5pm Friday

We finished work and rushed out of london for the long drive down to Pamplona, Spain for the running of the Bulls. Arriving in Pamps on Sunday, before long we were invoking the spirit of the festival and partying hard with 3 all night parties, 2 Bull runs and 1 Bull Fight later we left pamplona with great memories in our mind and sangria in our clothes hair, everywhere.

Moving on to San Sebastian we started the Iberian loop part of our journey heading through Mundaka (great waves) and Leon before heading down the Portugese coast to test out as many beaches as we could. By the time we were in Faro we were loving the lifestyle that our van gave us, parking overnight anywhere we wanted and using showers by the beach to keep clean. After Portgual we headed up the Mediterranean coast of Spain, stopping in at Seville, Tarifa, Alicante and Valencia before saying goodbye to tapas, paella and sangria of spain and hello to the beautiful countryside of France and Italy.

I remembered passing Avignon on a bus tour in 2008 and wondering what was behind those city walls. Luckily I got the chance to experience it this time. Let me just say that the city is beautiful with cobblestone streets, beautiful buildings and barely any trafffic, couple that with arts festival that was on at that time and it was a great place to spend a few days. After Avignon it was nice to see the biggest and most expensive private yachts in the world at Antibes before the glitz and glamour of Monte Carlo. We spent a night with one of the greatest views we have ever seen overlooking Monaco in a free overnight parking spot. From there it was on to Cinque Terre which includes 5 small towns in Italy was the most beautiful spots in the world. The 5 towns (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore) are all small fishing villages built into cliffs that go straight into the sea. We spent a few nights there for free with our van on a cliff overlooking Riomaggiore, walking, swimming and eating. It was fantastic.

Before long we got itchy feet and kept rolling onto Sienna and Tuscany. After a few days of enjoying the scenery and wineries of the region we headed on the Croatian coastline where we were to spend the last of our beachtime portion of the trip. We found a campsite near Pula in northern Croatia where we spent nearly a week just sleeping, eating and swimming. By the end of the week we were ready to head inland and it was off to Slovenia.

I hadn't been to Slovenia before and it was a wonderful surprise when we discovered that Lake Bled was just as beautiful as we had seen in pictures. We spent a few days lazing around Bled before getting off our arses and going on a tour of Triglav National Park. We got to see some magical sights, go whitewater rafting and even swim under a beautiful waterfall.

Next it was on to Vienna, unfortunately as we arrived on a Sunday pretty much everything was closed so we had plenty of time to catch up on emailing everyone about our trip. Vienna was beautiful but we were spending far to much money so it was on to Slovakia and the Czech Republic where we could live it up for far cheaper.

Bratislava had a very nice old town, cobblestone streets and pints for less than a pound, but a real surprise was Trencin, which had a beautiful castle and a small old town with really cheap food and drinks.

Next it was on to Prague which was a place that we had been looking forward to for a while, not just because it's my favourite city in Europe but also as we were getting out of the van and into a real bed! We found a hostel that was only 6 pounds a night and gave us free parking. Prague was just beautiful, the old town, the castle district and the fantastic nightlife. We spent nearly a week there without running out of things to do.

After Prague we headed to Cesky Krumlov which is a beautiful medievil town. We met some wonderful people there and spent a day on a booze cruise rafting down a river with 4 others and stopping at all the riverside bars along the way. Cesky Krumlov was the type of place where we could have stayed forever.

After the wonderful Cesky Krumlov it was back through Austria with the beautiful scenery of Halstatt and the Alps to accompany us. A quick jaunt into Germany to see Neuwanstein Castle, and through Lichtenstien on to Switzerland and Interlaaken. This place is beautiful, we spent a week in Interlaaken, just taking our time hiking amonst some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. We travelled through the towns of Wengen, Lauterbrunnen and other small villages we cant remember.

Sadly after a week we had to leave Switzerland and make our way to London, but not before visiting Bern, what has to be one of the smallest and most cute capital cities in the world.

As we made our way back to London we went via the French countryside and quickly through Luxembourg and Belgium before making our way to Calais for the ferry to Dover and the short drive back to London.

After nearly three months in a van driving through 15 different countries seeing some of the most beautiful places on earth and having the time of our lives we were ready to get back to a normal bed and living normally for a while. Two weeks later and we were already missing life on the road and the freedom of being able to go wherever we wanted that we are already planning our next adventure.