Paris.......here we come!!

The time was 2.07pm, the day was Thursday, the date was 10th May and we were on the way. Before us lay about 1300 km and we were excited. Finally we were doing what we had talked about doing for years.....we were going to Paris!

We have always wanted to just pack up the car and drive down through Europe, stopping as we felt like it, wherever we felt like it. 

We decided to live a little of that dream yesterday....be spontaneous, stop when we wanted. We knew where there were a few cheap hotels along the way but we decided not to book any from home. We would stop when we felt like it and overnight in Germany or Holland or Belgium.

So off we set,  we drove and drove. The weather outside was dreadful....rain, rain and more rain....but I was loving every minute of it.

We had a show of lightening a one stage - really spectacular and off course there was more rain!!

We were hoping we would get to Gent in Belgium and over night in a Formula 1 hotel - clean and cheap. We got there about 1am only to discover that the very last room had, literally, just be rented out. We met the people going out of the hotel as we were going in!!! Arrrghhhhhhhhhh

Well,  we took this bit of news as a challenge, I mean it can´t be that hard to find a hotel in Belgium on a Thursday evening out of season?!!! How wrong we were!!!

After trying 3 hotels we were running out of hope! The answer was the same everywhere, "NO ROOM - FULL."  We were starting to feel a little like Mary and Joseph. We made a decision. We would travel on down towards Paris and keep looking for hotels, if we didnt find one by 3am we would drive into a car park and sleep in the car. Not ideal but sure it would be an experience!! 

Finally, at about 2.13am,  not long after crossing the French boarder we found a hotel with a room available!! YEAAAAHHHH!!! We just had to pay double what we would have in the formula 1 hotel!! But it sure is nice!!!!  I could get used to this! And we learnt a lesson - ALWAYS BOOK FORMULA 1 HOTELS FROM HOME!!!! 

"Check out this bathroom Kristian......"

A happy but tired Mother who was very thankful to find a bed for the night.

Now its 9.30am. Krisitan is still sleeping and I am about to go have a bath and get ready for the last part of our journey! About 200km from here lies Paris!! Thank goodness we have already booked a room there!!!