Category Archives: 2012 European Summer

The countdown! 10: 9: 8: 7: 6: 5: 4: 3: 2: 1: BAM!!! 52.6064° N, 3.8695° W BRON-YR-AUR You do not find Bron-Yr-Aur unless you really want to, very badly.  There is no address and no directions.  You have to … Continue reading →

Our final day in the UK.  We fly out of Heathrow tomorrow morning and will be back in Atlanta tomorrow afternoon. We’re ready to go home.  After 43 days on the road we certainly are looking forward to doing nothing … Continue reading →

Fun day driving through Wales.  The weather never did really break either way (neither sun nor rain, but both threatened to happen all day) but it was good enough such that we could do and see everything we hoped to. … Continue reading →

Adam:  We’ve headed west into Wales; rough, rugged country.  Land of the unusually strong affinity for sheep, incomprehensibly saliva-soaked place names and a chip on the shoulder about the English. We had to skip out on Wales on our first … Continue reading →

Leaving Kent (on the far east side) we headed over to the far west side of England. Traffic by and around London on a Monday morning was terrible – and the weather was not much better.  We did, however, get … Continue reading →

Back in Canterbury and the surrounding regions.  The weather is back to middle-of-July cloudy and just a wee bit coldish.  We welcomed the change from the South of France – too hot and no one with any A/C. The quote … Continue reading →

For those of you who have perhaps felt that my daily missives were a little dull for lack of travel “inconvenience” (all the best travel books are full of pain and suffering), I trust that you will find the following … Continue reading →

Leaving Limoges yesterday morning, we had planned to drive up to Versailles and tour the Chateau again – this time during the summer when the plants were in bloom and the fountains were turned on.  We booked a hotel in … Continue reading →

We got up early on Wednesday to make the drive northward from Toulouse. This next destination held particular interest to Brenda, who envisioned walking from porcelain store to porcelain store (a la Delft) finding all sorts of treasures at unbelievably … Continue reading →

This location should win back from Jason some of the respect I lost by failing to visit Bron-Yr-Aur. Carcassonne is a fortified French town – special in that it has remained, more or less, in tact since the 1200’s. Most … Continue reading →

We decided to spent a couple of days in this area to see more sites.  It turned out to be a good decision – Holden’s sickness got worse and he spent the better half of the day in his room, … Continue reading →

Leaving Monte Carlo after only one evening, we headed west along the Riviera passing Nice, Cannes & St. Tropez, then turned north entering the Rhone Valley and into Provence.  Our hotel is in Beaucaire, but we spent most of the … Continue reading →

After a couple of days in our apartment outside of Milan, we sort of hated to leave.  The place was old and without A/C, but terribly charming and a beautiful location to just be together as a family. We decided … Continue reading →

It’s hot. Sunny and hot – something we haven’t experienced previously on this trip. Today I woke up, wandered over to the local ATM for more Euros, to an open bakery for fresh breakfast croissants, then back to our place … Continue reading →

Friday was mostly a driving day, and a mostly unpleasant one for us. After breakfast in Sörenberg, we packed up and began our drive south to Italy. We experienced the worst weather we’ve had on the trip … cold and … Continue reading →

For the past couple of days, we have been staying at the “Free Spirit Lodge” in Sörenberg, Switzerland. When we arrived here last evening, it was late and pouring down rain. The place looks quite unassuming – a dark, older … Continue reading →

A full day yesterday (July 4). The weather behaved until around 4:00pm giving us enough time to see and do everything we wanted. We got up early yesterday, before breakfast was being served at hour B&B, to do a hike … Continue reading →

This evening, we’re in Badenweiler, Germany – deep in the Black Forest – home of Cuckoo Clocks and Schnapps. We left France in the morning and headed towards Triberg, Germany where I had a hike planned up into the mountains… … Continue reading →

Adam:  For the past several days, we have been staying at a house in the Alsace-Lorraine district in France. I found this place online and it turned out to be a better selection than we had hoped (some of my … Continue reading →

Yesterday we stopped in Luxembourg for lunch. Luxembourg is a small country – you could fit 8 1/2 of them into Idaho County. It is the only remaining Grand Duchy in the world. I dare you to try and name … Continue reading →

We arrived into Amsterdam late yesterday afternoon and got ourselves checked in. I was able to find a room that could take the 5 of us; it has absolutely 0 creature comforts, but it is right now in the central … Continue reading →

Today I performed a near impossible feat – I found a parking spot, in downtown Amsterdam, for our huge vehicle. After this, everything else is gravy. More on that tomorrow. Today, we spent the day in Delft, Netherlands – famous … Continue reading →

Our second day in Antwerp.  We had nothing better to do than to wander about the town and see the sights. After breakfast, we headed out to walk from our hotel to the main canal on the west side of … Continue reading →

We’re in Belgium! We left London early the morning to make the 2 hour drive to Dover to catch the Chunnel train. Fortunately, we made better time that I had feared, and we were able to catch an earlier train … Continue reading →

It’s just the 5 of us again, trying to make our way around Europe. After breakfast, we decided to head back into London to visit Grays & The Mews Antique Market that Brenda ran into several days ago, but didn’t … Continue reading →

Sunday was our last day with the folks. We had to return to London to be able to help put them on an airplane out of Heathrow very early Monday morning. We decided to park down near our previous London … Continue reading →

On Saturday morning, we awoke and walked back into downtown Canterbury to find that local folks were setting up for a farmer’s market, covering the length of the pedestrian section of town. Mom managed to find a porcelain rabbit that … Continue reading →

A bit of a rough start this morning. After a full English breakfast at the hotel where we are staying in Canterbury, we prepared for a full day of fun. I got out to the car to load some items, … Continue reading →

Proof that the mythical car actually exists! It’s here and delivered. We’ll take this out to Canterbury tomorrow. It is NOT done, so to speak, but done enough for us to use over the next couple of weeks. The critical … Continue reading →

Yesterday was fantastic – great weather and the 7 of us put on more than 7 miles by foot all over the city. After breakfast, we took off to see the Tower of London. We got there not long after … Continue reading →

Adam:  Yesterday we made the drive from Sheffield down to London, arriving in the afternoon and getting settled in our 2-bedroom flat for the next 4 evenings. We caught some lunch, then hit the grocery story for fruit, cereal and … Continue reading →

Saturday morning was calm and pleasant – we only have a short drive planned today to Sheffield, and since it was Saturday and we’ve now been on the road for a week, it was a good time to recharge batteries … Continue reading →

After a wonderful full English breakfast at the B&B in Ulverston, we loaded up and headed south to Liverpool. We got in about noon and headed down to the waterfront. Over the past 10 years, they have refurbished this formerly … Continue reading →

Today we spent a good part of the day in the car, driving through the countryside from Edinburgh, by Glasgow, and then into the south west of Scotland (Lockerbie, Dumfries). We then re-entered England proper, stopping in Carlisle for lunch. … Continue reading →

Adam:  Today we spent the entire day walking around “Aid-en-buh-rah-scote-lun”, the capital. We had the best weather day of the trip – simply gorgeous and a beautiful city in which to walk around. After a full breakfast, we headed out … Continue reading →

We left York in the morning and made the trip back up to Hartlepool where the Land Rover restoration shop is located. Our car is not yet ready to turn over to us, so as a partial consolation for this … Continue reading →

Brenda’s writing:  I have given up on the stupid blog. I spent so much time fighting the formatting and trying to upload pictures that I wasn’t getting any writing done, and several times I just lost HOURS worth of work … Continue reading →

After leaving the horse trials, we headed to nearby York for lunch and to find our hotel.  We stopped in a little pub, hoping for a fantastic rustic meal … the best meal we had on our Christmas trip was … Continue reading →

It’s amazing to me just how fragile the human body really is.  All it takes to make a person feel on the verge of death is a couple rotten sleepless nights and a 5 hour time zone discrepancy.  Conversely, all … Continue reading →