The cost of 11 months travelling around Europe and North Africa in our motorhome

We are back in the UK having spent 329 days travelling around Europe and North Africa in our motorhome - Sonny.  We took the Amsterdam to Newcastle ferry a few days ago and given the time of year, we were fortunate enough to have a smooth and 'sick-free' trip.  Since getting back in the UK we have been mindful to drive on the left-hand side of the road, although there has been one occasion where we drifted to the right!

Waiting in line for the ferry at Amsterdam to take us back to the UK

Our trip started on 27 December 2016, when we left the UK and headed south to Punta Umbria, in the Andalucia region of Spain.  We got there in just under 4 days (1,666miles/ 2665.6kms), as we wanted to see in the New Year with our son and his girlfriend.

Our trip lasted just under 11 months (329 days), in which time we visited 20 countries.  A list below gives you all the countries we visited and the length of time we stopped in them.

COUNTRIES	DAYS/NIGHTS
France	9
Spain	86
Portugal	7
Gibraltar	5
Morocco	39
Andorra	Didn’t stop overnight - (1 day)
Italy	43
Sicily	21
Greece	16
Bulgaria	22
Romania	6
Serbia	3
Croatia	24
Slovenia	7
Hungary	9
Slovakia	3
Austria	4
Czech Republic	4
Germany	16
Holland	5
TOTAL:	329

If you are a fan of facts and figures, below is a breakdown of our travels:

Our Budget

Before setting off we calculated what our daily/weekly spend would be, based on our income received through private pensions and renting out the house.  It gave us a set yearly budget of £16,000, approx €17,900 (€49 a day).  Some days/weeks we went over, and sometimes under but we didn’t let it dictate whether we would eat out, go on campsites or pay to go into places.  After all this was an adventure that might not come around again, and we wanted to make the most out every opportunity we had (within reason!).  Our budget is there as a guide to stop us thinking we could spend on anything and everything, although if needed we are fortunate enough to be able to dip into our savings.

We have met some interesting and inspiring people along the way and like-minded people who travel around for a few months at a time.  However, we didn’t meet anyone who had been out for nearly a year, like us and more often than not Sonny’s sticker map of where we had been became a topic of conversation between us and them.

Before setting off, we set up a spreadsheet to record what we spent daily and the formulas calculate the cost of everything on a weekly basis.  We also log our mileage and places we have stopped, number of nights etc.  Mel manages all of this and has mastered it well, so it only takes a few minutes a day to log.  We didn’t want it to become onerous, but something we could look back at every so often to see what we were spending most of our money on - usually food and alcohol!

The figures don’t include the servicing, insurance and MOT for the motorhome and scooter but purely costs incurred whilst we have been travelling.

Countries Visited

We started off by spending quite a few weeks in Spain with our Son, as we hadn't seen him in a long while.  From here we popped across the border into Portugal – only an hour’s drive from where he lives, and sauntered around the Algarve for a week.  Then it was back into Spain and we headed east around the coast.  We spent a few days in Gibraltar before catching the ferry from Algeciras to Morocco.  We followed the west coast as far south as Essaouira before turning east into the Middle Atlas Mountains and across to the Sahara Dessert and the fantastic dunes of Erg Chebbi (Merzouga) - where we spent an amazing night under the stars!  We then spent another couple of weeks heading north back up to Tangier Med Port.  In total, 39 fabulous days in our favourite country so far visited.

It was then back into Spain and we headed North, across the Andorra pass, into the south of France along the coast and into Italy.  We spent just over 3 weeks following the west coastline down near to Calabria where we caught the ferry to Sicily.  Temperatures in Sicily regularly got to 40°C and became a bit too hot for us, so after 3 weeks we got the ferry back to Italy and made our way around the boot and to Bari.  From here another ferry took us into Greece, where we toured the mainland for a few weeks and made the most of all the wild camping you can do here on the beaches.  We loved Greece and will definitely be back to see more!  Leaving Greece we spent 3 weeks in Bulgaria, including a fantastic week with our daughter and boyfriend on the Black sea.  Then it was across many borders travelling around Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and Holland.  A fantastic time was spent in all of these countries (ranging from 3 days to 24 days) and you can click on any of the countries down the right-hand side of the blog (under Labels) if you would like to read more.

In total, we have covered a distance of 12,897 Miles (20635.2 Kilometres). 

Number Crunching

Below is a Pie Chart of where our money went:

As you can see most of it was spent on eating and drinking out and in the supermarket, with fuel a close second.  Our cheapest diesel purchased was in Morocco/Andorra €0.90 a litre, and the most expensive was in Italy at €1.39 per litre.  We averaged 31.8 miles per gallon (too tricky to work out in litres!).

There is a category you will notice as ‘other’, these are expenses that didn’t slot into the other categories, such as purchasing of: cooking utensils (chopping boards, electric whisk, glasses, knives) a few bits of clothing (T-shirts/jumpers), postcards home, haircuts, a couple of sessions of physio and massage (for Mel who suffered in the early days with a trapped nerve in his shoulder) and a couple of other minor bits and pieces.

Where we spent our nights:

The campsites we stayed on were reasonable. as we were able to use our ACSI discount card – prices ranged from €13 a night to €19 plus tourist tax, which varied from country to country.  In Croatia we didn’t have a choice, as wild camping is prohibited and it was mostly campsites in Morocco, as they were so cheap.

And the final cost of our 11 months away was, drum roll please...............
€16,717.90 (£14,926.70) -  £45.37 (€50.81) a day.

Would we do it all again?  You bet we would and we're already planning for year 2!

For now though Sonny is parked up on a friend’s drive, whilst we are living with our daughter and boyfriend.  Everything has been unpacked and Sonny has had a full service and MOT, and is drained down for the British winter.  He has had his repairs assessed and will hopefully get these done early January when the parts arrive and then we will be off again.Until then will busy ourselves with preparing for Christmas and planning our travel destinations for next year.

Thanks for following the blog so far and hopefully I have shared things with you that you have found interesting.  However, there are somethings that have happened in the motorhome on the way that will remain in the motorhome - as our little sign says below!

"What happens in the camper stays in the camper!"

So, all that is left to say for this year is to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and we will blog again next year.

Cheers!

Sally and Mel x

Amsterdam - Last stop before the UK!

Today is the last day of our tour, tonight we catch the evening ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle.  For the last 4 days we have been stopping with friends we met in Sicily at their house in Amstelveen, just outside of Amsterdam.  It has been lovely seeing them again and we have had a great time and lots of laughs.

Sonny, the motorhome parked up in the shadow of a windmill.  Note the bicycle shed in the front garden - everyone seems to own at least one bike here.

Only in the Netherlands do you find a windmill at the end of houses, which is now a restaurant.

Leaving Winterswijk on the way to Amsterdam we crossed the John Frost Bridge in Arnhem (John Frostbrug in Dutch) - named after Major-General John Frost, who commanded the British forces who defended the bridge during the Battle of Arnhem, September 1944 (and featured in the film 'A Bridge too Far').  Nearly 1800 men lost their lives and we visited the war cemetery at Oosterbeek just outside Arnehem where they are buried.  The bridge was rebuilt as it was.

Looking across to the John Frost Bridge, Arnhem

Richard and Carla took us into Amsterdam and we had a lovely day wandering around the streets, where we came across all these bikes parked up at the station - and this was a Sunday.  The problem you have leaving your bike in Amsterdam is you must remember exactly where you left it!

So many bikes parked up in Amsterdam

In the middle of this hotel is a house. The person who owned the house refused to sell it to the builders, so the hotel was built around the house!

Thought this was a funny - an omelette restaurant named after Mel - 'Mel Egg'

We had a quick walk around the red light district, where the women still sit in the shop windows to entice the men in. We also came across lots of 'coffee shops' - where you can legally smoke cannabis.

Cannabis Museum - only in Amsterdam!

Couldn't resist trying on some clogs

Rembrandt Monument

Outside Anne Frank's House - the queue to get in was massive and this was at 5pm!

Enjoying a lovely Italian meal in the heart of Amsterdam

It is with a feeling of sadness that we leave the Netherlands today but happiness in knowing that we will see family and friends we haven't seen for 11 months!

Sally x

Into the Netherlands we go, country #20 – our last on this tour!

We are in the Netherlands – our 20^th country in the past 11 months and our last before getting the ferry back to UK.  After all this time we still can't get used to not going through border control checks of countries in the schengen.  You just come across a sign that lets you know you are in a different country or province (Gelderland, a province of the Netherlands) and the 'rules of the road' and you just keep going!

Sonny (the motorhome) is enjoying living it up on a campsite at Winterswijk (N51.95201 W6.73674).  We were last on a campsite in Prague,16 days ago.  So, a new country means it is time to put another sticker on the back of Sonny - the last this tour.

We’ve not seen many motorhomes over the last month and no Brits since leaving Croatia (1½ months ago), so we were surprised to find 14 motorhomes parked up on the Bad Suzachen Aire – all German. Talking to one of the German motorhomers, we found out that they all come to use the thermal salt baths in the town.  Looking around, we noticed that nearly all the plots had reserved stickers on for December – apparently the baths are very good and popular.  We had a flash back moment to when we were in Lenti (Hungary), when we used the fantastic thermal baths there.  The sun was shining that day and it was very hot as well – it seems so long ago, although it was only just over a month ago!  Bad Suzachen is a great Aire and we think one of the quietest we have been on.  As you come on to the Aire there is a barrier (which was up) and a sign detailing the cost of the Aire as €7.50 and €2.90 per person tourist tax.  However, there was nowhere to pay and nobody came to collect our money so we enjoyed a lovely freebie – thank you Germany!

The Aire at Bad Suzachen

Leaving Bad Suzachen we headed for Warendorf and parked up last night on an Aire at the side of a river (N51.95447 E0799904).  Last time we were this easterly was on a Sosta in San Remo, Italy and the last time this far north was in the UK 11 months ago!  All facilities were free, with metered electric.  It was a warm night and we had plenty of gas, so we didn’t bother with electric and that meant another freebie for us!   

The town of Warendorf is renowned for its horse breeding and training and they proudly have plaques on the bridge leading into the town showing what medals they won in the Olympics - from 1996 to London 2012.

And metal/plastic horses all around the town and outside shops.  All a bit weird - Neigh I hear you say!

Mel's favourite  was the O2 horse- not that we are horsey people!

Town square and cathedral

Usually, if we enjoy a free night in a town we like to put something back but It turned out that nothing opens on a Wednesday in this town, so we just had a quick stroll around and a walk down the river.

Loved this piece of graffiti (or maybe it's art) of a cat in space down at the river

Looking across the river to where we are parked up - Sonny is hiding behind the trees across there somewhere!

It has been a strange couple of days.  Usually we know where we are going, what we want to see, etc etc.  However, since leaving East Germany and heading over the Hartz Mountains into the west of Germany we have just been finding stop over places to get to the Netherlands.  We catch the night ferry from Amsterdam back to the UK on 21 November but have planned to meet up with some Dutch friends we met whilst traveling around Sicily before then.

We have been doing a lot of reminiscing over the last couple of days of countries visited, amazing sights and places we have seen and visited and how many places we have stopped on – 152 to date!!  Also, for a bit of fun we did a comparison rating of countries based on:  scenery, architecture, motorhome facilities, friendliness, cleanliness, value for money, safety, road conditions, food, wild camping, campsites.

10 being high and 1 being low.

Top country was Morocco, followed by Slovenia, Austria, Greece and France.  Sadly, Italy was at the bottom – let down by its roads, cleanliness and safety.  As we have just come into the Netherlands, it isn’t fair that we rate them yet!

Travelling from Warendorf, there was another trip down ‘memory lane’ for Mel, as we stopped of at Coerde  (near Münster) – Mel’s first posting in the Army.  He was with a transport regiment that transported the Lance Nuclear Warheads for the Americans.  Portsmouth Barracks Münster is now a housing estate for the Germans – a very built up area of flats

Portsmouth Barracks - then and now

So, we are looking forward to spending the next 4 days with our Dutch friends Richard and Carla.  Last time we were both in the Netherlands (Holland) was in 1986!

Sally x

Magdeburg to Goslar and into the Harz Mountains – out of the east and in to the west

We are currently parked up at Bad Salzuflen (N52.09868 E08.74569).  It has all the usual facilities for motorhomes plus metered electric, so all is good.  We are just using it as a stop over point as we make our way closer to Holland - our 20th country in 11 months and our last before heading back to good old blighty!  It was a drive of nearly 100 miles today – a long but pretty drive through a lot of countryside and villages.  We were surprised to see a lot of these signs along all of the roads we travelled today.

Weight limits for military vehicles going across bridges

Mel has been feeling a little emotional these last few days, reminiscing back to his time spent working in the former East Germany in the 1980’s – Potsdam, East Berlin, Dresden, etc.  I have known him for 31 years and over the last couple of days he has been telling me stories of his time spent in East Germany that he has never told me before!

Leaving Potsdam, we took the motorway nearly all the way to Magdeburg, in the Saxony-Anhalt region.  Often described as Berlin in miniature, four-fifths of the city was destroyed by bombs in WWII.

Reconstruction of the old centre began in 1951 and commemorated by this stone on the Bärbogen Gate

That said, there are still a lot of historic medieval buildings, lovely baroque facades and plenty of churches going back some 1200 years.  We parked up on a lovely camper stop next to a marina on the River Elbe, which runs through the city (N52.12509 E11.64866). 

Sonny(our motorhome) enjoying a lovely view across the old city. of Magdeburg

The city was made great by Emperor Otto I, who chose it as his main residence making it a significant political and cultural centre in medieval times and giving it Germany’s oldest cathedral.

Mel loitering under Magdeburg’s only remaining preserved medieval city gate and half-timbered building in the old city

Otto-von-Guericke, famous for his physics experiments (inventor of the vacuum pump) and one of the most important natural scientist of the 17th century

It's that time of year again - getting ready for the Christmas Market in front of the old town hall

Two Baroque patrician houses still stand on the street that was one of the most magnificent Baroque boulevards in Germany.

Modern architecture has found it's way into the city in the form of The Green Citadel of Magdeburg – a very pink, curvy and zany form of architecture by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  It is a mix of apartments, shops, offices and a hotel.

Who would live in a house like this?!

You can’t come to Germany and not have a piece of Black-Forrest Gateaux, although I opted for one laced with Baileys… hic!

Magdeburg lies at the intersection of the Northern and Southern route of the Romanesque Road and leaving the city we continued to travel along this route.  You can stop off along the ‘tourist trail’ and take in more 10^th century churches, cathedrals, monasteries and castles, we chose not to stop (we had seen way too many churches and cathedrals over the last few months!) and just took in the sights as we passed through the towns/villages.  The countryside reminded us very much of Slovakia and the Czech Republic.  We crossed from the former East Germany into West Germany and stopped off at Goslar, in the foothills of the Harz mountains.

Goslar is a little treasure of a town, with its Romanesque architecture and an old town of medieval timber-framed beauties. It is one of those towns that you can get lost in wandering up and down the cobbled streets.

The market square - 15 the century Rathaus and 12th century fountain topped with the symbol of Goslar - an eagle and 15th century guildhall decorated with strange looking baroque wooden sculptures

Mel's impersonation of Goslar Nail Head!  They were used as a form of propaganda in WWI

The carillon bells and figures chime 4 times a day on top of the old treasury building.  A funny parade spinning from the Glockenspiel, commemorating 1,000 years of mining. It lasted about 7 minutes and had children engrossed and us grinning from ear to ear.  We were the only adults without children watching I hasten to add!

The making of the town came in the 10^th century with the discovery of silver and transformed it into one of norther Europe’s leading medieval towns and there are some lovely former miners houses along the cobbled streets.

The Baroque Siemenshaus was the mid 19th century home of the Siemens family who founded what became today's global corporation.

The Romanesque Imperial Palace

Leaving Goslar, we parked up for the night, nestled in the Harz Mountains at a place called Lautenthal (N51.87020 E10.28729).  It’s free to park you just pay €1 for water and the same for your chemical waste, and electric hook-up is metered. 

The northern Germans refer to the Harz mountains as their mini-Black Forest.  They are not high peaks but more thickly wooded hills covering an area of about 100km long by 30km wide.  Mel came skiing here back in the mid 80s, when he lived in Potsdam – we didn’t see any snow but it was cold.  At 5pm the outside temperature was only 1.8°C brrrrr!  We had put a few euros in the meter, so our electric heater was ramped up to the full!   Fingers crossed for a warmer night tonight!

Sally x