The beginning of the end

Bye bye Hugo?

So Hugo is now officially up for sale. It would be lovely if the next people that buy him would continue his adventure.
In the meantime, our adventures continue as we pile on back into 'normal life'. We have been back exactly two weeks. On day 3 I was offered work. On day 4 I went to work. Clare too has been to her new work. We have been finding schools for Jasper and Maya, trying to buy a car, and in addition, not only will it be a sad farewell to Hugo, but also a sad farewell to our deeply beloved 'Sunny'.

I just need some support now for my used car deals on the Clements forecourt.

Also apologies for the prolonged quietness on the blog front, we have just been so so ridiculously busy and overrun with one thing and another.

Rest assured all our good friends across and around Europe, please give us time, but we will be in touch. We have some amazing friends here, but also around Europe and in due course we shall be in touch with you all.

Love to all on this slightly sad but momentous occasion as this whole dream slowly begins to close.

Home

The writing of this post is in a warm comforting home, wood fire burning away, supper had and a glass of local cider fizz being quaffed in an appropriate post bath moment. We have arrived home! This physical joy expressed well by Jasper.

The opening of the front door generally lead to whoops from the children and silence from the adults. In fact the silence fell all around as the children found their rooms and became immersed in dragging all toys out and having a good play. The adults however, wandered around in quite a lost moment. We didn't in fact know what would happen when we walked through the front door. The overwhelming feeling of a) we are home, b) we've done it, c) look at all our stuff, d) it's quite a nice place to live, and e) we have a list of jobs of things we wish to change, is what cultivated the silence. In fact this lasted some time as we wandered around, looking and remembering what felt like a museum of our life. It was all exactly as we had left it 223 days ago. Imagine taking a snapshot of your life and visiting it once again at a later date, being able to be immersed in it. Well that was us!

So now it seems that this adventure really has ended. The next one is always in the making. Hugo needs cleaning up, servicing and then putting up for sale. That will be a sad day that brings almost to completion the loop of what we have done. Getting a job will also be the next thing to do. This will certainly seal the end of this chapter of life. In the meantime, the fizz is flowing down very nicely (thanks Mum), and we raise a glass to everyone who has supported us. We've done it and we've made it home!

(Thanks to Catherine and John next door for the "loan" of some WiFi too. We are not yet connected so that is a great help!)

Last journey

Today we leave for Ilminster. It's an odd occasion with many emotions about what life will be. The blog has fallen silent for a while for which we must apologise, but we have been staying with family and friends. A great thanks to all for a super last 10 days or so of beginning to help us drift back into normal lives. We shall in due course catch up with one and all when we are back in Somerset. As it stands now though, today's challenge begins with the M6, muddles onto the M5 and ends with the 'great unpack' at the other end.  The last travelling day, the last journey for Hugo, but not quite the last post!

Goodbye Lancashire!

The €3.75 post

The wallet has been cleared out now as we sit here in Radnage England. The result is pleasing as we don't have much spare cash floating about, just the €3.75. But sitting here now, I have just completed today's diary entry and just pondered 'Did it all happen?'

I'm not sure how the Beale family felt upon their return after a prolonged absence from the country with their children, but there is a real feeling of 'Did it all happen?' It feels now like it has never happened, a curious blend of dream and reality. I suppose if you have a go at living 'the dream', at some point you wake up and remember only bits of it. That's what it feels like now. Eurotunnel acted like a switch, and I'm guessing the British idiosyncrasies we have already come across also do their part. 

So this €3.75 has a poignancy for us for this moment. It's a reminder that we have done this, as well as a reminder of the fact that we don't have much money left. We shall have the opportunity to relive this a few times with anyone who cares to listen. In the meantime, bring on the next adventure?

Happy days!

I sit here in a pile of 3D Bugles, my favourite french crips, some cheap Lidl wine and a sprawled deck of playing cards. Having had the luxury of time to think what I would write, a thought entered my mind, that time does not always yield results. My musings therefore are a mixed bag of a man who has had a dangerous amount of time to think. 

 My starting point, well this is going to be Clare's thinking that I am determined. I'm not sure I have ever been that determined, I'm more of a stumble upon type of guy, and there seemed to be a perfect storm of situations that guided us into this venture.

Anyway, if you have made it this far with us then congratulations. It feels very odd to be at the end to be honest. 7 months of a life (there or thereabouts) is a long time when you are not in your home. The reality is though that 7 months is nothing. No more than a whim of time, a splutter within the context of a life. However, whatever the results of this whole thing, we can be proud that we have given it a go and crammed as much as possible into it, be it life experiences, places visited or people met.

There are great thanks to be given. Firstly a reciprocal cuddle, handshake, backslap, to be given within the four of us. WE have made it possible to have survived this far. I guess we all brought something to the party. Maya brought a cheery outlook at all times and the power to sing and dance about any theme that we happened to be indulging in, Jasper brought observational skills and a quiet digestation of everything he saw, Clare brought huge bucket loads of organisation and order, direction, and cleanliness, and my job, well, in essence my job was to drive and to try and bring disorder to our life. And so it was, I was reasonably accomplished at both, and as my brother just texted "Mission accomplished".

A huge huge thank you to our families. Support has come in various ways but the family contact through emails, face time texts and phone calls has made it all easier. The thanks continue and extend to friends of ours, some quite "old" friends and some quite "new". Thanks to all our friends and families at the school where we worked the school that the children attended who gave us such a good send off too!

My conclusions then, a line I have written many a time on the blog. Well, I guess the first thing to say is that we are so glad we have done this. We were very naive travellers, and now are a little less naive. There has been a real quality enrichment to life through the people we have met and the things we have done. Would we do it again? Actually, probably yes. We'd do something different, but the format is good. Would we recommend doing this? Absolutely, I hope that Jasper and Maya realise that normal life is good and fine, but that also taking a risk is good and fine. Let it be said, I have never been a risk taker.

So, as the wine glass empties, the crisps surrender, and the cards just cause me problems, we look forward to enjoying the wind down period as we tour families and close friends in Britain, before we arrive back at home.

Thank you to everyone who has texted, messaged, emailed, facebooked, phoned, read the blog, everyone we have met, and all the people who have extended their generosity in various ways, etc.

It has been a pleasure to have shared our adventure with whomever has decided to listen and read.

Happy days!

German, Dutch and Belgian roads...a short report

You may be past caring what I think of the road networks wherever we have been, but one day you might just need such information. So here you go in a relatively concise update.

German roads:

1. Fast autobahns.....if you have the right tool.

2. Smooth roads, although not quite French smooth.

3. Signage was not quite the top level of signage, I still believe Britain to hold that honor, but I can report fresh facedly on that when we return.

4. Polite drivers.

Dutch roads:

1. Manic drivers on the big roads cutting across and being a bit leery.

2. A chaotic tangle of motorways. I think the highways planning agency were eating spaghetti and found their inspiration from the plate.

3. Moving from one piece of spaghetti to another is easy as long as you know which piece of parallel spaghetti you want!

4. Roads as smooth as a clog! How's that for a simile?

5. Flat, more flat, a gentle rise, then flat, a gentle dip, then flat.....and repeat.

6. Wide open spaces on roads away from the towns and cities.

Belgian roads:

Please note, limited experience.

1. Rough!

2. Aaaaarrrrrgghhhhhh traffic lights, what do you mean?

3. Stop start stop start, who puts traffic lights on a speedy dual carriageway?

Of course, I could be wrong, and driving Hugo on these roads is never going to bring the best out of a road. It's not exactly a cosseted smooth and silent experience in here, but Belgium, come on! It could all be a preemptive ploy to ween you off the lovely European roads and get you ready for the M2 nightmare. 

Britains roads next. On the left I believe and anti-clockwise on roundabouts?

Getting crossed up!

Our maps are wonderfully decorated and sort of tell the story thus far. However, as the momentum ebbs from our travels, a significant moment is due to happen. By the time most of you have read this, this will be history, but in the here and now, but there is quite a significance for us as for the first time in nearly 7 months, our route will cross over itself. 

We have just chalked up 9,000 miles as we entered into Ostend too. Our total journey will fall short of 10,000 miles though. 

And so to our last night on foreign shores. In fact, I can't call them foreign shores because they have been part of our 'home' landscape. This map highlights some of the places and adventures we have had, it is also a valuable personal possession now as we will inevitably relive some of the moments at a later time. A good map, that we must thank Deborah Long for. I guess next time we do this, we can just swirl about in the middle of Europe as there seems to be a big gap there. Or, of the few pages that aren't drawn on, then maybe Scandanavia? Whatever, we can't CTRL+ALT+DEL anything we have done and start again. Just time now to enjoy the last 800 miles or so now and finish drawing the route all the way back to Ilminster on the 2nd of March.

The dangers of the ploddy peloton around Amsterdam

Further to the post about stereotypes, the Netherlands is all about clogs, cheese, cycling and 'other' activities. Amsterdam fulfilled all the preconceptions and stereotypes that we were expecting, but as far as capital cities go, it's a beautiful place with a fantastic appeal about it. The architecture was quite interesting to observe as buildings seemed to lean on each other. Window apertures were generally quadrilateral in their behaviour, but not really observing an accurate and standard rectangle, generally going for a more subtley irregular feel. It's like looking at a shelf of books where there is a little space for each book to breath and have a gentle lean.

The overwhelming feature of our time in Amsterdam today has been quite unanimously agreed. They have got the green aspect of city living absolutely perfectly right you could argue. The inherent belief that the bike is the perfect mode of transport is instilled in everyone. The sheer glut of cycles is testament to the town planning, which in essence gives the cyclists ultimate power. The high geared bikes are all of a type. Baskets everywhere, 3 gears, no brakes on the handlebars (pedalling backwards to slow), more baskets, mudguards that have unique rattles and squeaks. In fact this took me back to my time on the farm, where mother ewes could identify their lambs bleat in a field of hundreds of bleats. And so I guess that the Dutch could identify their own bikes from the squeaks, rattles, clunks etc. The major problem though was the success of velo-based travel means that the pedestrian has slunk below the car, the tram, the moped, and also the bike. Crossing a road turns into a problem of watching all directions and then hoping that if a bike comes, it may stop. Invariably you can be crossing a road with a green man flashing, but cyclists continue to bisect the zebra crossing without a shade of worry. In fact this circular peloton seems to go round and round. It's like a poor man's Red Arrows, where they cross cross......fearless indeed. It's worth a mention too, that the Dutch can really get going on these things and slip effortlessly between cycle lanes with barely a look. Which leads me to my final point. I wonder if they don't flinch, because they can't? I cycled yesterday to the shop for some essentials, and my face froze. I wonder if the Dutch have a cold weather hardened cycling face?

As I mentioned, clogs are everywhere....except on people's feet. We saw nobody wearing them for real apart from these two ...

It's worth a a mention too of our afternoon snack where we had tea, hot chocolate and schlupwaffles with caramel in. Lovely, unhealthy but warm and warming!

That all said, Amsterdam is a place full of life and vitality, we managed to take in most of the main bits, but even trying to prebook at the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank Huis was impossible so a quick external look was had. Our final capital city has been done. As and when we leave in the coming days though, we aim to take in Haarlem for the tulips beginning to bloom along the polders, possibly Zandvoort for another historical race circuit, and Delft for the pottery as we move to our final night on this side of the channel. 

Welkom in Nederland

A beautifuul joourney tooday haas now landeed uus in the Netherlaands. Quite aan amaazing landscaape wheere signpoosts haave an wealth of voowels doobled uup. We know no Duutch so it couuld get interesting. Haaving fun thoough with the coninuued explooration of neew laanguages!

A hat trick of Föppl hospitality

Our time in Germany has been highly influenced by Family Föppl. If I could, I would recommend their accommodation, but I think that would mean for them extending the hand of friendship a little too far. They have been fantastic, and have welcomed all four of us superbly in Salzburg, Munich and Hildesheim. I think I have mentioned it before, but the people we have met along the way have been superb, and if Jasper and Maya learn only one thing from this adventure, I hope that they understand how we have been welcomed into other people's lives and that doing so to other people is a good thing. After saying our goodbyes we turned the van around and were pleasantly surprised to see a cohort of Föppls hanging out of the window waving a cheery goodbye. A great send off as we begin to work our way west on the final stages of our journey.

In addition to our leeching into other people's lives, there has been a knock on effect. This morning, just as we were about to leave the postman delivered the mail. 

It's the first time we have had mail delivered since July (the exception being Father Christmas!!!!). Addressed to Clements Föppl, we were rather tickled to receive this envelope. And the contents? Lego that was left in Munich, and a German article from a kids newspaper on the fall and rise of the red squirrel in Germany. Many thanks Christian! It's just my homework to try and read the article with the aid of a translating tool for some of those tricky words!

Anyway, we all had a fantastic stay with Klaus, Renate, Laurens, Dankward and Wolfram in Hildesheim. A fantastic group of kind people whom it has been a pleasure to stay with. 

Dankeschön from Clements Föppl!

The bulging van that is also suffering from biffage

The process of loading up the van again this morning took some time. Whilst doing this I managed to lose my wallet in the process and much time was spent looking for it. After the tide of rising panic ensued, I was finally calmed by Clare finding my wallet. Not a usual place for a wallet, nor have I done this before, but for some reason I had placed it in the freezer compartment of the fridge in the van. Aside from this, we did well. I did however have a chance to reflect on the bulging sides of the van. On every shelf, behind every cupboard, in the secret compartments, in pockets here and there, there seems to be a huge amount of the collected stuff. Up until now, we have managed to hide most of it, but like the jeans that get too tight, the button is about to pop off! As I sit here in the rear of the van in Osnabruck at 6pm, an outside temperature of 6.5 degrees (warm!), I can see the results of this blobbing out of stuff around us. Firstly, Lego is everywhere, we can't contain its expansion around the van. There is Jasper's Colosseum model he built in Italy above me one shelf, baskets from Bangladesh (don't ask) on the shelf opposite, prints and paintings stuffed behind the Colosseum, a collection of sticks from who knows where but they are 'important' ones for some reason, a Venetian Gondoliers hat, origami paper, leaflets of every kind from everywhere, more flipping Lego, a Ferrari, a rat made of bread, books, more books, a key on a fob that was washed up on the shore at Manfredonia with rusty keys, a flat football and the list goes on in a 'Generation Game' type of style. These are some of the things we can see, although it's the things that we can't see that we have forgotten about that worries me. 'Unwrapping' Hugo will be fun, but could take some time!

Biffage

Noun

Definition: to be full of food

Origin - unknown, but linked to the imagination of Ed Clements

Examples: My stomach was so full I was suffering from biffage. There was a certain amount of biffage around the table.

Today we suffered from serious 'biffage'. It was never part of the plan, not that we have ever really had plans for 7 months or so, but after a pleasant morning watching 10 classes perform on stage at the Hildesheim Waldorf School, we followed Renate's advice and found the Pfannkuchenhaus in Hildesheim. The 'pancake' house was brilliant in its quirkiness. It was more like having your lunch in a part of the Beamish village museum. So we sat down, digested the menu and did some good guessing of the options (we are moderately accomplished at guessing menus now) and placed our orders. Rapidly, our pancakes arrived within 10 mins or so, allowing us only a short time to deliberate over the heaving walls of paintings and artefacts. The disappointing plate arrived though. It wasn't massive. I somehow think if you pay for food, it should be returned to you in volume. I will never make Masterchef I feel, I am quite an uncouth diner. So, onwards we began with knife and fork in hand. My choice of a pancake 'mit speck und Camembert' had a lovely light feel about it. However, the more I ate, the more I realised that the food was lieing. An overwhelming dense feeling began in my belly. The food was lovely, but the increasing intensity of 'biffage' started to slow down my whole eating procedure. I looked around the table to find the same faces. The clatter of knives and forks was slowing down. The food was lovely, but Clare had to work hard to finish her pesto and mozzarella one, equally Jasper and Maya with honey and Nutella (separately that is!). 

Not satisfied with a bellyful, we then went to our favourite Hildesheim tea shop where Darjeeling leaf tea and cake was consumed. And then tonight, we managed to feed 10 with a copious amount of the regulation homemade Friday Night pizzas, served with piles of homemade coleslaw, potato salad and other trimmings. A bit of an overdose today then on food. We are back on the road though tomorrow, so I think a normal reduced service will resume, which is good as I can't eat this much daily!

Yours overbiffedly

Ed

A few weeks from the end

Thoughts of home are increasing in frequency now as we begin to nudge northwards through Germany. Maybe it's just me, but this whole adventure has, and is still superbly exciting, but there is a slight bit of reflection going on here. 

It led us to investigate some travel quotes. Some are twee in their thinking, some are thought provoking and some are just blatantly honest. 

"Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world." - Gustav Flaubert

The whole distance thing, especially when driving around Europe has made this quote especially significant. Of course, even as untravelled novices, we were completely aware of the scale of aspects of our lives, in a more global and astronomical sense, but the distances we have covered and the feeling a long way from normal life, part of it really does hammer home that we are quite insignificant blobs on this earth. 

'See you all soon' - Ed Clements 2015 

Put that in your travel quotes list now, as every departure leads to 'Hello' again at some point.

Getting crafty .......again!

Clare is absolutely in her element at the moment. Learning some origami was the flavour of last night, and she spent a good deal of time being taught by Renate how to make a delicate and decorative star for the window. Once taught the basics, she was well away with trying new versions, different ideas. Just to prove that we all continue to learn new things, try new things and enjoy new things.

Good for the sole

I'm not sure if Hildesheim is shoe central in Germany or not, but for Jasper and Maya, who were in desperate need of new shoes, it became so. 

Freie Waldorfschule

We have both had a sensible amount of time teaching in British mainstream primary education and hopefully have done a good enough job to allow the pupils we have encountered a chance to grow up well and go into the world with some sensible input.

As a result of our time in schools, we have witnessed many an Ofsted regime come and go and place wildly different expectations each time they have visited. The powers that be obviously research things very well and a lot of effort goes into knowing what makes a good education. Well, this week is about to blow all of that out of the water a little. We have both been given the chance to be involved in Klaus and Renate's (our very kind hosts) Waldorf school here in Hildesheim. On Monday, I was with class four, children aged 10-11, so my main teaching age, whilst Clare was with the 6-7 year olds in class one. 

Clare has continued more throughout the week, and I went with Renate to watch some English lessons. A lot of good has come from it for us, so we are very grateful to Renate and Klaus for giving us the opportunity to come and see their school in action.

11:14am 19/02/2015

A little over a week left now!

A warm welcome in cold Hildesheim

Having actually been in Germany for 11 days, we actually did our first bit of camping last night. We left the comfort of Christian's house and made our way up to a camping place some 261 miles north. Christian questioned our decision to stop on the way and was trying to encourage us to travel to his brother Klaus in one fell swoop. However, we thought another 170 miles in the van was not the best way to spend the time, and not the most comfortable too. So, we found a site in the hills around Schlüchtern (time to get the maps out). We were a little worried about the snow covered hills and the ice covered roads, but we are a little more confident with 'our Hugo' and decided to take the plunge. Typically, we were the only ones on the campsite.

Heated bathrooms treated us once again. We ensured our heating chuntered gently through the night and the results was a toasty warm van. Minus 6 was conquered with plenty of comfort and we slip-slided our way off the site and over the further frozen roads

down to the Autobahn to continue our journey northward. Sadly, Hugo has not been the best Autobahn vehicle, we have not made the most of the 'no speedlimits' although we did nearly break over 72 mph I think. A speed limit perhaps best viewed in the positive light and more favourable numbers of a kilometre per hour conversion to give a dizzy speed of 115kph! We are some way short of going 'Back to the Future' (sorry, a favourite film reference, where the magic 88mph takes you into time travel speed!)

So, we are now in Hildesheim, a town 30km south of Hanover. Klaus and Renate are very kindly opening their lives to us and letting us live more comfortably in their home. We once again, are touched  by the kindness of people who have helped us engage our travels and their country with greater ease. Both Klaus and Renate work in a Waldorf Steiner School, something which is vastly different to a standard  school with different principles of child development etc. I don't wish to bore everyone with the details, but as part of our time here, we have kindly been let into the the school to be a part of it for a few days. Who knows what will happen, but it is just another thing that will add to the colour and life of our journeys and adventures thus far. A report will surely follow. In the meantime, Hugo shivers alone sadly on the roadside, and we are snug and warm in a welcoming household. 

I can do better than that....

A visit one afternoon to the Pinakothek Modern art museum in Munich literally had us standing on our heads with wonder. I was left to wonder about that 'what ifs,' had I actually just continued to paint and try to sell art. There were some genuinely good historical pieces of art by Dali, Klee, Kandinsky etc but there were also some.......duffers shall we say. 

Yep, we all found out that the curators had mysteriously hung all the pictures upside down, therefore a certain adaptation to a regular stance was needed. Jasper was quite innovative with his and adopted a four limbed 'through the legs' approach. 

It does work. Turn this one around and you should see a little white dog on a red chair. For those with iPads, beware the automatic rotation and lock the screen by the aid of the little switch on the side. Informative and helpful!

I aim to start painting again at some point, without the aid of Lidl paints, but hopefully some proper thick and juicy oil paints. Suggestions welcome of what to paint. And if you are wondering what style this format might take, I'm guessing there will be a certain Frank Auerbach influence as I spent most of my time at University studying this thick, oozy, blobby representations. Time to get googling again. Get your orders in too, commissions welcome, results not promised!

Day 200

As day 200 approaches, and if calculations serve me right, Saturday the 7th of February will be the day. It is interesting to note (for us) the other milestones that we passed and felt proud about. As I have said many a time, we really had no idea how we as people would adapt to the 'world' we had thrust ourselves into, and as we reach day 200, once again we have a certain pride. This of course is only our personal pride and we don't expect anyone else to share this, but being away from home for a such a long time (although Hugo is most definitely our home too), as well as counting the days that have passed, the days left to pass are also the ones being counted. We are nearly in the throws of booking a return passage now, having originally only booked our one way ticket on the Eurotunnel. Anyway, a few milestones to remember now, and it seems to put a context into how far we have come/gone!

1 week - we were lazing in Paris having conquered it the previous day.

1 month - a gorgeous visit to St Emilion, stunning lunch and rather nice wines too.

50 days - we arrived in Portugal, slightly nervous, but mightily impressed and quickly worries eased as the country surrounding our village (Meda) was utterly beautiful.

100 days - we celebrated day 100 by cycling to Cannes. Glorious sunshine on the 1st of November and an ice cream too!

150 days - not quite the anticipated start to day 150 when our Trullo house ran out of water. However, it was Southern Italy, and despite the worry, our life at that point was being spent in a rather unspoilt part of Italy.

6 months - started with a Bavarian breakfast in Munich and ended with lots of snow play in the garden.

200 days - well we have not quite got there yet, but we shall be in Hildesheim just south of Hannover. 

As for the rest, well like I said, the days to pass are getting much fewer. Our return to 'Blighty' should be middle to late February. Let it be said, day 250 will not happen. It's getting time to come home now!