Funky chicken and "put the cock in the bottle"

Today was Vicki's birthday so to celebrate we have come to the charming, slightly alcoholic town of Epernay - the capital of the Champagne region. 

The day started well, with our Belgian hostess trying to ask us if we wanted eggs for breakfast, and when even Vicki (the master French speaker) couldn't get what she was saying, the B&B owner did an impression of a chicken laying an egg!!  A funky chicken dance to start the day. :-)

Then we set off through a major thunderstorm to get to France and visit Epernay.  The car seems to be holding up well considering how much is in it, although it is struggling up hills.  We managed to avoid the lightening and arrived in Epernay in time for lunch.  We made Vicki choose where we went as it is her birthday!  She didn't fancy the snails for some reason.

Then for her treat we visited Moet & Chandon champagne house and had a very interesting tour around the cellars.  Our guide, obviously a fluent English speaker, had a few problems with pronouciation, if you concentrated hard you could get the gist of what she was saying, but some words definitely sounded wrong.  The most amusing being the frequent comment of "and then you put the cock in the bottle".  I managed not to laugh on the tour, but once we'd had the champagne tasting, we couldn't hold back any more.......

Maidstone to Rochefort

Last minute packing of items such as shower gel and shampoo (not for me) was completed painlessly and Maureen and Leo (our house and cat sitters) arrived at 8.15am for our 8.30am departure.
With  the car fully loaded the wheels nearly touched the wheel arches and instead of jettisoning some stuff we set off.

The journey down to the Eurotunnel was uneventful and we arrived in plenty of time. On board Le Shuttle we were stuck in a compartment with a coach full of screaming kids (worst nightmare for Gemma) but the driver was friendly and advised us of a good place to stop just outside of Brussles for lunch and that the Ring Road could be busy if we caught it at the wrong time. Needless to say we did, but it wan't as bad as the M25.

 Vicki had a go at driving the car for the first time in Europe and as it's her birthday on Friday I am not allowed to say anything bad. This might be due to the fact I fell asleep for most of the time she was behind the wheel which meant I missed anything alarming that may have happened!!!!

On arriving in Rochefort, we found the hotel which was quite nice but noisy due to the road being quite busy, especially at 5am apparently, with lots of lorries going past.

As in Belgium we had to try some Belgian beers and they didn't disappoint with Rochefort, Chimay, Cimay, Emaes and Jupiler all sampled and approved of. Shames we are only here for the night.

On to Epernay and Champagne tour.
Seems the theme of our trip to Bled is already alcohol related and long may that continue!!

Ready to go

All the goodbyes have been said, some with a few tears (on both sides), the packing is done, and the house cleaned!  We are all ready to leave in the morning for the Eurotunnel.  The car will be full to over-flowing, as will the roof box, and we've shipped two boxes!  If there is any spare room I might be able to squeeze in the kitchen sink.

Our itinerary is Eurotunnel to France tomorrow, then drive to Rochefort in Belgium for the night - lots of Belgium beers and frites to celebrate our release.  Then to Epernay in France for Vicki's birthday on Friday, with a champagne tour in one of the Champagne houses.  Then a short hop to Luxembourg to see a country that most people bypass.  Sunday will be down to the Black Forest in Germany, maybe we'll get some gateux?  We get to stay an extra day there to give us a bit of a break and explore the local sites.  Then it's off to Innsbruck in Austria (with a lunch stop in Liechtenstein), and the final day will be from Innsbruck to Bled.  Arriving next Wednesday to see our new apartment and lug all the stuff up two flights of stairs - but the views are great!

I'm sure one of us will update you as we go (all the stops have Wi-Fi!), and hopefully with pictures, as long as I can find the camera in the packing!

Au revoir!

Final Countdown

The final weekend before we depart has been and gone.

It was a fairly hectic weekend due to there being cricket, rugby, formula 1 and football(!) on which meant that things had to be done around those more important(!) things.

Most of the packing is done and the roof bars have been fixed to the milk float. We (Gemma & Vicki) made a list of all the things in the boxes that are being shipped to Bled and we now just have to wait for the packing/airway bills to arrive to put onto the boxes.

Now there are only the last few things to pack and to clean the house, in between watching the tennis. We will probably be running around like blue-bottomed flies on Wednesday afternoon/evening but hopefully not as things are done and if we have done/got them then we can do them on the way to Bled or when we arrive.

One good thing came out of England being knocked out of the Euros, and to Gemma's delight, is that we don't have to try and find a bar in Belgium that is showing the semi-final that night. We can just find a bar that serves lots of Belgian beers and frites with mayo.

Roll on Thursday morning, as I'm starting to get EXCITED!!!

Packing (dry run) and in need of a wii

Today we had the joy of doing a "dry run" of packing the roof box and the car with what the 3 of us are planning to take with us when we start our journey to Bled later this month.

Things started off smoothly with me putting things into the roof box but then Gemma got bleeped and had to go into work for a while (at least this is the last time she will be on call for a year), which left me doing the work and cursing when the roof box wouldn't lock. As luck would have it (more commonly known as Sod's Law) as soon as Gemma got back the darn thing locked again which resulted in the wife not believing I had done anything in the hour  that she was out. Well I had played on the PC for  a while but she doesn't need to know that!!.

We soon had a load of stuff packed and then the last part of the party turned up (Vicki) who had a shed load of stuff in her car (including a HUGE box of teabags) that we had to try and fit in. But in the end brute force (me) and ignorance (me again) we got it all in the rood box and the boot of the car.

We then decided that it might be best if we got a couple of boxes shipped so that we could have the winter stuff such as coats, blankets, thermals, etc. that we would need later in the year/early next year as we had neglected to pack them. Fortunately, Vicki knew of a company that should be able to do this reasonably cheaply and I will get them sorted out next week.

At this point we had been going for a while and I thought we needed a break, at which point Vicki suggested she needed a wii. The comment at "the toilets at the top of the stairs and take a right" didn't go down too well, but then when you are desparate you just want to go.

We trawled (not trolled) the internetworking super highway and apparently Vicki wanted a large package and she was happy with the choice she made. This will be delivered soon so she can play with it before we go!

All in all a good and productive day but now we have to unpack the 38 t-shirts that I want to take that I squeezed into the suitcase along with the 3 pairs of trousers, 2 pairs of pants and 4 (2 pairs) of socks. Gemma thinks I have overpacked on the t-shirts whilst I think I have overdone the others as you can never have enough t-shirts.