Dover was weird - not much there for anybody staying the night. Got an early crossing and headed out into the Calais traffic. The Motorail very hard to find and roads awful - not helped by someone going down the wrong side of the road towards me at the first junction. Threw me completely! After a long (expensive) wait in Calais, the train journey was very comfy. Not as modern as I expected, but good beds. We all slept well. Kids liked the novelty of it ! 501 mile drive south next day from Toulouse. Kids very good - just one stop before arriving in Denia.

Lovely villa in a quite place away from main resorts. Had a very lazy week. Felt really guilty at first, but got into the swing! Had a meal in Los Amigos restaurant. Kids terrified of saying thank you in Spanish, but found "grassyarse" quite funny! Watched plenty World Cup football. England bowed out just before we left - nice timing!

Campsite on the Mediteranean, western end of the south coast of France.

Hard work putting tent up. Lots of flying beasties at night, but we'll cope ! Beach is a bonus for the kids. A bit too hot in middle of the day, but nice in evening. Sent them to kids club on Weds, not impressed, but reluctantly admitted they`d enjoyed it ! Food more expensive in France than Spain. You have to venture out into the village markets to find bargains. Lea called a woman in a bakery "Monsieur" instead of "Madam", but she`s learning fast and not afraid to have a go !

Brett and Beaulea made friends with a young lad next to us called Marcel, who made them both a pea-shooter !

[Hello to Stuart & Diana Anderson, our neighbours who welcomed us with a drink when we arrived]

Our campsite here was very expensive. We arrived at the beginning of the high season and paid high season price. But not all of the facilities are available and you have to pay for others - not good. And they like to clean the shower blocks between 9 and 10, just when you want a bloody shower ! Still, the weather was excellent and we had a trip out to St Tropez. Massive boats in the harbour, lovely town. Brett managed to lock himself in one of the automatic toilets and got washed when it flushed the floor - in the dark ! One way of getting him to have a wash !

(Hello to Silke, Mark and Gaby, our neighbours ! Hier Kommen !)

A change of plan meant abandonning Rome (saving it for a future City-Break!) and looking for somewhere else. Lake Garda seemed the best bet as it was near to other places and has plenty to see and do itself. We dropped the kids off with their Dad on an awful, stormy day, and after a night in a hotel in Milan (don't EVER try navigating there!), we took pot luck and found a great campsite at St Felice, called Ideal Molino. It's fantastic here. Weather back to normal (30°+!). People very friendly, drivers not as bad as we were told !

A good day trip from Garda. We had to go here as we were so close. It was an absolute scorcher - 36°C + We arrived by boat as you should I suppose. We were slightly surprised to find that you can actually get everywhere on foot - without getting them wet! We found Piazza San Marco, full of Pidgeons as you'd expect. The relics of St Mark are kept in the Basilica here, so we queued up - as you do. Unfortunately, Lea wasn't allowed in - bare shoulders are considered indecent exposure when visiting a disciple, apparently !. We did lots of wandering and tired ourselves out. Saw the Rialto bridge and had an ice cream (not a Cornetto!). Went home shattered and scorched, but it was worth it.

For those in the know, the small town of Maranello hides the home of Ferrari - the factory itself. It's about an hour and a half from Garda by car. We went into the museum, which was smaller than I had imagined, then into the official shop over the road from the factory. I am now the proud owner of a Ferrari Red T shirt ! A short walk up the road and we heard the sound of screaming engine. Ferrari have their own test track (Fiorano), and one of the F1 drivers was screeching around having fun - the noise was incredible. I don't think it was Schumacher but I couldn't see that much detail ! Got a picture outside the gates, with a new Enzo peeking out from behind the main building ! Excellent

Went to Verona in the afternoon, so we could catch the opera (Carmen) in the evening. Not that we're fans particularly, but this opera was in the Roman Arena, built in 1AD for Caesar Augustus. There were 20,000 there, mostly sat on stone steps. Fantasic atmosphere, truly a special occasion. You can just imagine the place full of people baying for the blood of Christians !! But I bet they didn't do the Mexican wave in them days! Hello to Jo + Dan Little from Santa Barbara, USA, travelling thru Europe. Hope to see you next spring!

Spectacular Lauterbrunnen and Jungfrau valley, currently obliterated by rain. Saw a Base-jumper parachute off the Staubbach falls last night. Mad man. Had to escape on Thursday due to weather. Pity, but we've spent a fortune, so probably just as well !

Would definitely recommend Camping Jungfrau in the valley here - a 5 star campsite with excellent facilities.

Jura region of France. Forced west by the weather. Nice campsite (La Plage Blanche) for 3 days rest. Good pitch and friendly people. Woman on reception is from Preston ! Kids wanted to "dinghy" down river , but too fast - not happy!

We found a nice site here on the edge of the town. it's only half an hour from Freiburg and the Black Forest is everywhere (except West).

Freiburg was very nice, although we spent ages looking for the Tourist Information! By the time we found it, we could've drawn them a map! We took a trip through the southern part of the Black Forest, including Belchen which we reached the top of by Cable Car. Excellent.

I'd recommend the area as it's beautiful everywhere, lots of pretty villages, including one called St Blasien where there's a wonderful church with a white marble dome almost the size of St Paul's.

Then we went to Europa Park, which is like Alton Towers, but bigger and better - for families anyway. They have a ride called the Silver Star, like the Big One in Blackpool, but we didn't risk it! Had an excellent day out, ending up with the Poseidon log flume which scared Beaulea and got us all wet !

We had to go through here, if only out of curiosity. We discovered the cheapest petrol in Europe (40p a litre) and a good municipal campsite on the edge of a rough town! I had some sort of stomach bug here - Lea reckons it was wind - and we had to stay an extra night for me to recover. Not a problem though, as the weather was excellent. We drove north through the more hilly country and filled the tank up before we left!

After skimming thru Belgium, we found a campsite in Holland which looked promising. But the weather was so good, I thought we should just throw the small tents up for 1 night in case we wanted to move on the next day. As it turned out, we were woken by builders with hammers and a circular saw at 7.30am the next morning, so we left with a bad taste in our mouths, vowing not to return or recommend it.

A quick phone around discovered a farm-site in the middle of Holland's green belt. A giant of a man called Willem who spoke little English welcomed us and showed us to our pitch. It's great. Very few facilities, but all that you need and none that you don't. Consequently, it's cheap, quiet and beautiful. And friendly.

Visited Utrecht and had a good wander. Someone we met describet it as beautiful. I wouldn't go that far, but the shopping is excellent and some very interesting places. Found an excellent outdoor shop and an underground shop with all sorts of stuff from the 50s-70s, where you can also buy American Diner furniture - now there's an idea !

Decided to buy a 3-day rail pass which allows us to go anywhere on train, bus, tram etc for about 50 quid. Good value for the 4 of us, and Holland's trains are far better than ours. We'll keep you posted with where we went.

Rotterdam - busy and wet. Our purpose here was to find the 'net so I could update the website and send some emails. Found an EasyInternet place run by Stelios of EasyJet fame. Lea and kids went up the EuroMast tower - quite exciting apparently, and good value.

Leiden - A historic place with loads of Museums. We intended to do a lot here, but the Natural History Museum (Naturalis) was so good, we spent 4 hours here ! We just had time to get into a Windmill Museum before we had to head home. The windmill was a massive brick built thing which had 6 floors and took 10 minutes to climb up, but 30 minutes to climb down the rickety wooden ladders ! Got to be done though.

Den Haag - Not a picturesque place, but we felt we had to have a look around. Visited Madurodam, a miniature Holland, with scale models of all the famous buildings etc. Went on the trams and found another 'net point in a dodgy bar.

Let Down - as we were packing to leave our campsite, we asked the owner to remove the barrier between the camping field and the car park, but he refused. Insisting that he helped us pack by putting all our belongings in a trailer towed by his quad bike ! All this in the rain across a muddy path. I was furious, but he wouldn't budge. So we loaded this trailer 4 or 5 times and got all our stuff muddy as we crammed it into the back of our car. The whole campsite watched this happen and many people were shocked with what was going on. The excuse was that our car would make the field muddy if we drove it over to our tent. I've never been so badly treated on a campsite and felt humiliated. The friendly Giant Willem turned into the first nasty Dutchman we had encountered. And he will be hearing from me again, especially as his site houses the HQ of the Dutch equivalent to the Caravan Club.

Arrived back in Dover feeling a bit strange. Normally, this would be the end of a trip, but we are about to jet off again. Nice to be in familiar country again with no language barriers, but a bit weird not being able to go home and at least wash our clothes.

Staying with Fred and Patti in Basingstoke for a couple of days to recharge our batteries. A taste of luxury after our camping adventure.