But then I thought I'd just started pointing at Mexicans!

After all that invading Luxembourg we'd worked up quite an appetite, so once again we rose to the challenge of ordering a Chinese.
Luckily this time we managed to find one that was actually open and enjoyed a Thai green curry and lemon chicken, After the meal the nice Chinese people gave us some free shot of an undisclosed spirit [later decided to be silver Tequila] in some wonderful shot glasses with a naked lady at the bottom of George's and a naked man at the bottom of Abi's.

After the success of the meal we decided to risk a drink in one of the slightly dodgier looking bars on the same street as the hotel. We picked our bar [Euro/Latino apparently] and tried to order a beer and a Malibu and coke. Apparently this isn't a normal drink, so the woman behind the bar offered Angus pineapple juice. After some confused French [clearly not either of our first languages!], we presumed there was no coke and settled for the juice, only to see a huge bottle of coke brought out from behind the bar later on in the evening. We sat with our drinks and tried to ignore the smell of poo, the very shout-y Spanish argument going on behind us and the one Euro of stolen change!
It was clearly time to leave!

The next morning we left for Oostende, round two!
We had clearly missed the true spirit of the town on the brief drive through after the ferry on the first day; it's the Blackpool of Belgium and really fun!
We found our hotel and drove to the beach near De Haan, a town about 15 minutes away that we'd been recommended. We enjoyed the beach for the obligatory hour or so then headed back to Oostende for chips and ice cream on the sea front.
Fancying some of the cherry beer we'd enjoyed on our first stay in Belgium we found a fun looking Irish pub only to discover a hidden gaggle of elderly English ex-pats!

On sunday we drove to Brugge for a wander around the old town, only to be lured off route by signs for the mysterious 'Cactus Festival'. A place to find companionship for the little cacti?! We must go! Sadly, as we got nearer it became apparent that it was a music festival, not the plant 'fest we'd imagined... Not letting this deter us in our mission to experience fun local events, we drove on!
We found free parking, walked for what seemed like miles and got more and more excited, only to discover we'd have to pay €43 each to get in and watch Joss Stone, Paul Weller and The Magic Numbers.
We went for cheaper option of tea and cake in Brugge.
We had been wandering around the beautiful but slightly boring Brugge for a few hours when we passed a Mexican. It was Carlos!
So obviously we had to sit and share travelling tales from the past week while sampling some lovely fruit beers.

Monday was another day of travelling doom, catching the 8am ferry and arriving in Banbury at 3pm.





The beach at De Haan


Ice cream at Oostende


Sea front :]


The very dodgy lift at our Oostende hotel!


A bit of Brugge


Re-united with Carlos!



Overall we have:
Driven 2250 miles
Visited 5 countries
Stayed in 9 various hotels and hostels
Taken 4 ferries
Drank around 1 type of local beer for every different fruit tea
Used 5 tanks of diesel
Sent countless postcards
Taken around 200 photos

A shirtle?!

So, Luxembourg. Famous for... being small? [Much like Angus.] It turns out Luxembourg has slightly more to be proud of; it was the founding member of the UN and the EU, produces lots of steel and only has fun in a very serious way.
Luxembourg wasn't a place we expected to run into any language problems as it is officially trilingual, speaking German, French and Luxembourgish. We guessed that if people didn't speak much English it was no big deal as between the two of us we have a basic grasp of two out of the three. It turns out the most commonly spoke is Luxemburgish which unfortunately wasn't high on the list of things to learn.
So far basic French and English is just about working, if you ignore George's raw meat sandwich and our banana, cherry and lemon smoothies. Yummmy... After a quick exit from that cafe we hurried off to find cake and tea. Luckily we successfully found both under one rather nice roof!

We spent the afternoon in much the way we've spent every day; wandering around, being witty and taking photos, only this time we decided the country was small enough to invade too. Further updates on how the invasion is going after our curry!

So far Luxembourg seems nice, very pretty!
The photos can do the talking!



Traditional Luxembourg/Italian meal...


Luxembourg is so small there's sign posts to German towns in the middle of the city!
Like they've accepted the fact people are probably only driving through!







The city is on two levels!



We found a nice park :]








Some successful invading!


"So what can we add to our window display to make our shop stand out?"
"Hmmm, well what's the logical accompaniment to suits?"
"I have a pet turtle? He likes suits..."
"Perfect! We shall make him a small pool by the shirts in the window."
"Now everyone will buy our suits!"


Something went wrong with google translator somewhere...

If it's salmon, give the signal.

On arrival at the Harz mountians we checked into the most deserted hostel in Germany. The hostel owner seemed rather excited when we asked him the best way to the mountains and started talking about hiking, so we failed to mention we'd be doing some slightly more efficient 'hiking' and bear spotting in the car.
But first, dinner! Beginning to slightly miss British food we though it would be fun to attempt to order a Chinese takeaway and after some swift googling we found one down the road.
A quick drive through the lovely picturesque town, with token castle in the mountains and winding roads, we found our Chinese! Only to discover it was closed :(
after another quick drive we found schnitzel sandwiches from the garage. Not quite the same, but food none the less.
So then to the mountains! We drove around for about 2 hours, through thunder and lightning, down some tiny roads, listening to a German radio station playing Michael Jackson tributes, with a short schnitzel stop in a parking spot. What could be make this any better?! A bear, that's what. Sadly the bear we saw and swiftly pulled over to watch turned out to be a boar. Not quite the same, but still exciting!

On arrival in a small town called Golsar we discovered the fair was in town! An opportunity not to be missed. Being a German fair it was well organised with more bars than actual rides and even a roller coaster and log flume. Not sure how much we trusted a roller coaster that spends half its live on the back of a lorry we gave the rides a miss. After all that it was time to head home.

Day two in the mountains we went for another nice long drive through the forest, aiming eventually for the town of Hameln in orded to drive down the 'Fairy Tale Road'. The fairy tale road is where the brothers grim wrote many of the classic fairy tales and sounded like lovely drive. Hameln, famous for the pied piper, in particular was described as a "quaint, ornate town on the Wesser river". Sadly the book failed to mention Hameln's similarity to Banbury, and the fact it was in fact just another medium sized town with a faint historical background. The "line of white rats drawn on the pavement" appeared to have been made out of white chewing gum about ten years ago. A quick fruit tea, and we'd had enough!

After a drive down the beautiful 'Fairy Tale Road' we headed for Frankfurt.
About 5 hours later we found a road called the same as the road which out hotel was on, only apparently not the right road. Sadly we'd failed to write down the name of the hotel too, so we went into several hotels to ask if they had any reservations under the name 'Randerson' or even Angus?!
We eventually found the right Niddastrasse across a main road and through an alley way and checked in!

Sleep, check out and off to Luxembourg!
We decided to add a 5th country to the adventure and made a slight detour into France on the way and after an afternoon of driving made it to our Luxembourg hotel.

We're planning on spending a slightly more relaxed 2 nights here and inventing a stereotype of Luxembourgians!





Sad Chinese face














Mountain fun!


Huge rain



Schnitzel sandwich :]


Boar, not bear.





German Fair! So much sugar.


A painting on a baker's wall in Goslar...



France! We even saw a pretty French castle :]