Some Practical Details

In our various communications, we have not referred to a number of matters which were either too obvious to mention or not obvious enough. In no particular order therefore I am going to mention them.
• We don’t say in the blog, who is writing the Post. We just say “I” or “We”, taking it that the reader will know from the style or content who has written it. If this is confusing, let us know.
• You may wonder why nothing appears on the blog for days and then a whole load arrives at once or pictures appear without explanations appearing for some while. This is because internet access is not as easy to find, or fit into our schedule, as we hoped. We tend to have a number of draft Posts stored on our computers and upload them as time or opportunity permit. Sometimes this means that they appear out of order. We could date them but there’re could still be confusion about whether the date is the date of starting the Post, completing it or uploading it.
• Our route and progress. I (John) am writing this sitting outdoors in a small campsite beside a fast-flowing river in the Gauja National Park in Latvia on Wednesday 28th. May, next stops the Baltic coast and maybe an Estonian island before going on to Tallinn, Helsinki and The North! From information gleaned on the way, we have decided that is impractical to visit Russia at the moment. Motorhomers (primarily Dutch, it seems) mainly visit in organised groups because of the risks of robbery, being ripped off by the police etc. Also the Russians are still very difficult when it comes to visas, so when we have ended this trip one of our plans is to arrange a stand-alone holiday to Russia. Consequently we are following a route from Poland via the three Baltic countries to Finland. We still expect to reach the North Cape towards the end of June and be in warmer climes in July. We have been told by people who have been to the North to expect snow, ice and fog and for it to be pretty unpleasant. We shall see.
• Half Term. When we set out, we had a tentative intention to make a break in UK about half way (say in October) to make court appearances for debts unpaid through the collapse of our carefully constructed plans, get our missing teeth replaced, see how our children and grandchildren have grown and aged as applicable etc. Presently we think this break may take place in early summer as we have shaken down the van a bit and there are a few jobs which we could have done on it. It would be convenient to have these done by the suppliers in Belgium and we shall be not too far from there then.
• Communications. These have proved to be, shall we say, problematic. When we upgraded our mobile phones a few days before leaving UK, “3”, unknown to me, lost all my mobile phone contact numbers. So, if you were expecting to hear from me and haven’t, that’s why. If you’d like to keep in touch, please send me your mobile phone number by means of a Comment to this blog. Don’t send it to what I may have told you was to be my new phone number as the phone that “3” gave me, after a few days partial functionality, now doesn’t work at all, which is a multiple nuisance as it is the one with the most monthly credit (and which I am paying for!). I am using Ruth’s “new” phone number and she is using her “old” one which is on a Blackberry so can receive emails quicker than we can see them in internet cafes (see last paragraph).
• Whenever we get to a point easily findable on a map by our correspondents, I send a text message to a select few of them containing fulsome information, e.g. “Warsaw, Poland”. If this kind of life-enhancing detail is likely to be of interest, let me know, and I’ll add you to the list.
• Visits. We’d be delighted if some of our nearest and dearest (or, even better, some of our furthest and cheapest) friendsandrelations would like to rendezvous with us at various points as we travel around. Our longest time in one place looks to be a few weeks in Slovenia in July/August/September which is a thought. Later we are going on to the Balkans and Turkey. How about it?
• Part the purpose of this blog was to have a two-way communication. So please, can we have some more of your Comments!