"Wherever I lay my hat (or sleeping bag)......that's my home..."

.........I’m the kind of guy who’s always on the roam.......

This year we started our journey with an overnight stop at Paddy and Lorraine’s new home just east of Leeds. In the morning we had one last trip to Morrisons to stock up on food for the journey (we are trying to do it cheaper this year ;O))
Once on the Hull ferry, and loaded down with the finest deli picnic that Morrisons in Knottingley could muster, we set off on our fourth annual 1000 mile road trip across Europe! “We dined on mince and slices of quince, wrapped up in a 5 euro note”. The only cash we spent on board was to stock up on duty free fags and Gin for the journey south. We had imagined this time that the car would be relatively empty compared with previous years but it was rammed full as usual! We had presents for relatives along the way and holiday essentials for some of our visitors, and what seems like a years supply of tins of tuna & tomatoes, oh and an upright freezer! There seemed to be just about enough room for the two of us in the front.

Arriving at Europort, Rotterdam
The weather was glorious all the way through Holland and Germany!
Picnic in Holland
We did our usual overnight with Paul and Milena in Heidleburg, where we dined on fresh seasonal asparagus with Paul’s home-made garlic mayo. We had an equally glorious day travelling through the Alps to Milan,
and we considered going over the San Gottard pass instead of doing the 17km tunnel but as it turned out the pass was closed due to an avalanche and too much snow...... so tunnel it was!
We spent two nights in Milan as Debbie and Franco’s guests; the first night we all went out for a meal and sampled the delights of Milan City by night.
Starting with a happy hour in a bar where Elle’s friend Vanessa works! The happy hour here is not a cheap “drink all you can” option; but an 8 euro “buy a drink and eat as much hot and cold buffet as you want!”

We later wandered to the city centre square where the Duomo Cathedral is. As we wandered back to the car we heard shouts and horns etc... it turned out that Inter Milan had just beaten Barcelona to get to the final of the Champions League, so as many fans as possible on scooters or in cars were blowing their horns and waving giant flags heading for the city square to celebrate into the small hours.
The following day we went shopping with Debbie to the local Carrefour hypermarket to stock up for the journey and buy things that you just can’t get cheaply in Corfu, like pasta and parmesan cheese. We spent another pleasant evening with the Sannelli family, eating, drinking and watching football.
In the morning, as the sun rose we hit the road to avoid the morning rush hour madness on the Milan motorways and arrived in Venice before 10am. We were on board the ferry by 11.30!! This year we have booked as foot passengers with NO cabin (to save money!) but we were well prepared, with 2 sleeping bags and 2 self inflating mattresses and we had seen many people camping out on deck on previous trips and thought it looked easy. We picked our spot to camp and set up our beds, cool box and got the wine out ready for the long haul!
There were plenty of other people doing the same around us and it all felt very cosy. (Although Keith did feel quite apprehensive, Liz and camping are never together in the same sentence and he knew there was always the possibility that she could wake up in the middle of the night shouting “I can’t cope with this”)
The ferry was fairly quiet and as we sailed out of Venice it felt quite chilly!

We had lunch, followed by a nap to try the sleeping bags out for a couple of hours. But when we woke up we were the only ones left on deck! Everyone else had retreated to the warmth of indoors. Because it was absolutely blowing a gale...... plastic chairs were blowing past us on deck and as we tried to pack our stuff away we just felt ridiculous!! We managed to get inside eventually and sat in a lounge to plan our next move.
It didn’t take us long to decide to get a cabin and as the ship was so quiet they were offering cabins for next to nothing. Liz booked a cabin just for herself which turned out to be only 80 Euros and a 4 berth! Result!! So we sat in our warm cabin ate all the salami, cheeses & seafood deli stuff we’d bought in Italy drank our wine and felt quite smug as we tucked up for the night in a warm cabin.
So all of you who were laying bets that we wouldn’t be able to cope with camping on board, that will be the easiest few quid you have ever made.

We woke up just off the coast of Corfu with the sun beating down while we watched our destination sail into view. We arrived in Port at 1pm drove off the ferry and within an hour we are in San Stefano for the summer.
We are back at our lovely house on the hill, overlooking the sea.
...."For I'm the type of boy who is always on the roam,
wherever I lay my hat that's my home,
I'm telling you that's my home....."