Hello from Hamburg

We’ve made it to Hamburg – and just had a great day in the city.  Totally amazing place – loads of “wow” sites everywhere – very impressive – far too much to see in a day.  Weather was superb too!  Only down side was lack of WiFi in appropriate places – so unable to check emails.

Three weeks down now and still having fun!  The further East you go – the less people speak English....  So we’re learning well – well by that I mean we’re learning to “S-P-E-A-K S-L-O-W-E-R” and in a French accent – and it seems to work.  Our pocket translator is crap – but our laptop software is pretty good – we’ve even had a conversation “typing” with someone!  Well sort of.

 

Distinct lack of English around – not seen anyone else at all.  As we’ve not seen/heard the news for three weeks – we assume everything on the island is still okay!

 

 

Amsterdam 1/2 Marathon

Well – what can we say!

Day was perfect running conditions.  We were nice and relaxed.

However, at 8 miles we both died!  A lot of pain as the picture of Mel at least shows.  I thought I was going to do a really poor time till Mr 1:35 pace man came past – git – and I managed to dig in and follow him for a few miles (in pain) – then overtake him with 1km to go getting around 1:34:11 ish.  Not bad, but we hoped for better.  Maybe Amsterdam took its toll?

More distance training due then...

 

 

Week 2 over - Amsterdam is homely

We’ve survived a second week – and surprisingly just in budget!  Had a great night out in Amsterdam last night and are stuffed as a pig today (me specifically should be described as “stuffed with a pig”).

Had a busy week (yeah yeah – everything is relative) – over to Arnhem (bridge too far); then to a dolfinarium (Dutch can’t spell Dolphin); then to Amsterdam getting ready for our ½ marathon on Sunday.  (Though guess by the time we upload this we’d have already done it!)

Hopefully we’ve also uploaded our latest photos and week 2 diary – both are accessible above on the menu all being well J

Hope you are missing us – (hmmm) – and hope to see some of you briefly when we return!

 

Oh – blimey – we’re so glad we opted not to bring the satellite TV – so we’ve not seen the news.  All I’ve had is a few funny “Merchant Banker” emails come through – which means if there are jokes about them – then the economy is stuffed.  I am now wondering what on earth I stuck loads of money into our pensions for?  All gone by the sound of it.  Shit.  May mean the dreaded W word again.... L

 

That was a quick week!

Really pleased how week 1 has gone – all to plan so far and the weather has been very kind!   Assuming this is on the Internet, then the likelihood is that we’ve also uploaded our Week 1 diary entry here.  Also we’ve uploaded more pictures and geo tagged them so you can see where they were taken.  This is more for our benefit for the future than anyone else’s – but you may find it clever.  Photos linked here.

 

The attached picture is the rough route of where Week 1 took us – and the blue triangles are where we stayed

 

Poor Internet :(

Thanks for the emails we get!  And yes, sorry for not updating blog or anything else.  Problem is – we are getting Internet access when out and about mainly due to kind people leaving their home wifi on default settings J  So we can read and reply to emails absolutely fine.  However we are writing the diary and blog on the big laptop my last company kindly “let me keep” which we don’t carry when about, and sadly some campsites charge obscene amounts for wifi.  So things will be updated – but not as often as planned.

Sorry!

 

PS – anyone who is trying to text us, best you text Mels mobile – as are super-duper roaming SIM still seems to have problems getting incoming texts L

 

Lifes a beach....

The sun is certainly shining on us!  Another lovely sunny day and just warm enough for short sleeves.  Spent a few hours with the power kite on the beach doing some “dragging” – and Mel having some more training.  She can now keep it up long enough to make any man proud – and only screamed a few times! J

Stumbled on a campsite which is part of Center Parcs – so staying here a few nights to make use of their facilities and have some good chill time.

So far van holding up really well – all the last mods we’ve implemented seem to be working well – and we’ve not yet raided all the hidden chocolate!!!

Only managed to get WiFi when out and about with little laptop – so looks blog emails will be sent later and probably out of sync L

 

 

We have arrived - the trip has started!

Well at last, we have started our trip!  We arrived via a very choppy ferry ride to Calais, and trusted TomTom to bring us to our first and only planned stopover.  The journey was rain, rain and more rain, and a bit of a nightmare.  We weren’t looking forward to today as the forecast was awful.  However, after a couple of decent Dutch beers at the campsite bar, we slept like logs and woke up to glorious sunshine!  A nice 10 mile run, lunch outside bathing in the sun, and a lovely swim in the pool.

Restful day today, and new uncharted and planned territory tomorrow.

Thanks for all the lovely texts and emails – all received with thanks J

 

Scouting For Girls

What an excellent name for a band! After blasting this out this afternoon we decided the lyrics of one of Scouting For Girls songs was superb and worth a mention! We've booked in to see them live in Hammersmith in November when we're back in the UK for a week or so. If you've not heard "I need a holiday" then suggest you turn up your volume and play the above video. Not the official video but a cool one made by a couple of girls as a project. How apt! Or should we say, "How apt it was...." :) ENJOY!

ALMOST ready to go!

Blimey, its been a long time (or feels like it) - but our adventure starts Sunday! Off to Holland to start our big escape. Mel has at last finished work and now getting eager to go..... Just making some final changes to the van - talk about last minute. We've had refillable LPG (Gaslow) installed with a single 6kg cylinder (with a 6kg calor as backup) so that we can use more gas in Europe without worrying. We should be able to fill up at any LPG petrol station. I've "obtained" >10,000 GPS POI's to make this easier :) Also decided last minute to fit 2x 100AH batteries (rather than 1x 85AH) which should give us much more electricity when camping away from real sites. However, this wasn't easy and has found a minor problem or two that needs rectifying and I'm still awaiting parts! We have a contingency plan if they don't come tomorrow..... Beer and chocolate biscuts packed! Numbers for Amsterdam 1/2 marathon have arrived Apart from that..... ROLL ON SUNDAY!!!! (It'll be good not to see the news for a few months!!!)