We are sitting in front of a camp fire in the middle of nowhere by the side of a lake writing the blog, life could not be better! Our Finnish odyssey began only a couple of weeks ago when we got the ferry over from Stockholm to Turku, in the south west of the country. Our first stop was the town of Valkeakoski where we met up with good friends Jon & Heidi at her parents' house. We spent a brilliant few days cycling around the local area, swimming in the la...

We arrived in southern Sweden on the short ferry ride from Helsingor in Denmark. Although separated by only a few miles, the Swedish landscape seems infinitely more interesting than Denmark. Our first excursion was up to the Kullaberg peninsula, a stunning and rugged coastal nature reserve where we enjoyed a good day walk. Pam continues to blend in well with the locals, on a number of occasions people have approached her and chatted on in the local language, t...

After a prolonged pause in our travelling adventures while Pam worked hard to top up the funds and I enjoyed a summer of sun, sport and ... well more sport, we are now finally back on the road again and heading ever northwards in the van to the wilds of Scandinavia. Our journey began with the usual crossing to Dunkirk and we rocketed through France, Belgium, Holland and northern Germany to arrive in Denmark. We are leaving the exploration of Jutland for the re...

We left the rolling hills of Tuscany behind and headed north to the Italian Lakes, stopping off in Bologna and Mondena along the way. We selected the small town of Castiglione della Stiviera, just south of Lago di Garda, as our rendezvous point with my Mum and step Dad, Ken. We booked them into a small hotel which seemed like an Italian Fawlty Towers, with 70s decor and crazy but likeable staff, who insisted on showing us every room in the hotel before they woul...

It is great to be back in the van and on the road again! After a couple of days of intensive driving, we arrived at the opening to the mighty Mont Blanc tunnel, our chosen route into Italy. We were shocked to discover it cost 46 Euros one way to get through! We enjoyed our drive through the Alps and south to the dramatic coastal region of the Cinque Terre. We spent a couple of days in the area and while bad weather closed the famous coastal path we did enjoy ex...