Day 1-3 Euro Tour

We are on day 3 of the grand tour. We are cracking on at a fair pace and the weather so far has been unbelievable.

We set off with the van packed to the rafters and England flags flying proudly from the van windows.

We made good time to Eurotunnel and as we passed through passport control being two blokes in a white van we duly were asked to pull into the customs inspection line. Once the back door to the van was opened the customs guy took one look and and obviously thought life was too short and waived us through.

First stop was Bruges, the hotel was good and our host very hospitable. We had a good chat about our European tour and all the countries we would be visiting. She then asked if we could move the van to a car park approx 100 yds down the road, yes no problem - 30 minutes later we appeared back at the hotel having got lost driving round Bruges, you could see this woman thinking how on earth are they going to get round Europe if they can't find a car park at the end of the road!

Bruges was beautiful and we managed a good few Belgium beers to get our tour off on a good footing.

Next stop on day 2 was Ypres (or Iepres). We went on a World War 1 battle field tour. Informative and interesting but it really makes you think about the sacrifices that were made. In the battle Passchendaele, 3rd battle of Ypres, 250,000 allied solders were killed and a similar number of Germans. Only for the land that was gained to be subsequently given up.

We witnessed the last post ceremony at the Menin gate. This takes place at 8pm every night 365 days a year when the main road into Ypres is closed, buglers play the last post and people pay their respects. A very moving ceremony.

Friday night we found a good bar selling 100 beers, although we couldn't do it justice we selected different beers from the menu, our favourite was Gordon Scoth Finest Red.

Saturday saw us crossing through Holland and into Germany. Although we don't have a stopover in Holland we pulled over to have lunch so that we had set foot on Dutch soil.

We arrived in Dusseldorf to 31° heat. After some 'significant negotiations' re the allocation of a double bed rather than 2 singles (we might not speak German but we made ourselves understood) we set off in search of the bars.

Unbeknown to us we had arrived on the weekend of a jazz festival and the Altstadt famous for the 'longest bar in Europe' (just a street full of bars) was heaving. What an experience, no doubt helped by the constant flow of beer and sunshine.

Off to Munich today then the Allianz. Arena tomorrow.