Classics degree:

Will in using degree shocker

Sadly the "Latin lovers" of the title didn't quite turn out to be Gael Garcia Bernal etc. as I had hoped. But more to the point, I knew married couples were supposed to keep secrets from each other but still! I suppose I shall now have to tell him I was born a man.

New writing career beckons

Finally got an email published on the Guardian OBO site!! Day two, afternoon session for those who can be bothered to seek it out, closely following Rachel's comment. Ah the glory... although they did seem to think I would be embarrassed for some reason, obviously unaware of my utter lack of shame. Still slightly recovering from very late nights required to "watch" the Ashes (internet-only, no Sky), and of course the alcholic facilitator of said nights' wakefulness.

Had an altogether pleasant stay in London, managing to see lots of people over the weekend, but was forced to cope with the vagaries of non-tube public transport, misanthropy-inducing crowds, those charming yellow murder signs ("were you here on ...?") and grime. Although I can complain about being stuck out here when bored on my own, I can finally admit I am glad we moved out of London - well that's only taken me two years! Now for the next stage in my master plan, to encourage others to move out too.

Pies

Maybe it's just because I'm bored, sitting at home all day by myself (sniff sniff!) but I loved this.

"pies are supposed to be meat and potato and anything else just isn't normal"

Oh, how I agree. PS has anyone got Sky? No real reason...

The End.

We're back at home now, after managing to leave Nimes the following day, stopping at Limoges (joyous Campanile) and then my parents' place near Saumur. Managed to book a crossing for Sunday from Le Havre to Portsmouth and arrived back in Salisbury at about 11.30pm. V tired but glad the van made it - worked out we have travelled almost 15,oookm in total, through 12 countries. And only one breakdown!!

I've managed to catch a cold immediately on returning, though it's actually warmer here than it was in France, so now it's just a question of filling in the time until the Ashes start. I suppose some sort of employment will be in order, worse luck. Anyway this blog will now revert to the irregular updating of shafts of wisdom (or pictures of funny animals) and so your European correspondent signs off.

Italy photos - Verona

Italy photos - Venice

Suggest anyone who wants to visit goes there quick, as it is already sinking fast

Photos again - Croatia

Split, also countryside around

Yet more photos, this time from Hungary

Statue Park = ace





















Thermal lake, Heviz



Communist-style campsite

Photos from Austria

Wiping bugs off the windscreen (not a pleasant task)




Stadtpark, Vienna



Karlskirche, Vienna,outside which some teen band (Kpunkt?) were performing

Le Mistral

Holed up in Nimes as we are unable to drive the van due to 100km/hour winds, yes, we have hit the famous Mistral. Unable to visit the Camargue as well, as we were very nearly blown off the road this morning, so decided to sit it out, having made a whopping 25km today when we meant to do 300km. Annoying but at least we are still in one piece (each, technically!) as it was seriously scary at some points. Hopefully we will be on the road again by Saturday, as Will needs to be at work next week! The very thought...

Poland photos

Outside Polish supermarket comparing car sizes



Hotel fire instructions in Jaworzno, see line 2



Outside Krakow Cathedral, Wawel Hill



Kate in Krakow Castle Cafe



Krakow Cloth Hall



Auschwitz-Birkenau

Italy

Am facing a massive backlog of stuff now having spent the last week in Italy going sightseeing crazy, what with running out of time and all (I know, smug still) so a quick ready reckoner;

Venice - flooded. Couldnt walk anywhere or get into Basilica and almost ruined shoes. How they sell suede in this town I do not know. Apart from that, though, really cool to wander around, esp. once we managed to lose the ever-present American tourists talking about how much they missed their X-boxes. Wanted to shake them and scream "youre in Venice!"

Verona - calmer but cool. Lots of Roman stuff esp. Arena, must come back and watch something here next year. Stayed on Lake Garda which was beautiful.

Florence - slightly disappointing as v hectic, and also went there on a monday which meant the Uffizi amongst other things was shut. Santa Croce amazing though. Also having problems getting around as I managed to deck it and smash up my knee - doh! OK now though.

San Remo - nice campsite. Only arrived a couple of hours ago!

Pictures from Germany

Crossing the border from Germany into Czech Republic







Pragerstrasse, Dresden



Karl Marx statue, Chemnitz



Obligatory bratwurst in Nurnberg



Oktoberfest



Oktoberfest mk II

Hungary and Croatia

Spent a couple of very weird days in Budapest - found the language utterly impenetrable, and unfortunately for us most people's second language is German rather than English. But it's a beautiful city, empty of tourists at this time of year so we wandered around Buda castle practically by ourselves. Really interesting historical museum which completely blanked out any part of the Soviet years apart from one room showing photos of the 1956 uprising, despite having gone into plenty of detail about every other era from prehistory onwards.

Not to be put off, we went to the Statue Park, outside the city, where they have resurrected a lot of the Communist statues which were originally in the city itself. From our point of view it seemed incredibly kitsch, and they seemed to know it as all the souvenirs were "amusing" in some way or other, but I saw some elderly people obviously very upset by the memories it brought back. Very odd indeed. Would recommend a visit in the future, as they are in the process of building a museum there which would put them in context.

On the way to Croatia we stopped off at the southern tip of Lake Balaton and swam outside in a thermal lake - really weird feeling, as the air temperature was 8C but the water was 27C. Also there were waterlilies growing in it and an all-pervading whiff of egg. Getting out into the cold was an ordeal though, as you can imagine!

Blasted through Croatia to Split without stopping in Zagreb as we had originally planned, as running out of time (only 2 weeks left!) and also it was freezing up in the mountains. Went through a couple of 5km plus tunnels and emerged into the sunshine finally. Diocletian's Palace is amazing, didn't realise the scale of it before we got here! Thought about going to the islands for a day but the weather has turned bad again, but did manage to meet up with another of Will's cousins and his girlfriend for dinner, which was cool. Finally got to have some seafood after a month of little other than pork and dumplings! Driving up towards Slovenia then Venice, Verona and Florence in Italy, then Avignon and the Camargue, then home. I am still touching wood about the van making it back, obviously! As long as there's no rain or mountains to cross... Photos will eventually follow, as per usual.

pictures from Czech Rep

Kate and Rachel learning Polish in an underground restaurant in Frydek Mistek (or Fried egg mistake as we insisted on calling it)


Excellent Soviet-era Lada - one of many
Mucha stained glass window in Prague Cathedral and random statue in Prague

Poland to Austria

Have been incredibly lame at updating this I realise, sorry! OK, about a month ago we went to Krakow, which was lovely, reminded me of Prague in some ways but without so many tourists and tat vendors. Roads in Poland terrible, with potholes and extreme rutting, so we nearly shook the van to pieces. Went to the salt mines in Wielicza which are quite kitsch - a lot of gnomes sulptured out of salt - but also amazing cathedral all underground carved from salt as well. Dropped off Dan and Rachel at the airport then crossed 3 borders in one day in epic drive through Czech Rep. and Slovakia to Austria. Stayed in Vienna (well outside in the forest nearby) which had loads of cool Baroque buildings but was v expensive compared to all the places we had been to recently.

Germany and Czech Republic

First of all Germany - we headed for Munich for Oktoberfest which rocked our world(s?) - lots of drinking steins of beer and dancing on tables to an odd mixture of traditional songs and Bon Jovi medleys. Munich itself is really cool, lots of people in lederhosen and dirndls which pleased me greatly. After recovering from our hangovers we then went to Neuschwanstein, a fairytale castle near the Austrian border which was cool in a kitsch sort of way, but unfortunately it was v misty so we couldn´t see the Alps behind. Then went to Nuremberg and ate a lot of sausages (a running theme throughout the country) and walked around the city walls and old town. Tried to get some small adjustments to the van in a place called Chemnitz where we were helped out by a man who turned out to be another customer, but realised we cannot fix the ongoing gas bottle problem (long story, not dangerous but annoying) until we are back in the UK.

Then spent a lovely day in Dresden, which has been rebuilt and restored massively after WWII but all the old buildings are still blackened with smoke. Went on a big wheel ride like the London Eye for views of the whole city. Will did not make this, with his ´´entirely rational´´ fear of heights but Rachel, Dan and I did, with some German old man who kept muttering to himself.

Crossed the border into the Czech Republic with little fuss then realised no Euro so had to reconvert our brains to deal with Korunas instead. Felt pretty cool carrying around 1000 Kč notes (worth about 25 quid)! Prague was lovely, not as touristy as I had feared apart from the Charles Bridge area, then we went on to Brno in the south east and then stopped in Olomoucs for about an hour as it was getting dark and driving at night is not much fun. Stayed over in a brutally East European motel one night, over-advertised massively in the brochure they leave in your room - but they forgot to mention the overriding odour of pigshit for some reason. Weird, I know.

Off to Krakow tomorrow, from where Dan and Rachel are leaving us to fly back home. Will hopefully get some more photos up soon.

Sorry for missing weeks...

First of all the problems encountered in Portugal, this time in visual format:


























Managed to blast through Galicia and the whole north coast of Spain in two days so that we were in time to meet Rachel and Dan in Bordeaux, sadly unable to sample the culinary delights as much as we had hoped, but squeezed in an afternoon in Santiago de Compostela (sneered at by pilgrims because of our lack of bags and staffs etc and obvious tourist demeanour!) and had lunch in rather nicer place than our usual efforts in San Sebastian, despite the pouring rain. This is the facade of the Cathedral in Santiago:



Rain followed us in fact all the way to Bordeaux and beyond, though I did have a lovely birthday and it was really cool meeting up with my family even though it was just for a few hours - made up for that with lovely dinner and much wine, mmmm.

Got some prezzies too, which I was allowed to open despite being technically the night before my actual birthday, but I'm sure the time difference made that OK...






Didn't see a lot of Bordeaux as it rained the entire time and we couldn't park anywhere in the centre, so headed north east through France to Chartres, which was beautiful, and then Versailles which was gaudy and wrong, some kind of MTV cribs pastiche way ahead of its time. Impressive though, if just in scale. Proof we were in France: the mighty Johnny Hallyday, in tat format. And Dan.

We love Portugal

But it doesn´t love the van. We couldn´t get started one morning so had to call a mechanic the next day (obviously they don´t work on Sundays) and then after we were finally on the road again we had a blow-out on the back right hand tyre just as we were about to cross the border into Spain. Luckily some really nice Portuguese people (who spoke English AND were handy under the bonnet) helped us out each time, otherwise we would have had to stay there for good - not so bad, on the Atlantic coast... Photos to follow. So basically had to bomb it back through Galicia, only stopping briefly in Santiago de Compostela and over night in San Sebastian (which is wetter than Bristol, though people are still swimming in the sea) before heading up to France again. Will let you know if we get there! Love to all K and W xx

Photos so far

Finally found somewhere to do photos, so here are a selection, up to September 9:



Toledo cathedral



Will at Benicassim campsite



Charlie, Will and Ben at Pacha in Torrevieja



Kate eating pudding with what looks like washing up liquid poured on it



Meal out with Will´s cousins in Tossa de Mar



Will "El Capitaine" driving the camper