Special edition or special addition!!!

Here it is, our final entry - hopefully one you'll never forget!!


For those not in the know
Here is a poem of our trip, just so we can crow

Like all our other adventures we have done
Who knows how we came up with this one

An eventful weekend to London was the plan
Smashed up one vehicle but bought a big red van

You all voted for its name which we chose to ignore
We added our own touches throughout the winter core

Thus Pat was born, all set to run
Ready to be our home for the European sun

Skinny dipping in the Highlands is chilly
The fiords were alot more than just hilly

One day we ran out of fuel
Thanks to the bikers we continued without it being too cruel

How amazed we were to see a Puffin
It had us absolutely laughin'

We got pretty good at hiking
But some days we just went biking

Sometimes we made it up to snow
That had us going pretty slow

Medieval cities took us back in time
Communism made sure that people towed the line

Some of the roads were all full of dust
I hope that doesn't make us rust

In some big cities we chose camping grounds
Just to make sure we could see all around

Some of the cities had lots of heart
Especially after listening to some of Mozart

Walking in the Alps could be quite far
So instead we took a cable car

Seeing so much history has been an absolute treat
All the way, the nature could not be beat

A special thanks to all that gave us a bed and helped us recharge
When we see you in NZ, no favour will be too large

We have brought home a souvenir with us to keep
Don't worry there's no way this is tacky or cheap

Some might say it happened in Sweden
But the Baltic Storks may want to argue between them

Late March is the month it will be delivered in
By then, hopefully we'll have a job to keep it from being too thin

Marea already has big plans for when she's 60 and wrinkling
A return trip with her kids to make up for what little she's been drinking

Thanks for reading our blog, sorry if it got too long
But now we have a new subject in which to start another song.

01/10/08 - 14,554 miles later.

Wow!!! We're finished!!! Back to London in one piece. What a feeling
of satisfaction, sadness, joy, reality check, relief. You name the
emotion - its probably in there somewhere.

I think its a sure sign that we had seen enough of this great
continent and were ready to finish when we arrived at the ferry
terminal 3 hours early. That was alright though, we got put on an
earlier crossing meaning we didn't get round to spending our remaining
Euro's or stocking up on wine, gifts or chocolate:-(

A rather rocky crossing (didn't matter to me cause I was still feeling
dizzy and woozy before we got on the boat anyway), then a fantastic
view of the White Cliffs as we came into Dover and back to England!!

Marea adapted to driving on the left and got us home in record time
(poor Pat) where Marea's brother Liam has kindly put us up until the
23rd when its time to head back to New Zealand, and back to the real
world - a job!!

In that time hopefully we will be able to sell the van and see
everyone who is still over here. First job - to turn the van upside
down and give it a good clean!!

For those who have managed to follow this blog all the way through -
well done to you! Sorry if we've managed to put you to sleep with all
our tales of walks, mountains and driving. Don't worry, you won't be
getting any more day by day accounts.

But watch this space - there will be a special edition.... sooner
rather than later!!

30/09/08 - Just like a painting.

Two mysteries remain this morning - what is a Mairie? and what is
wrong with me? I felt fine in bed, but as soon as I stood up I got
all dizzy and almost fell over!!

As for the Mairie - we could see a desk through the window? And a
sign nearby did have the word 'chapel' on it, but surely chapels are
more interesting than this plain brick building??

Onwards then to Giverny - home town to the impressionist painter
Claude Monet. To give him inspiration for his paintings, Monet
developed a garden complete with lily pond, which we now have the
privilege of visiting. In Monet's time one gardener was employed full
time just to look after the waterlillies.

To stand on a Japanese bridge in Monet's garden and see what he saw
before transferring it to canvas was a peaceful (minus Japanese
tourists) and surreal experience. If you screwed your eyes up and
blurred your vision (or unfocused the camera) you could almost
replicate these impressionist paintings. But whilst all that was fun,
seeing the garden in all it's focused glory was a real highlight of
our trip and beat visiting endless art galleries any day!!

Time to head back to the coast towards Calais. En route we went past
a couple of large 3 or 4 story brick buildings with the words
'Mairie-Ecole' on them. Ecole means school - so does that mean Mairie
is another word for school in this area?? Thats what we decided at
the time. Although we have all since been enlightened by sister
Angela's expert research skills. A Mairie is a Town/City Hall. That
made our one desk Mairie a very very small place of official decision
making!!

Our final sleeping spot was on the very windy coastline at Berck. It
took three moves along our designated area of parking to find a
sheltered enough spot to ensure that the wind wasn't going to keep us
up all night and Pat didn't get blown over.

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29/09/08 - What in the world is a Mairie??

I'm not sure whether it was the mussels last night, or just a bug -
but I felt like total shit all day today. Luckily Marea has not
fallen the same way (touch wood) - so the driving duties were totally
hers today.

A slow morning where the fog had taken over our view of the Mulberry
Harbour before we were off on the road to see if I could handle
travelling. We made it as far as Pegusus Bridge - just one last D-day
sight. Again portrayed on The Longest Day, three British gliders
landed here shortly after midnight on 6 June and took over the bridge
- ensuring German reinforcements couldn't cross to get to the beaches,
and also ensuring they didn't blow it up to slow the allies progress
inland.

It was quite amazing looking at the landing sights of the three
gliders. They only landed about 50 metres from the bridge, and 10
metres apart from each other - it seems unbelievable that they didn't
crash into each other on landing.

The majority of our afternoon was spent resting in the van besides the
Caen Canal and Pegasus Bridge - trying to figure if I can travel any
more today. Finally after a cup of herbal tea we took the plunge and
headed inland past Rouen, up the River Seinne - to the tiny (I'm not
sure if there is even a shop) village of St. Germain de-Pasquier.

According to our Camper Stop book here lies the smallest Mairie in
France. Apart from the fact that there is a designed free parking
spot here - curiousity got the better of us and we wanted to find out
what a Mairie is??

Upon arrival we have found a 3 by 2.7 metre brick building with the
words 'Mairie' on the front. The only thing we could translate from
the French information sign was its dimensions. It did have some
opening times on its door, but they could have translated to "open
Mondays and Wednesdays". As tomorrow is Tuesday, we may never be any
wiser!!

28/09/08 - Remembering the horrors of war.

Only 3 more sleeps until we finish our Grand European Tour and get on
the ferry to Dover. After some early starts the last two mornings,
Marea was taking it easy and hardly even glanced at the sun rising
over the sea. Our sleeping spot was about 6km north of Utah Beach so
about 10:00 we headed there to eat breakfast.

We then spent the day driving south-east around more of the D-Day
beach sites. We went back to Ste. Mere-Eglise for a visit inside the
church to view the paratroopers depicted around the Virgin Mary in the
modern stained glass windows. We walked around the heavily cratered
Point d'Hoc. Here the Allies successfully captured this important
strategic battery after scaling the high cliffs on rope ladders.
After two days of fighting, of the 225 Rangers who landed here - only
90 remained. We then stopped at the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach,
where 9,386 soldiers are buried in what seemed never ending rows of
crosses. Also there, was a museum with stories about some of the
soldiers buried there - including a story about the four Niland
brothers of whom two were killed on the beaches, one went missing in
the Pacific - so the fourth was sent home to be with his family.
Sound a bit like Saving Private Ryan? - this was the story the movie
was based on.

In a way I think that I (Marea) found this a more rewarding experience
than Daniel, on who's initiative we visited all these sites. Like
visiting Gallipoli, having actually been to the site, makes the events
seem more poignant and real. As one who tends to avoid all war
stories, it is much harder to ignore, or forget, the hard evidence.

Note from Daniel - my problem was that every memorial we visited
seemed very one-sided. I felt a bit for the German soldiers killed
who would have only been following orders.

About 15:30 upon realising that this part of France shuts down on a
Sunday we headed to Port du Bessin in the hope of finding both lunch
and dinner! We were in luck, "Un kilo et demi de moules(€4), sil vous
plait" and a bottle of €1.80 white wine (for the mussels!); we were
set for dinner.

We took ourselves back to Arromanches to the same spot we'd parked two
nights ago. It was a beautiful afternoon to soak up the sun, and as
the tide was low we could see the Mulberry Harbour in all its glory.
When the tide was high two days ago we thought the artificial harbour
had lost most of its effectiveness and had been swallowed up by the
sea. But now at low tide it seems a perfect breakwater.

We wandered over to the Arromanches 360° cinema for the last screening
of the day. This was a 20 minute movie of old and new footage
designed to give us a view of what it was like to an ordinary soldier
during the first few weeks of the Battle of Normandy. The nine
screens set up in a complete circle ensured you a little dizzy as you
keep turning around to try and take it all in.

27/09/08 - The story of two invasions.

Another beautiful sunrise this morning as it came up over the hill,
and shed light on what remains of what was the busiest harbour in
Europe during the summer of 1944. Port Winston or Mulberry Harbour is
made up of huge concrete blocks that were towed over from England and
dropped into the water to create this huge artificial harbour. In the
1st few weeks of Normandy invasion, the Allies had no natural harbour
to use so this artificial one was used to unload all their supplies.

We had quick look around from the cliff edge and then drove down the
hill to 'Gold Beach' where we came across a memorial for Dave's county
- The Essex Regiment. Then it was time to head to Bayeux and travel
back 900 years to another invasion - The Norman Conquest of England in
1066.

Depicted in a 70 metre long tapestry made shortly after the Conquest -
the series of very well preserved pictures embroidered into the linen
cloth tell the story of how Harold (from England) betrayed William the
Bastard (from Normandy) and crowned himself, succeeding Edward the
Confessor to the English throne. This act was cause for celebration
though shortly after the appearance of Haley's Comet indicated all was
not well. William sailed to England, where the 14 hour battle of
Hastings culminated in Harold being killed by an arrow through his
eye. Thus William become known as William the Conqueror and King of
England!!!

Feeling a little more knowledgeable on England's turbulent royal
history, it was off to the train station to say goodbye to Kerryn and
Dave. Then back to take a look around Bayeux - a very pretty town
almost unscathed from the D-Day landings, and the first town in France
to be liberated. We took a walk around the peaceful, well maintained
4,868 graves of the British war cemetery. This included 8 New Zealand
graves of which we managed to find 2, among the many rows.

Then it was off up the coast to Omaha Beach where thousands of
American and German lives were lost in the most brutal section of the
D-day beaches. Now it is a very peaceful long beach with sand-sailors
(sailing up and down the beach in a little three wheeled cart with
sail) zooming around. But we could imagine thousands of troops landing
on the beach, then having a couple of hundred metres of nothing to
hide behind, as they ran towards the machine guns shooting at them -
horriffic!!

Our last D-day sight for today was away from the beaches in the little
market town of Ste. Mére-Eglise. It was in this area, inland from
Utah Beach that American paratroopers landed in the early hours of
June 6. Unfortunately they ended up scattered all over the countryside
and for those that have seen the movie The Longest Day, one
unfortunate paratrooper landed right on top of the church in Ste.
Mére-Eglise - getting himself tangled up and hanging from the roof.
Somehow he managed to survive as he got a bird's eye view of the
fighting below.
The famous church which still stands, now has a mannequin soldier and
parachute hanging from the church roof to remind us all.

26/09/08 - Some very impressive former islands.

A short drive through the quickly clearing fog for our first stop
today - St Malo. Once a fortified island at the mouth of the river
Rance, this walled town is now joined to the mainland by way of a
promenade and resulting beach. We walked along the beach to an
outlying fort, past huge breakwaters and got a feel for the extremely
large tidal differences in this area - this difference, between low
and high tide, can be 15 metres in height! We arrived when the tide
was quite low but postcard pictures of waves crashing over the
breakwaters showed us just why these are needed at high tide.

We then walked through the walls and explored this very impressive
granite town. Almost completely destroyed during the Second World
War, this is another example of careful restoration which has ensured
the town's narrow streets retain their charm.

Once we'd enjoyed a coffee in the sun, it was onward to France's
second most recognisable silhouette (the first being the Eiffel
Tower) - Mont St Michel (pronounced Michelle, not Michael as we had
been doing).

Another former island that is now joined to the mainland due to a long
sandspit, this 80 metre high island was visible to us from about 20
kilometres out. The closer we got, the more impressive it became,
with its Benedictine abbey towering above the tightly packed houses
that wind round the bottom, and the kilometres of tidal sand streching
far out to sea. In only a few hours, this sand would be completely
covered in water in a tidal change that perhaps could best be
described as 'where the waters rise faster than galloping horses'. We
got this description from the guidebook where it unfortunately doesn't
quote where it got it from.

We found ourselves a view point from a turret on the 'island' to
witness the tide come in - you definitely could witness the water
moving up the bay, although we decided we didn't need to sit up there
for the whole 6 hours of tidal change to get the idea.

It was then back on the move across the Normandy countryside to our
first view of the D-day landing beaches - where on the 6th of June
1944 hundreds of thousands of allied solders landed in the largest
amphibious invasion in history as they began the push across Europe to
defeat Hitlers Nazi Germany.

25/09/08 - A province more English than French??

Crikey this country is big!! Here I thought it would take about a day
to drive around the whole coast of Brittany, but the general consensus
of the crew was that we take the shorter route across country - and
that still took a whole day!!! With a few stops of course.

A quick look around Quiberon, before we headed back up the peninsula -
which in some places is only 50 metres across. Then we were off to
the other side of the Brittany coast - driving via through villages
and countryside which actually felt more English than French with
their stone buildings. This could be attributed to the Celtic origins
of Brittany, as large migrations from the Celtic lands of Britain
occurred throughout history to this region. It was only in the 16th
century that Brittany became part of France, and even today there are
groups lobbying for a separate Brittany state to the rest of France.

Our lunch stop was beside the Nantes-Brest canal which winds its way
through the rolling green countryside. A quick look at the Abbey de
Bon-Repos looking over the canal, where unfortunately all the
information was in French - then it was onward to our first sight of
the English channel at Cape Fréhel.

It was here we took an hour walk along the rugged coast, past a German
gun emplacement left over from the Second World War, to a lighthouse
sitting out on the cape. The view down along the cliffs showed a
castle sticking out right on the edge - stunning stuff!!