So, this is it. The last day. But not without another country to visit. Luxembourg. There’s not much to write really as although it’s a small country, it’s got towns and a capital city. However, the capital, Luxembourg, is always very nice to visit because it’s very efficient and they’ve managed to get a lot in there. The other good thing is that you can see the influences from all the surrounding nations – and again, it seems that everyone can speak at least two languages.

The route back from Luxembourg (after filling up with very cheap diesel compared to the rest of the trip…. except Andorra) took me skirting around the France/Belgium border, so into and out of Belgium – twice. It was the first of these two crossings where something very suprising happened. I got stopped by French Customs. And all the bags searched. It seems that even though there is free movement, the French are now cracking down on vehicles entering the country for their possible contents. Obviously I was carrying nothing dodgy but it was still a bit strange, particularly as they insisted on carrying out most of the discussion in their native language….

Still, all this added to the reminder that I had spent the last two weeks crossing frontiers and exploring new territories.

So I was back where it had all begun – Lille Europe – after 18 days of intense travelling and sightseeing. Returned the second car, had my final drink of the trip (perfect excuse to say one of my final French words – 1664) and off to meet French Customs (again) before boarding the train home.

And so, the official grand total for the journey:

KM Today: 820
Grand Total KM: 9219

What had I learned? Some more words in foreign languages for a start. But more importantly, that this great continent is a fantastic place, with dozens if not hundreds of different ways of life.

Also that many of us Brits, perhaps because we’re on one of the island nations of the EU, are quite insular and introverted compared to others – and we don’t always fully appreciate what’s virtually on our doorstep or realise what a chance it is to be liberated from what we think is quite liberal over here.

Europe is definitely something worth celebrating – and visiting. I would certainly recommend it to you. All of it. So get out there.

But to be honest, it was less about learning and more about living the dream, having the adventure, and as far as I am concerned, over 9000 kilometres of travelling across an amazingly different set of nations definitely amounts to doing just that.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the blog – but it’s not quite the end yet. There will be some stats on the trip posted in a few days.

So, the end of the adventure, but the memory will never disappear – thanks in part to writing about it along the way.