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...

Apologies to all our family, friends and followers for taking so long to update our whereabouts. We have survived our first 2 weeks in the UK with a few ups and downs. We are just starting to get our UK/Europe groove now.   We didn’t realise just how tricky it would be to try and organise ourselves for this part of our adventure in an English speaking country no less! ...

Finally the day had arrived when we would say goodbye to Asia and hello Europe.  This was going to be the very first time that any of us had set foot in Europe and we were most excited; although not looking forward to the 11 hour flight.

Another early start for us all to get to the airport so we could beat the Beijing road and rail traffic.  Our flight wasn’t until 11.15 am...

Our last day in Beijing and I had a girl’s morning.  I had needed a haircut for months!  I meant to get a cut in October last year before going to the USA but couldnt’ get into my local salon so it had been a very long time since I’d had a trim.  I thought it would be a good idea to pay China haircut prices before getting to England so our new Chinese friend Simone became...

The 1st of June is Children’s Day in China.  We were due to fly to London today but changed our flight plans so that we could experience Children’s Day in China.  We had no idea exactly what Children’s Day was all about but since we were travelling with two chidren we thought it was a good enough reason to find out!

As it turned out we decided to celebrate Children’s Day a...

We woke early to get ourselves ready for a 7.10 am pick-up by the tour driver at the hostel.  We were joined by a number of other people from our hostel and the other YHAs in Beijing.  We had thought about trying to get public transport to the wall but after we sat in the horrendous traffic we were glad that we just paid money through the hostel to organise it all.  It...

Our day didn’t start with Peking Duck but certainly ended with it.  How could we come this far and not try the signature dish?!  We asked at the hostel to recommend somewhere local to eat duck and they recommended a restaurant about 2 km away. We set off with a piece of paper in hand with a basic map and the restaurant name in Chinese and pinyin ‘Jin Ba Wan’.

We found it...

We had to see Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City as they are both must do attractions in Beijing.  Our day started with a lovely breakfast in the hostel courtyard and then we were off again to the train station.     

  We got off at the station at the southern end of Tiannamen Square.  It was late morning by the time we arrived and very hot so we didn’t stand around...