Home

I am home.

Home is where the heart is, as you can see from this picture.

Amazing how much you can fit in a tiny car

Setting off early Wednesday morning

Settling in the posh part of the boat

Waving goodbye to blighty again

First hotel of the journey

The last few days in the UK passed with me packing and getting ready for the drive back. I was going straight from work to my mum's and that journey went relatively well, being topped off with a Chinese Takeaway when I arrived. The final packing was done and in the morning we managed to get on the road with the potential for making the earliest ferry my ticket would allow us on. With a superbly quick drive down we reached Dover in time and the crossing was amazing as I'd managed to get access to the Premium Lounge with comfortable seats, table service for food and no screaming shouting passengers. The smoothness of the journey continued for the whole day as we sailed around the R0 past Brussels in record time; I have never known that road to be so empty. Making the early ferry, and having no traffic at Brussels, meant that by the end of the first day we were past Frankfurt by the time we found a hotel and stopped for the night.

Sun rises over Germany

Bacon sizzling in the pan

Mum takes a very welcome turn at the wheel

Waberer's were everywhere on our trip

Epic Bridge Porn

The sun sets as we get into Romania

Arriving at our hotel

Impressive high ceilings

The second bedroom of the night

The next morning we were up and ready to head off after a brew (made in the travel kettle - an awesome item to bring with) before the sun rise. The sun, when it did rise, was amazing and huge however the pictures obviously didn't do it justice. We paused for breakfast after a while, frying up our bacon on the little camp stove. The journey was again very good through the day, and we made excellent progress. Mum took the wheel for a bit as I was getting tired. We saw some Waberer's trucks, and I also got a picture of some bridges. Dad is never far from all of our minds. The sun set dramatically and we carried on driving, having got across the rest of Germany, all of Austria and Hungary and finally were into Romania. What a day. As we reached the end of the motorway I did a google search for a hotel and found one very close. When we got there we discovered an amazing building with marble stairs and really high ceilings!

All night on the roof of the car

Rattly Romanian passenger train

Fog clinging to the wooded hillsides

The dam on the Danube; traditional break point

Breakfast, and butty making

And into Bulgaria

The Roman Road leads towards home

I slept well, and so did mum I think, but we were up and out the door by 6.30 with a dream of making it home that day. I found that I had left the lid from one of our boxes sat on the roof of the car all night and it was still there when I went downstairs. It was a lovely morning and we had a glorious drive through the low mountains and then through the higher mountains. We saw a couple of trains, causing much excitement, and managed to railfan one with a video. My target was to get to the Danube for breakfast and we managed this, pulling into the same carpark I have stopped in on every journey. We had bacon barms again, and then mum made up wraps for the rest of the journey, and we hit the road once more. It was not long before we got over the Bulgarian border (they took their time checking our passports) and we driving as fast as possible towards our destination. Towards the end of the drive I started to feel tired again so, rather than stop, mum once more took the wheel and she ended up driving all the rest of the way. We got back home in time for dinner which was beyond all our expectations. It was heavenly to be home. As we pulled up at the gate A was there waiting with Rosie and I was handed my daughter through the window of the car; she proceeded to scream at me, which is to be expected I suppose.

The rainbow after the rain

So lovely seeing these two together again

A gets her chainsaw on

A quick game in the evening

Puppies found the sun

Since then I've pretty much been working most days and the weather, having been glorious the whole way across Europe, has been pretty bad with rain and thunderstorms, but also rainbows. My mum (Grandma, now) has been having a lovely time with Rosie and we've done some varied entertainments like playing games and the ladies have been out a few times during the day while I've been working. A got some chainsawing done of the wood from the land on Monday, and I have spent a little time every day dragging more wood up. We have also planted the last of our spuds and I'm back on Colorado Beetle watch; little buggers. The puppies have been their usual playful selves and today found the sun on the sofa back and stayed there as long as the sun stayed.

I'll sign this off now; there's a lot planned for the renovations this year and if even half of it happens this blog will be getting much busier and more regularly updated.

Thanks for reading.

It's good to be home.

Miss you dad xxx