Returning to London

Random Van Fact # 57:

Souvenir Playing Cards purchased = 25

Souvenir magnets purchased = 21

A random sample of the aftermath.

Random Van Fact # 42:

Bottles of wine drunk = 111

Beer types sampled = 36

No. of beers drunk = 148

Peg's Aunty Sue had a fleeting stopover in London and we managed to have a quick coffee with her and her sister at Heathrow. Much fun! Good to hug a piece of home!

Decisions, decisions. We had to celebrate 1. Moving into a new house 2. Finishing the van trip

3. Both getting new jobs, so treated ourselves to some rather succulent champers! But which one to open first??!!

Veuve Cliquot it is. For tonight.

No Aussie in London goes without a trip to the Australia shop. A delicious taste of home!

Random Van Fact # 14:

Number of times Peg fell asleep in the car = 61 (although none at the wheel)

Our van in our new home. Incidentally, just around the corner from our old home. Still the crappest car in the street!

Random Van Fact # 7:

Windscreens smashed by Croatian Jumping Trees = 1

Ours is the one with Drew sitting in the window, playing his Playstation.

Random Van Fact # 19:

Number of pairs of shoes worn = 2 (Birkenstocks by day, thongs in the shower)

Updating the Blog on a lazy Sunday morning for you good people!

Our Van Trip - France again & Dover

Our last night of the van trip! We camped in France but staggered home from Belgium, as we were right on the border. No idea what we were drinking but it came in cool glasses! Felt pretty guilty because, when asked what time they close, the manager replied "Whenever you guys finish". So we ordered 4 more.

Enjoying some more delicious Kriek beer - we thought we'd seen the last of it!

Stocking up on the essentials. So much cheaper on this side of the channel for all this. Pity we had such a small van.

Random Van Fact # 59:
Tolls – Number = 46
Cheapest = €1.75/AU$2.88
Most expensive = €19.90/AU$32.84

Total = €368/AU$607

After throwing a tantrum and getting a stern talking to, Drew was finally persuaded to drive the van onto the ferry bound for England.

Random Van Fact # 6:

Number of cars we've overtaken = 4

Somehow we managed to score a free wireless network whilst in the middle of the English Channel, so we thought we'd better Blog it up!

Random Van Fact # 7:

Number of cars overtaken us = 144,000

A sad sight. We didn't want to end the van trip! So tempting to turn around and do it all again!

Random Van Fact # 5:

Number of Ferry Crossings = 5

Our Van Trip - Czech Republic

The central square in Prague - called Staromestske, in the Old Town.

Upon arriving at our first campsite in Prague, we were greeted by bunches of Antipodeans tumbling out of beaten up old vans. Ours looked relatively palatial in comparison. We actually decided to move to a campsite to one up the road and managed to score this awsome site with a swing! We didn't leave the swing.

Random Van Fact # 33:
Campsites – Number stayed at = 42
Cheapest = €8/AU$13.20
Most expensive = €37.00/AU$61.05

The Astrological Clock in the Staromestske. Every hour there is a disappointingly brief display that is a great chance to get pickpocketed as everyone is fixated on the clock. We managed to get 5 wallets and 2 phones!

Random Van Fact # 2:

Top speed of van = 120kmh (downhill, tailwind, truck up our arse)

The Staromestske - it's also the name of a very popular beer over here. Buy a beer in the centre with all the other English tourists and you'll pay the earth, however stray off the beaten track slightly and you'll pay what we did - €1 for a pint! Sweet!

Random Van Fact # 3:

Top speed of BMW (Drew's birthday) = 205kmh (uphill, headwind, tailgating a Porsche)

The twin Gothic steeples of Tyn Church dominating the Staromestske. A good reference point for the thousand times we got lost.

Random Van Fact #12:

Languages spoken = 7

The 2 major tourist attractions in Praha. Beautiful city and we will be back, hopefully. It's very popular with stag and hen dos due to its price and proximity to London.

Random Van Fact # 4:

Average motorway speed = 88kmh (Just like Back to the Future)

Peg taking the camera for a ride on the swing. During the day it was quite pleasant, however at night Peg's uber new jacket (purchased in Innsbruck) was called for. Kept the beers nice and cold too!

Random Van Fact # 3:

Toilet breaks = 158

Our Van Trip - Luxembourg

Peg and our trusty Lonely Planet in the tax haven that is Luxembourg. We decided that Drew could also lay claim to this place!

Random Van Fact # 17:

Number of currencies used = 6

The central square is called "Place d'Armes" and is favoured for being the most expensive place in Luxembourg to buy a beer.

Getting our bearings in the "Place".

Random Van Fact # 9:

Number of Ikeas spotted = 16

The Grand Duchy's old palace. Quite beautiful, actually. We don't think that they get attacked often as the palace guard looked like he was fresh out of primary school.

View of the old town from the "Chemin de la Corniche". The beginning of a walk that went through the valley and back.

More view of the old town.

Random Van Fact # 11:

Camping ground electricity boxes broken into = 1 (Berlin)

The walk went FOREVER and we needed a breather!

We had to sample the local produce! Peg has tried these Neuhaus choccies previously. Needless to say - they didn't last long this time!

Cheapest fuel was in Luxembourg, unsurprisingly. Unfortunately it was also the smallest country so we couldn't utilise it fully!

Random Van Fact # 82:

Fuel – Litres consumed = 1,321L
Cheapest/litre = €1.039/AU$1.714 (Luxembourg- tax haven!)
Most expensive/litre = €1.467/AU$2.409 (Italy)
Total spent = €1,810/AU$3,001

Our Van Trip - Belgium

Back into French speaking countries we felt a little more at home. The North of Belgium speak predominantly Flemish, however Brussels is mainly French. In the main square of Brussels we saw a sign for "L'Escargots" (remember the restaurant we went to in Paris?) and made a beeline for it!

Bit of a snail stew. Yum!

Random Van Fact # 43:

Highest peak attempted = 2,114m (Col du Tourmalet)

The main square of Brussels. If it were in Italy it would be called a Piazza. This one is commonly referred to as the "Grand Place". Wherever you looked there were amazing buildings and architecture. Peg loved the Avenue Louise. Peg has been here once before on business (stayed at poshest hotel in Brussels - Conrad Hilton!) but was really glad to relax and see the town.

Random Van Fact # 44:

Highest altitude achieved = 1,268m (Col du Tourmalet)

The most over-rated tourist site ever. The "Manneken Pis". Lonely Planet even states: "... never fails to disappoint visitors due to its diminuitive size". We wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Afterwards, we consulted the encyclopaedia that is Chris Luks, who told us the story. Apparently sometime ago, the king's son went missing. During the search, the frantic king stated that he would have a statue made of whatever his son was doing when he was found. No prizes for guessing what he was doing!

More of the beautiful Grand Place. Much to Drew's delight there was a critical mass of cyclists this day swarming the capital. Thousands! Peg was keeping her eyes peeled for Tour de France rider and Belgium's pin-up boy Tom Boonen. But she had to settle for Drew and some snails.

Random Van Fact # 54:

Bodies of water swam in = 3 (Atlantic, Mediterranean, Adriatic)

Engaging in our favourite pastime - updating the Blog of course! Drinking beer at the same time. Peg's favourite. Kriek - a Belgian Cherry beer. The country is mad for beer and chocolate. We are mad for the country!

Random Van Fact # 46:

Loads of washing done = 5

Our Van Trip - The Netherlands

Limited photos of Amsterdam, as, despite the reassurances of the Lonely Planet, we did not feel 100% comfortable whipping out our uber camera in front of people offering to sell us Cocaine. Yes, this really happened, and yes, we really said no and walked away very quickly.

Peg at the Heineken Brewery. We learnt all about what goes into the good stuff on the tour. Not surprisingly, most of the other people in there were Aussies also!

Random Van Fact # 37:

Tunnels - Number = 344

Longest = 8.6km (Austria)

The tour was great! It included three glasses of Heineken staggered along the tour. We were forced I tell you! What could we do but carry on the tradition through the rest of the day.

Amsterdam is called "The Venice of the North". It's much more laid back (we can't think why) and the people are really mellow. Bikes, bikes everywhere. We were going to take ours in there, but thank god we didn't. Quite hectic.

Random Van Fact #15:

Maximum distance travelled in a day = 587km

It's a very pretty city and we loved wandering around, getting lost in the small streets running around the canals. And by night, well, we couldn't not go into the red light district and see what all the fuss is about. No photos of that as we might lose our "G" rating. Or our camera...

Random Van Fact #16:

Minimum distance travelled in a day = 2.6km

Panorama of a canal. It seems parking for your bike is sometimes at a premium and some bikes' unlucky owners would come back to a bridge to find their bike had been thrown over the other side.

The Canal of Seven Bridges. Pretty self-explanatory.

For those of you haven't been to Amsterdam, a "coffeeshop" isn't somewhere you buy coffee from, unless you want added options. If you want an innocent coffee, go to a "cafe". We, of course, found a nice cafe by the side of a quiet little canal to watch the world go by. Even saw a girl fall off her bike. She was laughing so we thought the polite thing to do would be to laugh too!

Same cafe, different view. Nice spot. Great coffee. Coffee only!!! We also saw Anne Frank's house, which was very interesting.

Random Van Fact #24:

Number times the van overheated = 3 (Col du Tourmalet, Luchon, Marseilles)