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Monday, 21st September, 2015.

This is it...the final blog for Europe Trip 2015.   We arrived in Perth on Thursday afternoon, 17th September after reasonably comfortable flights and have never been happier to be home.   Our good friend Laurie collected us from the airport and drove us home and we were pleased to see both house and garden in good order.

Now that we're home and resuming 'normal' life, we are beginning to put events of the 22nd August behind us and are remembering instead the fabulous times  we've had with Boris in three fantastic European summers of touring, all the awesome places we've visited, the many wonderful people we've met, some of whom have become good friends and in more recent times, the generosity and kindness shown to us by total strangers who were sympathetic to our plight and who re-inforced our belief that, given the opportunity, most people will reveal their goodness.  I get misty eyed when I think about the amazing offers of help we received and can't finish without mentioning Mike and Marion, our wonderful friends who made life so much easier for us in the last few weeks...I don't know what we'd have done without them!

There was to have been at least one more trip with Boris but until the insurance company makes a decision we don't know what his fate will be...it's still up in the air so we can only wait to hear from them.   In the meantime, we have our gorgeous granddaughter holidaying with us from t'other side of the country and we will enjoy her company for the next week and have lots of fun times!   

We've not taken any photos lately so have chosen a few that may not have previously appeared on the blog.

Last Days in England.

Tuesday, 15th September.

We finished our trip to Cornwall on Monday 7th, making Philps Bakery in Hayle our first stop for the day.   We bought two standard Cornish pasties at £2.85 each, so big and chock full of minced steak and vegetables we struggled to finish them and were glad we had not bought large ones!  From there we drove to St Ives but alas, we could not find parking close enough to be able to walk down into the town and so made Penzance our next port of call.  We were able to park on the harbour front there and strolled  around the town in the sunshine, treating ourselves to ice creams before heading off to nearby Mousehole, a lovely fishing village which though busy, wasn't crowded so we enjoyed a stroll and a sit by the water.  Our last stop for the day, and the weekend, was at Jamaica Inn on Dartmoor where we had cold refreshments before continuing the journey back to Somerset.
We made it to Bristol on Wednesday 9th, no train breakdowns this time and we bussed from the station into the city.  A tiny cafe in St Nicholas Markets provided us with a light lunch and we filled in a couple of hours by wandering around the city until it was time to return to the railway station, but rather than bussing back there we ferried, much more enjoyable and at the same cost.
A short bus ride to nearby Nether Stowey was the last of our outings before spending much of the weekend sorting and packing for the flight home.
The Green Olive in Bridgwater was our destination on Sunday night, an excellent Turkish restaurant which is a favourite of Marion's and Mike's and after having eaten there on previous visits has become a favourite of ours too.  The four of us enjoyed a fabulous meal, our farewell dinner so there was a tinge of sadness in the air.
Yesterday, after packing the cases into the car and farewelling Mike and Marion, we drove through the rain to Wells, stopping there to have a look at the magnificent cathedral.  Admission is free but suggested donations are £6 for adults, £4 for seniors and a permit to take photos costs £4.  It truly is a wonderful building and Wells is a lovely city, it was a shame it was raining!
On then to Wiltshire to the home of Jo and Simon and their high schoolers Alice and Alfie.  After a pub meal at their local, we spent a comfortable night in their spare room....a brief but lovely, most enjoyable visit.
And now we are in Hounslow, having driven from Wiltshire today via Hampshire, where we paid a short visit to Sue & Mike, fellow motorhomers whom we met in France last year.  It's our last night in England for tomorrow morning we will begin the journey home.

Somerset, London & Cornwall.

Sunday, 6th September.

We've had an easy week, tried out the public transport with partial success, sold the telly, an extension lead and one bike on ebay, had a day trip to London and are currently in Cornwall.

The first public transport trial was on Tuesday when we decided to catch the local bus from the village into Bridgwater...the problem was that the bus company changed their timetable on that day but neglected to inform the general public which resulted in a 45 minute wait!  The main purpose for the journey was to return the GPS we'd bought in April and which failed us only a short time later, but it was found to be fixable!  We celebrated with a light lunch with Marion in Daisy May's Tea Room in the High Street, a lovely little cafe where the food is all home made.

Armed with a new timetable, we bused into Bridgwater again on Wednesday morning, having decided to catch the train from there to Bristol.  After buying return tickets at the train station we prepared for a bit of a wait but it wasn't long before the ticket officer informed us that the train had broken down and there would be a one and a half hour wait until the next one...apologizing, he offered to refund our ticket money and so we went back to the bus station, studied the route map and caught the next bus to Street, near Glastonbury.  Street is home to Clark Village, a factory outlet village which we roamed around, didn't buy anything there but bought cold drinks and shared a large slice of home made carrot cake in the Mad Hatter's Tea Rooms in Crispen Hall before busing back to our village.

On Friday, we went to London by coach to meet Mireille and Mark who are visiting their family there.  They met us at Hammersmith station and from there we 'tubed' to London Bridge.  They had previously been to the  'Shard'

and suggested that we might enjoy a visit...apparently it costs about £30 each to go up to the viewing floor and nothing to go to the 30th floor for drinks at the bar.  Needless to say, we went for drinks and enjoyed the spectacular free view.

The afternoon was spent lunching, walking along the river and across the Millenium Bridge, around St Paul's Cathedral, 'tubing' to Covent Garden where a scene from "Carmen" was being expertly performed,

We then strolled along The Strand and exchanging travel stories over drinks before finally parting, happy that we'd been able to catch up again.

On Saturday morning we collected a hire car in Bridgwater and drove through Dartmoor to Cornwall, with an encounter with a friendly horse along the way,

and visiting Port Isaac again, only this time we had to park at the top of the hill outside the village and walk down.  On our previous visit we parked on the harbour front but that was before Doc Martin moved in to 'Port Wenn', making it a popular tourist attraction.  It is a lovely old fishing village, higgledy piggledy streets with houses almost on top of each other and because we arrived late in the afternoon, not too many people about.

This morning we had a 30 minute ride on the Bodmin Wensford steam train

on the way to Padstow.  It was a gorgeous day and Padstow was chokkers, all the shops and cafes were full so we bought pasties and ate them as we wandered around the town.  Our thought was to drive south along the coast, ducking into some of the villages along the way but we found that to be a trial because of the traffic on the narrow lanes and shortage  of parking so continued on through Truro to St Mawes via the King Harry car ferry.  It was our first visit to St Mawes and we were impressed, though busy it wasn't crowded so we were able to stroll around at our leisure, enjoying the scenery and the yummy Cornish ice creams!

We were mistaken in thinking that we could ferry from St Mawes to Falmouth as the ferry is for passengers only, no cars so we returned via King Harry car ferry and made our way to our overnight stop near Hayle...more exploring to come tomorrow!

Good News & Bad News!

Saturday, 29th August, 2015.
Somerset, England.

Last Saturday, 22nd August was not the best day we've ever had!!  The good news is that we are both well...the bad news is that Boris is not! 

While driving on the Picardy coast from St Valery-sur-Somme to le Crotoy in the morning, and for no reason apparent to us, we came upon three or four cars stopped in a haphazard fashion on the road ahead with no warning, brake or hazard lights visible and to avoid colliding with them, which would have caused damage to the vehicles and certain injuries or worse to their occupants, we swerved and thankfully, narrowly missed them all.   Unfortunately, we rolled down an embankment and slowly and gently came to rest on the passenger side of the vehicle.  The windscreen smashed and popped out and this was our escape route...a couple of young men immediately appeared, helped us out of the vehicle and having ascertained that we were both okay and not in need of medical assistance, phoned the police.  Two policemen arrived shortly after, took details and waited while Mike phoned "Boris's" insurers (a lengthy process), a tow truck was called and duly arrived, Boris was pulled to an upright position and then towed onto the back of the truck while the policemen held up the traffic and we then rode in the truck to a lock up garage where he is now resting, pending further investigation by the insurers...he is now in their hands.  It could have been so much worse, thankfully no-one was hurt...we both suffered from delayed shock and found sleep elusive for several nights, but are now beginning to catch up and are otherwise fit and well.

Since the 'mishap', we have been absolutely overwhelmed by the kindness shown to us by total strangers...our 'rescuers', our policemen who once again stopped the traffic (during their afternoon patrol through the town) to ask if we were okay, the tow truck driver, the many cyclists, French and English, who stopped to ask if we were okay and offered assistance, Orlane in le Crotoy tourist office who helped us so willingly with enquiries, Madame in the B&B where we stayed on Saturday and Sunday, 

Lily, a fellow guest on holiday from Belgium with her husband Luke, who became our interpreter when our "holiday" French which normally gets us by proved insufficient and who even offered to drive us and all our goods and chattels to England!, and the very lovely Severene, housemaid at the B&B who drove us to the station to catch the Calais train and looked after some of our belongings until we returned from Dover, where we hired a transit van to transport everything to Somerset and ultimately, home. 

It has been a long week with a train ride on Monday afternoon to Calais to catch the channel ferry to Dover, stopping overnight there, collecting a hire van early on Tuesday,  catching a morning ferry back to Calais then driving to le Crotoy, loading the van with all our possessions and driving back to Calais to ferry back to Dover for a second overnight stop.  On Wednesday morning, after hot showers and a full English breakfast expertly cooked by B&B owner George, we set off for the five hour drive to Somerset, getting caught up in a seven mile long traffic jam on the M25 followed by at times heavy rain for much of the way.  Needless to say, by the time we arrived here we both, but particularly Mike who has done all the driving, were absolutely exhausted. 

In the last few days we have been extremely well looked after by wonderful friends Mike and Marion.  We have now sorted through all our 'stuff', some of which has gone to charities, some will go home with us.  We've talked to Boris's insurers and our travel insurers and tried to change our flights home but are unable to do so as the fares we bought were an 'Earlybird' special which won't allow any changes at all.  We can book and pay for other flights but they would cost a lot of money which we probably would not be able to recoup so we will stick with our original departure date.  For the next couple of weeks we will go out and about by hire car or public transport, destinations as yet undecided...at the moment we are feeling very relaxed though incredibly sad that our 2015 European adventure ended sooner than expected...the plus is that it all happened towards the end of the trip rather than at the beginning....the minus is that Boris is now resting forlornly in a garage in France, waiting for the insurance assessors to determine his fate.  He has given us three wonderful holidays and deserved a better ending...if it is to be an ending!

Pierrefonds

Wednesday afternoon, 19th August, 2015.

After our visit to the Armistice Clearing it was a brief drive to the attractive and busy town of Pierrefonds where le Chateau de Pierrefonds dominates the skyline and overlooks the town.  Louis of Orleans, Charles V's second son, had the fortified residence built in 1393.  In 1616, Louis XIII laid a fatal siege to the castle, taking it then dismantling it.  It was forgotten until bought by Napoleon I in 1810.  His nephew Napoleon III initiated restoration work in 1857.  For €7,50 each we toured several rooms of the castle where there is currently an exhibition of costumes from the opera and ballet.  It was a visit well worth the detour.

War Memorial

Wednesday morning, 19th August.

New Zealanders Anna and Paul had told us of the castle at Pierrefonds, suggesting that it was well worth a visit so we consulted the map, decided that although it was not on the route we were planning to travel it wasn't too far out of our way so set off on the drive from Le Nouvion south to Pierrefonds, near Compiegne.  A little way past Compiegne, we stopped at Clairiere de l'Armistice, the exact spot where the Armistice which ended WWII was signed on the 11th November, 1918.  The clearing did not exist at that time and the fully grown trees in the forest made aerial observation impossible.  It is a very impressive site.

Bonjour!

Tuesday, 18th August, 2015.

At midday on Sunday, we crossed the Belgian/French border making France our fourth country in one day. 

Only a few kms inside the border is the Citadelle de Montmedy, the guardian of the gates to Lorraine which is situated on a more than 100 metre high rocky promontory.  This privileged location has determined its illustrious past, and the town has seen its fortunes closely tied to those of the nations of Europe and to their shifting borders.  We stopped for a while, roamed around the small village within the fortress walls and then did a circuit of the walls.

  

It was just a short drive from Montmedy to Stenay on the River Meuse where we stayed overnight. 
Monday morning was sunny with blue skies, although chilly and we looked forward to a rain free day but by the time we'd done our washing at the laundrette, walked around the town and had lunch, the skies were no longer blue and there were grey rain clouds hanging about.  Happily, we were able to skype our granddaughter Harriet on her birthday which brightened our day.

We then drove about 100kms from Stenay to Montherme, also on the River Meuse, with a stop on the way at a huge Carrefour supermarket on the outskirts of Charleville-Mezieres. 
The view from the aire on the riverbank was lovely even through the drizzling rain.  As we'd noticed a New Zealand flag and a silver fern flag hanging on the mast of one of the boats moored in front of us, we went over to investigate and met Anna and Paul who had bought the boat in Holland and are now enjoying cruising the rivers and canals of Europe. 

 
This morning when the rain had stopped, we rode 5kms along the river path to Bogny-sur-Meuse and back...a lovely, gentle ride requiring no effort at all and on our return to Montherme, we packed and left for the drive to le Nouvion-en-Thierache.  We encountered some heavy rain on the way but shortly after we arrived here at 4pm, the sun came out!   It's hard to believe that just a few days ago we were wishing for cooler weather...well, we got our wish though we were thinking maybe 10 or so degrees cooler not 20!  

Auf Wiedersehen

Sunday, 16th August.

There's been a big change in the weather in the last couple of days...the storm predicted for Thursday night arrived at about 10pm, resulting in a significant drop in the temperature and so it was quite cool when we left Mehring on the Mosel on Friday morning for Saarburg on the Saar, 42kms away via Scwheich, Trier and the confluence of the two rivers. 
A short ride to the town of Serrig and a shorter one to the nearby Aldi shop were all the exercise we managed on Friday afternoon before more rain fell, continuing through the night and for most of Saturday morning before easing enough for a ride into the town.   We took a cable car ride to the top of the hill behind Saarburg, thinking we would have coffee and f.a.c.c.s there but the cakes on offer looked as though they'd been in the cabinet for longer than they should have been so we gave them a wide berth and went down into the town.  

Once we'd parked and locked up the bikes we strolled around the town in search of a cafe away from the crowds in the main square and found one with some of the best cakes we'd seen and eaten, so good we were tempted to have seconds but resisted the temptation!  We'd had to take shelter from the rain during our wander and rode back to camp in a light drizzle. 

  

Less than an hour after leaving Saarburg this morning, we  once again crossed the Mosel River 

which forms part of the border between Germany and Luxembourg, for the drive through Luxembourg to Belgium, stopping only for fuel at Petange. 

The only stop we made in Belgium was at a boulangerie for a couple of bread rolls for our lunch.