Cheap cornflakes for breakfast; packed the car and headed out of Cramlington on our way south to York.  Was a quick drive to York and we found a car park overlooking a Castle in the middle of the city.  We headed into the Coppergate Centre to line up for the Jorvik Viking Centre.  I had read about it online and thought the boys would enjoy it, although didn’t really know...

I was woken by a little voice calling ‘Patrick, Patrick’.  It was Bradley loudly whispering to wake Patrick. Harris was up and gone at 6.30 am to wake up Charlie in their tent and when Bradley woke and realised the big boys were already playing, he needed to wake Patrick quickly!  The four boys headed off to their ‘den’ in the forest within the campsite.  Harris informed me...

The main reason we found ourselves in The New Forest National Park was so that we were close to Southampton to meet Pat and Roy, a couple we met in Cambodia who live in Lymington.  Roy works for a company called My Boatshare (www.myboatshare.com) that sells vacation weeks on sailing charter boats.  He had said if we get to Southampton we would be able to go out with them...

Next day was fine and sunny so we hopped in the car and headed to the first beach we could find which was Avon Beach.

It was a mix of sand and rocks and full of English vacationers.  I sat on the beach and read the book I’d been given by Debbie in Paris; Harris hired a kayak for ½ hour and bobbed around; Patrick enjoyed some rock hopping but managed to hurt himself 3...

Out of Newhaven and off to Croydon we went. The tv news reported there were road closures and problems so we thought it better to be out the door as early as possible.  We needn’t have worried because we made it to Croydon without any major issues and we had time to fill in.  Sadly we returned our Renault Scenic hire car to the depot and gained a Holden Zafira.  Whilst the...

Up early because we had a boat to catch to Dover.  We packed, ate, jumped in the car and followed the signs to the Calais Ferry Terminal.  We were on time for boarding for our 9 am boat.  Showed the UK border security guy our passports to get in and he asked what our plans were when we got to the UK. We told him and he asked “Are you ever going home?”  Yes, but not just...

How to get to Sweden from the UK? – first you book a ferry across the English Channel.  This is not an easy task because like everything it requires research.  There are numerous ferry companies departing from numerous locations in England and arriving in a multitude of European ports.  Prices  vary greatly as do the length of the journeys.  The longer the boat journey the...

Here is the list of camping equipment that we have acquired in order to camp around the UK and Europe: 

Tent                                                       130                         Millets

Sleeping bags x 4                              112

Camp mats                                         40

Single fitted sheet for mat           2.87 x 4                 ASDA

Egg...

Now we were equipped with the basics to get us started on our camping UK/Europe adventure.  On Thursday 9^th of June, Steve picked up our hire car we were trialling for a week; we loaded the Renault Scenic with all of our newly acquired ‘stuff’ and we checked out of our lovely apartment in Croydon; goodbye kitchen and washer/dryer.

Where were we headed … we actually had no...

You can tell by the photos that we covered a lot of the big name attractions in London. We bought a Merlin Pass for each of us – 3 standard passes and 1 premium (it gives you free parking).  This is a pass that can be used at a large number of attractions like London Eye, Legoland, The London Dungeons, SEA Life Centre and more and you can go as often as you like for 12...