Bonjour (Hello) or Bonsoir (Good Evening) from France, Yes thats right, since Sheridan, Nadine, myself and Ross (Ross Faulkner that is) left London we have travelled 2000 miles in all sorts of weather, from almost constant rain in Scotland to a heatwave and thunderstorms in Europe!! The brief version saw us go via York to Glasgow, where the exhaust blew up. Got exhqust "fixed" (cash job) before heading N in search of Nessie (no sighting) via Ben Nevis (tqllest Moutain in UK) en route to Inverness before hitting the whisky trail (Glenfidich and co). Made our way from Aberdeen on the East coast down to Edinburgh for two days. Then further S to Newcastle for overnight ferry to Amsterdam and hot weather. "Sightseeing" in Amsterdam follozed by quick trip through Belgium (Antwerp and Ghent) before entering France. Visits to Lille and 3-4 days in Paris before spending last night just out of Tours (South West France). That is about as short as it gets. For the faint hearted, or those not possessing the time of desire to read further at least you know what has happened so far. For those young Mums zith plenty of time on their hands you can read on below for more details. Firstly apologies for any typos but these foreigh keybaords are s*** - why on earth would you move letters etc?? The scenery in N Eng/Scotand was gorgeous, only "dampened" by the ordinary weather which played havoc with our early camping plans. Nadine caught a cold early on which proved hard to through with all the crap weather. We had some initial "teething" problems with Rennie (the van) in the exhaust and also a leaking roof which was tested by the local weather. Camping in a beautiful park at the base of Ben Nevis (1,343 m) we were deterred from making the climb by the weather and our time constraints so we heqding off in search of Nessie. I think the weqther even scarred Nessie off as our only sighting was of a soft toy/teddy variety, which one of us had to purchase (guess who?). The drive in along the Great Glen in search was gorgeous, although my companions wouldnt recall much other than zzzzz's. From Inverness we say the Whsiky Trail signs and Rennie took over from their (a bit like Herbie the VW) and I had no say in it when he pulled into the Glenfiddich and Glen Grant car parks. A few wee drabs later and Rennie had to do all the driving as you could imagine. From there we went via Aberdeen to Edinburgh as the initial "fix" on Rennie didnt hold up. Most of our time in Edinburgh was spent trying to get Rennie fixed properly. We met Nqdine later that afternoon for her first pint of beer and a few more drabs for yours truly. After finding the Walkabout pub (the name says it all) offering 1pound drinks, we somehoe ended up on the wrong night bus (bloody Scottish accents) and finally got home 2 odd hours later. Off to Newcastle on the Friday for the overnight ferry, getting caught up in traffic. Finally nade ferry about an hour after initial check in but just saved us time waiting in queues. After paying a ridiculous amount for first drink we decided to fill the water bottle with some Vodka and just purchase some softies. Shez and I piked it and left Nadine to party the night away in the Cabaret / disco. Arriving 10 am Sat we had some fun finding camp ground and eventually spent the afternoon in the Heineken Brewery!!!! Unfortuntely Nadine doesnt like beer so we had to help her out, yes we as Sheridan does like beer! So much so that she decided to help herself to a coule more free beers than we were entitled to, and even ended up behind the bar for a quick photo after the final bell had been rung. Didnt end up as bad as it sounds, and had a quiet night in one of the cities many cafes. Sunday started at the Van Gogh museum, which we all really enjoyed, and made a few purchases from the gift shop. From there we booked ourselves on a wine and cheese night cruise before Nadine and I went to Anne Franks House, leaving Sheridan out the front to have a power nap as she visited the house on her last trip. What an eye opening experience this was, to see the conditions that these people lived in to avoid the Nazis. Their is no other way to explain it. We then ventured onto our cruise along the numerous canals of the city, accompanied by red, white and rose wines along zith plenty of Dutch cheese and crackers. Probable one too many wines led us to the red light district afterwards, which was quite interesting in itself. Nadine even managed to talk us into a live show, which is probqbly better left to your imagination. As I am getting sick of typing with this stupid keybaord I have made an executive decision and that is to leave this update here, finishing in Amsterdam. We will run through Belgium and France in the next few days and we now have to see some of the sites of Tours. Trust you are all well and we will try and send a couple of photos just after this email, if it works? Take care and all our love B&S