The journey so far....

I've only just worked out how to add a post to this blog! My suspicions are that someone wanted to keep it to themselves ;)

So, day four of our 'Mini' adventure.

Boarded the boat to the Hook of Holland, and what a nice surprise - instead of our room being a tiny sweaty hole with cramped bunks and the mild whiff of fuel, it was a lovely hotel-style bedroom with double bed, flat screen TV and jumbo shower! The best feature of the room though was the floor to ceiling port hole - very London 'penthouse'.

Waking up in Holland was a cool feeling but the weather was terrible. The Malteaser threw me in at the deep end by asking me to drive the first leg to Amsterdam! I kept calm (being sure not to show any weakness ;) and once I got going the nausea gradually subsided.

The drive to Amsterdam was hard because the light was so bad - it was like 3pm in the afternoon at 10am in the morning - so had to squint pretty much the whole way with my nose pressed against the windscreen...always a good look!

The Malteaser took the wheel on entering Amsterdam and so I got an excellent 'Queen's-eye' tour of the city as we drove around looking for somewhere to stay with parking. That was the first error - this isn't a city for cars basically.

Finally found a hotel where they take your car and park it outside the city for you - later while sitting in a coffee shop we suddenly realised that we had handed our car over to a complete stranger. Paranoia set in - would we ever see the little Mini again? I just had visions of being the main feature on Panorama or one of those documentaries that interview foolish English people who have been incredibly naive and stupid things while abroad.

After talking ourselves out of our worries about the car we decided to get some fresh air and walk around a bit - good practice in case the car was gone for good! So we decided to take in the seedier side. Wow! I thought I knew a few things but no, I knew nothing. Put it this way, I did a year's worth of staring - more like gawping actually.

Had a delicious Indonesian meal at Sarang Mas, yummm!

One thing I have taken away from that trip is that a red light can make you look very good indeed. All of the girls looked amazing!

I wouldn't say no to living in Amsterdam for a year or two - such a buzzing place.

Onto Aachen. Our hotel was a cross between Fawlty Towers and The Shining. Although I think a psychotic Jack Nicholson would be less scary than the man on reception.

Had a nice meal with the Malteaser's friend, a fellow Malteaser. (I have been told not to put names on this blog because it's public - bit paranoid perhaps?)

Woke up and ran from hotel.

Had a really stunning drive to Luxembourg. The Autumn colours through belgium and through the country roads of Luxembourg were just so vibrant and beautiful. We took some photos while driving along - hoping they won't be a blur.

Quite proud of my driving so far. Bit scary in the town but they key is to drive in a straight line. The Mini has done us proud.

Off out for drinks and food now with more lovely Malteasers!