We'd really like to thank everyone who has dipped in to read it, and especially those who we know have read practically every last word, even if it was just an excuse to skive off work. We estimate we may have caused a small village in Wales to have squandered their entire year's Licence Fees on the time spent by my old colleagues reading our witterings. We also suspect our parents have a better idea of what we get up to now than they ever did when we were living with them, or just around the corner from them ;-)

It has been great to get so many emails and text messages from our friends during our travels - we really appreciated them, especially those from far away, and those from people we never realised would be reading this.

Congratulations to the several of our friends who have given birth whilst we have been away - we hope we'll get to see those babies before they get too grown up. I think of everybody it is the kids who we are missing the most - because you know they change so much, and are so much more likely to forget Auntie Claire and Uncle Martin.

We will both be back in the UK in early August for a visit, and I will also be coming over again at the end of September to visit Edinburgh for some work, so hopefully if you are in the UK we will see you on one of those visits.

And of course, the end of our travels isn't the end of our adventure, so if you'd like to keep up with how we are getting along in Hania in Crete you can visit our new website to find out, as we try to find somewhere we can have "A lemon tree of our own"

Pony Ride in Vienna
We were only a week into our trip, but our stay in Vienna didn't start off the happiest. We didn't like our accommodation, and we were both feeling a bit homesick. Claire's eyes lit up when she saw a pony & trap, so who was I to stand in her way?

Trencin Castle
Despite initially struggling to find our way in to it, our trip to Trencin castle was unforgettable. It was slightly odd getting a guided tour in a party of just two, especially when the guide hardly spoke any English, but she left us to climb the tower on our own. The panoramic views of the frozen landscape all around were breath-taking, as was the cold.

Cocktails by the Danube
We really enjoyed our stay in Budapest, taking in the park of communist era statues, and a really entertaining gig at the pub opposite our apartment. The highlight, though, was watching the sun go down over Budapest citadel, whilst sipping cocktails in a swanky bar on a boat on the Danube, as we watched chunks of ice float by the window (pictured above). It was the first of many "cocktail-o-clock" moments, but wothout a doubt the best.

Buses through Bosnia
We hadn't enjoyed Belgrade very much - grotty hotel and not much we wanted to see - but the bus journey to Sarajevo was memorable. Once the flatlands of Serbia gave way to the mountains of Bosnia-Hercogovina, Claire thought she was in Middle Earth. The next journey, from Sarajevo on to Mostar, was even more incredible.

Lake Bled
We'd travelled to Bled in Slovenia in the hope of getting a boat ride across to the church on the island in the middle of the lake. No such luck in the off season. You could, however, walk across to it - the reason the boats weren't running was that the lake was completely frozen over.

Gondola in Venice
We'd hoped to do this for Claire's birthday - but the weather had other ideas. Instead, the following day, we were punted around the narrow back canals of Venice for half-hour, at times accompanied only by the sound of the water lapping up against the gondola. A magical dream come true for Claire.

Depeche Mode in Milan
The middle section of our journey was based on being in Venice for CLaire's birthday and for Valentine's day, and then skipping over to Milan to catch this Depeche Mode gig. We turned up at the arena without tickets more in hope than expectation.

Roma vs Inter Milan
Going to this match in Rome was a magical dream come true for me. During the trip I went to see Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, and an AC Milan match at the Guiseppe Meazza, but this was the game that made us take an indirect route through Italy in order for me to be there. I've supported Inter Milan since Channel 4 first started showing Italian football on British TV in the early nineties. This was the first time I got to see them in the flesh. It was an amazing atmosphere and a historic occasion, as the Roma fans were there to celebrate their team's achievement of the most consecutive wins in Italian league history. A really special night for me, made even better when Inter scored an equaliser with two minutes to go and prevented Roma extending the record!

Baptistery in Florence
Florence has many fine sights, including the exterior of the cathedral, and fantastic artworks like Michelangelo's David in the city's amazing array of galleries. However, the most surprisingly wow attraction for us turned out to be the mosaic interior of the baptistery that stands opposite the Duomo. It was so unexpectedly beautiful, and so well executed, that you could easily follow all the cycles of Biblical stories depicted on the ceiling and around the walls.

Sunset at Stella Vineyard
We knew that our place in Kefalonia was going to be isolated from the photos on the website, but we didn't realise how isolated until we got there. We also didn't realise we would be on the corner of a south facing building, with the amazing sights of dawn overthemountains to our left, and sunset over the hils to our right. The first night we were there the sunset was sensational - we felt we'd never stayed anywhere so magical, and there are a gazillion photographs on Flickr to show for it.

I still think though that the biggest 'wow' moment for me was seeing Claire's face light up ten months ago in our old kitchen in Walthamstow, when I said to her: "If I told you I was thinking of saying to you that I was thinking of suggesting that we go travelling and then move to another country, what do you think you would say?"

My shoelaces
Some days it didn't happen, and some days it seemed to happen every five minutes, but we always knew, wherever we where, that we weren't far from my shoelaces coming undone. We still don't know why I am so rubbish at doing them up, even though Claire has examined my technique. One of our friends has suggested I go down the velcro route in future.

Zagreb Train
Given my intricate nerdish knowledge of trains, you'd think I'd be able to spot one. Not so in Zagreb, where we both stood on the platform and happily let our train depart in front of us, safe in the knowledge that this was the train to Belgrade, not the one to Ljubljana that we wanted. Except it was actually the train from Belgrade to Ljubljana, and we had a long wait at the station ahead of us for the next one.

Mexican Meal in Venice
We made a really bad choice of reestaurant for our last night in Venice, having just enjoyed a fantastic ghost walk around the city. We'd been to a Mexican bar/restaurant the night before for cocktails, so went back to eat. The service was slow and poor, and then when the food arrived we couldn't believe the size of the portions - they were miniscule. Add to that it took us nearly half-an-hour to get and pay the bill, and you had a couple of very unhappy and hungry bunnies indeed.

Walking out of a restaurant in Ravenna
Despite on several occasions telling me to go and check the menu before we went into an expensive restaurant in Ravenna, I insisted it would be fine. So we took our seats, I opened the menu, and finally I understood what Claire had been talking about.

Supermarket Security Gauard
A supermarket security guy took exception to me wandering around his store in Florence with my bag on my shoulders. I took exception to the fact that I thought I was about to become the victim of a tourist bag snatch scam. The Mexican stand-off that followed gave us a new catchphrase for the holiday. "I look-er", points at eyes, "in your sack-er", points at bag. "Nah mate, sorry, don't speak Italian".

Photogenic Pigeon
Where was the "You've Been Framed" team when we needed them? We were mere onookers as a couple of Japanese tourists set their camera up on the floor in order to take their picture on a timer. As the moment came for the picture to take, a pigeon wlaked straight in front of the camera and started preening itself.

Navigating in Kefalonia
Claire's unique ability to hear and verbally confirm one direction, then turn the car in completely the opposite direction, led to several bursts of giggles as we attempted to navigate our way around the Greek island in our hired car.

La Guistiniana
This was without doubt, in retrospect, the funniest comedy of errors of the whole holiday - but at the time it was frustrating, more than a little scary, and very expensive. We used public transport to get from central Rome to a suburban station where we could pick up a shuttle bus to check-in at our hotel. No shuttle bus arrived. Then the hotel sent a taxi to pick us up. And only after waiting for that for a while did we discover that Rome had two train stations called La Guistiniana, and that we were, naturally, at the wrong one. And that was only the beginning of our troubles...

And finally, I'm not sure if it is OK to mention these in the context of 'comedy', but, thanks to this journal, we'll never forget our joke writing competition and our silliest conversations.

Toilets that don't lock
We couldn't believe the number of places in Eastern Europe where the toilets simply didn't lock in public bars and restaurants. In some countries that could cause a great deal of anxiety, as a lot of bars only had one unisex cubicle. Still, we managed to complete the trip only doing the bursting in upon people, rather than being interrupted ourselves. Mind you, I got even more annoyed with bedroom doors that didn't lock in Ljubljana.

Spitting
For some reason throughout Eastern Europe the men have a habit of really hacking up and then spitting on the street. It drove Claire up the wall. She wanted to run around telling everyone our nephew Matthew's mantra from nursery "No biting, no pushing, No spitting".

The fight in our Milan hotel
Our last night in Milan was punctuated with the sound of someone getting a good duffing up in a room across the way. The hotel staff weren't exactly helpful when we reported it - just shouting to the clearly not caring occupants that "people have complained". A very odd and uncomfortable night.

3G Video Phones
3G Video phones are really taking off in Italy. Which meant lots of people sitting around bellowing into a phone held a few centimetres away from their face, with the loudspeaker on so that they, and everyone else lucky to be near them, can hear. Especially this arse on our journey from Ravenna to Follonica.

"Hung Up" by Madonna being ubiquitous
When we left the UK we didn't have any issue with this song. However it has followed us around Europe like a stray dog. I honestly don't think there was a single day when we didn't either hear it or see the video.

Chiesa di Santa Maria della Concezione in Rome
If you've been following this travelogue closely you'll know we are no strangers to looking out for weird things - the blood of a saint here, a cocktail bar full of skeletons there, and even the odd mummified hand. However, the display of corpses standing up dressed as monks clasping crosses in their bony hands, complete with strips of still-clinging flesh was a little too much even for us.

Italy's anti-terrorism legislation
In order to prevent terrorism, you can't use an internet cafe in Italy without producing your ID documents, having them photocopied for the records, and the details additionally stored electronically. So, in order to protect me, a whole string of businesses whose credentials I have no idea of have the ability to forge my passport, or to have my personal details hacked out of their systems. Thanks, Italy, I really feel safer now.

Angelo
He meant well, but the fifty-something truck driver who attached himself to us like a limpet during our overnight ferry voyage from Italy to Greece turned out to be a right royal pain. The fact that he only spoke Italian and German, and we spoke neither, didn't deter him from joining us at every opportunity he got. Thankfully, we had booked a cabin so were able to escape him, even if we couldn't escape being surrounded by an army of Canadian teenage morons.

Do Step Inn, Vienna
On the whole our accommodation was fine most of the time, but when we got some stinkers we really suffered. The hostel in Mostar was notable for giving us probably our most sleepless night of the trip, with the world's noisiest air con unit and cistern working in harmony to keep us awake. Hotel Royal in Belgrade was notable for the lack of enough bedding to cover two people - and the "bedding" that was there was so riddled with cigarette burns that Claire was driven to get her sleeping bag out.

Head and shoulders though above everything else as the worst accommodation was Do Step Inn in Vienna (us 'enjoying' it pictured above). Apart from the fact that I should never have booked anything with such a ghastly pun in the name, it had a well-meaning but slightly strange owner who asked us if we were going to any "kinky bars", little hot water, no window in our room and no wardrobe or cupboard space for our stuff. It was like living in a cupboard. A kitchen cupboard to be precise, since the 'kitchen' (actually a unit in the hall) was about 20cm from my head when I lay down in bed. And despite being on the other side of the wall managed to sound closer.

The last word on things we could have done without though has to go to...

Herbert
Looking back, it is obvious that we should have sought medical attention as soon as Claire was bitten on the forehead in the night, and the bite began to swell. However, uncertain what to do, or where to go, in a foreign country, we put our faith in antihistamines, and hoped the swelling would go down. The bite got infected, and soon Claire had a sore on her forehead the size of a small coin, and the swelling was so bad that she couldn't open her eyes properly. After a failed attempt to get medical attention in Slovenia, we finally went to casualty in Venice.

Instead though, over a couple of drinks, we have discussed and summed up some highs and lows into a few categories. If you haven't been able to read the whole of this travelogue - which wouldn't surprise me as I do appear to have typed enough to have written a small novel - these are probably a handy way to get a flavour of the trip. We started off by thinking about the best and worst buys and borrows out of the things and equipment we have been carrying around with us over the last couple of months

Best Buys:

Water Bottle In design it is an unassuming plastic bag with a nozzle at the top, but our water bag has been the single most useful item we took with us, and has saved us a fortune in bottled water and cool drinks. Filled up it expands to take nearly two litres of water, but empty it rolls up to take up hardly any space at all in a backpack. Genius.

Swiss Army Knife Well, in the end I never got to take the stones out of a horse's shoe, but otherwise the Swiss Army Knife came up trumps for making packed lunches, can-opening, tooth-picking, tweezing, scissoring, and most importantly, opening wine and beer. I'd never leave home without it now. Unless I was going to a football match. Or a gig. Or on an aeroplane. But you get the idea.

Worst Buys

TV Adapter I've already moaned about this in my gadgets update, but the little widget I bought to pick up TV on the laptop has not been used once since we left the UK. The software that goes with it has been used a lot, however, since handily it is programmed to start-up on my computer every time I press the Alt Gr key, and I can't work out how to stop it.

Martin's Sleeping Bag I'm sure I'll get some use out of it one day, and I did use it once in Walthamstow on the night before we left the country after we had packed all of our bedding. However, since we left the UK, my sleeping bag has not once been out of the packet. Claire has used hers, in Belgrade when she was cold, in Kefalonia when she was a bit chilly, and in Ljubljana when she thought the bedding was trying to eat and poison her. Mine however, has stayed uselessly packed, a dead weight at the bottom of my backpack.

Worst Borrow

Lonely Planet Guide to Italy - 2000 Edition No offence meant to J. & V. who loaned it to us, but we borrowed their Lonely Planet Guide to Italy to take with us. Within a couple of days of arriving in Venice we realised that the difference between the 2000 edition we were carrying, and the reality on the ground post-Euro, was such that we needed to buy a new edition. So, we've been carrying the 2000 version around like a door-stop ever since, waiting for the opportunity to give it back to them. Mind you, seeing how many other books we ended up carrying, one more hardly made a difference.

We stopped to get a wake-me-up coffee, where Claire encountered some of the grumpiest service we have encountered on the whole of our travels, and then before we could finish it the announcement came that we were docking.

We scrambled back to our cabin, did the last of our packing, and then headed off to disembark. There was an absolute scrum to get of the ship, and it didn't help that it was mixed with a queue to get some complimentary freshly squeezed orange juice. Claire ploughed on, but I got side-tracked into the queue for the orange juice.

Thirst quenched we finally got off the ship, and finally took our first steps on Cretan soil, after months of planning, and a journey that had visited 16 countries along the way^*.

We started to look for the bus into town. We found it easily enough, and this meant Claire won a bet, after several days of me taunting her "I don't know why on earth you think there will actually be a bus at the port at 5:30am in the morning". I had underestimated the extent to which the Cretan economy revolves around timeing of the the arrival of the ferry from the mainland - the port was heaving with people.

It was €1.10 each to get the bus and we had to buy the tickets from a little kiosk at the side of the road. We stuffed all our gear on the back seats and sat there wide-eyed but sleepy as we began our journey into the main city of Crete's western half - Hania - where we would be trying to make our new home.

^*Spain, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia & Hercegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Vatican City State, Greece.

You can find out how our setting out from Sami was accompanied by some strange animals and even stranger tennagers, we find some very helpful railway staff as we try to travel from Patras to Piraeus, and had a slightly weird journey into Korinthos to change trains. Marvel as we think we dodge the fares on the Athens metro, have trouble deciding on our sleeping arrangements as we buy tickets for the ferry, enjoy a very cold beer and board our massive ferry. Then you can be just as bemused as we were at the chaos of our departue.

And on the quirky side of things, the day starts when finally I found a bed-side lamp that worked, but finished when I found another bit of antique hi-fi kit that didn't

In the meantime, if you want to know what we are up to right now, you can have a preview of our new apartment in Hania over on Flickr. We move in on Monday.

We seemed to be ready, and then a couple on a motorbike screached to a halt at the edge of the ramp. She got off, and there followed the most lingering romantic goodbye scene you've never seen in a movie. A group of kids on the boat were cheering and clapping every time this couple kissed. They stood there, holding hands, until the very last second, as the ramp began to rise and we pulled out from the dock.

We were on our way.

No, hang on, what's this?

A flotilla of cars and a lorry came skidding to a halt right at the edge of the quay. At first I thought it was a police car chase, as one of the cars had flashing lights, but it turned out it was just being driven by a poseur with disco lights on the bonnet of his car. A fat guy emerged from one of the cars and started shouting and hollering and gesticulating wildly at the ferry, which shuddered to a halt, and began to reverse. Car after car then pitched up, with people tumbling out running towards the ship. We reached the dock again and the ramp went down as people jumped on. Then a couple of the cars drove on. Then the fat guy threw some bags into a lorry, which was a different vehicle from the one he arrived in, and it started to drive on. That seemed to be too much for the port officials, who then stopped the lorry driving onto the ferry with a mixture of whistling and standing in front of it until it reversed off the ramp. The fat guy was going mental, then ran to the lorry, opened the door, and pulled the driver out of the cab. The driver then ran clutching his bags to the ferry, and had to leap on over the gap between the quayside and the retreating ramp, whilst the fat man stayed on the shore cursing. Well, we never guessed our departure would be that exciting!

After that our self-service dinner seemed relatively dull, although reassuringly it was very nice, and nothing like the meal we had endured the previous evening in Sámi. It was hard to believe that we had woken up on Kefalonia - it had been such a long day with so much travelling - we'd covered roughly 450km, with a similar distance still to go in order to reach Crete. We had another drink in the bar, but then with the prospect of another very early start the next day, we retreated to our bunk beds for the night.

It was much more spacious than the one we had between Brindisi and Patras, and to our surprise we also had an en suite bathroom with shower unit. Luxury! We didn't want to hang around though with so much of the ship to explore, and as soon as we dumped our stuff we were out and about.

We found a really nice relaxed looking lounge, and a very posh restaurant. We nearly stopped for a drink, but then remembered that we still wanted to see if we could spot this replica sailing vessel, so headed for the top decks. On our way we walked through a pretty grotty looking bar, and found the self-service restaurant. It seemed to be serving the same dishes as the high class establishment further along the ship, but with slightly reduced prices and tables set out like a school dinner hall.

Out on deck we found the ship's swimming pool, sadly empty, surround by some hippies playing guitar and clapping along. I took some photographs of the sunset over Piraeus, and then without spotting this mysterious sailing vessel we headed back towards the nice lounge we'd seen.

We were just about to walk in when a crew member stepped out and barred our way - "Alpha class only". "But we were just in there..." said an indignant Claire. "Alpha class only" he repeated. An outraged Claire got out our tickets and started waving them at him. We'd got there directly from our cabin so we must be entitled to be in there. He looked at our tickets and shook his head, pointing back in the direction of the grotty bar behind us.

We slowly trudged our way there, and bought beer and a coffee from the grumpiest staff ever. I drew the short straw of ordering. Spotting a beer tap for Stella I said "Can I have a Stella please?". "No. We don't do it". Uh-uh. "Erm, a beer?". "Yes. Which?". I scanned the bar looking for any clue as to which beers were available - come on, give me a clue here. He let out a long exasperated sigh and said "Heineken. Amstel". "Heineken please. And a coffee - a Nescafe, sugar no milk". I got a withering look and then he barked at his assistant to start making the coffee. Cheers.