This past week, we sold our van. Although the trip has been officially over for a month or so now, saying goodbye to our home on wheels put a definite end to what was an incredible four months of traveling. Even though we are still in the midst of our adventure (operation relocation is well underway!) I wanted to take a moment to look back on our life in the van and share some statistics and musings on our European road trip.
To kick things off, here are some stats from our trip:
- 9,000 miles ≈ 14,500 km driven (all by Jacob! What a gem!)
- 13 countries visited: the UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Andorra, and Spain (not counting countries we only drove through: Belgium and Liechtenstein)
- 17 campsites, and at least that many random park-ups along the way
- 4 ferries:
- Dover -> Calais on DFDS
- Hirtshals -> Larvik on Color Line
- Ystad -> Sassnitz on FRS Baltic
- Santander -> Plymouth on Brittany Ferries
- 10 rail networks: Scotrail, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Deutsche Bahn, Danske Statsbaner, Sporveien T-banen, Flåmsbana, Transport for London, Montenvers / Mont-Blanc, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen, and Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn
- 20 hikes / trail runs ≈ 200km with 11,500m of elevation gain
- 8 UNESCO World Heritage sites
- Temperatures ranging between 0°C (at the top of Ranastøngji, Norway in June) and 36°C (in the Netherlands in July)
- 28kg of propane gas used to keep our fridge, stove and heating working
- 32 tolls paid (most expensive: €29.20 in Italy!)
- 1 suspected hernia (to be confirmed…)
And countless…
- Sheepies cooed at 🐑 😍 (and piles of sheep/cow/goat poo avoided 💩)
- Cornetto knock-off ice creams eaten 🍦
- Selfies taken 📱
- Blister plasters applied 🩹
- Taylor Swift songs listened to 🎶
- Gondolas ridden 🚠
- Mugs of tea drunk ☕️ (so much so that we slightly stained the sink in the van from putting so many used tea bags in there!)
To summarize where we’ve all been, Jacob put together the map below, which includes little icons to show where we did various activities like riding bikes, hiking or taking a ferry!
Now for some FAQ’s to help organize my musings on the trip!
Q: What’s your highlight from the trip?
I think it’s impossible to choose a single highlight. We saw so many beautiful places, visited family and friends we haven’t seen in years, and did a lot of fun activities along the way. Each of the fifteen blog posts I’ve written while we’ve been on the road is full of highlights. To name a few, though: paragliding in Annecy was probably the most adventurous activity I’ve ever tried, and I absolutely loved it! Visiting my family in the Netherlands and spending time on the farm where my dad grew up was very special to me. Early-morning hikes in Norway and the Dolomites were both peaceful and spectacular. And I could go on and on!
Q: Any lessons learned?
I talked about this in an early post, but I hadn’t realized how much time and energy all the driving would take! Google Maps makes everything look so close by, and we were pretty optimistic about how much energy we’d have after a big driving day to go out and do stuff afterwards. We made a lot of adjustments in the second “half” of the trip to optimize driving time and give ourselves more time in each place before moving on again. Now that the trip is behind us, it’s funny to think that we originally intended to go to Istanbul and Greece as well! I can’t imagine adding another 2,500 miles to the trip.
I also learned that we fit in really well with retirees with motorhomes! They’re mostly out enjoying their freedom after raising kids, and we’re out enjoying our freedom without having kids. We have similar hobbies and interests, we like going to bed early… (OK yes this is more about me than about Jacob!) It just made me laugh to realize that our ideal social set on this holiday was the 50+ crowd. But we did meet some really lovely people along the way!
Q: Any regrets?
I’m not big on regrets, although certainly I would have regretted not taking this trip and embarking on our overseas move! However, I am mindful of the environmental impact of flying back and forth between Canada and Europe, and driving a diesel vehicle across 13 countries. The impact I didn’t foresee was how much waste we’d generate along the way. Most places we stayed did not have composting facilities, and we didn’t always have the option to purchase food or products free from packaging. We also tended to opt for convenience when choosing what to purchase, especially in places where we didn’t speak the language. Once we are settled in Annecy I am keen to get back on track when it comes to reducing my waste. I think our next few trips will also be more environmentally friendly, as we’d love to get Interrail passes next year and do some more cycle touring.
Q: Was van life what you expected?
It’s interesting to look back on the last post I wrote before we moved into the van to see what my expectations were. My main concerns were keeping things tidy, managing our water and waste, and feeling potentially unsafe and vulnerable. We definitely had ups and downs with all of those aspects of van life on the trip, but I’m really happy with how things went overall. When we moved all of our stuff in that first day, and everything was just in heaps on the bed and the couch, I thought we’d never make it all fit. But once we had an organizational system in place (which of course I loved putting together), it was fairly easy to keep our space tidy, as long as we put things back where they belong right away. With the tiny living space, though, you can really only be doing one “activity” in the van at a time, be it cooking, getting ready for the day, or packing a hiking bag. We’ve come to appreciate how important it is for us each to have some personal space! The van definitely felt like home, though, and aside from maybe one or two nights where we were a bit nervous about our surroundings, we slept really well overall.
With regards to water and waste, we figured out fairly quickly how long we could go without emptying or filling, and mostly relied on campsite facilities for doing so. I thought the toilet would be the smelliest part of van life, but it turns out our grey water tank struggles were much more stinky! Emptying the toilet was not as gross as expected, although still not a pleasant task. Definitely worth it to have a toilet in the van, but now that we’re back in a normal apartment I am very grateful for proper plumbing!
Q: What was your favourite campsite?
It’s tied between Camping Kals in Austria, and Beach Farret in the south of France. Kals was a cool, quiet oasis in the mountains where we could escape the craziness of August tourist season, and Beach Farret was a dream beach resort vacation full of sun, sand and surf. They were both just what we needed at the time, too. We got to Kals after feeling overheated and overwhelmed, trying to plan our time in the Dolomites, and looking for a chill place to cool off and do some hiking. On the other hand, Beach Farret was the relaxing week of doing nothing we needed after the intensity of our Dolomites hiking spree. It was also really neat to feel like you were camping right on the beach with the sandy pitches. Given it’s only a five hour drive from Annecy, I have a feeling we’ll be back!
Q: Will you keep writing this blog after you move?
Yes! I plan to share updates on our relocation process and our expat adventures in the months to come, so stay tuned.
Final thoughts…
Finally, I want to thank each of you for following along on all our adventures. Writing this blog has been such a fun way to share our travels with friends and family! As a special surprise, I put together a van tour video so you can see what our space was like while we were traveling. I hope you enjoy watching (and don’t mind my awkward voice-over)!