Well I finally arrived here safe & sound with no major incidents or minor incidents come to think of it, but I thought I’d share the experience with you 
I bought a T Reg Sprinter LWB and spent 2 days loading it up, deciding what was essential and what could be left for the next trip, in went the fitted kitchen including the kitchen sink, cases full of clothes, 2 single beds, satellite dish, electric cables for the rewire job, Generator, Laptop, TV, boxes of plates & cuttlery, boxes of stuff that never gets used at home oh, and the wife even packed a flaming Argos Catalogue Lol, not forgetting the 3 boxes of Walker Crisps.
The daughter arrived with her Sat Nav to save me looking at maps so I entered Svishtov into it and low and behold it pops up on the screen, after a few tweaks to avoid Serbia it gives a good route from Amsterdam through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and into Bulgaria at Ruse.
Both me and the brother in law were booked on the Ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam on Wednesday at 5pm but had to book in before 4 pm
Off we go and duly take a trip through the Tyne Tunnel down to the Quays to DFDS and book in, we are told to wait in lane 4 so off we go and were 1st in the queue. After about 10 mins the local bobby comes walking down the line of cars behind us, walks around the front of the van and back up the other side, stopping at the back then turning round and coming back asking where we were going, why, and then asks for our passports. Off he goes to do some checks, and returns about 10 minutes later asking to see the registration docs 
After he saw everything was in order he commented about the Middlesborough FC Sticker on the back doors, I had to point out I’d just bought the van and it was already on, and if he looked carefully he could see where I’d tried to peal it off Lol.
Anyway we board the ferry at 4.40pm and make our way to the cabin then for our meal, no wonder there wasn’t a lot of passengers when you see the prices they charge.
At 9.30am Thursday we arrive in Amsterdam and duly depart on our journey, the sat nav says 1658 miles to go, I exit the docks and fill up with diesel and reset the trip counter to zero and off we go, we head through Germany eventually passing Frankfurt Airport and decide to take a break. After restarting we head for Austria and before reaching the border call in at a garage to buy a vinette for Austria, another break and off we go heading into the night.
The journey so far has been uneventful so we continue through Austria planning to stop in Hungary, so around 10 miles before the Hungary border we pull in to a service area to purchase the Hungarian Vinette, but the dark green car in front swerves across to get in front of us on the service area slip road, strangely a red indicator appears out of the RH Side window, and the car slows down stopping in the darkest part of the car park, so I take the chance and pass it driving right up to the garage stopping in the parking bays immediately outside. Then the car pulls up alongside, 
Out get 2 plain clothes police officers bemused that I drove past them, they look at the windscreen and see the Austrian vinette on display so walk around to me and ask why I didn’t stop, I said Well who are you? then the police badge comes out I just replied, well why stop in the darkest part of the service area in an unmarked car and expect people to know who you are? so then its the lecture about stopping for the police when the red baton is shown, he then asks for passports and vehicle documents, and gets back in the car with his mate to check things out on his laptop.
Once their satisfied with the paperwork they ask to look in the back so I open the doors, there he sees the generator and asks to see the receipt I aint got one its in the UK I reply, so then its a lecture about carrying invoices for equipment, and the ussual, how do I know its not stolen from somewhere in Austria? My reply was rather quick, I simply pointed to the 2 x 3pin outlets and said, do you use 3 pin plugs in Austria? All the time we were being watched by the customers in the Service Area drinking coffee which I think made the 2 coppers think twice about trying to fine us, why else would they want us to stop away from the building?
After we bought the vinette for Hungary we had a coffee and off we went crossing the border at around 3am and parked up at 5am for a couple of hours kip.
We started again around 8am and headed for Romania crossing the border at 12.30 we bought the vinette at the border and refuelled, with only 750 miles remaining according to the sat nav.
What had been a pretty good journey turned into a toil, the roads in Romania are terrible, the average speed was 30mph because of all the bloody potholes, I dont mean small holes I mean wheel wrenching holes that could be used for cess pits It got that bad we decided it was in our best interests to book into a Motel once it started to get Dark as it would be the cheaper option than replacing tyres or worse still wheel rims.
Just before we reached a Motel there was a warning sound but no warning light? it sounded 3 times consecutively and sounded just like the fasten your seatbelts on a plane. We parked up at 6.30pm and decided to cross over the road to a nice cafe and enjoy the cuisine whilst watching John Rambo on the large screen TV
To be on the safe side I decided to check the oil and water before we left the motel at 9 am on Saturday, all appeared to be well so I was at a total loss as to what the warning was?
As we pass over the top of the Mountains the traffic is down to 5 mph I kid you not, the holes in the road were that bad, there was even a camera crew filming the state of the road for the news, we must of passed at least 6 or 7 cars with punctures and one truck with his back NS wheel on the trailer coming adrift complete with half shaft.
We hadn’t got more than 3 miles away from the motel and the warning sounded again, in fact it sounded a number of times and always just as I seemed to take my foot off the gas, it started to bug me so at 1pm we stopped at a cafe and let the engine cool down and checked the oil and water, still they were at the correct levels.
I decided to push on and kept trying to fathom out why I was getting a warning noise but no warning light on the dash?
At 5.45 on Saturday we finally crossed the Border into Bulgaria across the Ruse Bridge costing 6 Euros, I paid the 67 Lev (£33.50) for a years Road Tax as its cheaper than buying the monthly vinette and I’ll be coming back later this year with the rest of the furniture.
We headed for Veliko Tarnovo and still that ruddy warning was sounding every so often, after 45 minutes we turned off the Ruse to Veliko road and headed for Svishtov and just by sheer luck as I entered Svishtov I glanced at the sat nav to see what time it was and that bloody warning sounded alerting me I was doing 40 MPH in a 30 MPH zone. Everytime I had exceeded the speed limit by 8 MPH it had made that warning, so no problem with the Van just user inexperience of the sat nav 
We arrived in Oresh at 7.05pm and were duly greeted by our Bulgarian friends out here to a nice Lamb and rice meal, and a nice cosy bed.
Well I’m here for a couple of months now so no doubt I’ll give you a rundown of the return journey
Great read but some pics would be nice as well
Thankyou