At 7.15am this morning – Sunday 24 February 2013 – we arrived at Auckland International Airport on NZ1 from Los Angeles, after the last leg of a journey which began on Sunday 25 March 2012, 48 weeks previously. Today is Day 337.

We’ve travelled 114,433 kilometres (approximately!) and visited 55 different countries on 5 different continents. We’ve been on 32 flights, 17 ferries or ships, and uncounted numbers of buses, taxis, trains, metros, trams, gondolas. We’ve even ridden bikes……slowly.

Between us, we have taken 14,204 photographs – which is only about 42 per day. But if we have a slide show and only look at each picture for 10 seconds, it will still take 39 hours, 27 minutes and 20 seconds to watch the lot. Anyone keen??

Everyone always wants to know – what was your #1 favourite place? But you need to know, before you ask, that there is no definitive answer to that question for us because we loved every country we visited. They are all different and all have different attributes – mostly good, only a few bad. There are just far too many highlights to single any one place out, but over the coming weeks as a few more blog posts see the light of day, some other great memories will be no doubt be revealed. By the way, thank you all for reading the blog so far – it’s been fun bringing it to you over the past 11 months or so.

And this brief post was about numbers – amongst them there are two that especially stand out….1 and 2. For ONE absolutely fantastic travel experience and TWO very lucky people who enjoyed it thoroughly from start to finish…..

Oh, and about the favourite place? Alright then, if you insist, here it is:

MALAYSIAVIETNAMCAMBODIAINDIANEPALMAURITIUSSOUTHAFRICAZI
MBABWEZAMBIAKENYATANZANIAQATARTUNISIAMOROCCOENGLANDF
RANCEBELGIUMNETHERLANDSGERMANYDENMARKSWEDENNORWAYF
INLANDESTONIALATVIALITHUANIAPOLANDLUXEMBOURGSWITZERLAN
DAUSTRIALIECHTENSTEINITALYSANMARINOMONACOSPAINGIBRALTAR
PORTUGALANDORRACROATIABOSNIAANDHERZOGOVINASLOVENIAWAL
ESRUSSIAIRELANDNORTHERNIRELANDSCOTLANDICELANDUNITEDSTAT
ESOFAMERICAARUBACOLOMBIAPANAMACOSTARICANICARAGUAMEXICO

….’tis the week before Christmas, and that means it is time to send you all our very best wishes for both a blessed Christmas Day with friends and family, and for a wonderful New Year.

Right now, we are in a small village called Cong, on the border of County Galway and County Mayo in the west of Ireland as we continue our travels around the Emerald Isle. By Christmas Day, we will be in Dublin where we were to have met up with Pauline’s cousins but as we’ve been let down in that department we will be organising our own Christmas Day celebrations instead. Exactly what that entails, we’re not sure yet, but there will be a nice Christmas dinner somewhere, a few presents under our little tree, a visit to a church, and maybe a festive Guinness or two (somewhere else, presumably!)

Yes, we do have a tree – many months ago when we visited the Santa Claus Village near the Arctic Circle in Finland, we bought a tree made of felt, about 24cm high, which sits nicely on our camper-van table. Except when we’re driving of course, when it sits on the bed until we get to our destination for the night. And when we were at Glastonbury Abbey last month, we acquired a really nice nativity set which sits alongside the tree, under the “NOEL” hanging on the curtain above. Topping off the festive scene inside the van, we have a set of lights above the cab and surrounding our guardian angel Eva, who was given to us in July by our friend Eva in Finland and who has looked after us ever since…..all very Christmassy and our way of easing the fact we will be enjoying Christmas on our own this year.

But we won’t be entirely alone…..there will be phone calls of course – one of the great discoveries of our European touring has been the Lycamobile SIM card which gives us excellent call rates back to New Zealand. So Telecom might be shouting you all free calls on Christmas Day at home, but we’re not far behind at €0.01 per minute!

After Christmas, we head to Northern Ireland for a few days, then over to Scotland for Hogmanay and then a week or two touring around in the snow and ice of the Highlands. Then, all too soon in some ways and not soon enough in others, we’ll be heading south again to drop off the van and go to the airport to start the homeward journey on 26 January. We’re taking our time though – a few days in Iceland, then stops in New York and Washington, before we take a wee boat ride from Miami to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal. Finally, a flight home on NZ1… arrival date back in Auckland is 24 February and suddenly, the travels will be all over!

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But before then, you have some more blogging to put up with…..in the melting pot at the moment are stories on Ireland and of course a few thoughts on our very intense week in Russia. But that one is a story that's taking a while to develop as one of us still has a bit of a sore head from all the celebrating that went on!

Speaking of celebrating – that's what Christmas is all about, so please all have a great day on Tuesday, celebrate well but wisely, and remember the reason for the season.

God bless you all

Love from The Adventure Before Dementia team……..