2018

After our hectic trip downunder for family weddings  we arrived back in the UK in early April, having missed what was a severe winter.  We had a fantastic couple of months exploring New Zealand for the first time, but on reflection we should have allowed much more time for catching up with friends and relatives in Australia.  

However we were tied in to an April return because of John’s British naturalisation ceremony;  the result of five years of effort, much bureaucracy and many thousands of pounds.  With the UK about to leave the EU, one could now question whether this was such a good investment for our future travels on the Continent.  We still live in hope that sanity will somehow prevail.  

However the objective always was for John to become, like the rest of the family, a dual national, so when we ultimately tire of motorhome travel in Europe we have the option of settling in the UK where the three children and their partners seem now to be permanently domiciled.  But for now, Australia remains our base with the trusty Range Rover and our household possessions securely stored.

Tim and Liv have a sister for Oscar about to arrive in March.  As Oscar’s a typical two-year-old boy it remains to be seen how delighted he will in fact be.  Although a tad tiring, it’s always a joy to have Oscar with us;  he has become quite accomplished at motorhome living, having mastered all the switches, doors and cupboards etc.

Tim and Liv, like Amy and partner Bjon, and Louisa and husband Joe all still live close to the centre of London.  Whenever we return to the UK we have a number of very pleasant sites around London where we can stay in the motorhome with easy access to all the family. 

We’re writing this from a pleasant rural site in the Midlands near Rugby with lots of wind turbines in the vicinity.  As it’s a typical English winter’s day they’re all getting a good workout, but fortunately we’re in a sheltered field, nice and cosy in our centrally heated van.

We’ll all be congregating shortly for Christmas at a rented farmhouse nearby.  There’s no snow forecast but we can be confident it will be a cold and muddy walk to the nearest pub.

The blog is in a bit of limbo right now as we struggle to update it regularly and contemplate how best to integrate it with our cloud storage of photos.  However the 2018 tag covers part of our trip to Sweden for a tandem rally on the island of Oländ off the east coast.  Photos and blog updates for Germany, The Netherlands and a separate trip to Hungary remain to be posted.

It was great that we had John’s sister Alison spend time with us during the year and that we were able to meet up with other Aussie visitors on their travels over here.

Don’t forget if you have any European visits planned, let us know just in case we can make our paths cross.  

With best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year,

Rosemarie & John

(December 20, 2018)

2017

Another year has passed, seemingly at warp speed.  We’re back downunder to attend the wedding of Sam, our nephew, to Kelly in Sydney on December 30, and then Mitch, another nephew, to Kendra in Wellington, New Zealand on January 12.  The opportunity to do some cycle touring in New Zealand and Victoria after the weddings has presented itself, so we’re going to give the northern winter a miss this year.

Not that we don’t enjoy our continued travels in Europe;  we do, greatly.  We’ve focused on Spain, Portugal and France this year, touring around and also meeting up with friends and family while on the Continent.  But the UK continued to be our main domicile this year, from cycling in the Yorkshire Dales to walking the South West Coast Path, with frequent visits to London to meet up with Tim, Liv and Oscar, Amy and Bjon, and Louisa, Joe and Teddy the pug.  

Oscar, now seventeen months old, has monopolised family attention, of course, and is a regular visitor to our new motorhome, as the photos posted during the year illustrate.

There’s never enough time of course, and we’ve failed to get to visit all the relatives and friends in the British Isles that we’d like to.  Hopefully we can make amends in 2018.

With best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year,

Rosemarie & John

2015

Now that we've finally started our blog we have a better way to to send our Xmas greetings to everyone and provide a little update on the last year. In fact we've been so slack in recent years that we probably owe many people an update of our news over the last several years.