Liverpool and new campervan.

Liverpool Court house.
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So hungover from our night out in Market drayton, we were on a bus or two on our way to Liverpool.  The trip there was reasonably easy, however, finding a cheap bed on a saturday night was the challenge.  Nothing was available so we stayed in a hotel for 75 pounds, ouch, it did include a buffet breaky tho :).

The next night I managed to get us into a backpackers around the corner.  So we did some sight seeing that day.  Liverpool was lovely, with some old buildings, had more culture than Birmingham.  We stayed there at the backpackers for three nights, it was cheap and we were waiting for our campervan to finish on ebay.

Night out in Market Drayton with new local friends.
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Monday afternoon bidding was over, the sellers price not met so we were able to purchase the van for an agreed price. YAY, we had wheels.  Now we had to wait to withdraw the money, we could only withdrawl small amounts each day.  more sitting and waiting.  Wednesday we had the money, and was on our way back to good ol' Market Drayton.

Check out was at 11am and our bus at 12:30 so we decided to head to the bus station early and grab some breaky.  All normal we get to the cafe at the station to eat some breakfast, when we notice next to us, 2 cops, some bags and foreign looking fella.  Of course nosey old us, started evesdropping and found out that the bags had been left there. BOMB, enters our minds pretty quickly.  So we get up and move, across the road and into a car park.  Say about 10 mins later, everyone from the bus station, staff and all were being brought over to where we already had taken cover.  More police arrive, and were asked if anyone had seen anything etc.  Now we wait for the bomb squad.  30 mins later or so a white van arrive, to our disappointment, no bomb squad was written on the side.  Erin took photos anyway. Soon our bus came, and we were off to Stoke on trent, and with no idea of what happened in the end.  We assume no bomb though.

Same night, showing off our dart talents. John and I were really bad.
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A few hours later and 2 buses we hit the lovely town of Market Drayton, population of about 14,000.  Now it is illegal to drive without insurance, so we had to organise that first.  What a chore, being under 25 and with foreign licences it is not an easy process, finally and alot of money later we had insurance.  YAY finally we could go and get out new home/car.

John, the seller picks us up and takes us to his work, the local army barracks.  Interesting, we were in time for the daily flag lowering ceremony, took forever.  but had an interesting character at the front gate, giving us an insight of british army life.

Liverpool, this church was bombed in WW2.
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So we have our van and at this stage it is about 6pm at night, and we need somewhere to spend the night.  We know there is a caravan park nearby in Wellington, so we head there.  Shit, we need petrol so we stop and john fills up.  We hit 50 litres, and the petrol started gushing out of the bottom, ooops, too much fuel or hole in the tank????  So a local came out and said to push it our of the way to be safe.  no fuel has leaked since so we think we just overfilled.

Liverpool, view from Albert docks.
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Our first night in the van was simply just sleeping, we had no food, no power, nothing.

The next day, Thursday, we headed back to Kidderminster.  Here we stocked up, bought kettle and kitchen stuff, food and the main power hook up. We did similar the next day too, got our gas working so we can cook and have a fridge yay.

Two nights there and we were ready to cross the channel and head to france. 1/3 of the way to Dover, and Erin driving, we find our camper stuck in 4th. BUGGER!!!!!! so stuck on the side of the road and not really knowing what to do.  We have no tools, so we call form an sos phone box.  200 pounds and about an hour later we were being towed to Oxford.  And this is were we are now, camping in an industrial estate until tomorrow, Monday.

Liverpool, John at Albert docks.
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So we have had a busy and eventful week. Will write again soon. Love and miss you all.