We're committed now!!

We've gone and done it! The removal company has been chosen and the order for our removal with them confirmed. They are coming on April 28th and 29th to pack all our stuff and take it away in a container. Because we have downsized since selling our home 18 months ago and we now live in furnished rented accommodation we have a lot less than most people (thank goodness). There are no white goods, very little furniture and lots of clothes! Well you can only downsize so much can't you? We have chosen to go "groupage" which basically means that we share a container with others who don't have too much to move either. It cuts the cost and there is the benefit of the removal company keeping the container free of charge until another client appears. Otherwise we have a weekly storage cost on top of the removal cost. I will plug the company because they deserve it. They are European Van Lines (EVL) and we are very impressed with their service so far. Very professional and courteous.

Now we have a date to work to we have booked the ferry crossing too! This is really real. After completing the necessary inventory with the letting agents on 30th April and recovering our rental deposit (most important) we will set off for Harwich, stay overnight and then sail on the ferry to the Hook of Holland at 9am on 1st May. Isn't it great when a plan comes together. Next step is to book a campsite at or near Harwich and another in Delft for the first couple of nights so that we can start our exploration. The bikes will be on the car and the fishing rods inside the caravan. As Holland is so flat we should be able to see a lot of the area on our bikes which will give us some good exercise too after all the sitting in the car and on the ferry. It will be tulip season too so it should be beautiful and also very busy. Make sure you log into the blog to get the pics of the tulip fields.

Over the weekend Steve did some more work on Esmerelda (our caravan) and that is coming on well. He has had to replace some of the shell and insulation on the back after water leaked in. It will look as good as new when it is finished and we will then redecorate the shower room and toilet. Then we will put some vinyl flooring in the kitchen area to replace the grotty carpet that has been well and truly worn in that area. That will be so much easier to clean too. The caravan was owned before by a young couple who were renovating their first home and needed somewhere to live in the mean time. So they literally walked into it from a building site and the flooring reflects that. It will be replaced though and be ultra comfy for us. Everything else works very well. The cooker is easy to use and the fridge does what it is meant to do. The bed is 7 feet square - our main worry when planning this adventure as Steve is 6ft 6inches tall and needs his space. No worries here as the bed is bigger that the one at home. We hope to be able to eat outside as our journey progresses through warmer months and milder climates but if not there is plenty of space inside. The small living accommodation on our trip is more than balanced out by the freedom and economy that it brings with it. We really hope that the social life on caravan sites lives up to our expectations - that has to be better than meeting no one in hotels.

Also at the weekend we did our first farewell visit of the many we need to do. Guess what? I forgot the camera! What am I like?? The whole point of this is to create a memory file and I went and forgot an important part of that. It won't happen again and the pics I have attached to this blog are fairly recent ones anyway. We visited my darling younger brother, Graham and his gorgeous in every way fiancee, Sue. They invited us and some other friends of theirs to dinner on Saturday and we ate and drank and talked until very late. Thankfully we stayed over, talked even more on Sunday morning before driving back to do more preparation for our trip. It was a lovely evening - we toasted our future with champagne which we hope to do at each farewell visit. Graham and Sue want to travel much more in the future and our adventure has given them a lot of food for thought. More power to your elbow bruv - enjoy your lives and love each other to infinity and beyond! And please come out to visit us in Cyprus.

The other pic is of Graham's two children Matt and Holly - the pics were taken at Graham's birthday bash last August. Another lovely memory to take with me.

Onwards and Upwards

Things are progressing nicely - thank goodness.

We have opened our Nationwide accounts so can spend freely on our travels and pay no bank charges. We have had quotes for the removal and are on the brink of confirming one that sounds very reliable and efficient. The cost will be about £2,600 including all port charges and taxes - that is for wrapping and packing everything, storing it for a month in the UK and transporting it from door in the UK to door in Peyia. If the company packs it we are insured for all damage and breakages so it seems the logical thing to do.

I have resigned from work and cannot believe the sense of relief. Steve resigned a few months ago to give his employers time to advertise and recruit a replacement for him - but have they? - what do you think? I am not being replaced as a result of reorganisation and cost cutting. I pity the ones left behind who will have to do the work of many. Our new life beckons with high hopes and excitement and we can leave the stress and pressure behind us.

We have set up our Skype telephone system so that we can speak to our friends and family free of charge through the internet - what a brilliant idea that is. I found out yesterday that some Sky TV programmes can be viewed online as well depending on the package. We just have to nominate a specific computer to view the programmes on. The other programmes and films can be viewed on a pay as you go system too. If we are in a wi fi hotspot on a camp site we can perhaps see a bit of TV - if we are not socialising or sightseeing that is. You never know - there might be the odd moment when we want to sit and chill with some TV.

The best news of all this week though is that we can put the car on a roro ferry from Piraeus to Limassol. I have emailed a very nice lady at Salamis shipping who has given us very good directions to the port, informed us of sailing times and prices and she has been very helpful. It will cost about £300 to send the car over and then we need to fly from Athens to either Paphos or Larnaca and collect the car from the port at Limassol. I am still waiting for the correct information on entering southern Cyprus through Turkey. Some say that it is illegal and we could be prevented from entering or even arrested if our passports have a Turkish stamp in them on arrival in southern Cyprus - that sounds a bit barbaric in this day and age. Our lovely friends in Cyprus are onto the case for us with the Embassy - that way we will get facts not gossip. The Piraeus to Limassol looks more favourable at the moment though - but next week may see us in a different frame of mind.

Planning the route is starting to be a brilliant form of entertainment. The RAC route planner is excellent - even giving a 3D vision of the route on the map with all road numbers and towns on it and very detailed directions from place to place. Steve wants a Satnav too though so I'll look around for the best one. There is also a brilliant caravan site planner that offers camping cheques at £10.30 a night - that is about half the price of some camp site prices. We purchase the cheques in advance (as many as we want) and pay the sites with them as we go. Their website is very user friendly too and there are lots of camp sites so we can move from one to another and base our trip around them. I am using the internet to find places of interest in each country so that we can see as many places as possible so it is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle at the moment fitting the journey around routes, camp sites and places to see. Also Steve doesn't want to drive more than 100 miles a day so that there is more enjoyment and less driving and I fully agree with him there.

Things are looking great at the moment - please let them continue that way........

Not such a smooth ride

The first hurdle has been met and is yet to be overcome.

Today I have spent several hours browsing the internet trying to find a ferry crossing from Piraeus in Greece to Limassol in Cyprus. It appears that most if not all of the ferry companies have ceased business. Probably as a result of the problems in Israel. The ferry went on from Limassol to Israel you see. No point in starting out if we can't finish - it would be awful to be stuck in Greece with no way to get to Cyprus with the car.

Many thoughts and discussions later have raised a few options. 1) Drive to Greece then put the car on a container ship while we fly from Athens to Cyprus and pick it up at the other end. 2) Drive to Turkey via a different ferry and drive down to southern Cyprus from the north or 3) Have our European trip but change it to a circular trip and come back to the UK where we can put the car in the same container as our other possessions and have the lot shipped over together to Cyprus. We can then fly over and meet them when they arrive.

1) would appear to be very expensive and involve masses of paperwork.
2) we will have to find out about the Turkish ferries and if a car is allowed over the border between north and south Cyprus.
3) seems a long winded way of doing it although may end up to be the most economical in the long run.

On a different topic I have started to clear out some of our bits and bobs. I joined the freecycle network in our area and advertised a selection of things that we will not need in our new life but that don't have any particular resale value - hose pipes, UK walking maps and books, plumbing and building bits from the garage etc. They were snapped up thankfully and will go to good homes where they will continue to be used rather than committing them to the dump.

Where are we starting?

My first blog so I hope I get into it quickly and make it interesting.

We have finally made it to 2008 - THE YEAR. The lead up to this point in time has been gradual and well thought out - well, we think so anyway. Steve, with his financial and political head on foresaw the imminent economical crisis and that persuaded us to sell our house in Deepcut just over a year ago. At least we don't have the stress and pressure of trying to sell it now in a market that is rapidly downturning. Since we sold it we have been in rented accommodation that has suited us well. Since Christmas we have talked at length about our "to do" list and priorities in that respect.

This year will be SO much better than last for me. I have been off work since June 2007 with work related stress - the result of the government squeeze on local authorities forcing them to downsize in terms of staffing and concentrate on targets and budgets instead of caring (in my opinion of course). They squeezed the final drop of blood out of me and the result has been a rough ride. That was last year though and the way ahead is a lot more positive and exciting and at least I am at home now and able to do a lot of the organising and preparation work - with Steve speaking in my ear the whole time I am on my own of course.

I have started to obtain quotes from removal companies - we also need them to store our belongings for us until we have completed our European adventure and arrived in Cyprus to receive them at home. Steve and I have always been "on hands" movers before, packing our own boxes etc but this time it has to be different. Our possessions are not insured for breakages or loss unless the company packs and moves themselves so we are literally in their hands. We are waiting for more quotes before we make a decision on who to use.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch we have some difficult decisions to make about what to take and what to leave behind. As we have a fully furnished and equipped home in Peyia in Cyprus there are many things we don't actually need to take but may be hard to part with. Some things I will sell on ebay and some will be given away. That takes some time we have found. Steve even has a bike at his place of work in Wandsworth so that needs to be brought back home and put on ebay for instance.

It is important to us to keep in touch with people during our 3 to 4 month trip through Europe so we have bought a laptop, I have set us up with gmail accounts and of course I have started this blog. What a wonderful way to create an account of our new life and an easy way for everyone to know what we are up to and where we are. I am busy downloading more music to play on the laptop and we will also have a good library of films to watch. There are so many things to learn and one will be to try to find some good TV to watch over the internet. That is assuming we are in a good reception area for the wi fi of course. I have already found out that Macdonalds and Starbucks usually have a wi fi hotspot to use and they are in most towns so that is when we can catch up on things.

Another important thing to do is arrange the finances. Thankfully Nationwide have accounts to use throughout Europe that do not charge for use of cash withdrawals or debit card transactions so we have opened an account with them - that will be great for us.

Our journey through Europe is going to be a real adventure for us and that needs to be planned to avoid as many hold ups and problems as possible. That doesn't mean that we can't change our minds along the way of course. We hope to meet many people on our travels who will no doubt share their experiences with us and may cause us to detour to take in something else. We have the freedom and time to do it. Stress free is our new motto in life. Our route planning is another of my main duties at home and so it will start with the cross channel ferry trip. Then each country needs searching for places to visit, roads to take and camp sites to check in to. The mileage between each place is important as we don't want to travel too far each day - it is intended to be a pleasure trip after all. The bikes are going with us, as are the fishing rods so that gives you an idea of our intentions. We also want to buy local food and drink along the way - gorgeous cheeses, meats, veggies, fruit, bread and wine to enjoy each day - seated outside the caravan in the sunshine hopefully. Sounds like bliss doesn't it?

As you can see there is lots to do and I have only just skimmed the surface in this blog to give an idea. So the journey begins.......