I was going to call this blog post “Oh to be in Summer, now that Europe’s here” but that would have summed the entire thing up in just one sentence, so I’ll try and expand a bit. It would be fair to say that the weather has been fairly evenly divided into two camps over the past 99 days….generally speaking hot and sunny throughout Asia and Africa, and generally speaking cold and wet in the UK and Europe. There have been exceptions of course – we had a good soaking in Hanoi while we were looking for the entrance to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum and we had daily thunderstorms most afternoons for about 15 or 20 minutes, in both Penang and Zanzibar. And it did get cold in Morocco – some days it was still only 35 degrees at 10am!

But sadly there haven’t been too many exceptions to the wet and cold rule so far in Europe… perhaps the nicest days, fortunately, were those spent in the battlefields I wrote about in the last blog post. Just as well – it was depressing enough seeing all the gravestones without being in the drizzle as well.

Anyway, based on what we’ve experienced so far, in our three weeks in the camper-van (which is nice and dry and warm by the way), here is the forecast for this part of the world….

South East England: apart from brief periods of sunshine that will be measurable only in nano-seconds, the weather will remain overcast for 4 days in succession. Cold winds will blow off the English Channel at all times, except when the rain is falling, in which case they’ll blow off the North Seal as well. The heaviness of the rain will be directly proportional to the distance the shower block is from the motorhome. Conditions underfoot in the first campground will be such that any motorhome that attempts to drive on the grass will not be successful and will only get unstuck after covering most of the side panels with thick mud that will then not wash off despite all the succeeding days of rain.
Northern France and Belgium: more settled weather with only occasional showers, mostly at night. Sunny spells will be longer, and whilst it will remain possible to wear jandals and shorts at all times, a polar fleece top will often be required.
The Netherlands: A day of rain, followed by showers, and interrupted only by violent thunderstorms, will be followed by two days of showers. Dry spells will occur only when you are indoors, but will be broken by showers that commence immediately upon stepping outside. On the fourth day, the rain will be at its heaviest outside the Van Gogh Museum and especially on the 300m long queue of people waiting on the footpath to get in. [NB – this will only be alleviated by finding out after 150m or so (60 minutes) that if you go to the Diamond Museum across the road, you can buy VG tickets for the same price, and can then skip the rest of the sodden wait and go directly to the front door!]
Denmark: Quite cool days, with overcast skies and skiffs of rain only for two days, followed by a stunning day in Copenhagen where sitting outside with a cold beer and talking to fellow travellers will be possible, followed in turn by a very wet “full speed wipers” day. Ground conditions on the morning of day two will be so wet that anyone with a camper-van weighing 2.8tonnes WILL get stuck in the mud and, after a fellow camper breaks his brand new tow rope trying to pull such a camper-van out, it will only be extracted by the camp janitor using his tractor. What fun!
Sweden: a mixed bag of sunny spells and overcast conditions, although still a little cool and with showers of rain most days. Evening twilight will last until about 11.30pm and dawn will start around 2.30am. The better weather in the first three days of July will be a positive sign but will be counteracted by the news that June in Sweden was the wettest since 1786! [That is NOT a joke!!]

That is the end of the weather…..now back to the studio.