Blog Maken

Ok, so we're sitting in a motorway services somewhere in Belgium. We're not sure where since I pushed the wrong button on the Tomtom and it demanded a new activation code. But its working now with a new code from the internet and we're back in business. We had a really early start out of Fareham this morning (5:30AM!) and made really good time over to Dover. Ferry crossing was uneventful (this is a good thing from my perspective :)) and we've driven a couple of hundred miles into Europe. I think we're just past Brussells and so far no incidents related to driving on the wrong side of the road.

We'll quickly recap the last couple of days since we didn't go into any detail last night. We went to Beaulieu Palace House the morning after camping. Its a lovely wee stately home with a ruined abbey and a monorail! The house was cool because there were family portraits with commentaries by the current Earl underneath them. They were written in a light hearted style and included family stories and scandals.

We stopped off for a picnic lunch in Titchfield Abbey before heading on. We arrived in Fareham to be greeted by Jean (Christine's cousin) and she showed us around some of the places where Gem's Grandparents and great grandparents lived. She also showed us some old old photos of Gem's Great-grandad which was cool to see some family history. We also visited the Crematorium where Gem's Granny and Grandad ashes are scattered in a beautiful garden park area (it was a little emotional but really nice to visit there). We aslo went to Porchester castle which is somewhere Gem and Bex went with their Granny when there visited England. That was cool since most of the Roman walls are still standing on all four sides of the fort. We climbed up to the top of the tower (of course!) and it has complete rooms and walls inside (from Norman times I think).



Yesterday we spent the day in Portsmouth with Jean and Dave and went up the Spinnacker Tower and marvelled at the views all around. We visited the historic docks where they keep the HSM Victory and the Mary Rose. Again another day of education as I've heard of the Battle of Trafalgar but didn't really know what went on.



So I think we might try to camp out tonight in Namen (Belgium), we'll see how good Tom is at getting us there :)