We have made it! We are in Poole UK and have met my mother who is over here from Australia. How cool is that? We came from Germany via Luxembourg where we stopped and had a look at Vianden Castle, a castle that dates from Roman times, but has seen lots of changes and renovations over the years, so it is hard to say how old it is, but it was an amazing castle to see in a great setting. Then it was on to Belgium and Brussels. We were lucky enough to get into the royal palace because it is only open for a short period each year and we were in that time to see it. We also visited the museum where we learnt a lot about Belgium and its history. From Germany we set the GPS to avoid the autobahns and highways, so we were traveling all the back roads and passed the sight of trenches preserved from WW1. It was quite sobering to see what the soldiers went through. We also passed by Waterloo, but didn't stop as there really isn't too much left of the original battle ground. We entered France and stayed for one night in Calais in a cheap hotel. Our first impression wasn't too good, but after a walk around town we decided it was quite nice. In the morning we went to the ferry and crossed the channel to Dover, England! It felt a little strange driving on the LH side of the road after nearly 25,000K on the RH side! But it was a pleasant change being able to read the road signs and know where we were going. We started off avoiding the motorways, but after many kilometres of English lanes just wide enough for one car we decided to use the motorways and were pleasantly surprised at how easy they were to travel and how good the drivers and signage was. We arrived in Poole in the afternoon and mum arrived around an hour and a half later. Mum stayed the night in the hotel with us and we spent the night and next day catching up and had a look around town. Over the next week we will be staying closer to the centre of England and I'll write a blog with a bit of a summery of the trip. Then we will be off again, back to France and the second leg of our adventure, Europe.