19. We made it

Well we are finally here we left england on the 28th December and arrived at our house at 6 am 1st January 2019. After a journey that nearly killed us.
First day we travelled from Warrington to Folkstone and got the eurotunnel to Calais.

Our view on the chunnel

35 minutes on the chunnel and we were deposited in French France. A quick blast on the motorway and we were in Belgium.

We headed on to our first stop at the Belgium/ German border where we were glad to stop have a rest and sleep for 13 hours !!!!

Day two saw us head on through Germany and it Austria where we found our 2nd stop in the mountains in a superb house after another good night's sleep and breakfast we set off for Hungary and then to Romania. In leaving Austria I had driven 1050 miles.

Hungary was dull wet and boring most of our journey was on motorways so not a great deal to see.

As it was new years eve there was not much traffic however we soon found that there was nowhere open to get food other than the odd petrol station.

We then made our worse decision. We foolishly decided that as we could get no meals and would get no breakfast anywhere the next day we should just drive straight to Bulgaria. After all it would only take another 4-5 hours. How wrong we were.

Eating on the hoof somewhere between Hungary and romania4

We got lost trying to find Romania as my sat nav didnt recognise a new road we ended up on eventually we found the border and had our passports checked for the first time.

I reset the sat nav and we ended up on the A1 a great New road heading towards Bucharest brilliant (not) as very soon the road just ended but my sat nav was still telling me to go on A1 we got lost.we stopped at a garage for a brew and an argument and headed on with several resets of the sat nav we finally got back on the A1 only to be chucked off again a short while later. We then ended up driving through the Romanian mountains up and down winding roads at about 25mph with the sat nav telling me there was only 97 miles to go on these roads, great.

Midnight wad spent driving through snow and Romanian villages were every occupant was out letting fireworks off in the road, it was like driving through a war zone. 

Eventually about 80 miles from Bucharest and several hours of driving I found the A1 again brilliant back to 70 mph we would be there in no time. Nope thick freezing fog soon saw to that that lasted all the way to our house. We found the Danube bridge at rousse and after a more lengthy check of our passports and vehicle documents and beng relived of 30 levs to cross we were allowed in. We had arrived in bulgaria.

We were tired starving hungry and irritable.

Once over the bridge we needed a vignette for Bulgaria for our van but nowhere was open I managed to find a garage with the most unhelpful bulgarian I have ever met working there .

I asked for a vignette he just said  no and would help any further by this time and the way I was feeling he was lucky I didn't chin him. However not being like that a few choice words muttered to myself sufficed.

We carried on eventually finding a garage in rousse and got a vignette of a very pleasant and helpful lady.

We set off to our house still in thick fog I was dog tired and all of a sudden I nearly crashed into a kerb that jumped out in front of us, to this day I don't know how I missed it. Eventually we arrived at our house some 20 hours from leaving austria and just a tiny 880 miles driven. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Anyway were here and there's lots to do 

Bailey exploring his new home

Till next time take care

Mark and Julie