01 July 2009 11am and we were off. Bye Bye London and Bonjour France. The first challenge was to navigate driving on the right side of the road which we managed to do without too much trouble. After exploring Normandy beaches we headed straight down to Pamplona for the running of the bulls. Not for the faint hearted it was an experience we’re glad to have done but definitely won’t be doing again. Wish someone had told us not to wear jandals!

After Pamplona we caught up with the Tour de France and followed them from Barcelona up through Andorra which is an amazing little country and has really cheap beer! We then had a break from the tour and yodelled our way through Switzerland. The Swiss Alps blew us away they were so beautiful. Stopped off for a few days in Leichenstein. An amazingly clean country everything there is just perfect. We then headed back to France and met up with the Tour de France time trails round Lake Annecy. A second Queenstown, it was amazing with the friendliest French people.

Driving through Mt Blanc to get to Italy was a crazy experience. When you get a free bottle of water at the start you get a bit worried about being stuck in the 11km tunnel but we got through with no problems at all. We hit Italy and we hit the traffic. Crazy scooters and so many trucks but we managed to get through unscathed.

Heading down to the Cinque Terra we loved the amazing views and just about died of the heat but got really good tans! Tried to eat a piece of pizza in every town but could only manage three, had to have some room for Gelato! Best pizza in the world in the first town. We then cut up to Venice and wandered the streets for a day. Randomly bumping into a mate from home on the street was crazy and we had a great lunch in an authentic Italian Irish pub.

Then we were off to Slovenia which turned out to be one of our favourite places. Avoiding the motorway we drove over the mountains and through some amazing scenery. Reaching Lake Bled was an oasis of calm after the craziness of Italy and we relaxed, recharged the batteries and did nothing for a few days.

Raring to go again we headed off for Croatia to meet some friends in Dubrovnik. Got a bit of a shock as we drove down the country as we all of a sudden turned up in Bosnia! Who knew that it cut through Croatia to the sea! Luckily we got waved through passport control on the other side and didn’t end up stuck in Bosnia. Chilled out in Dubrovnik and saw some hard core storms. Then we had to hit what I had been dreading... overnight ferry back to Italy... not a good thing when you suffer from sea sickness however it was a calm crossing and thanks to my sexy wrist bands I was fine.

Exploring the south of Italy was an adventure and involved even more crazy driving than North Italy. Amalfi Coast was  picturesque and Pompei was soaked in history. More history in beautiful Rome and the Vatican.  Second best pizza in the world just outside St Peter’s square.

Heading up through Pisa we got the obligatory tourist photos and headed back through Austria to our peaceful Slovenia for some more battery charging and the best fish in the world. I would go back again anytime just for that fish. Lake Bled camping ground, the Gilthead, do it.

Up to Hungry we managed to catch the Red Bull air race in Budapest and saw some amazing flying. Then we spent most of the afternoon in the Gellert Hotel baths. Lots of nakedness but awesome thermal pools. Had a crazy “principal” like camping ground owner who had hand drawn everything on tourist maps. Bus routes, tram routes, tourist destinations, you name it he had drawn it on. He was a little angry when we only wanted a travel ticket for one day. He wanted us to spend three days there but also wanted us to have our mother in law with us for a discount. Can’t have everything...

Up to Slovakia we had some more awesome fish at ridiculously cheap prices. Unfortunately time constraints were getting to us so we only had one night before heading up to Poland. Krakow was great but the number one best thing was the salt mine. Amazing mine full of salt sculptures done by the miners, even a church and function room under the ground. Awesome.

Off to Prague, we had a crazy experience when the people parked up beside us in the camping ground turned up to be from our home town and grew up ten minutes away from us! Very random the world is crazy small. Prague was beautiful and had some added excitement by the man across from us in the camping ground. He took his whole weight set camping with him and pranced round it in his speedos flexing for a few hours each night.

Onto Berlin we did a great free walking tour. Totally recommend it, meet at Starbucks 2pm. Amazing place and the wall was so much smaller than we had imagined. Zooming through the Netherlands we met friendly people everywhere and cruised into Belgium. Meeting friends in Brugge we had a great weekend trying a million different beers and waffles. Not all beer is good, beer that tastes like baked beans is not good!!

After a great weekend we said goodbye and headed down to our last country Luxemburg. Really beautiful place with the most authentic castle I could almost see Rupunzel in the window. Back to Belgium we visited Flanders fields and got emotional at Tynecot cemetery.

Back on the ferry to Dover it was hard to believe it was over. We couldn’t have done it without our trusty Tom Tom and our Acsi camping ground guide. Full credit to our van Tron who powered on every day without even a flat tyre. 65 Days, 20 Countries,  13,022kms a great time had by all. Time to get back to the real world and start saving for the next trip!