Hi all,

sorry its taken us so long to update the site - we've been on the road for most of the trip so not had much access to email. I've also got to spend some time uploading photos so none to show yet.

We are currently in Italy having spent 5 days in France and a week in Germany - seen loads of great stuff - favourites so far were the tour of the Moet & Chandon champagne caves in Epernay, France and the tour of the fairytale castle Schloss Neuschwanstein in Germany. Also loved Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany which is part of the 'romantic road' which we travelled on from Strasbourg to Fussen. We spent the last couple of days in Garmische-Partenkirchen hiking in the alps - absolutely gorgeous area, and we went up the Alpspitze in a cable car to do a 5 hour hike back down to the bottom. Near the end we went through caves carved out of the rock underneath a waterfall through a glacier and underneath snow caves - really amazing :0) Both a bit sore still though.

We are coping ok with finding routes and camper stops to stay on overnight - we reckon Germany is best equipped for this and we got some great stops for just a few euros. The investment in a sat nav has saved us from having too many rows :0)

Big drama to date was on the way into Schwangau, at the end of the romantic road. I was looking forward to seeing the castles of Mad King Ludwig 2nd, and we were driving along happily when the exhaust started to make a lot of noise. We carried on to the castle car park and found that the exhaust had basically fallen apart - eek!! Luckily, tourist info were great and had good english, so they directed us 4km up the road to Fussen to a garage that could sort it.

A friendly German chap called Gary was really helpful, ordered the part etc. There was a camper stop across the road so we parked Humphrey there overnight, took him back in the morning for fixing whilst we went round the castles, and ended the day 370 euro poorer. On balance it worked out quite well and we had a lovely day walking round the lake beside the castle - better it was in Germany (Hymer Heaven) than in some remote mountain place.

Having recovered from that, and after a few days in Garmiche, we are now in Lake Garda in Italy at a proper campsite. Weather is much hotter on this side of the alps - around 32 degrees outside, and a few degrees hotter in the van. Beautiful spot beside the Lake though and we are enjoying it very much. Heading down the east coast of Italy now to get the Ferry from Ancona hopefully early next week (though getting a ferry ticket is proving to be difficult), and that will take us over to Igoumenitsa, Greece. Once in Greece we drive to Vass and set up camp there for at least 6 weeks for Steve to fulfill his dream of becoming a windsurf bum - can't wait :0)

So overall we are happy, healthy and hot and the van is still in one piece :0) hope all is well at home,

love n hugs,

Katy & Steve xxx