We woke up and drove home, cheering when we saw cooling towers, cheering when we saw the smog hanging over The ‘Boro, and cheering when we saw the pub, whey! It was a strange feeling being back in Middlesbrough, but it only took a few hours before it felt like nothing had ever changed. Later in the day we met some friends at the pub. Much jollity commenced.

So 6,900 miles, 87 days, and 15 countries later, we’re finally home. I would also like to announce the winners of the DAMTAs (That’s Dave And Martyn’s Travel Awards) 2007.

The nominees for the Best Cook award are:

Kiros’ Mum won this award for not only the brilliant lasagne and fajita meals, but the accompanying service which even included pairing our socks after we used her washing machine!

• Kiros’ mum
• Keith, my Nana’s husband
• Courtney the Australian
• The Korean lads
• Jessie + Lindsay

The nominees for the Best Individual Attraction:

This goes to Oktoberfest, one of the most incredible experiences ever, and for all the new friends we made there.

• Lowlands music festival
• Oktoberfest beer festival
• PortAventura theme park
• Central Europes Biggest Nightclub

Bled Lake

The Best Nationality award went to the Koreans for the unforgettable night outside the petrol station forecourt, in fact, we’ve already taught friends how to play the 3-6-9 drinking game. I elected Currywurst the best takeaway food, where Martyn chose Kaassouffle, so well done to the Germans and the Dutch respectively on that one.

The Most Impressive Building:

The amazing cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, took this one, scoring bonus points since it’s got another 30 years construction before it’s even in it’s full form.

• Koln Dom (Cologne)
• Coliseum (Rome)
• La Sagrada Familia (Barcelona)
• Nou Camp (Barcelona)

The nominees for the Most Beautiful Scenery:

It was difficult to call, as you will see from the photos, but this one went to Bled Lake in Slovenia.

• Swiss Alps
• Austrian Alps
• North Italian Coast
• Bled Lake

Italian Coast

Our Favourite Camp Site Animal was the fox in Berlin, fending off the Spanish ham cat, the Italian shower cat, the Dutch duck, and the Polish washing up kittens. Honorary mentions go out to One Dance Move Guy, Magical Trevor, the Tutankhamun living statue, and Crazy “The airbed lump” Jan.

That’s it! More photos to come soon.

We’ve had the time of our lives.

First glimpse of England

The ferry people had to put a call out to us to get us off the ferry, we were waiting to leave with the foot passengers, and this didn’t click until every other car had left. The workers on the car deck did not look impressed when we turned up.

After only a very brief stint of trying to drive on the right hand side of the road, we got on the way to the Travelodge we had booked in Buckingham. The shower was high pressure, hot, and unmetered! Something we hadn’t witnessed for quite some time. We didn’t even have to stand on our shoes so we could get dressed without getting wet socks. There’s not much else to report from the Travelodge, the most interesting thing I can think of is when we went to Tesco to buy some toothpaste as I’d lost the old one.

Oh, and I want to point out that the journey from the ferry to the hotel was entirely flawless! We finally got our clean sheet and had a full journey with no missed turns or wrong exits, and it only took us 6,700 miles to get it right!

Opening a tin with a knife

We had breakfast with the Kiwi dude and the Basque girl we met the evening before, then headed to the ferry port, departing at 1:15pm. Martyn was feeling pretty sick on the ferry and as such didn’t want to crack open the duty free booze as early as I did, but we got there in the end. The entertainment for the 29 hour sailing was minimal. Typically, I’d left anything that I could amuse myself with in the car, and Martyn brought his handheld games console, CD player, book, and juggling balls. The entertainment provided by P&O themselves was, for lack of a better phrase, utter toss. Think karaoke at a cheap holiday park, add in some inflated beer prices (£3 a pint - that’s like €5!) and you’ve got the picture. We ended up drinking cans of Kronenbourg in a stairwell, ironically bitching about how little class English people have compared to the culture of continental Europe.

We also had some cake out of a tin. We were quite proud considering we didn’t have a tin opener, and managed to get in using only a blunt knife and a spoon.