It was a sad day yesterday.....

....when we lost our campervan.

We had spent almost two months with the vehicle and taken to highs and lows (mainly from problems with the van itself). But overall we had a fantastic experience. I always thought that 2 months in a small space with nowhere to go and no one else to speak to would either make or break a family. I'm pleased to announce that the skinner family are all good friends, well most of the time. We managed to travel 4,557km getting to Rome from Paris. And it took us 50 days. The guys we gave the van to at rome airport had flown down from Paris and said it would take him 24 hours in total to get the van back. ,I suspect he will not be visiting as many churches and museums on the way!

Esther's blog has all the details of where we have been and what we have seen but for me the highlights were:

in a French cafe in Rambouillet watching the ABs beat the French in the RWC, seeing the Mona Lisa, being able to visit so many places with few tourists around as we are out of season, getting to know the family better (strange to say but true), trying to learn to pencil draw, Florence which was just a real nice city to visit (we also had a pencil portrait of Benjamin and Naomi done, great to watch), being comfortable in France speaking the lingo - it's amazing how much came back to me from school days, visiting Maranello and getting to drive a Ferrari. I'm sure there are plenty more and you will hear about them I'm sure!

There was always going to be lowlights, thankfully not many:

Driving the campervan in the first few days ( the accident and just getting to used to the van), parts of Venice (crowded, with narrow streets and impossible to navigate even using a map). - one a challenge for a 'control freak', Trying to speak Italian (with no base to start with I have resorted to finger pointing) and having to give up the campervan - I think it would have been good to go further!

Would I do it all over again, absolutely. And I would know all the things to do before driving out of the hire place.

Some recent photos to make you smile..

We found an excellent improvement to my golf game...