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So that's it..... 5134 miles, 6 countries, 27 campsites, 497 trips to the supermarket, 1 engagement, 2 minor bumps in the van, no breakdowns (mental or mechanical), 2 parents and 2 kids safely home in one piece. Was it worth it....definitely. Amazing experiences, stunning places, time together just the 4 of us, lovely people in every country, the odd 'what the hell are we doing' moment, and quite a few 'is this real' moments. We were very lucky to get the chance to do it, and extremely glad we did.

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This years entries for the 'best playground view in Europe'.....

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Day 88 Back to Blighty

Of course it rained for a last minute trip to Le Mont St Michel, then of course the sun came out the moment we joined the queue for the ferry!

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79-87 Brittany

After our escape from the mechanical menagerie we drove up to Brittany for a tour of the hotspots.....Carnac, Polmanac'h and finally Dinan and Mont Saint Michel. Carnac consisted of sun, sea and sand plus some rather unimpressive standing stones claiming to be the French answer to Stonehenge (Stonehenge has nothing to worry about!). The beaches were great though, and we spent mornings cycling out and getting lunch, followed by afternoons in the sun. Ploumanac'h was like nowhere else we've been before with the most spectacular pink granite rock formations on the coast. The way they were balanced and the shapes were like something out of Jurassic Park! As always the pictures don't do them justice. We were lucky to spend the last day at the town cove after a full moon which was fabulous. The tide was so far out all the rocks were uncovered with millions of little crabs to catch. Then as the tide flooded back in we could swim out to the rocks and dive in. It completely changed the cove. It even had an old weathered shrine which Evie claimed as her mermaid princess castle for the day! Charming Dinan was our last stop, arguably the most beautiful town in Brittany. A port on a river with a medieval walled town on a (steep!) hill crammed with artists, galleries, market stalls and musicians. We had to walk the ramparts, eat crepes and hire a boat. Our last full day was meant to be a no expense spared boat trip to Saint Malo but everything conspired against us. We managed lunch in Dinan and crazy golf in the end, hardly a spectacular finish. Plus it rained! A fitting end that just reminded us it can all go so well, and equally so badly!!

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Day 78 Giant elephants En route to Brittany we dropped into Nantes for the day to check out rumours of a giant mechanical elephant roaming the streets! First we had to find the campsite....Charl spotted a field of caravans just as the sat nav said we'd arrived and we drove up. It looked busy and was full of caravans, but no campervans. As we got closer we realised there were no cars either, just lots of vans, pick ups and blingy 4x4s. Then it dawned on us and we made a hasty retreat! The Machines Des L'ile turned out to be like the museum of science and industry in Manchester on acid. Ten years ago some old railway sheds in what was a derelict industrial area were turned into a giant playground of mechanical creations. We saw ants, plants, trees, a plane, a carousel full of sea creatures and of course the elephant. Evie loved it, Joseph was terrified!

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69-77 Roadtrip & Ile de Re

The roadtrip turned out to be a success. Two cracking towns for overnight stops (one was completely free and in a beautiful setting by a river), lazy lunch at a bio restaurant (chance find) and even an easy van repair when the contents of the water tank emptied all over the road just as we were setting off. The French are so civilised when it comes to camping! The Ill de Re turned out to be a little island paradise of cyclists, donkeys and Breton stripes. We couldn't find a bad town and the beaches are endless and wild. The weather was rubbish though!! Our highlights... Cycling between the lovely little villages and stopping for croissants or long boozy lunches (which made for wobbly rides home!) Playing on the beach whatever the weather. Collecting sea creatures from the rock pools and building towers and 'houses' out of stones. Visiting the main town of St Martin, completely walled and with a harbour in the centre. Escaping the espadrilled and pink trousered crowds of the very chic Ports en Re for a pizza and beer picnic dinner on the beach where Evie leapt off rocks and Joseph found a beloved green tractor to sit on!l

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Days 63-68 We have returned a la France and spent a lovely week relaxing on the banks of the very blue and beautiful Lac de Chalain. Next up….traveling the width of France in two days 🚍

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Tubingen

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Hohenzollern & Stuttgart

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2 months in and we've settled into life on the road....

We've seen some amazing places and have a list of places to return to. We often wake up having no idea which country we are in, and get caught out at the till sometimes and reply in the wrong language! Have slackened off our hygiene rules and often the only wash the kids get is in a river, lake, swimming pool and even a fountain! Shared the campervan with a colony of ants for 2 weeks, travelling with them from Italy, through Switzerland across Germany. We're now quite content parking up in random car parks for the night before moving in. Are getting pretty sick of living in a 6m x 3m box!!

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Days 49-62 The Fatherland

We spent 2 weeks touring Germany and it turned out to be our favourite country so far....beautiful scenery, great cities, organised, friendly, cheap and so cycle friendly. Steve also thinks it's his German heritage calling him! We started in the sunniest city in Germany, Freiburg. It has a charming centre with the imposing Munster, cobbled streets full of cafes and medieval water channels on which most children pull little boats along, but Joseph mainly fell into! We visited the excellent free zoo (the Mundenhof) with monkeys, ostriches and shady beer garden where huge ice creams were 1 euro. It almost made the 20km round trip on the bikes worth it! We took some day trips out to the lakes in the Black Forest, Schluchsee (pronounced slutsee!) and the even more amusingly named Tittisee, which were sweet and reminded us very much of the Lake District, packed full of people on pedalos, souvenir shops and silver haired ladies eating cake. The only difference was the souvenirs were cuckoo clocks and the cake was booze soaked Black Forest Gateau. Our next stop was the catchily titled Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof. An interesting open air museum where we could look inside 400 year old Black Forest farmhouses and see how people used to live. There were also some animals for the kids and a terrifyingly play park complete with polished stone slide which shot small children off about 6ft from the ground onto a comfortable gravel landing!! We had a free trip to the dentist the next day as Evie chipped her tooth, amazingly not on the slide but on Joseph's head! Especially for (Princess) Evie we took a trip to Hohenzollern Castle. However, the local town where we stayed the night before, Hechingen, was a blot on the tourist map. We turned up to a campsite which was mostly car park, all the restaurants closed at seven and the only people we saw were overweight men in vests hanging out on street corners. To make it even weirder the local children's brass band were marching on the gravel building site opposite our "campsite". Luckily the castle itself was absolutely stunning, set on top of a hill, with fairytale turrets, beautiful chapels and (of course!) a nice shady beer garden. Steve and Evie sneaked their way onto a free tour to see the Crown Jewels whilst Joseph was photographed in the courtyard by Chinese tourists charmed by his blonde curls. We chose to stay at Tubingen next, purely for its proximity to the Porsche museum in Stuttgart. Once again we were scuppered by a bank holiday, randomly on a thurs, which meant we spent 3 days rather than 1 there, but it turned out to be lovely place. A university town with punts on the river a la Cambridge and a nice old town where we tried some local specialties including Swabian noodles which looked like maggots but were actually very tasty! Our last stop was the brilliant Legoland where we decided to go on a whim based on finding a 50% off voucher on the back of our cornflakes packet over breakfast! It was a mission packing up and driving over, but well worth it. We left Germany via a final stopover in Freiburg as we loved the city and campsite so much. Our plans have changed as we were all getting burnt out exploring and couldn't face the 10 hour journey to Denmark, so we've crossed the border into France for an easy 3 weeks before heading home. We'll see how long the relaxing lasts....!

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Freiburg & Titisee