Europe Road Trip

We had decided on our Europe trip in early 2024, Madeleine, my wife fancied Greece as a destination. As the time approached, we considered only having a month, might not be enough time. You don’t really want to spend more time driving than enjoying either the scenery or culture other countries have to offer. Europe is set up for a nomadic lifestyle, with no borders and areas you can park up in at night for a small charge, the one we are in as I write charges 10 euros, with another charge for electricity. You should be able to enjoy your journey for some that means planning, this includes me. I like to know where I am staying, how I am getting there etc. Others, Madeleine included prefers the more laissez fair way. No surprise that Madeleine’s way won. When we set off from home we were heading to Canterbury as Canterbury council have used part of their park & ride scheme as an ‘Aire’ charging £4 per day, midnight to midnight. Hence, it’s £8 for an overnight stay. It’s a much more reasonable cost for a self-contained motorhome, than staying on a camping site which has seen costs rise considerably since the pandemic. We booked the Channel Tunnel crossing, it’s slightly more expensive than ferries but we find it more convenient. Having Vera our West Highland White Terrier with us, means she stays in the van with us while the train takes the strain. The train crossing takes approximately 40 minutes. If you travel with pets and choose the ferry crossing, some ferries ask you to leave your pet in the vehicle and you can’t visit them once the ship is underway. When we travelled to Ireland a few years ago, we had no choice but to leave Vera in the van, while crossing from Scotland to Northern Ireland. We set up a video for her to watch (Yes, I know, we spoil her but she’s our fur baby!), believe it or not she knows how to scroll. When we got back, she had paused the video so spent the crossing staring at the same screen for approximately 3 hours! Once across the Channel, we had decided to avoid Toll roads on the continent it can prove costly, especially with a van over 3.5 (metric) tonnes as ours is. We had a general route planned out, heading towards Belgium, Germany, Austria, across into Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and finally Greece. That was the plan! We quickly realised a couple of things: A) Germany is a big country; it took us 4 days just to cross it B) I didn’t want to spend all my time driving, although Madeleine did offer but I do prefer to drive than be a passenger. We made it to Austria and came up with an amended plan which involved staying in Salzburg for 3 days, I was still working and required the time there. It also happened to have fallen on a festival weekend, which allowed us to enjoy Saturday walking around the city enjoying some late winter sun and the atmosphere of the festival. The amended plan was we would do a circuitous route of Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy and France in time to catch the train home. When we moved on to Vienna from Salzburg, it was because it was the Capital, and we felt we should at least look around. It became apparent we were very limited having Vera with us, most tourist places do not allow dogs into the gardens never mind the buildings. We instead enjoyed marvelling at the architecture of the old city, but also at how the architects have mixed contemporary with ancient buildings very well. The Vienna train system is like The Tube in London and runs very well, from our experience on the day. Moving onto Slovakia, we decided to head into the hinterland of the country rather than stopping at Bratislava, the Capital and only an hour from Vienna. We stopped at a place in Slovakia called Bojnice finding a car park we could stop at for 7 Euros for the night, when we went for a walk, the lady serving us recommended we go to the Tatra Mountains in the North of the country. The next morning, after looking at the local castle, which was stunning and all authentic we headed to the mountains, only to find we crossed into Poland! Another border! Only stopping for one night didn’t allow us to see much, the mountains are beautiful unfortunately we couldn’t stay; that and it took us North, which was the wrong way! We then headed South ending up in Budapest, it was a bit grey and ‘flat’ making it difficult to take pictures. After climbing the hill to the Castle area, the sun came out ‘lighting up’ the buildings in their white/sandstone colour, making the pictures we took look bright and superb. Madeleine had googled what to do in Hungary and found Spa’s are the thing to do, so we headed to a town called Sarvat, staying at a camp which was a bit expensive, but it gave access to a local Spa, massage etc. as well as the campsite facilities (Electric Hook Up (EHU); Water and waste disposal (Grey [washing up water]; Black [toilet emptying]). After a couple of days there we headed to Slovenia, Lake Bled. Where our plans changed again! We had to get Vera sorted by a vet in the EU for returning home, France is better to do this as they are used to English people needing it and our French is better than Magyar (Hungarian) or any other language that side of Europe. So we headed to France, on reflection we left too early but that allowed us to really explore Alsace. As someone interested in World War history the area is fascinating, we saw Hartmannswillerkopf a mountain side where French and German soldiers fought during WW1. Neither side won anything but lost a lot of men, a very poignant place. We also went to a part of the Maginot Line, a fortification built before WW2 by the French. Another fascinating part of history. History is never far away in France; every village and town have buildings hundreds of years old. Imagine every town you go to looking like the Shambles in York, that’s what you get. Heading North to catch the train back, we stopped at Luxembourg for a couple of nights, so another border crossing.

In total we crossed 9 borders: France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Some stats from our trip: Av. Spd: 33 mph or 53 Km/h Av. MPG: 29.9 mpg or 10.6km/l Time driving: 108.13 hours Mileage: 3547 miles or 5708.5km Approx. spent £1500