We managed to catch up with sister Judi and hubby Mike in the south of France. They were heading south to Coulieres to do a cruise. After a quick catch up with some genuine Kiwis we headed north towards Germany. We had conditioned ourselves for what we thought was going to be a long and arduous trip back to the north of Germany. This was not to be the case as we made our way up through the beautiful Black Forest area of south west Germany. The weather for the first day wasn't great but even so the scenery was spectacular with small village after small village each with it's own unique character. The first night we stayed in Triberg. This village is known for it's cuckoo clock industry. One shop we visited reckoned they had over 2000 clocks in store. I think you would want to get the hell out of there at midday!!!. It also house the largest cuckoo clock in Germany. It is situated over the front of the shop and would be 2.5 meters high.

From there we went from village to village and before you knew it we were out of the forest area and into rolling open countryside. We were surprised at how quickly we were heading north.. The distances here are quite deceiving because of the awesome roading system throughout Germany. You can cover some serious kilometers in a day if you had to.

Before we knew it we were back in Itzehoe where the journey began, only to find out from Ibi the man who sold us Betsy that we were indeed missing not just one but two very vital papers and that he was not sure that he could buy Betsy without these documents. I pointed out to him that we surely were not the first people in Germany to lose these papers and that we must be able to get new ones. To cut a very long story short it cost us $1000 euros ( that's $2000nz) to get new ones done. Betsy was going to have to go through another mechanical check which was again going to cost money. So we agreed on a price that was well under what we thought we would get, took the money and got out of Dodge.

It was a very sad day packing everything up out of Betsy. We had both become very attached to her and she proved to be a very reliable and comfortable home for the 5 months we were in her.

We are now in Palma Mallorca waiting for my son Brendon and his wife Natalie and baby daughter Savanagh to return so we can spend some time with them before we return home. At the moment we are staying in this very skuzzy hostel which we booked over the internet. Cheap but not so very cheerful. So tomorrow we are going into Palma to source some more accommodation .