the countdown is on! only days remaining now.

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Okay guys here it is......

With only 12 days until we head off into the sunset, things are starting to get rather exciting. Especially now that we have all but completely organised the trip, booked a few things along the way, and bought all of the essentials...... and non essentials, including a bottle of Bundaberg Rum (compliments of Loz!).

All thats left to do now is fix Jonesy's gear lever!!!!!! 😞

Yes thats right, we havent even driven a single kilometre yet and Jonesy is already off the road. But don't worry, I was able to pull him apart, all to find a small piece of plastic had snapped off the lever, and order a replacement part from France. In fact, I ordered two, just in case it happens again. The gear lever breakage was thanks to a test run we had down in Brighton. But we are glad it happened in london and not in the middle of Spain somewhere, as it has taken 2 weeks to get the replacement part. So fingers crossed I'll get it all back and working tonight after work. I was quite proud of my mechanical skills, ands have in fact bought 3 books on DIY mechanics, just in case something else goes wrong along the way.

We are working right up until the day before we leave, just to store that extra cash that we will be needing whilst not working for 6 long months...... thats right suckers, 6 whole months!! he he.

We have just signed up new tenants to take over our room in our flat in Clapham Common and sorted out our shipping of 4 suitcases back to Oz. We only managed to gain 1 extras suitcase worth of crud whilst we have been living in London, so thats not too bad!

I've posted a 'rough' trip schedule below, I have only listed the major cities and allowed for quite a long time at each location. the reason for this is to build in quite a bit of flexibility into our trip. If we like somewhere we can stay for longer. If we don't like it so much, then hey, we will just move on to somewhere else in between. Maybe get off the tourist trap a bit and hit the small villages and country towns. So here it is:

10 May - leave london and head to Chester and The Lake District in North West England to visit my long lost rellies and to say goodbye to them all
14 May - head back down to London for the Counting Crows concert at Wembley Arena
15 May - get the ferry across to France and head straight up to Brugges and Brussels in Belgium
20 May - off to Den Haag and Amsterdam in the Netherlands
26 May - Rhine Valley for a wine tour in Germany
31 May - Interlaken and the Jangrau region of the Alps in Switzerland, spectacular scenery and an adventure sporting playground
7 June - The beaches of the south of France beckon us as we head to Nice, Cannes, Monaco for a day trip, Marseille
17 June - Now cross into Spain and straight to Barcelona
23 June - Down past Valencia to get a ferry across to Ibiza for some serious clubbing/partying
25 June - Take a few days to drive along the Southern coasts of Spain and Portugal and finish up at Lisbon, Portugals capital city
3 July - Back into Spain and land in Madrid
8 July - Up to San Sebastian for some more serious tanning sessions on the beach, where we are hoping to meet up with Scotty and Emma, for some last minute relaxation before the next massive few weeks on the agenda
10 July - we rock into Pamplona for the running of the bulls.... and yes I will definately be running. Here we will meet up with our room mates Corey and Kate
15 July - we say goodbye to Scott and Em and travel down to Benicassim just north of Valencia still in Spain for a 4 day music festival. Corey and Kate will be there as well and we will also meet up with our other roomies Steve and Ria. Headlining acts are Kings of Leon, Killers, Oasis, and Franz Ferdinand. The music starts at around 6pm each night and doesnt finish til 6am the next morning, we then head back to Jonesy for some rest get up have a swim at the beach and do it all again!
20 July - we say goodbye to the roomies and head for a long drive back up through the South of France and venture into Italy for the magical coastal heaven known as the Cinque Terre.
26 July - off to Pisa for a day trip and to take those all too familiar leaning tower photos
27 July - up to Milan to drop Jonesy off at the airport whilst we fly to Athens for 2 weeks of Greek Island magic and some more serious partying, we are hoping to meet Stacey here somewhere
13 Aug - fly back to Milan to pick up Jonesy, then U turn it back down to drive the length of Italy
14 Aug - First stop is Verona and Venice for a gondola excursion
19 Aug - Then past Bologna for some pasta and into Florence
20 Aug - Now down to Rome
24 Aug - We then venture off to the Amalfi Coast, should make for some interesting driving in a 2.5 tonne 1987 VW van without power steering... can't wait
25 Aug - Over to the East coast of Italy to Bari to catch a ferry to Dubrovnik, Croatia
27 Aug - Spend a couple of days in Dubrovnik then drive North to Split, Croatia to spend my birthday in style, we will meet Scott, Em, Stacey, Hayley, Dave, and Glenn here.
29 Aug - We leave Jonesy at the Split Port and depart for a week long cruise down the majestic coastline and back up again of Croatia
5 Sep - We say goodbye to everyone here then head into further Eastern Europe and to Zagreb, Croatian capital city
8 Sep - Cross into Hungary, Budapest
12 Sep - Austria, Vienna awaits us
16 Sep - And over to Krakow, Poland
20 Sep - Then into Czech Republic, Prague
24 Sep - Head West into Germany, Berlin
29 Sep - Then make our way down through Germany to Munich for Oktoberfest
1 Oct - Oktoberfest shinnanigans here, where we are hoping to meet Sheep, Furby and Johnson (if not sometime before Oktoberfest)
7 Oct - The journey back to London commences, but first we head down into Austria again for Slazburg and Innsbruck
14 Oct - We then make our way back to London possibly via Germany and France, and then jump on the ferry to cross the English Channel
16 Oct - Back into London for a week to try to offload Jonesy to some lucky bugger (too expensive to ship him to Australia with us unfortunately). also time for one last hoorah with all of the mates we have made along the way in the mother land.
21 Oct - fly to Bangkok for 2 weeks of chilling and relaxing in Koh Samui Thailand. We are hoping that everyone who is anyone will meet us there for some partying!! SO GET ORGANISED YOU LOT!
3 Nov - fly back to Brisbane to spend a couple of weeks catching up with everyone, then back into the swing of normal life....... and I don't doubt that after 5 months that is exactly what we will be wanting to do!

So that is about it.... in a nutshell!

We will try to get a few photos posted in the coming week of the van fully packed up and decked out to show you all of our creature comforts etc etc. And all of our new high tech gizmos and gadgets including video camera, and digital SLR.

I hope you all enjoy coming on this adventure with us, and we would really love to hear from you all also along the way. So please feel free to leave comments etc at the end of each blog entry.

Bye for now

Vince and Suz

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'ONE SUMMER!' baby!!

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Comments

[berny]

cool bananas:-)
wow! welldone on makin your trip a reality. hope its everything you imagine itll be.. & more ofcourse:-)

[laura cicchiello]

11 days!
can't believe it's only 11 days until you and suz pack up in jonesy and head off!! i hope you have a fantastic time away and look forward to hearing all about it on here - i have subscribed to your blogs so won't miss one!! Good to hear you are fixing jonesy before you set off - suz told me the story about driving back from brighton.. i say we leave the driving up to you vince if you want to come back in one piece hehe. Can you believe this weekend is 1 year since you left oz?! Seafood festival and Normanby this sunday.. brings back those memories.... don't drink and drive! Remember not to drink all the bundy at once!! Enjoy the 'brownies' in amsterdam!!! and the HB beer in Munich Hopefully i'll speak to you on skype before you leave on your adventure. xxx

[Bridget]

Poor Jonesy!
Poor Jonesy, I hope he is feeling better. You must be so excited. I am, because it's not long now till I get to see you guys (selfish, I know). I have been sick, first a cold that turned into Bronchitis and now it has turned into pneumonia. Sucks hard core because I have so many Uni assignments due and I start prac at my new school next week. I am working at St Laurences, an all buys catholic school in near South Bank (not sure if I told you that already). Anyway, I gotta go caugh and splutter the kids to school/ day care. love you guys. xoxoxoxoxxxoxo B.

[furby]

numes numes numes
bring on the fest. munich wont know what hit it.