We seemed to have reached the final curtain...
Trip Start
Apr 12, 2011
1
28
Trip End
Aug 15, 2011
Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
It may sound too like an award ceremony or wedding speech but I feel like there are many thank you's to say.
Thank you to the bus for surviving though you could have sounded happier at times!
Thank you to our employers and colleagues for agreeing to cope without us for so long.
Thank you to the lads who have looked after our house and our bank accounts.
But most importantly thank you to the people of Europe for looking after us and being so jolly. What a nice lot you are. Sylke and Giorg should get another mention for being so generous and welcoming to their hometown. But so should a few nameless friends who helped out when we had van trouble. These stories can only really make it onto the blog now the van is close enough to home to be able to laugh at them and it! In Northern Italy the van conked out on a sharp hill turn fortunately next to a cafe. A few drunken geezers watched for a while and then took it in turns to come and fiddle with the engine and then shout and laugh. One even drove me to a garage to buy the spark plugs he was sure would fix everything. Eventually one of these unlikely drunken heros having many times already thrown his arms up in defeat and shouted "Youa needa Mechanico", had one more go and solved it, whatever it was! It didn't seem to matter to any of us that it wasn't the spark plugs. 2 days later we made it over the first of our Alpine passes no trouble.
More recently the van conked out on leaving our Rhineland campsite. Lydia set off to walk to the garage we had passed 2km back down the road. Just then a French woman on a bicycle came past on her way to visit friends in Germany. Never mind the detour, she insisted Lydia sit on the saddle while she pedalled and later made Lyd swap for her turn with the pedalling.
And that's just about it. We'll have phones and even face to face communication back online later in the week.
Thanks to all of you who have followed us round via this blog. Your viewing came to the notice of the internet people and the yellow bus made it to the front page of the travelpod website.
The rest of the dates on the blog are just so you know where we are planning to be over the next month or so. We hope to see you soon.
