Profuse apologies to our followers for the long delay in posting this last post.  We reached the ‘finale’ to our journey in a kind of roundabout way.  As mentioned before, Flavio left Brittany a little prematurely by plane on the 2nd Sept both to see his mother who’d had a fall and was poorly and to attend Matt and Abi’s wedding.  We’re happy to say Flavio’s mother recovered and is now doing reasonably well.

Judith stayed on in Evas, helping Lynne and Graham with the considerable gardening work, and touching up some scratches on Brenda with ‘nano’ touch-up solution restoring her to her original splendour, and finally driving up to St Malo to catch the ferry to Portsmouth on the 10th Sept.  There, Flavio joined her for the last triumphant leg of the journey back to Barnes, London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn had arrived early and there was definitely a chill in the air.  We had another wedding to look forward to a few days after our return – Daisy’s and Alex’s.  Daisy is one of Lucy and Dereck’s three lovely daughters, all  already mentioned in our Carcassone post.  It was wonderful to have been able to be there, knowing how much it would have meant to dear Dereck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It should have been a time to reflect back on our journey.  But first we needed to organise moving back into our house in Wimbledon Park which was in a bit of a shabby state after being rented for 3 years.  Before our belongings could be moved down from the attic room, some urgent redecorating was necessary so we set about giving the two rooms in the worst state a facelift.  With a bit more time on our hands, we found the work mildly therapeutic.  We did have an infestation of moths in the attic however, having forgotten to put out moth balls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the meantime, the early autumnal chill had been pushed back and replaced by an Indian summer, which was very welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, to round things off nicely, we hopped across to Ireland to see our son Simon and his girlfriend Lucy who are both doing Masters at Cork University.  The highlight was a visit (and marathon walk) around Killarney National Park.

Catherine in the meantime had left for Seville where she will be teaching primary school children English  and drama over the coming school year. It feels good to know we’ll all be on the same continent for a change!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so, at the end of our journey – our European adventure – what can we say?  That in three and a half months, we covered 15,400 kms (9,500 miles), equivalent to 1.5 times the distance to Bejing or the full distance to Texas the long way round. And that we took in 8 countries and made a total of 51 stops.  We certainly came back feeling that we knew and appreciated Europe better and better understood its common characteristics as well as differences.

The refugee and migrant crisis tragically unfolding during our journey was a poignant reminder that Europe is the haven of peace, tolerance, fairness and affluence that the dispossessed the world over dream of – and that’s hardly surprising. Our journey therefore was never going to be one bedevilled with dangers at every turn.  Europe is on the whole a civilised and orderly place and Europeans are by and large amiable people.

And Europeans on the continent are true Europeans in the sense that they feel at home not only in their own country but also when they cross borders, often speaking each others’ languages in preference to English, and that’s nice.  Therein lies a mild paradox – their sense of belonging to Europe quite often co-exists not only with national but also with regional pride and sometimes rivalry.

Another debate raging in the background during our journey was that of the EU and more specifically Greece’s predicament.  When all the economic arguments are exhausted however, there remains an enduring sense that Europeans are bound together by the shared experience of two world wars and a common will to never again let intolerance divide them because the prospect of renewed conflict is just too terrifying.  So the concept of a united Europe will surely prevail, even as it struggles to find ways to manage and accommodate the consequences of conflict and deprivation elsewhere and especially in the Middle East.  Because another characteristic of Europe, and one which we were very much aware of during our travels, is its growing and inescapable diversity.

We said at the start we weren’t setting out on this journey with any preconceived aims.  Our itinerary was fairly ‘safe’ being in Europe but we were a little nervous about the dangers of long hours of driving and generally whether we’d have the stamina to keep going, maintain the pace and not least, live out of a van for over three months.  It wasn’t until we’d gone round the whole of Spain and Portugal and reached southern France that we dared think about aiming to get to Greece by the beginning of August. We just didn’t know what we were capable of.  But we grew in confidence, learnt to cope with mishaps when they happened, the elements,  as well as, it has to be said, the odd disagreement (not that many really!).

We’ve also learnt a few things we would do better next time (pack fewer things but be prepared for all weathers, plan visits to cities better, update the TomTom, avoid the hottest and most crowded month of 20 Jul to 20 Aug).  But we’re pleased to say that on the whole, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience, enjoyed Europe, the places we saw, the people we met and talked to, the towns, cities and countryside we visited, the food we ate, the wine we drank, the seas and lakes we swam in, the hills we climbed and above all, enjoyed all the Nature that is so plentiful and so beautiful in Europe.  Since we’ve come back, one of the first questions we’re asked is what were our highlights.  They are too many and they are all as we’ve summed up above.

Above all, we feel very fortunate that we were able to embark on this journey and we are grateful to have come back safely.

A very big thank you to all our friends for faithfully following us on the blog and for all your very kind encouragement and support all along.  God bless.