On a warm and sunny morning, the 7th July 2018, we met up at Katie’s parents house with various family members in tow. Bacon sandwiches and tea as well as last minute well-wishes and advice were given to the team.
We set off around 9am with Katie taking the first shift at driving due to her knowledge of the route from Surrey to Kent. We received a text 20 minutes later saying Paul’s brother had just turned up to see us off! The journey to Folkestone was uneventful (probably due to the England game being on later that day) so we arrived at the Channel tunnel in plenty of time just to learn that all trains were running late due to overrunning engineering works the previous night.
We rolled onto the train an hour later than anticipated but that gave us time to get food and water at the terminal so we didn’t need to stop on the other side. We fitted Headlight stickers to Stan while on the train and constantly reminded ourselves which side of the road we needed to drive on when we got to the continent.
So far the road signs in France have our vote for being the worst we’ve seen. Thank the Google for Google, else we might have missed a few turns, since they seem to be signposted immediately before you need to act. Get it sorted mes amis!
When we’re on the go there’s navigator up front keeping the driver company while the third member takes it easy on the comfy bench seat in the back. Once into Belgium the signs improved markedly, allowing the navigator to relax a little since the driver was able to see distances for themselves and actually plan ahead. The border crossings in Europe are a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it affair and if it weren’t for a sign announcing the Belgium border was imminent we might have missed it.
We skimmed south of Brussels then dropped down into Luxembourg with not even a warning of a border. You knew it was coming up on the map, then there it was, gone! Turning off the main road we came to a lovely countryside view of small rolling hills and quaint little houses next to fields and fields of crops. We (or rather I) missed the unassuming entrance to the campsite, so we got a short tour of a new housing development while we doubled back on ourselves.
Pulling up to the site with ten minutes to spare before the site office closed, we joined a queue of vehicles at the barrier and Katie went to investigate, coming back briefly to collect all the passports. We should have realised they’d want copies, now we know to present them at every site!
The site was very clean, with plots separated by small hedges, visited by sparrows and hedgehogs. Our neighbours offered us the use of their water, which, given we had to use the water pressure they offered us, meant most of the water aimed at the saucepan came back out the other side! We ate like kings on a mix of instant noodles, carrots and peas washed down with inexpensive Luxembourgish beer, wine, and apple juice.
The tents were put up in a trial and error fashion with Tom’s outer canvas ending up inside-out on the first attempt. We think. It’s hard to tell. But we were in bed relatively early after agreeing on an early departure time in the morning and opening and closing the van doors far too often. Luckily, I think we were the only tents on site so it wasn’t as loud or annoying as we thought.
Lights out, tents zipped. Tomorrow we drive to Nuremberg.
Team Yes We Khan 