Wow – I’m sitting here in my hotel room in Ashford tonight typing this. It still feels rather unreal after almost six months of waiting for this very day…. we are finally on the long road to Bulgaria!!!!
The trip so far has been uneventful with unseasonably pleasant weather all along the route and most of the services we’ve called in as relaxed as can be expected under the circumstances.
After giving Frunza one last long walk in her favourite dell behind our house in Seaham, we were off at 2.30pm on our first leg of the journey to Kent. We stopped at Wetherby Services for a Cornish pasty. That’s a total must on every trip we ever make down South. They have an authentic West Cornwall pasty shop there and they’re every bit as good as what you get down Cornwall itself. Yum!
From Wetherby on to Tibshelf, then South Mimms, to rest up tonight at a Travelodge in Ashford. Tomorrow lunchtime it’s on to the Eurotunnel, from there through France and Belgium to Germany, where we’ll be staying at my mum’s for a few days before pushing on to Austria, Hungary, Romania and finally Bulgaria.
I must admit that Shawn and I are both a bit tentative about what will greet us at the borders and if it will be ok to get through. After all these months in lockdown, with our world reduced pretty much to just the house and a couple of shops, this all seems rather daunting at the minute.
But that will hopefully settle soon enough and our old road trip spirit will return. When we were still hitting the road as gigging musicians, we thought nothing of hopping in the van and driving a couple of thousand miles through Europe. I’m sure that spirit will return as soon as we’re actually on the other side of the Channel and hitting the open road!
I plan on writing about our adventures every day and already am looking forward so much to sharing with you all our lovely place in Bulgaria and the exciting property we’re buying to convert into a retreat centre! It will be such an adventure! See you along the way somewhere.
