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1 September 2008, Monday
Berlin and Rathenow, Germany
We wake up and get ready to break camp as usual. After breakfast though, as Dad is winding down the roof tent, he finds that there is a problem with it – the back would go down, but the front end wouldn’t!
Dad and Mum leave me to my own devices and are in deep conversation for a long time, all sorts of tools coming out of the boot. I offered to help fix it, but they told me to leave them to it.
 
Eventually, after a cheese sandwich at 2pm, we take off from the campsite with the tent half opened, heading for a town called Rathenow, some 80km away. Mum drives pretty slowly, much to the annoyance of other road users. To make matters worse, it rains. We arrive at Kruger’s about 1.5 hours later and Matthias Kruger and one of his mechanics was waiting for us to arrive. They got to work straight away and fix the problem – the cable from the solar panel had apparently hit the chain that winds down the other end of the tent. Mr. Kruger even refused to accept any payment for the job done. He had some serious looking monster trucks that go off road. I thought they were cool!
We drive off, heading towards Prague, as Dad and Mum decide that between them they can take turns to drive through the night on the highway. We stop for dinner some 25km down the road and as we were about to leave, Mum asks Dad where he had put the side awning? Dad remembers leaving them on top of the jerry cans on Tuah’s roof, but they were not there anymore, so they decide to turn back and see if we can find it on the road. No such luck. Dad says we might as well spend the night in Rathenow, and see if Mr. Kruger has a new awning for us in the morning. We arrive at the local campsite at 9.30pm, but find it is shut for the season. Mum suggests we go back to Dektec and spend the night in Mr. Kruger’s courtyard.
2 September 2008, Tuesday
Rathenow, Germany and Prague, Czech Republic
We wake up as Mr. Kruger’s showroom opens and he greets us with surprise. He had in fact been looking at our website after we left yesterday, and he had not expected to see us still in town!
 
Anyway, we get a new awning, Dad quite pleased with the price and take off for Prague. Dad had notices a different model of Maggiolina roof tent in Mr. Kruger’s showroom and thinks it may be an option for the next leg, as it opens and closes much easier than our current tent.
We arrive in Prague in the evening and Dad promises to take me into town tomorrow to buy a Star Wars Clone Trooper toy I wanted.
3 September 2008, Wednesday
Prague, Czech Republic
It’s a lovely, warm and sunny day. Dad and Mum are fussing over the internet connection in the campsite, which is not working. After a couple of hours of trying, they give up and we get ready to go out.
We drive into Prague and though Dad and Mum have been here before, they were still amazed at the beauty of the city. We park Tuah by the Museum and walk down towards Wenceslas Square, where they visited the Christmas Market before I came along. We spot a Debenhams on the way and we nip in to see if they have that Clone Trooper I wanted so badly. I was in luck – they did!
We visit the exhibition in front of the museum, with some graffiti artwork and a real tank. We then drive past Petrin to the Church of the Infant Jesus of Prague and the Prague Castle. It certainly is a large and beautiful city!
4 September 2008, Thursday
Prague, Czech Republic and Vienna, Austria
We are up fairly early and I check out what the Danish Bikers on the campsite have for breakfast. Once Dad and Mum have packed up, I have the hard task of saying goodbye to my new friends. The cool gals from the San Marino Softball Team give me a Batman toy, which I love! It makes a good companion for my Clone Wars Trooper!
 
We drive off and stop along the way at Konopiste Castle. It looks a bit like the Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania. We take a road train ride up to the castle.
It rains all afternoon and we drive on to Vienna instead of stopping at Brno to see the race track, arriving late in the evening
5 September 2008, Friday
Vienna, Austria
It’s a lovely warm day. After breakfast, we get ourselves ready for a daytrip to the city. Dad buys an all day travel card so we can give Tuah a rest and we hop on the bus from outside the campsite to the nearest train station.
The city was full of lovely looking buildings and nice parks. I loved rolling about on the grass in the Volks Garden. After lunch we took a tram ride and another Metro to the river bank, where Dad said they had a surprise for me. On the other side of the river was a festival! There were loads of people, food, stall with things for sale and games and fun stuff for kids!
 
I had a brilliant time! I was so worn out at the end of it, I just wanted lie on the ground and rest! We eventually made our way back to the campsite, where Mum prepared some dinner, and I went off to the campsite café to spend the evening with my friends who work there.
6 September 2008, Saturday
Vienna, Austria and Velenje, Slovenia
After breakfast we have to say goodbye to our friends again. First to Fritz and Elrias, then to Sandra. I was in tears, and Dad and Mum seemed to ignore my plea to stay and make this our home.
 
We have a long drive ahead of us to Slovenia. We were in the country in mid June, on our way to Bratislava, Slovakia to meet up with our friends Aunty Zuzi and Nella. Instead of driving all the way into Ljubljana, we decide to stop at a campsite some 30km away, in Velenje. It’s a lovely place with mountains around it and a lake.
Not much to do though, so after dinner, we have a shower and go to bed.
7 September 2008, Sunday
Ljubjlana, and Bled, Slovenia
After breakfast we drive in to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We park Tuah and take the funicular railway up to the Ljubljana Castle.
 
It was a long climb up to the tallest tower, but I loved the view from up there. There was also a silver cube thing with tubes sticking out that made sounds when you touched it. The sign in front of it said it appeared suddenly and may have come from outer space. I don’t think so. It was made of aluminum foil like Mum used in the kitchen and had foam bits that came off! After the visit to the castle, we had lunch in the car park before driving on towards the Austrian border.
Before we reached the border, Mum decided to turn off into a town called Bled, as there are lots of touristy things in the area .It’s a lovely town with a lake and a fantastic view. We visit Castle Bled and Dad decides that it is a nice place and we should spend the night here. The best part of it was the fact that the family who camped next to us was great. I had a fantastic time playing with Antonia and Isabella and their parents and dog, Tweety!
8 September 2008, Monday
Bled, Slovenia and Innsbruck, Austria
After breakfast of my favourite Coco Pops, we pack up and then say goodbye to our friends. There are lots of tears as they drive off for their day trip to the canyon for a hike, and we get ready to leave Bled. I will miss Antonia and Isabella a lot.
 
We drive towards the Austrian border and stop along the way for some groceries as Mum says they are cheaper in Slovakia than in Austria. It’s a lovely drive through the Alps and we admire the views. Maybe Mum was admiring it too much, on a narrow, windy road, and she clipped Tuah’s left side mirror, causing it to shatter.
We arrived at Innsbruck and found the campsite, which was in a beautiful setting. The mountains on both side and the lakes. We found a spot right by the service block, which was great – I got to speak to everyone who walked by!
9 September 2008, Tuesday
Innsbruck, Austria
We woke up to bright sunshine and freshly brewed coffee brought to Dad and Mum by the couple in the caravan next door. I got a little chocolate stick! After some fussing around, Mum doing the laundry and Dad on the internet, we get the details for the local Nissan garage and make our way there to see if they can replace Tuah’s broken side mirror. They will place an order for the part and we will have it done tomorrow on our way out, much to Mum’s relief.
We then make our way to the city and visit the Old Town. Dad and Mum have been here before and loved it. I saw many people looking up at the roof of a building, which was apparently the Golden Roof of Innsbruck. It is a very nice city and I also love the mountains and river that flows through it.
 
We went to the Swarovski Kristallwelten, about 20km from the city where we say wonderful displays of crystals. There was a face with a fountain in the garden, which was a famous landmark. As Mum tried to take a photo of Dad and I with it, I fell off the bench and into a thorn bush. It hurt! It took Mum at least 5 minutes to pull all the thorns out of my skin
We get back to the campsite and I have a go at the water fountain shower, which was great. After dinner, I visit my new friends, Simone and Rainer in their caravan, which was nice and comfy.
10 September 2008, Wednesday
Innsbruck, Austria and Bodensee, Germany
As soon as we are up, our dear neighbour brings over his freshly brewed coffee for Dad and Mum.
 
I follow Mum to the campsite shop to pick up some freshly baked bread rolls and then start packing up. To stay out of Dad and Mum’s way, I run off with Simone and Rainer and sit in their caravan for a while. Eventually Mum comes for me and it’s time to say goodbye again to dear friends.
We go back to the Nissan Garage and very promptly, Tuah has a new side mirror installed and we are on our way. We drive on to the German border town of Fussen, where we visit 2 famous castles, still often used for filming movies. After lunch, we move on towards Lake Bodensee, which is the border between Germany and Switzerland. We find a campsite for the evening on the lake but are very disappointed with it, even though the entrance was very impressive. We end up having an early night.
11 September 2008, Thursday
Zurich, Switzerland and Neuenburg am Rhein, Germany
We leave the campsite and head along the lake. Dad seems curious to see if the rest of the lake was as unkept and dirty as the stretch we had been on last night. It seems not. There were many pretty villages and other campsites up the road, so we many have just picked out the wrong one! The whole area was full of apple trees and pumpkin patches and grapes. Mum found a fishmonger and bought some of the local trout.
Seeing that Kontanz, the border with Switzerland was only 30km from us, Dad thought we night as well drive into Zurich for the day. All ended up a big mistake….the traffic was bad and there was absolutely nowhere to park Tuah. The countryside we drove through was very nice though and I loved watching the cows with their bells hanging round their necks.
We had to stay off the highway as a Vignette would have cost £40, (and lasted a year) and we must have encountered hundreds of traffic lights along the way! Eventually we crossed the River Rhein about five times, from Switzerland, into Germany, into France and eventually back into Germany, and to the edge of the Black Forest, where we find a campsite with a restaurant on site, in Nueuenburg, as it was too late (and Mum was too tired) to get a decent dinner going. For some reason or other, Mum realized at the end of the day that she had not taken any photos all day….something unusual for her!
12 September 2008, Friday
Colmar, France and Bad Herrenalb, Germany
Waking up we see that it had rained all night and the ground was soaking wet. Dad quickly winded down the rood tent and we said goodbye to our friends in the next pitch before I had a quick visit to the campsite’s petting zoo. Mum got some freshly baked bread rolls for breakfast, which we ate in the car.
 
We drove across the border to France, to Colmar. There is a replica of Colmar Village created in Bukit Tinggi, Malaysia, and we were curious to see how right they got it. It was a lovely village, with many more buildings than that of Bukit Tinggi’s Colmar. The best part was the many conkers I managed to collect from the ground there.
 
We got back on the road after having some yummy Fresh Pastries, something I used to enjoy with my friends Lachlan and Nella, and our Mums on occasional evenings in London.
We drove on to Baden Baden and eventually decided to spend the night in the nearby village of Bad Herrenalb, and the edge of the Black Forest. We had a nice pitch by a small river.
13 September 2008, Saturday
Bad Herrenalb and Remagen, Germany
We woke up to more rain. Again, we quickly packed up and made our way to the village centre, where we got some fresh bead for breakfast in a local café, where Mum spotted a chair set up for me.
 
It rained all day and we were on the road from morning till evening, driving slowly towards Cologne. Dad decides we should spend two nights outside the city, and chooses a campsite in Remagen, in Rheinland. It’s a beautiful setting on the river. By the time we get there and set up camp, it starts to get really cold….in fact it is freezing!
14 September 2008, Sunday
Remagen, Bonn and Cologne, Germany
It was a cold night and we are glad to see the sun is out this morning. It’s still cold though, but nowhere near as bad. After breakfast and errands (basically, laundry and pulling out the warmer clothes), we set off for Cologne and Bonn.
 
It’s a lovely town with some nice buildings, even a twin tower, like Kuala Lumpur, Barcelona and Vienna! I really wanted to buy a new toy, but Dad and Mum said ‘NO’
After Cologne, we went to Bonn, another city nearby. On the way in, we were stopped by a police car. We pulled over and were approached by a policeman who wanted to see Dad’s driving license. Mum asked if we had done something wrong, and he said ‘no’. Eventually we got to know that he grew up in Australia, where my mate, Lachlan now lives, and we were asked if we needed any help with directions and wished a happy travels.
There were some nice sights in Bonn, too, but the best was a lion (not a real one, I am told) hung upside down from a crane on a building site! We make our way back to the campsite and use the key we were given to open the gate on to the Rhein
 
We have a walk along the river before dinner. I find a nice place to sit and admire the view (only for a second). By this time next week, we will be back in London, having completed the first leg of our round the world overland expedition….it’s hard to believe!
15 September 2008, Monday
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
It was really cold again last night. I was grateful for the new extra warm sleeping bag Dad had bought me a few days ago! We got ready for breakfast and started to pack up. I played in the campsite playground while Dad and Mum sorted things out. I especially liked the dinosaur bouncer they had. Soon, we were on the road again.
 
It was raining for most of the day and we had a generally long, boring drive to get to Rotterdam. We were invited by Uncle Capt Zul Tirmizi to spend a few days at his home, for which we were very grateful. It has been getting cold!
16 September 2008, Tuesday
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
We woke up late…must be the large space we had on the bed and the warm room! Mum was happy that she did not have my feet in her face, as she usually wakes up to every morning.
After breakfast, Dad decides to drive to Amsterdam, although Mum said we should take the train. Eventually, we make our way via Den Haag (The Hague) and drive through some nice villages. We even see a windmill up close!
 
By the time we get into Amsterdam, it is lunchtime and we spend more time than it took to get there looking for a parking lot! Tuah, with his roof tent was too tall for underground parking and by the time we eventually found a lot, we didn’t have much time to see Amsterdam, and even so, had to walk miles to the centre!
We went past many canals to the Flower Market. It was nice to see all the colourful flowers and cactus plants. One stall even had floating crocodile and hippo heads!
After a long day, it was nice to return to the comfortable, warm home of Uncle Capt Zul.
17 September 2008, Wednesday
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
After a nice breakfast of ‘Roti Canai’, bought frozen from the local Moroccan shop, we drive out to the city. Rotterdam is a very modern city, with new buildings and not much in the way of history, aside the port.
It looked like most cities in Europe did…it had a McDonalds! We walked through the old bit of town, which was quite new, looking in the shop windows. Mum bought a pair of walking clogs, not at all like the famous wooden ones sold in all the touristy shops, but she said they were still called clogs.
 
In the afternoon, after crossing the famous Erasmus Bridge, which looked like a harp and going through the Maastunnel, we headed back to Uncle Capt Zul’s home for a rest before he came back from office and we headed out for dinner to a restaurant by a lake. It was an Indonesian Restaurant, very nice setting and food, but I did not like the Balianese Masks and statues they had as decoration. They were quite scary!
18 September 2008, Thursday
Rotterdam and Delft, The Netherlands
We decide to drive out to Delft, today, at the suggestion of Uncle Capt Zul. It’s only a 10 minute drive from where we were and the home of the famous Dutch Blue and White Potteries. It’s a very pretty village with canals and bridges and all sorts of things going on.
 
In front of the new church, which was actually very old, we found a big blue egg like thing. Mum said it was a sculpture, but I am sure it was a ‘Bronkonosaurus’ Egg.
 
I found a pair of wooden clogs that fitted me perfectly, but Mum bought me these tiny ones instead….however did she think I could wear them?
After a nice day out, we head back to Rotterdam and have a relaxing evening.
19 September 2008, Friday
Brugge, Belgium and Calais, France
We leave Rotterdam after breakfast and head towards Calais through Antwerp, Gent and Brugge. Dad says that Brugge is a nice historic town, so we should stop there for lunch. It’s one of the UNESCO World heritage sites. We have visited many along the way, including The Mostar Bridge in Bosnia, City of Dubrovnik in Croatioa, Vienna and Graz in Austria, Prague and the Kutna Hora in Czech Republic, Old Town Tallin in Estonia and the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, among many others.
 
It was indeed a lovely little town and we had some lunch in a local café with Belgian waffles for dessert before checking out the many wonderful chocolate shops!
 
We got caught in some traffic on the way out of Belgium, so carried on straight to Calais, where we were to meet the Landy Rally Off Roaders, who were completing the European Charity Rally today. We were drawing the winner of the Malaysians In Motion-Rainforest Challenge Charity Raffle at their prize giving dinner tonight.
After arriving in Calais, we have a short rest, shower and head for Café de Paris, where we were to meet the others. We have a long wait though, as they were also stuck in the traffic we were in. Eventually, they arrived and dinner was about to be served at about 10pm (Mum had fed me earlier), when I got too tired and pulled two chairs together and fell asleep.
20 September 2008, Saturday
Calais, France and Sevenoaks, Kent
We had to wake up early to catch the 10am train across the Euro Tunnel back to the UK. We got to the terminal by 9.30am, but was told that we had to go on the following train at 12pm. Dad and Mum were not too happy, but nothing could be done, so we just waited in the terminal building.
The train journey across the Channel took twice as long as usual, and we eventually arrived in Folkstone. We drove down the M20 motorway, heading towards Sevenoaks, where we will spend the next few days with my pal, Sebby, his brother Cammie and their parents, Uncle Jon and Aunty Mei Li. Along the way, we catch up with the Landy Rally Defender belonging to the winners of the MIM-RFC Charity Raffle, Team Stuck In The Mud, Pete and Jamie.
Dad and Mum spend the afternoon unpacking Tuah’s load into the Green’s garage…the end of our first leg. We look forward to beginning the second leg of our expedition, which will take us from London to Cape Town.
***Adrian's Adventures will resume in early November 2008, when we are making the final preparations to set off on our second leg*** |
