All things come to an end, and we made it back home. Our compact self converted camper van was an incredible home for 3 months and 2 days. We'd driven 7314 miles Visited 16 countries Stayed with 6 groups of friends & family Spent 10 nights on campsites 3 nights in Hotels Taken 8 ferries … Continue reading End of the Trip →

Team Luxembourg were heading to the UK for half term, and so were we. Small stop at Duty free to maximise the use of our allowance on the way home. Small moan, we've all head of the post Brexit border issues, and we saw it here. Passport check to get into UK took so long … Continue reading Back to the UK →

Next stop- family chaos in Luxembourg! We started the day driving and managed to get enough driving in early in the day to stop at another excellent German water park (to Eddie's great excitement) for a good swim and many many goes on the slides! We rocked up in Luxembourg in time to see the … Continue reading Luxembourg →

We continued up north with a stop on the south end of Lake Lugano, in Switzerland just near the Italian border. Here we met Antonia, who recommended us a nice little town with a lido and playground where we met her for a quick swim in the now rather chilly lake! Surprisingly enough there was … Continue reading Switzerland →

Time to (slowly) start heading home! We decided to break the journey in Florence so reluctantly left Palazzola to head north. We found en route something we'd tagged from the start of our trip, having seen it in miniatur wunderland and thought it looked fun- Sacro Bosco or 'Park of Monsters'. We picniced on the … Continue reading Northern Italy →

After all this hardcore tourisitng we decided we needed a holiday from all this holidaying- having found some last minute rooms available at Villa Palazzola in the Castelli hills outside of Rome this was the perfect treat. Full board with hearty Italian meals and wine included we felt very little need to leave in the … Continue reading Italy- Villa Palazzola →

Adam had done some swatting and found out something pretty awesome: it's actually really easy to walk up to the crater of the most active volcano in Europe! Being very alert for any warning tremors or suspicious belching of smoke (it does feel a bit risqué after seeing the remains of Ancient Pompeii) we'd booked … Continue reading Italy- Vesuvius →

Having seen enough of Italian driving outside of the cities we camped well outside Naples in a suburb on a train line ready to explore the city. We got an exciting breakfast from a bakery of something like a pizza dough rolled up with sausage and potatoes inside (it was just as excellent as it … Continue reading Italy- Naples →

We woke up and had breakfast in our campsite with views of the Amalfi coast then drove down from the mountainous peninsula to Pompeii. We started off trying to explore every building but soon realised this was far too ambitious! I hadn't quite grasped the scale of the place, there's currently about 500 buildings open … Continue reading Italy- Pompeii →

Pushing our late night drive a little too far this time, we woke up in a slightly dodgy car park in modern Pompeii with our sites set on the winding mountain roads of the Amalfi peninsula. Shortly after setting off we were very glad we hadn't tried this in the dark! Twisty, busy & beautiful! … Continue reading Italy- Amalfi Coast →

We arrived back to Italy, this time to actually spend some time here, early morning after a nighttime Igoumentisa-Brindisi crossing. After reconciling ourselves to the fact that we were now slowly heading home, we had a last minute change if plan and decided to start our Italy adventure by going South! Lecce tempted us in … Continue reading Italy- Lecce & Matera →

Trusting in the power of google, we'd spotted something on google maps which sounded interesting... The Sunken City of Ancient Epidaurus. Now, City is a bit of an exaggeration, but the sunken roman villa under ~1m of clear blue sea, now inhabited by colourful fish and a million spiky sea urchins was certainly worth the … Continue reading Greece – Peleponese →

The lure of a car free island and a treat night away from the van in a Hotel led us to Hydra. A 30 minute ferry took us to the beautiful port town. We resisted the offers of Donkeys to carry our bags as we went in search of a hotel for the night. Once … Continue reading Greece – Hydra →

Next, to the Peloponnese! We reluctantly left our beautiful campsite outside Delphi for a pre-breakfast sprint past Athens and break for shopping and pastries before stopping at the Corinthian canal. Ooo Canal. Currently closed to boats, so just bungee jumpers in it for now We rapidly worked out that the less off route section to … Continue reading Greece- Corinthian canal & Acrocorinth →

Now for some culture! Ancient Delphi was, we decided, a must see. We started with the archaeological museum- filled with the more precious or delicate of the finds, including an ancient bronze life-size statue of a charioteer and incredibly well preserved sculptures from 4-600BC- it really is incredible how well some of it has been … Continue reading Greece- Delphi →

After a sleepy drive we woke up in a carefully chosen lay-by just outside the village of Portaria with stunning views over the port town of Volos. We started off by heading for the village of Makritsa, 'the balcony of the Pelion'. The van did the rest of the climbing up the steep hill to … Continue reading Greece- Pelion Peninsula →

Adam told us not to change the schedule for his birthday (he would have been perfectly happy with a nice mountain day, it was only the lack of sun and cake that put any kind of damper on it!) But given the choice he would have a beach day. So a beach party was planned! … Continue reading Greece- Adam’s Birthday party & Mount Olympus →

Having seen enough of Greek driving so far, we decided against parking in the city and went back to our old habit of finding a train station to camp in, with added bonus of Eddie entertainment in the morning as he watches the trains! Yay trains!! In an unusually faff-free manner, we were up and … Continue reading Greece- Thessaloniki →

We arrived at Kastoria with an afternoon to spare, and what with it being a little bit cloudy and rain in the air a show cave seemed like a good idea. We took all of 30mins to explore dragon cave, then emerged into sunshine- winning! Parked for the night at a nice spot on the … Continue reading Greece- Kastoria & Edessa →

We had one final morning in Northern Pindos National Park after waking up in the Portitsa gorge- once it got light we couldn't resist another wander to the bridge, where the valley suddenly turns into a deep gorge so we wandered through me and Adam having a wash in some of the deeper pools en … Continue reading Greece- Portitsa Gorge & Meteora →

Like the Queen (or maybe now the king?) We decided Adam would get two birthdays- actual one and a big party later once we've been to the shops, having accidentally found ourselves in the middle of a national park with no cake to be found and very minimal van supplies of birthday treats! Traffic in … Continue reading Adam’s birthday- Northern Pindos National Park, Greece →

After Montenegro, we decided not to risk driving through Albania so many hours on ferries later, we arrived in Greece at the port town of Igoumenitsa. Sunset on the Brindisi-Igoumenitsa ferry We slept by the coast watching the ferries, then in the morning headed to the town of Ioannina. This was a nice little walled … Continue reading Greece- Ioannina & Northern Pindos National park →

A bonus country from our original plan, but we’d heard from lots of different people that this was not one to miss.  To make the most of our planned (yes, we occasionally have a plan) 2 days in Montenegro, we left the campsite early to jump across the border and gain more stamps for Sammy’s … Continue reading Montenegro →

We left early from Ston along the awesome coastal road to Dubrovnik, Admiring it from above as we passed it to stay at camping Kate, where we bagged a pitch and got ready to go to town. We caught the water taxi from  Mlini pier- an interesting experience, surprisingly there are still derelict buildings along … Continue reading Croatia – Dubrovnik →

Finally time to leave our campsite, time to head to a Croatian island. We chose Mljet, home to Mljet national park and a host of unspoiled beaches. Driving along the coast of Croatia is an event in itself. The new motorway network is ace, but the real gems are on the smaller roads. We stopped … Continue reading Croatia – Mljet Island →

We arrived in Trogir for Cats birthday, but spent 3 nights there we had such a nice campsite and we found so much to do! Happy boys on their van shelf The day after Cats birthday mooch around Trogir, we started the day with a quick swim at our campsite beach then walked/cycled back into … Continue reading Croatia – Trogir continued… →

Someone had a birthday.... We started out at a very pretty van spot, although it may have been a service station.... We then treated ourselves to an actual campsite near Trogir, Before Climbing to the top of a castle in Cat's new birthday dress (haggled from a shop in the way there) We stopped off … Continue reading Cat’s birthday – Trogir, Croatia →

Post Zadar and Nin, we decided we needed some out-of-town wandering. Krka National Park is between Zadar and our next planned city stop, Split, so seemed perfect. Boat ride and beer 🙂 We camped in a nearby lay-by ready to head to the Skradin entrance first thing in the morning. We got our tickets and … Continue reading Croatia- Krka national park →

Now to get to the part of Croatia we were expecting, the Dalmatian Coast! We’ve been to Istria before on a previous van venture so decided to skip past that peninsula (highlyreccomend still!) The highway down to the coast was so incredibly that Cat, Eddie & Sammy all slept through the drive. Switchback motorway, Rain … Continue reading Croatia – Nin & Zadar →

Plitvice Lakes Enough cities, time to escape! Plitvice Lakes national park - Now this is how to build boardwalk, well done Croatia! I’ve never walked on as much boardwalk anywhere, 22km through the park, many many waterfalls on 16 lakes! Also impressive was the effort from Eddie to walk about 9km! Boardwalks, paths, trees and … Continue reading Croatia – Hills →

Time to hit one of the main goal countries on our very loose Euro trip plan! Time to leave the Shengen travel zone and fill Sam’s passport with stamps! First stop - Zagreb.Maybe a bit close to our last city wander, but hey-ho, we were expecing some slighlty different local food and sights to explore. … Continue reading Croatia – Zagreb →

Seeing how much Eddie loved the cave with a boat trip in Czechia made us keen to go to another that would blow his mind- Postonja Jama, a show cave with a train inside. We decided it was too far off route very much not being on the way from Vienna to our next destination, … Continue reading A brief jaunt to Slovenia →

Time to let the van do some km with all 4 of us in it! Much as we do love Austria, we had our sights set on southern climes, so it was just a pass through this time. But as one of your famous film stars says, "I'll be back" The quality of Austrian playgrounds … Continue reading Austria: Travel and Thunder →

Getting keen on this cycling idea, we decided both of us would quite like a cycle along the Danube. We were less bothered about seeing the city of Vienna than Bratislava too- so Adam hopped on his bike in the morning and off he went! Eddie cycled the first 10k along an island between old … Continue reading Vienna to Bratislava- and back again! →

So, we're told not to talk about Brno but actually it's an area we couldn't miss because of the caves! Only knowing about it as a place where the European spaeleology Congress was one year, we decided to look for a nice show cave for us to traipse around as a family. Punkva cave hit … Continue reading Czechia- Moravian Karst & cycle to Austria →

Keeping up the theme of making up for the lack of hill so far, we decided to skip Prague as both of us have been there before and head straight for more mountains. We started with a day of castles: We camped under Frýdštejn Castle and wandered up in the morning to be fortunately let … Continue reading Czechia- Bohemian Paradise →

Seeing as how over the border was fun, we thought this side would be worth visiting too. We weren't wrong! The Czechs seems to specialise in putting massive stairways to make the tops of rocks accessible to all, ideal for step-loving small people such as Eddie. Give him a level path and he's asking for … Continue reading Czechia- Bohemian Switzerland →

Of course, time to move on meant heading to a lake! We found a great camping spot 2mins walk from a lakeside beach. Whilst checking out the beach for a swim, it was way too inviting to not get the paddle board out! A quick morning swim soon turned into a morning as Cat caught … Continue reading Germany 3- Saxon Switzerland & Dresden →

We got the ferry back over after our exciting safari day, and after a couple of failed attempts at finding a free spot to park finally chanced upon a walkers car park at 10pm for a bit of kip. In the morning Adam and Eddie went for a lakeside bike ride while Cat and Sam … Continue reading Germany 2- Puttgarden to Berlin →

Escaping Copenhagen we woke up to another stunning day and started it with a bike ride around a Fort and a paddle in the sea, before driving off to a forest park to find some monsters. After spending a long time reassuring Eddie that they were friendly monsters that did not eat children (or at … Continue reading Denmark- Zealand & Lolland →

We left miniatur wunderland to get the Puttgarden-Rødby ferry and arrived in Denmark! Found a cracking camping spot by the sea on the island of Faro and Eddie immediately made friends with some random German kids at the playpark so we decided to call it a day. Next stop: Copenhagen to see Emilie, Kris & … Continue reading Denmark- Copenhagen & Helsingør →

It was still over 4 hours from Hoge Veluwe National Park to our next planned stop, Hamburg, so we found somewhere to stop on the way just outside Osnabruck and a swimming pool seemed like a good call as none of us had really had a proper wash since Brighton. It turned out to be … Continue reading Germany- part 1 →

Overnight camping on the ramparts. That is the fancy way of desribing the car park we slept in after a late night arrival in the land of Orange, bikes, questionable cakes & windmills. We could also see a windmill though, so it was a nice place.  Morning excersise: Eddie +1 cycle a lap of the … Continue reading The Netherlands →

First (proper, excluding Eddie's wee break) stop after crossing the Channel... Bruges! We found a place to kip just outside town on a park and ride stop by a canal. It was such a gorgeous spot with such an epic sunset that we couldn't resist a quick evening wander. We set off to explore town … Continue reading Belgium →

After a suitable amount of time faffing with the van and missing all the holiday traffic we finally said goodbye to the house for 3 months and got on the road. Ready, Steady, Go! First stop: Bristol! We stopped with Hellie, Rob and Daisy for a day of toddler chaos before Hellie and Daisy left … Continue reading South Coast Tour →

We thought it was worth a little introduction to our home, as we are both pretty proud of this creation. Meet the Cadavan. It started life as a minibus before we got hold of it in 2019 and began our conversion.  We made just a couple of modifications: Stripped, insulated, solar panel added, leisure batteries … Continue reading Home is where you park it →

Time to resurrect the blog!  Februrary 2022 saw the Family expanded with the arrival of Baby Samuel!  Snug as a bug in a rug Amongst the sleepless nights of getting used to being a family of 4, a plan was developed… We enjoyed our last Parental Leave adventure so much, of course we would do … Continue reading Round 2 →