This is the oldest trip for which we have actual daily notes, so I figured I would start here. The notes were written in Dutch by my eldest sister who was nine at the time of the trip, so I haven’t made a literal translation, but rather tried to keep some of the basic facts (where, when, ..) and fun details. The only thing I personally remember is the hologram museum in Cambridge, though honestly it’s really vague. But what do you expect, I was 7 !
I do remember some of the clothes I had: comfortable, homemade shorts and sweaters, with colourful patterns or prints that our mom would add by hand. I also remember her rain jacket: it was white with bright accents and weighed a ton, no such thing as Gore-Tex in that time. My youngest sister was 6 and this was one of the first trips that she did on her own bike: it didn’t have any gears but then again she didn’t have much weight to carry. I carried a few of the sleeping mats, rolled up behind the saddle: people felt sorry for me because it looked big, but in reality they didn’t weight much. The tent on the other hand was a monster built from iron rods and heavy tarp, weighing about 20 kilos! The contrast with the gear available in 2021 is so big, it becomes funny.
Febe writes 