Doug and Kerry Hudson in Europe

Following our trip to Canada and the United States, we spent two weeks at home in England, recovering from the epic journey back. We suffered badly from the jet lag. Somebody misplaced the power pack to Doug's hair clippers, and there was just enough juice remaining in the battery to shave off his hair and half of James' hair. James remained semi-shaven for twenty four hours, until he managed to borrow some clippers from the next door neighbours. Margaret, Doug and James' mum, was so angry she refused to look at them!

We somehow got our act together to prepare for our next trip: Europe. Our preparations included a trip to London to get a visa for Kerry from the French embassy. We had prepared well so this just involved standing in various queues for three hours. Our day out also gave us the chance to see our friends Mark, Jo Ann, Kerry and Ryan.

We crossed by Seacat from Dover to Calais on a Thursday in early July 2002. We had booked our tickets through Drive Alive Motoring, meaning we had a two-night hotel stay included in the price. As this was less than the price of a regular ferry ticket, this proved to be excellent value.

We had chosen Bruges in Belgium to be our first destination. Apart from that though, we had no definite plans. The whole of Europe stretched before us, and we had six weeks in which to explore it... With our tent in the boot of the car, we were free to go where we pleased, stay as long as we liked and then to move on.

All in all, our route took in six countries, in a big clockwise loop:

Belgium, the land of chocolate and beer,
The Netherlands, land of pancakes and beer,
Germany, land of sausage and beer,
Austria, land of the schnitzel and beer,
Italy, land of overly-demonstrative, vain and ill-mannered people who ride scooters, badly, and
France, our favourite of all: beautiful, cultured, and civilised.

Our final destination was Paris, a fitting climax to our Europe trip. It definitely lived up to its reputation for being a beautiful and romantic city.

Europe did not disappoint us. We saw such a rich variety of culture and tradition, not to mention the fabulous architecture. By the time we had returned to England, we had driven over 3,000 miles. More importantly, we had seen some of Europe's most impressive cathedrals, castles, cities and art. With only a week at home, we had just enough time to recover from all the driving before flying on to our next destination: South Africa, the land of barbecued meat and beer!

World Trip >> Europe

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006