The Wrap Up Of Europe...

The end of an amazing trip.  We are going to miss incredibly the Italian gelati (natural yoghurt and lemon sorbet), sitting in the sun in palazzo's, walking Spanish beach esplanades, watching the hampsters run riot in the Rambla in Barcelona, the French patisseries, laughing at the elderly ladies barging past the Swiss Guards at the Vatican, wandering the architectural streets of Amsterdam, strolling through the shops in Venice, watching cats in Roman ruins, Belgium markets in winter time, Port wines in Portugal, wandering the small backroads of France, most of all we will miss having the time to live our lives the way we want without pressures from work and life....the trip of a lifetime.  We will be counting down the days until Ted and Alita come over in September for when we go for another 3 months.

So what do you say about living in a campervan for four months...
- treasure your toilet privacy,
- you learn how to read without getting car sick,
- the room of a campervan gets bigger and bigger the longer you are in it,
- you get used to knowing life as a snail sees in but in a small way you also can relate better life as an Irish 'tinker' (gypsy),
- you get very very patient with each other and other drivers no matter what terrible driving skills they throw at you or how loud they honk their horn,
- you value the time and effort it takes to call your friends and family more as finding an internet source can sometimes be compared to finding the torch in the camper,
- how do you hide a 600g Easter egg in a camper... it still took us ages to find them,
- learning a second language such as French or Spainish is a VERY good idea,
- rolling through a stopsign in France is a %uFFFD90 on the spot costly affair,
- where you can and cannot free camp safely and the type of towns to steer clear of,
- having the time to wander through the Somme WWI battlefields without being rushed and understanding more about the cost of freedom,
- you learn how to sit on a beach watching everyone rush off out of town for the weekend and realise you didn't even know it was the weekend...and that's ok,
- that everyone no matter what country you are in are going to stare at the camper long and hard... we still don't know what was so fascinating,
- you want to stand next to the bus driver and star in awe at his shock absorbing springs in his drivers seat as he hardly bounces on the Italian roads,

We have learnt an immense amount of history, culture, music, art, food, camper repairs, language, bargaining tactics and heaps about ourselves.  We both loved having the time to not have things to do and being able to really learn about quality time.  The more we learn the more we realise just how much we don't know.  Thanks Lorraine and Lea, Ann and David, and Anne and Ian for all being so patient and sitting through our sessions of questions.

We both look forward to not hearing another Italian horn, catching up with friends, getting into another season of cricket, having a curry and reaching new heights and ideas for 2008.  Thanks everyone back home for watching us struggle around Europe.  On next weeks episode... catch Liby and Nick in London and then onto 3 months of Rugby World Cup, Oktoberfest in Germany, travelling Polland and the Czech Republic.  Should be a riot.