Budgets & Bits – Roving With Love

April 12, 2019April 11, 2019

Andrew’s Views on Costa Rica

Finally, before we move on to Panama. Here are some observations from Andrew:

Andrew’s View of Costa Rica

I had no idea what to expect of Costa Rica before arriving here but leave impressed with the country, the people, the amazing wildlife and the warm climate

The People: What wonderful friendly people. They love to be of assistance, they have a good sense of humour, so helpful, love tourists and most speak English with a smile. I cannot think of a more friendly country we have visited. There are basically no beggars or hawkers and the street vendors are very polite and you never feel pushed to buy anything. Travelling here is very easy.

The Food: Its very simple food and mostly rice and bean based. Not overly flavoursome, so you add the sauces and pickles to acquire the taste. The traditional brown sauce is particularly nice. Fish and chicken are the most common meats available and fish is very cheap compared to NZ. A rice and red beans mix (Gallo Pinto) is a staple for breakfast as is fried plantains (a type of savoury banana). There is always plenty of tropical fruit available and the pineapple was incredibly sweet. They drink a lot of coffee and Louise says it’s great. They also have lots of the usual staples of pizzas and pasta on offer at every restaurant. In San Jose, I counted 10 MacDonald’s when walking through the city centre and about the same number of Subways.

Driving and Roads. Like anywhere, you will always find someone who needs to pass every car and there is no difference here. You have to force your way into traffic, they aren’t so courteous as the likes of Europe and outside of San Jose cars are a lot older. SUV’s and 4WD are very popular and you can see why when you get off the main roads. Most roads are just single lanes with very few dual carriageways. We headed inland to Monteverde, a major tourist spot in the mountains and spent 2 hours driving on dusty gravel roads. We thought these were bad but worse was to come. When we reached Monteverde we struck some of the most atrocious roads I have ever driven on. The potholes were huge and literally held together by bits of tar seal. Driving speeds here were around 5-10kph. The main roads are very busy with trucks, and I mean big trucks. We worked out the reason is, they have no rail network and you can’t transport by sea as you do not have a coastline going right around the country. They do have toll roads near San Jose. You pay in cash, but they are so cheap, at around $NZ1.

Typical rural roads, Costa Rica

Terrible roads down the mountains from Monteverde, Costa Rica

Avoiding bumps on the drive down from Monteverde, Costa Rica

Traditional Costa Rican dish – Casado

Beach-side, Manuel Antonio

Tuna, rice and beans

Plenty of tropical fruit available in Costa Rica

Drinking fresh coconut water, Tortuguero Beach

Accommodation: You have a variety to choose from. We stayed in nice resort-style accommodation which was much like you would get in Bali or Fiji. Backpackers and motels are plentiful. All hotels have WIFI for free and its strong and fast.

The Costs: It is not the cheapest country we have been too, but again it’s a lot cheaper than our home country NZ. A bottle of beer in a bar costs around NZ$4-5, in a supermarket around NZ$1.50, a reasonable bottle of wine around NZ$42 in a restaurant around NZ$25 in a supermarket (mostly South American wines). Petrol around NZ$1.30 a litre and rental car hire around $NZ70 per day. Eating out varies a lot. We had some nice meals that cost around NZ$50 for the two of us and lunches like Nachos or Paninis (and believe me they are big lunches) can cost as little as $10 each.

What to See: Whilst there are plenty of fun activities like zip-lining, para-sailing, white water rafting, tandem sky diving and surfing, it’s the nature that is the attraction for most. Where else can you see crocodiles lying on the river bank, boa constrictors enjoying the sun outside the door of your lodge, iguanas and lizards of all sizes scuttling around the hotel grounds, owls sitting in trees at nights, sloths lazing around the trees, monkeys at every corner you turn, and an amazing array of bird and insect life. National Parks are big here, but you do pay around $20 – $30 NZ to enter them.

Environment: They recycle everywhere. There is no rubbish lying around. You cannot smoke in public places, even beaches and parks – it’s a no-no! They are trying to eliminate plastic bags totally, all shapes and sizes. All traffic lights are run by solar power and we read that last year the entire country ran for 300 days straight on 100% renewable energy. They have a very strong environmental stance which is great to see.

Final Observation: Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed Costa Rica. Would I recommend it to others? DEFINITELY YES. Would I come back? Probably no. We enjoyed it immensely but there are plenty more countries to see.

Our lodge in the rainforest

Pool in the rainforest

Recycling is everywhere in Costa Rica

Pool-side at our resort, Manuel Antonio

Surfboards, Manuel Antonio

Beach-side, Manuel Antonio

Boa Constrictor, Tortuguero

Sloth, Tortuguero

Owl, Monteverde Costa Rica

August 6, 2018August 10, 2018

Andrew’s Observations: 3 Months in Britain

Having spent a little over 3 months travelling the UK I think I am qualified enough to make a few observations of our time here. We have travelled to the top of Scotland and from the Isle of Skye on one side to Aberdeen on the other; right through Wales, from Cardiff to St David’s to Snowdonia and up to Holyhead; to the Norfolk Broads and Farne Island on the east coast of England; and down to Dover on the south coast and as far as Land’s End right at the bottom of Cornwall; and so much in between. In all we have covered 6,057 miles or 9,691 kms. I would suggest we have seen more of the UK than 95% of the people living here. We didn’t go to Ireland as we spent two weeks there in 2016.

Weather

For those of you that live in the UK or have travelled here, you will know that weather is the main topic of conversation, although Brexit is a popular subject at the moment. We have been lucky enough to have been here for one of the best summers on record. Everywhere we go the locals tell us ‘it’s not normally like this’. In Glasgow we were there on the hottest day on record and many parts of the country are having their driest season on record. The countryside is very brown, and one farmer told me he has real problems ahead, as he is already feeding his winter feed out which means he won’t have enough to last winter.

Costs and Budgets

While here we have kept tabs on our spending but always knew it would cost us more than the continent. But, for the record, using the same NZ$1,050 per week we budgeted in Europe, we are NZ$2,000 under budget for the 14 weeks, so our spending has been around NZ$907 pw, very similar to Europe. This includes everything except car rental. Everything means petrol, food, accommodation and tourist sites. As for the car rental, we were going to buy a vehicle and resell it, but when we worked out the insurance, the road tax, the loss on sale and of course the hassle of having to sell it quickly at the end, it didn’t stack up, so we hired a car. Louise did a lot of homework on car rental as most car companies didn’t do a long-term rental rate, which did make it a bit expensive. But, Europcar do have what they call a three-month rate, albeit that meant 84 days, or three months of 28 days. We needed 102 days, so we took the first car for 28 days to qualify for the long-term rate then another car for the remaining 76 days. In all the 102 days cost us NZ$28 a day. If you take the rental car into account, we will be something like NZ$1,000 over for the 14 weeks. Not bad, and once again we have never said we can’t afford to do or see anything. We have done everything we wanted and eaten out numerous times. Look out though for traffic infringement fines. We have had two and they’re worth explaining. When we drove into Cambridge we were following Google maps and road signs, when the road went down to one lane and it said bus lane. I couldn’t turn around as it was one-way, but the sign did say ‘bus lane except for exit to Smith Street” so I turned in Smith Street. Not good enough – we received a $120 fine plus a $80 charge from Europcar for administration. We thought about appealing it but decided not to bother and pay up. We received a $60 prompt payment discount, but it still cost us $140 all up. We thought it was a bit tough!!! The second was a parking fine. For the record you do pay for parking everywhere in the UK. There are very few free parking areas like in NZ. This time though we were in Cumbria and stopped to look at a National Trust site. The sign said; “parking one hour but no return for two hours”. Seemed fine except after 10 minutes, sitting having coffee, we saw a warden writing us a ticket and went to investigate. He explained it was ‘disc parking’. “What?” I said. It turned out to be this: you can get a cardboard disc from any of the shops and it has a clock on it and you set the time to when you parked the vehicle and place it on the dashboard, so the warden can see how long you have been there. To be fair the warden was very helpful, but he had already written out the ticket, so it was “in the system”. I decided to email them my thoughts and try and save NZ$50. As it happened they let me off. Disc parking – one of the dumbest ideas I have ever seen, and we have not seen it anywhere else in our travels. In the UK you see very few ‘traffic cops’. Most of their law enforcement is now done with speed cameras, and they are everywhere. It definitely makes you slow down and take heed – parking and speeding fines are expensive compared to New Zealand.

Touring the UK

I know most people come to the UK and see a couple of places, like London, Edinburgh and maybe a couple of smaller places, but the country is wide and diverse and steeped in so much interesting history (Louise is more in-depth about that in her blogs). Sufficed to say we have never been short of something to do and the time has gone super quick. The entrance fees to historic places – Cathedrals, Museums etc. – is significantly more expensive than Europe. Most of these places have an entrance fee of between $20 and $30 per person so we decided to join the National Trust. After the initial outlay of around $240 we have enjoyed free entrance to many places of interest, and again Louise has explained more in her blogs. At this time of year, the country is “festivals on steroids”. There are just so many different types of festivals, from music festivals, beer festivals, jazz festivals, antique festivals, country fair festivals and so on. The cost to get into these events vary a lot. We paid NZ$6 each to go to a craft beer festival, but NZ$55 each to go to the Royal Three Counties Show, a massive country fair.

Accommodation

We have varied our accommodation from bed and breakfast/hotels, to house-sitting and camping. We decided back in France to buy a four-person tent, one you can stand up in, from Decathlon, a huge sports store chain. It cost us NZ$150 and was a great investment seeing the English are having a fantastic summer. We had all our bedding from the motorhome along with a small gas BBQ, pots, pans cutlery and two outdoor chairs, so we only needed an air bed. All up we have done 49 days house-sitting, 20 days in B&B and hotels, 20 nights camping and 13 nights with family. I must say the B&B costs can be a bit high for what you get. Its hard to find much for under NZ$150 but again Louise was a star using Booking.com. You can often find last minute specials and as we had no fixed plans we were happy to drive a little further and stay in a small village, which was often so much better than the tourist hot-spots. The camp site costs are a bit high. In comparison at the same time of year in Europe, for a motorhome site with power, we were paying around NZ$40 a night. Here in the UK we are paying the same or even a little more for a tent site with no power. As an aside I must say Decathlon is a great brand. They are superb with after sales service and carry such a great product range. I hope they decide to expand to New Zealand.

Food & Drink

Overall food and drink costs more than most of Europe but cheaper than NZ. I have been known to enjoy a pint of Guinness or two, and outside the major cities I have paid around NZ$7 to NZ$8 a pint. I know back home its more like $11 to $12.The range of places to eat out is vast. If you take an Indian Restaurant for example: twice lately we have enjoyed an Indian meal and a bottle of wine for around NZ$85, and I know it would be more like NZ$110 – $120 at home. Pub meals are well known and pretty much everywhere, but the Weatherspoon chain of pubs take a lot of beating. They have many beers around NZ$5 a pint and their meal deals are superb. They have ‘special’ nights – fish, curry, chicken, steak etc. – and they are a great deal. Buy one of these meals for around NZ$14 -NZ$16 and you get a free drink. A pint of beer (and yes, that includes Guinness), a glass of wine, or a spirit. Hard to beat a meal and a drink for that price and we can assure you the meals are good.

Supermarket prices, whilst being more expensive than Spain et al., are still cheaper, in most cases, than back home and the range of fresh fruit and vegetables is great. They also do so many ready-to-eat meals and these are of good quality. The range of fresh pasta for example is superb, cheap and very tasty. They have a great range of pottles of quick fresh snacks, and many do great meal-deal lunches, where NZ$6 can get you a small starter (fruit/melon in a small pot), a good filled sandwich or roll or sushi and a drink. The drink can be coke, sparkling water etc.

The big named supermarkets like Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsburys are under a lot of pressure from the two German cut-price supermarket chains, Lidl and Aldi, who have moved here in a big way.

I know back home supermarkets are moving away from single-use plastic bags, but here in the UK they already have. Most people take their reusable shopping bags. There are in-store bags available, but they are multi-use bags and there is a charge for them. However, they may have encouraged people to bring their own bags BUT, and a big but, just about everything instore comes in a plastic container. You buy 5 nectarines in a plastic container with a cellophane top, same with a lot of other fruit and vegetables whilst in the meat cabinet all chicken, meats and everything else you can think of is packed the same way. They may have cut down on plastic bags but definitely not on packaging.

Final Comments

With the weather on our side the UK has had so much to offer. But, there are downsides. I do get sick of everything coming with “chips”. Every Indian restaurant we have been to offers a side of chips. When I asked why, the owner rolled his eyes and said because people want it. It also has a roll-on effect. I have never professed to be the smallest person on the planet, a little overweight (currently 94kg), but England has an obesity problem BIG TIME. There are just so many very overweight people walking round, or rather waddling around, and when you walk past the eating houses it’s obvious why. They eat far too much, and too many chips. This is not just the older population. So many in the late teens, early 20’s, are huge. As against the 30 other countries we have visited the UK obesity problem stands out.

Getting to see a doctor is very difficult. I am on a low medication of blood pressure pills and have been for many years. In NZ I see my doctor every 6 months for a check-up and prescription. Here they only give you a 28 day of prescription, so in England I would need 13 visits a year. In NZ I need two, and the odd thing is, in NZ they always take my blood pressure and listen to my heart. Of the 5 visits I have made in the UK I have only had my blood pressure taken once, and they never have they listened to my heart beat. It begs the question, why does one need to go to the Doctor every 28 days if all they do is write out a prescription. The problem is the NHS (National Health Service) is clogged up and getting to see a doctor is not easy. I was forced to phone at a given time to get an appointment and it was ‘first call, first seen’. You could not just walk in and get an appointment you had to ring at either 8.30 or 3.30. I overheard a lady saying she had tried 4 doctors over 2 days before getting an appointment. And from what I have been told from friends and family it is hard to see the same doctor. You get given an appointment to see “any doctor at the practice” each time you go, yet recent research shows that having the same GP halves the chance of an early death. Getting a dentist appointment is no different.

Mobile phone coverage is shocking. Even close to main centres and with no hills around you can be out of range. It really is bad and when compared to the other countries we visited in Europe, it is the worst. This view is shared by many English people we have talked to.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our three months travelling the UK. We have both been here many times before, and for the record I was born here but emigrated to NZ with my parents as a 3-year-old, but I have never spent three months just touring the country. The people are so helpful and friendly and the volunteers at the Heritage sites are so passionate and go beyond the call of duty to tell you about the place and show you around and everyone we have met has been great. They know how to greet and treat tourists.

In summary, we loved our 3 months here, there’s so much more to it than you imagine, and it does take time to explore properly. Britain is far better than we expected. It is so very picturesque, and each county is different from the next.

All I can say is good luck with Brexit ……. Perhaps we timed this trip perfectly.

Costs & Mileage

For the record we spent 102 nights in the UK, made up of 13 with family, 20 in B&B/Hotels, 20 in campsites and 49 house-sitting

B&B/Hotel costs: $2,297 at an average of $115 per night

Camping costs: $868 at an average of $43.40 per night

We travelled 6,057 miles or 9,691 kms in a bit over three months spending NZ$1,423 on petrol. Average petrol prices in UK at present are around NZ$2.53 a litre, but again you can find cheaper especially at supermarket sights and NOT on the motorway.

Rental car hire for just under 15 weeks: NZ$3,000, or NZ$28 per day

Cambridge Real Ale Beer Festival

Camping in Wales

Welsh Rarebit & chips

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Packaging galore!

So much history – this is Oxford

Port Isaac where Doc Martin is filmed

May 26, 2018May 27, 2018

11 Months on the Road: Final Figures

Andrew here with a summary of our European Road Trip. When we decided to embark on our European adventure so many people said, “fantastic I/we would love to do that,” or words to that effect. The fact is I would be surprised if any of them ever do and there are many reasons why, like; I have a mortgage, I have kids, I have grandkids, I have a job, or a business, and so on. The fact is though if you want to do it, you can!

Lots of sayings spring to mind like; “life is not a rehearsal” , “you are a long time dead”, “you work to live not live to work” and so on, and all these are correct but if you do want to take a good look at Europe or the world do it whilst you can, don’t wait until you can’t or don’t have the drive or health any more. The world is a different communication place these days with Skype, Messenger, Facetime WhatsApp and so on, so you may be 12,000 miles away, but these devices allow you to feel like you are just down the road. My mum turned 88 the other day and I have skyped her twice a week, so we see each other and talk like we are in the same room. The same with Louise’s Mum and Dad, we talk to them regularly. My daughter Rebecca had her second child a couple of months back and of course we have never met him in person, but we saw him (Ihaia) less than an hour after he was born and many times since, along with her first born Kerenga who is nearly three. Distance is not a reason, nor is having a job. If you are any good you will find another one when you return, or if you’re lucky they’ll hold it for you. Think about it – what have you done in the last year? And what could you be doing in the next year if you gave it a go?

Having said all that you probably don’t have to be 11 months in Europe if that is too long, a steady travelling schedule could see you complete a lot in six months or do a couple of stints over a few years. What we have done doesn’t compare to taking a 4-week holiday in Europe. By mixing it up with some house-sitting we were able to experience day to day life in some small and not so small European villages.

Other questions we have been asked along the way and back here in the UK are; “what was your favourite place”? That’s impossible to answer as every place had its own character – from Spectacular Norway to Reindeer on the Road in Finland, the mountain tops of Austria and Switzerland, the gorgeous areas of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers in Germany, Tuscany Italy, Prague and Gdansk, the French cuisine and so on, but I guess the special package was discovering Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We new nothing about these places and were almost warned off going there but they offered so much. The Lonely Planet has just voted Vilnius in Lithuania as one of the best destinations. Louise agrees, she loved Vilnius. We spent the most time though in Spain, side stepping the cold European winter, and we both agree Spain was one of our favourite areas for a number of reasons. The people were friendly, the scenery and beach areas were breath-taking, the cost of living is ridiculously low, and history is everywhere in this vast country.

We have also been asked about the size of the motorhome and where to go? Our motorhome was 7.45 meters long and that is on the larger side – there were plenty a lot bigger and likewise a lot smaller. We feel we chose right as it was our home for the best part of a year, but if we were going for 3 – 4 months we would probably go smaller. As for where to go; I covered this in a previous blog but really and truly Louise has been superb in planning the trip, with a little help from me from time to time.

As for driving a big vehicle like this in Europe; all I can say is take your time, don’t panic, don’t rush and if you do go the wrong way its not the end of the world, you can turn around. The same at roundabouts, if you can’t work out which is the right exit just go around again.

Another big question that’s come up is; “how was living in a confined space with your partner for a year?” Answer: Easy – and I mean that. We never argued, never needed to. We only had Netflix which we watched for a maximum of an hour a day, and not every day, so we learnt the art of conversation (often lost these days) and used our computer, tablets and phones to check up on what’s happening in NZ and the rest of the world, as well as reading the odd book or three. It was seriously an easy experience for both of us.

So, what did we actually do? Where did we go? And, I’m sure you’re keen to know, what did it all cost?

We left for Europe on a ferry to Calais on June 3^rd, 2017 and returned to Dover on April 29^th, 2018.

Countries We Visited: France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Switzerland, Austria, Lichtenstein, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Sardinia, Sicily, Vatican City, Monaco, Luxembourg and England. We did go in and out of some of these countries a few times, and with the likes of France and Germany we made four separate visits.

Accommodation: 330 nights in Europe made up of 255 in the motorhome, 49 house-sitting, 19 with Louise’s Aunt and Uncle in Germany, 5 on overnight ferry crossings and 2 in hotels. In all we spent NZ$10,010 on campsites at an average of NZ$39.25 a night.

Driving: We covered 26,090 kms (16,306 miles), went to 58 service stations and spent NZ$4,970 on diesel. We paid on average NZ$1.90 a litre, with Norway and Sardinia being the most expensive at around NZ$2.60 a litre while Latvia and Denmark were cheapest at around NZ$1.50 -NZ$1.60 a litre.

Cheap and Expensive Countries: Norway and Switzerland were by far the most expensive while Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania proved to be cheap with probably Poland and Czech Republic the cheapest, but Spain would also be one of the cheapest all round based on supermarket buying, fruit and vege, eating out, and wine and beer.

Overall Costs for 47 Weeks (11 months):

Our budget: NZ$150 per day; NZ$1,050 per week; $49,350 for the 47 weeks. BUT…The real cost was: NZ$128 per day; NZ$899 per week; $42,262 for the 47 weeks – YAY!!!!

In summary you could do it a lot cheaper. We chose to stay in campsites every night except about 4 where we stayed in Aires (parking areas with power but no toilets or showers). These Aires can be up to 75% cheaper than campsites. We also chose to eat out regularly, which you don’t have to if you want to save money, and we went to every museum, historic site and places of interest that we wanted to. I think Louise also climbed every tower in Europe to get a view of whichever city we were in. It was never; “no we can’t afford it”. We just did it. And as I said, when we were boarding the ferry at Dunkirk to come back to the UK, we had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for a year ago, but we did all we wanted and more, never hurt ourselves, never crashed the van or had someone crash into us, never got robbed or broken into, it just all went so smoothly. What else can one want.

When you talk about what it cost; how much money did you spend in the last 47 weeks? Considering we all must eat and drink no matter where you are in the world, and day to day living has other costs like rates, mortgage or rent, power, petrol etc. Work it out you might be surprised.

So, with Europe behind us for now, it’s time to explore England, Wales and Scotland. As we’ve now sold the motorhome my part of the blog has become a bit redundant, but I will try and add something each month – an insight or two from “Mr Love’s” perspective.

Some of our many memorable experiences:

Midnight Sun on the Lofoten Islands, Norway

Reindeer on the road, Finland

Market in Gdansk, Poland

Meiringen, Switzerland

Lake Bled, Slovenia

Christmas Lunch, house-sitting in Periana, Spain

Pinos del Valle, Spain

Statistics by Month:

March 6, 2018May 27, 2018

9 Months on the Road: House Sitting

Another month gone and another chance for me to push Louise aside and have my turn on the blog. We passed a couple of milestones this month. Firstly, we notched up our 200^th night in the motorhome – the rest of the nights were with family and house sitting. Secondly, we checked in to our 100^th campsite, in Sardinia.

Before we left home we investigated the idea of doing some house sitting in Europe. We had used house sitters for our place in Auckland and an ex work colleague had been house sitting in Europe for a couple of years and highly recommended it. After a bit of research we registered on two sites: www.trustedhousesitters.com and www.mindmyhouse.com . I think better names would be Trusted Pet Sitters and Mind My Pets, as essentially that’s what it’s about. It costs around NZ$130 a year for Trusted House Sitters and only NZ$30 for Mind My House. You get email alerts every day with the new assignments or you can just go the website and search what’s available by country and/or date. We thought by doing a few house-sits along the way we could get off the tourist route and experience local life in a different country, as well as take a small break from the motorhome. Plus, we wanted to spend Christmas in a house, so we could cook a nice roast dinner.

To date we have undertaken five house sits in Europe and have one booked for the UK in June. We feel that may be enough, but we may look for another one in the UK in July.

In case some of you are a little confused about ‘house sits’. It’s basically looking after someone else’s house and their animals while they are away on holiday. It saves the owners paying the cost of putting their pets in a kennel or cattery and they get to stay in their own environment, plus someone is looking after the house and garden. It’s a win-win for both parties. The pets are happy, the house is secure and for the house sitters it’s free accommodation, all they need to do is provide their own food.

Here’s a snapshot of the five house-sits we have undertaken to date:

Our first house-sit was for two weeks in late October in a small French village, looking after 2 cats and a dog called Bailey. He was a lovely golden Labrador and we walked him all over the place through the hundreds of acres of vineyards. We cut the hedge and mowed the grass for the owners as well as looking after the animals. It was quite a narrow lane to get the motorhome down, so it stayed parked in the driveway for the duration of our stay and we either biked or walked everywhere. The supermarket was over 5km away and we biked there, filled our backpacks and basket and biked home. A couple of times we bought too much and had plastic bags swinging on the handle bars. Another time Louise worked out a short cut. Did I say short cut? Well, we went down small paths, across vineyards, along bumpy narrow tracks, before eventually finding the way back to the road. When we got to one corner I realised a baguette was missing. All the bumping had broken the paper bag and it had fallen out. Louise backtracked a few hundred meters and found it, unscathed and still edible. We didn’t use that short cut again!!

Our second house-sit was for nine days in early December near San Pedro de Alcantara in southern Spain. Trish had seven adorable dogs who were great fun to look after. Trish was also adorable. She had been living in Spain for many years having worked there in her early life. She had a great sense of humour and made us feel very comfortable and at home. The day we arrived Louise set off with Trish and her friends for a ‘Girls Christmas Lunch’. Most of the 18 lunch guests were Brits who now live in Spain and play golf together just down the road. I wasn’t invited so instead got acquainted with the dogs. Right opposite Trish’s house was a huge paddock, around 20 acres where we would take the dogs for a walk twice a day. The only snag was horses and a donkey that didn’t like dogs lived there. We were forever on the lookout for them and had to make some quickfire moves to avoid them. It was hysterical. Trish left us a vehicle to use so we managed to get around the coastal area and see the sights. At night I would light the fire and Louise would sit on the couch covered in dachshunds all trying to get the best spot close to her.

Pet & House-sitting in France

Pet-sitting in France

Nanny reclining by the pool in Spain

Hugs in front of the fire

4 of the 7 out walking

Our third house-sit was at Periana Spain, 20kms from the coast, in the mountains surrounded by thousands of olive trees. We were there for 2 weeks over Christmas. The drive in was hair raising. It was basically a one lane road of about 3km. We are quite a big vehicle and we had gone only 200 meters when we encountered a large Range Rover towing a trailer filled with olives. Having managed to negotiate our way past, by pulling the side mirrors in, all was good for another 500 meters when a tractor with a trailer load of olives arrived. Another deep breath and we again managed to pass. Then there were the overhanging trees – scratchy pomegranates that made an awful noise on the side of the van. At times we did wonder where we were going, but eventually we arrived at Steve, Midi and son Joe’s quaint Spanish farmhouse. We negotiated a small lane around the back of the house and parked the motorhome, and that’s where it stayed. We again had use of a vehicle. They had a few acres with three horses, a lovely dog called Milo, two rabbits, a cat and some hens. No matter which way we walked from the house it was up hill, so the fitness levels improved a lot while we were there. We had Christmas lunch on the deck in the sun and a lovely Christmas roast dinner that evening. There was only a hand full of houses in this small alcove just out of Periana and the neighbours were all were invited for drinks the day we arrived. It was an excellent idea as it enabled us to get to know everyone. Some of the neighbours kindly invited us to a lovely Boxing Day brunch with around 25 of their friends from around the area, they were ex pat Brits, a Norwegian couple, and a Belgium and Dutch couple, all of whom now call Spain home. Before we left Periana we did a bit of pruning on the roadside while we were out walking Milo and the drive out went without a hitch

Our fourth house-sit was for four days in mid-January at a place called Cehegin in the Spanish region of Murcia. Tony and Shirley moved from the UK 13 years ago. They have a number of olive trees and upon our arrival they gave us a 5-litre container of homegrown olive oil – an absolutely beautiful product. They were out in the country and had 3 dogs. The whole house ran on solar power, so you had to be a bit careful with how many appliances you had going at one time, but it all worked well. It was a nice house with swimming pool, a bit too cold to use at this time of year, and again our walks with the dogs took us through olive groves and past wild deer, much to the delight of the dogs who gave chase on one occasion but came back empty handed. One of the advantages of house sitting is it can take you off the tourist route. Louise found a campsite at a place called Bullas, about 15km from Cehegin, where we stayed the night prior. We walked in to the small town and found a wine museum. We decided to have a look around and it was fascinating. We also purchased some of the product for around NZ$5 a bottle – it would probably sell for NZ$20 plus at home. The day we left Cehegin they had a cold blast and our route took us up through a mountain range. From a distance it looked like more of those plastic green houses, but as we got closer we realised it was snow. Very beautiful.

Our final house-sit was for nine days in late January at a place called Pinos de Valle. On our arrival we realised this was one driveway we could not fit up. Our hosts Laurie and Annie have a gorgeous property in the mountains overlooking a damn, some 50km from Granada. Once we decided we couldn’t fit up the driveway, we decided to leave the motorhome at a parking lot in town about 3km up the road. The locals were told it was ours and while we were a bit nervous about leaving it there, it was as safe as houses. Again, a vehicle was left for us to run around in. The property had olives, oranges and lemons. We squeezed fresh orange juice for breakfast and were invited to take some with us which we happily accepted. Walking tracks for the two dogs were endless and we hiked all over the place with the two adorable dogs, Lucia and Nuria. They had a beautiful bakery in the small town of four shops and one restaurant/bar. The house was very warm with two fireplaces and under floor heating. We needed it. The Sierra Nevada ski fields weren’t too far away, and a big snow fall occurred during our stay. While it didn’t snow where we were, when we drove to the nearby supermarket, about 10km away, there was snow all along the roadside and surrounding hills and the cars in the carpark were covered in snow. Laurie is a mad keen rugby fan and they had flown off to Rome to see England play Italy. England won. Again, a lovely place to be house sitting with great hosts.

Periana, Spain

Cehegin, Spain

Walking with Kayla in Cehegin

Louise & Nuria, Pinos Del Valle

View over Pinos Del Valle

So that was our house sitting in Europe. All different, but all great and memorable experiences. Even if a campervan tour isn’t your thing, definitely keep house-sitting in mind. It is a brilliant way to see places you wouldn’t normally see, meet great people and animals, and all for a low cost.

Now to the stats for February. We finished NZ$1,165 under budget for the month even though our mileage increased on the previous couple of months. We travelled 1,624 km’s (1,015 miles) averaging 58km a day. We spent $339 on diesel with 22 nights in campsites, 5 house-sitting and an overnight on the ferry from Barcelona to Sardinia. We are now NZ$6,811 under our budget after 9 months and feeling pretty chuffed.

January 14, 2018May 27, 2018

7 Months on the Road: Motorhome Life

My turn to take the keyboard off Louise again to say a few words and do our monthly “on the road” summary.

Before we left New Zealand to embark on this adventure we did a lot of research on motorhomes. I had been in one, but had never driven one, stayed in one, cooked in one etc. What became obvious to both of us was there are so many different makes, designs and configurations to choose from. To help us decide we went along to the Ellerslie Motorhome Show last March. I guess we were “tyre kickers” but we paid our admission price and set out to take a long hard look. It was a very worthwhile exercise as it helped us narrow down our options and define a must-have list.

Let’s start with sleeping. You can get motorhomes with beds in almost every position possible – across the back, to one side, upstairs, folded out of the couch etc. One thing was for sure we didn’t want to be making the bed up each night and we didn’t want to be clambering over each other, so we decided we wanted an island bed at the back, permanently made-up and with access from both sides. Then it was the shower and toilet – we wanted a separate shower and toilet (more on that later). Another requirement was a full-length fridge with a freezer compartment. Many are only equipped with half-size fridges which suits if you’re only doing short holidays or weekend breaks, but that was not an option for a year on the road. Length was another consideration. We had done our reading and wanted our motorhome to be no longer than 7.5m, as anything bigger becomes a lot more expensive on toll roads and ferries.

With our list of requirements sorted we set about finding a motorhome in the UK. Buying one in the UK was the only real option, as to buy one on the continent you need to be a resident of the country its registered in and have a permanent address. The only problem with this is that most vans for sale in the UK are right-hand drives. We hadn’t intended to buy before we arrived in the UK, but Louise had been keeping an eye out on the UK Auto Trader website and found just what we were looking for. It was only a year old and had done 3,000 miles. Made in Germany and imported to England it was left hand drive which was perfect. To cut a long story short, my brother’s wife’s family, by coincidence, lived in the same area as the seller, so they were able to go and check it out for us. It looked good and after Skyping the sellers we decided to buy it. They delivered it to London and there it was sitting waiting for us when we arrived.

I must admit that driving from London to Dover to catch the ferry was quite interesting. Being left-hand drive, you realised how much you can’t see in a vehicle this size when the steering wheel is on the kerbside. I was very pleased we would be travelling in Europe with the correct drive for European driving.

Our first stop, Bruges in Belgium, was my first venture onto a campsite for many years. Louise said my face showed “horror” when I realised that I was going to be living in an area near other people day in day out. After a few more campsites I realised it wasn’t that bad and soon came to enjoy camp life. Bruges was the first night we’d slept in the van and we wondered how it would be. The beds in motorhomes aren’t big but there is plenty of room and the motorhome is warm. We were very surprised how comfortable it was and how well we slept. About 3 months in we did buy some foam rubber to go below the mattress and this has made it even more comfortable.

We had intended to do some “free” camping in Scandinavia, which is encouraged, but by the time we reached there it was obvious we liked the campsite facilities and security. To that end we have never used the shower in the motorhome and seldom use the toilet. The shower area has worked well as a wardrobe though. Another reason we opted out of using the shower is the water heating system operates on gas, and while its all fitted and ready to go every country in Europe has a different gas fitting so you must either have a lot of gas bottles or be prepared to buy a lot of different gas fittings. You can get an external fitting attached and fill with LPG at service stations, but the cost wasn’t worth it for just one year. We have barely used any of our gas as we also bought a two-plate electric cooker. We thought seeing we pay for power, why not use it. This system has worked very well, but occasionally we have blown the odd fuse in the campsite as our amperage has been too much for the outlet. A flick of the fuse switch and turning the fridge off while we are cooking normally does the trick. You learn a lot about electricity owning a motorhome.

The campsites in general have been great. To date we have stayed in 88 different establishments for a total of 190 nights – the rest of the time we have been with family or house-sitting (I will explain more about house-sitting next month). However, campsites do vary quite a bit. In Scandinavia most had cooking facilities, but in the rest of Europe this isn’t the case. Just about all have laundry facilities costing around 4-5 Euros a wash (NZ $8). Ninety per cent have great showers with plenty of pressure and hot water and very clean and serviced regularly. I can count on one hand how many have been a bit dirty or have had warm, not hot, showers. Pricewise we budgeted on spending around 30 Euros a night (NZ $50) and whilst we averaged just under that for the first couple of months, in the last two months we have been averaging around 20 Euros a night (NZ $33). High season in Europe is mid-June to mid-August. The further North you go the shorter the period is that they open for, many campsites close around mid to late September, which is why we are currently in southern Spain. Not only is it warmer but most campsites are open all year round.

Motorhoming in Europe is huge, and increasing in popularity all the time. There are so many motorhomes on the road. One day in Norway we decided to count the number coming towards us. In an hour, for every three vehicles that passed one would be a motorhome. Germans seem to be the most prolific travellers, “D” number-plates are everywhere. We have just moved on from a motorhome site right on the beach in Malaga, and while we were there I did a quick walk around. There were 69 motorhomes; 20 were German, 9 British, 8 French, 7 Spanish, 7 Swedish, 6 Belgium, 5 Italian, 4 Netherlands, 1 Austrian, 1 Slovenian and 1 NZ (us). In our 7 months on the road we have only run into 2 NZ couples doing what we are, one in Bern Switzerland and the other in Bled, Slovenia.

We have seen a varied array of motorhomes in our travels, from the more conventional like ours to some that look home-made, converted buses, and ex-army vehicles that look ready to take on the desert. The Germans seem to have the widest variety of motorhomes and the most interesting we’ve seen on the road. Here are some of the different types.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

As for life in a motorhome, we have had no problem adjusting. Spending the day walking round cities and seeing the sights normally tires you out, so by the time we get back, have a beer or glass of wine and cook dinner you wonder where the day went. We chose not to get satellite TV as a lot of the time you only pick up non-English speaking programmes, so we use Netflix and watch about an hour a day maximum – no news, no junk programmes, no watching for the sake of watching. It’s funny how quickly you can adapt to not having TV, instead we both read and look online for NZ and world news which generates discussion and time flies. Overall adapting to life in a small area has been surprisingly easy. We were both unsure how a year in a motorhome would be. It sounded quite daunting when we were planning it back in New Zealand, but after 7 months I can say it has been a whole lot better and easier than we ever expected.

Because we decided to head to southern Spain to escape winter we didn’t travel many miles in December, just 408 (652 km), so our diesel bill was lower than previous months with just NZ $144 spent on fuel. Also, we only stayed 10 nights in campsites because we have had two house-sitting jobs, which meant we were NZ $1,476 under our budget for the month. Here are the stats:

December 15, 2017May 27, 2018

6 Months on the Road: Fitness & Facts

It’s time for my turn to have my two pennies’ worth on the blog, so move aside Louise here I go. Two weeks ago, on December 3rd, we celebrated 6 months in the campervan in Europe. Yes, 6 months since we caught the boat from Dover to Calais and what an amazing time we have had so far. I must admit, sitting on the cross-channel ferry we were both very excited about what would lie ahead, but there was also a heap of apprehension. Driving on the other side of the road in a vehicle that is over 7-meters long, what would the campsites be like, how and what would we cook, would the budget we set ourselves be adequate, would we be fit enough for what we wanted to do, how would we cope living in a confined space, would we be warm enough, will I like the beer (ha-ha) and so on. The only thing we weren’t worried about was the language barrier as we have both travelled a lot in Europe and we knew we could communicate.

Some years back I was speaking with a friend of mine Don Menzies, who owns the travel company Travelcom at Mount Maunganui. He was telling me how often people went to book their trip of a lifetime with the idea of doing so many things, and he often had break it to them gently that what they wanted to do was out of their physical capabilities. He is right, travelling can be exhausting and to make the most of it you must be physically capable. An ex-colleague of ours Ray Douglas made a comment on Facebook the other day that we looked “travel fit” and he is right. When we first started planning this trip I bought a Fitbit. Louise already had one. Whilst a Fitbit isn’t the be all and end all when it comes to fitness, you can gauge how much exercise you are doing, and I can assure you it helped me no end in the 9 months preparing for this trip as we do a heck of a lot of walking here. If I hadn’t prepared I wouldn’t have been able to complete our 6-hour climb up Kjeragbolten in Norway, one of the highlights of our trip so far. To give you an idea of how far we walk, in the 6 months we have been on the road we have walked nearly 2,500 kilometres which equates to walking the length of New Zealand and then some, and we have cycled double that amount. No wonder I am 6kgs lighter, and I had already lost 5kgs in preparation. In fact, I am the lightest I have been since I can remember.

The climb up Kjeragbolten, Norway – a trip highlight

Another big hike to Pulpit Rock in Norway

Goldeck Mountain in Austria

Without wishing to be rude, we often pass tour buses arriving at various points and see the passengers getting off – they come in all shapes and sizes, young and old – and by looking at them I know for many their lasting memories of Europe will be whatever is within a couple of hundred metres of the bus stop. To explore these magnificent historic towns, you must be prepared to walk, 12 to 15 kilometres some days and with a lot of the terrain being up-hill. Many castles, forts and towers can only be accessed using stairs. If you can’t climb the stairs you miss out on so much.

A great investment we made was our bikes. These are a God-send and so many fellow motorhomers have them. So, if you aren’t that fit make sure you can ride a bike. Europe is very bike-friendly, with dedicated cycleways everywhere. Most campsites are 4-5kms out of town and the majority are linked to the central city by cycleways; even large cities like Berlin, Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen and so on. Bikes have allowed us to use our time well by arriving at a campsite in the early afternoon and cycling into the city straight away to get the lay of the land before exploring further the next day. Of course, now there is a huge range of electric bikes available to make life easier. I recently read that in Auckland there’s debate about shared pedestrian and cycleways not working, however, here in Europe they are everywhere and seem to work perfectly. There’s an obvious pecking order here, with pedestrians at the top, cycles a close second, and cars very much at the bottom.

Generally, Europeans are very active and cycling and walking is part of everyday life, even the elderly are out and about walking or on bikes, and many cities have free exercise equipment in parks. As most historic towns are made up of narrow lanes, many of which are pedestrian only, the New Zealand mentality of driving around until you find a park right outside a shop is redundant, you simply must walk.

Exercise equipment in a Jerez street, Spain

The pecking order!

So, leaving the fitness behind, here are our figures for month 6. But, before I leave you for another month you may be interested to know that in the first 6 months we have travelled 11,481 miles or 18,369kms, an average of 100 km’s a day; we have spent NZ $3,784 on diesel; stayed in 80 different campsites for 156 nights, the other 26 were house sitting or with family; and spent $6,521 on campsites, money well spent for having nice facilities.

November 5, 2017May 27, 2018

5 Months on the Road: Dollars & Dogs

Andrew here again with my monthly input.

Five months on the road and you really wonder where it’s gone, but I guess when you realise we have travelled just over 15,000 km’s, been to 21 countries, stayed in 66 different campsites, climbed numerous hills and lookouts, been to so many wonderful churches, cathedrals, forts, and all kinds of museums and places of interest, then that’s where it’s gone.

We mentioned early on about the infamous Norwegian road tolls, well I now apologise Norway. We spent 3 weeks in your country, travelled some 4,000 or so kilometres and the road tolls were a smidgeon over $100 NZ; and when you think of the tunnels and viaducts we travelled on and the time and diesel we saved (against taking the back roads if that was an option, and in many cases it was not), then $100 NZ is money well spent. The reason I recap on this is we have faced some very heavy tolls in Italy and France. The other day we left Lausanne in Switzerland and crossed the border to France. To be fair the road then took us through some very scenic areas and over some amazing road structures fixed against the sides of mountains etc., but the 150km from the French border just out of Geneva to Lyon France cost us $49 NZ. Two days later, the 230km drive from Lyon to Avignon cost another $48 NZ in French road tolls, so in two days and 380km we had paid nearly as much as 3 weeks and 4,000 km’s in Norway. On our next trip from Avignon we decided to use the back roads and whilst it took us an hour or so longer it was only a handful of kilometres more, and it was quite nice to be off the motorways, but it is quite testing getting through some of the smaller towns.

I mentioned we have been to 66 campsites and one thing we can’t get over is the number of pets in campsites. It seems if you are European, you own a motorhome and you have a pet, you take it with you on holiday. Every campsite has a charge for pets and they are just an accepted part of everyday life. Of course, dogs are the most popular and we have seen all sizes and shapes, some with more than one, and in Basel a lady arrived in her small motorhome with 3 Labradors. The dogs also go with their owners on a day out. Many of the campsites are 3 -6 km’s from the centre of town, so the dogs go in baskets on the front of bikes, or in trollies towed behind the bikes. I have spoken to quite a few owners and they all tell me the dogs love being towed behind the bike in a cart or sitting in a basket at the front. We even have seen some dogs being pushed around in what looked like “baby’s strollers”. I asked one lady and she told me they were made especially for dogs. Their dog was 14 years old and they loved having him with them, so it was a way of getting him round, as he didn’t walk too far. He seemed more than happy in his “doggie pram”.

It’s not just dogs though. We have seen a couple of cats on leads and others looking out of campervan windows, a rabbit, and birds in cages. Back at Ljubljana in Slovenia we parked next door to a Spanish couple and I noted they had a bird inside the motor home. I wandered over to talk to them and found out the Love Bird’s name was Piri. He has had his wings clipped so can’t fly far, but is free to fly round the inside of the motorhome. Jaume and Susanna come from Olot in the province of Girona in Spain, and Piri the bird always travels away with them in their motorhome, providing plenty of kisses to his owners to show his appreciation.

Travelling in style!

Why walk?

A friendly pooch from the van next door

A visitor came to dinner

Piri the Love Bird

On the financial front we have managed to go under budget for the month by $880 or $28 per day. We continue to go and see everything we can, and never say we can’t afford something. Cooking your own meals in the motorhome is of course a huge saving and going to some of these supermarkets to buy the food is an eye opener. They really are huge and the variety of food they have never fails to amaze us. I have converted Louise to actually enjoy supermarket shopping. I have been a converted supermarket shopper for years as some of you may know. More on that in a later end of the month blog.

We have saved on campsites over the past few days as we have taken on a house-sitting job in Southern France which Louise will enlighten you about in her blog.

So that’s all from me for another month, here are the stats.

October 7, 2017May 27, 2018

4 Months on the Road: Cost Summary

As you know Louise writes our travel updates, but once a month I’m allowed to pen my thoughts and share the figures, because, apart from chief driver and cook, I’m also the accountant and keep tabs on what we’re spending. Louise does pretty much everything else.

So here goes, instalment 2:

When you embark on a year-long European tour without a job, you do need to watch spending. That doesn’t mean being a “tight arse”, but rather be frugal and think where the spending needs to be. To that end we recently spent a week in Switzerland and knew it would be expensive, and it was, but we stocked up before we crossed the border saving us a lot of money.

In Basel where the French/German/Switzerland borders meet there is a huge, and I mean HUGE, supermarket. What it didn’t sell didn’t matter, anyway it was in Germany, and the prices were great so we basically stocked up with a week’s food

Statistically German food and drink prices are 44.68% lower than Switzerland, according to the September price index. Italy is 41% lower and Spain, where we will be heading to in a couple of months, 54% lower.

I have been using a website www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living .You can pick whichever country you want to get a gauge on prices. The prices I am quoting in the graph below are taken from this site. I know you can buy eggs, potatoes etc., cheaper when on special, but this is a broad price index and if you follow it, it will give you good indication of what to expect. As you can see Switzerland is very expensive and what puts the NZ total price up is the cost of wine and beer.

As Switzerland is not part of the EU you need change your money to Swiss Francs. That in itself is a hassle and a you do lose a bit with exchange rates. Zurich is currently rated the most expensive place in the world to live, and whilst its wonderfully situated on a large lake we had to pay $72NZ a night for a campsite, which was the dearest on our 4 months of travelling by some $10 (and they said Norway was expensive). And to be fair it would only rate in the bottom 30% of campsites we have stayed in, in regards to quality and facilities. You also need to buy a road toll vignette sticker before driving in Switzerland, and unlike Austria, you buy it at one price for the duration of 2017 – you wouldn’t want to arrive here on the 20^th December. In Austria you can buy a 10-day pass for $15NZ, but in Switzerland you pay $56NZ for the 2017 sticker. However, the roads are great and we’re more than happy to contribute to the cost with building the incredible tunnels and bridges that make travelling through the mountains so easy. It’s a much better system of paying too, with one fee, rather than Norway’s charging you as you go.

If you enjoy a beer or wine then you should stock up in the cheaper countries. Whilst Czechia was so cheap for beer, and even wine, Germany has an amazing beer culture so the range is huge. In Czechia we went to a bar attached to a campsite, had a pint of beer each and had change from $5NZ. Yes, they cost $2.30NZ a pint. We also found a local Czech wine shop and bought a couple of bottles of local wine for around $10NZ each, but they also had fill your own and I couldn’t resist. I filled a 2 litre plastic bottle of red wine for $7NZ and prepared for the worst. I wanted to go back next morning and buy a truck load, it was better than most bottles you pay $15 for in New Zealand, and this was almost the equivalent of 3 bottles for $7.

As for wine, we stopped at a big supermarket in France called Cora. They had a huge wine selection and you could taste before you buy. The two guys in the wine section spoke English and we told them what we were looking for and a couple of samples later we had a few cartons of lovely red wine at less than 5 Euro ($8 NZ) a bottle – I reckon you would pay around $20 in New Zealand for the same, perhaps even more. Interesting that they sell most of their win in cartons of six.

As for beer, in Germany the supermarkets are stocked to the gunnels and there are so many varieties. When we were staying with Louise’s Aunt and Uncle in Wahlrod, George took us down to the Rewe Supermarket where they had a liquor section. First stop was getting money back for the empties. You put them in this machine, it reads the barcode, and when you are finished it spits out a voucher which you can redeem in store. For each beer bottle the refund is 10 cents (NZ) and for each plastic bottle (water or soft drink), 30 cents (NZ).

I decided I would stock up so I chose a few bottles and went home for a tasting. A 500ml bottle of nice German beer costs between 95 cents (NZ) and $1.40 (NZ) and you get 10 cents back on the bottle. Very cheap

Some of the samples we had to test in Germany.

Feeding the recycling machine in Germany

The other thing I noticed was they sell them in crates of 10 and 20, in line with the metric system. Funny New Zealand is also metric, meters, Kilometres, kilos, litres etc., but we still use the old measurement of half dozen and dozen bottles. The same applies when buying eggs. Here they are in 10’s where in most cases New Zealand still has dozens (just an observation).

And if you like a tipple every now and then, you can buy a 700ml bottle of Whiskey or Brandy for about $10NZ, Gin for $8NZ and Jim Beam (don’t mind if I do occasionally) for $15.

Budget wise, we continued to be under budget, thanks largely to the fact we didn’t have to pay campsite fees whilst staying with Margaret and George – just as well because you will notice we had the highest monthly campsite fee average of the 4 months, and a whopping $12 a night more than August.

Finally, as you can see we are tracking well to budget considering we have spent a lot on tourist attractions and activities lately. To finish as I started, if you’re embarking on an adventure like ours, plan your route and look at the costs of the country and the average you should be paying before you go. The other morning we left Innsbruck in Austria and filled up in the little village beside the campsite. Diesel was 1.10 Euro a litre. The van took 64 litres. On the motorway the price was 1.39 Euro a litre so that meant we saved 18 Euro by filling up in the town. That’s $30NZ!

September 7, 2017May 27, 2018

3 Months on the Road: A Summary

Mr Love has a lot to say about what I should include in the travel updates I write, mostly about what things cost. As he’s the one who is keeping track of what we spend I thought it only fair to handover the responsibility of writing the monthly summaries to him. So here you go, the first of Love’s Bits & Budgets:

In 1957 one of the most famous travel books hit the shelves. Yes, 60 years ago this year American Arthur Frommer produced his first edition of “Europe on $5 a day”. The series continued until 2007 when the title became “Europe on $95 a day”.
When we first decided to take on this adventure we had no idea what it would cost. I mean how much does one spend a day at home? Food, drink, petrol, phone, heating, rates etc., and seeing as we were making the campervan our home we needed something to work to.

When Arthur Frommer wrote his first book he literally flew to Europe, went to 15 cities, and ran from hotel to hotel and restaurant to restaurant to draw the comparisons and costs for his book. As an aside the first edition consisted of 5000 copies and sold out in days. In 1957 one US Dollar was equal to 4.2 Deutschmarks, of course today it’s all Euro but drawing the comparisons today a US dollar would buy you 1.5 Deutschmarks – three times less. To that end Europe on $5 a day would now be somewhere between Europe on $100 and Europe on $400 a day. A big variation I know, but given costs and exchange rates that’s what we had to work with.

So, using some of Frommer’s writings and other blogs as a guide, we worked out you should be able to live on $150 a day for two people without too much trouble. As Louise has written previously, the Scandinavian countries were expensive, but in the last month prices have dropped significantly and we can now proudly say we are NZ$667 under budget after 3 months. I would point out we have a couple of meals out each week, trying the local food, and we also have 2-3 lunches out a week. We have visited sight-seeing attractions we wanted to, and have not ever said “we can’t afford it”. We are here to experience Europe, but there are always good ways of making savings.

Back in Norway I was speaking to a middle-aged Norwegian guy in a camp site. He said the diesel and petrol prices can vary enormously from day to day, even hour to hour (they are all electronically controlled by the oil company), so if you see it cheap buy it, even if the tank is only half empty. To illustrate that, here in Germany the prices at the pump can change up to 5 times a day. We are currently staying with Louise’s aunty and uncle in a small village called Wahlrod. Uncle George supported what the guy in Norway said so I have been watching the fuel price at the petrol stations in the village, and the prices vary unbelievably. Last Monday morning diesel was 1.24 Euro a litre yet the day before I saw it at 1.07 euro. 17 cents different, and if you were to fill up with 50-60 litres once a week for a year, you would save nearly NZ$1000 buying at that cheaper price. That’s a big saving, and if you like a beer that $1000 NZD would buy you around 2000 x 500ml bottles in Czech Republic.

Did I say beer? Well, I might keep that for the next blog, but to whet your appetite the price of beer in supermarkets in the Czech Republic was ridiculous and it’s also cheap here in Germany, but as I said I have another chance to have my say next month and we will talk wine and beer.

I must also mention we received our toll bill for Norway and it was a very modest NZ$85. I say modest because if the Norwegian’s hadn’t built all those tunnels we spoke about, the time spent travelling between places, along with the huge extra mileage and diesel costs, and the potential ferry bills, may well have added an extra NZ$850 plus to the bill. We happily paid the road toll bill.

P1000894 — Thanks Norway – We loved your tunnels!

My final comment comes from Arthur Frommer, who is now 87 and continues to travel regularly. He rates Paris as his most favourite city to visit but is surprised that American tourist numbers are down by 30% year on year. Why? Terrorism. Yes, the threat of terrorism in Paris is keeping the American tourists away. And what is his answer to that? He says, “I will not let some deranged terrorist decide where I should and should not go”. Great words that many of us adhere to.

Here are the stats for month three. You might note that we did basically the same mileage in July and August but the diesel costs were $240 less. That’s because diesel in places like Lithuania and Poland were up to 50 cents a litre less than Sweden and Norway.

Cheers & beers, Andrew.

August 3, 2017May 27, 2018

2 Months on the Road: Opening the Books

Another month has passed since we took to the road on our European adventure, and we’re feeling very pleased with ourselves. Not only has touring in our campervan been a lot easier than we thought, we’re enjoying it more and we’re managing to more-or-less keep to our budget.

Our budget of $150 NZD per day was harder to stick to in the first month being in the more expensive Scandinavian countries, however spending the last 2 ½ weeks in the cheaper Baltic countries has helped get us back on track.

Finland proved to be more expensive than even Norway for campsites, averaging $46 NZD per night. Estonia averaged $37 NZD per night, and Latvia at $32 NZD was a big saving.

To see all we wanted to see of Scandinavia we had to cover huge distances, but now there are less miles to travel between destinations so our fuel bill has reduced significantly. Fuel has also been a lot cheaper in the Baltic countries – down to as low as $1.45 NZD per litre in Latvia and Lithuania.

Food costs have come down too in the last month, especially in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In Riga we paid $10 NZD a kilo for fresh cod at the central markets. At the same markets, we bought two broccolis for $1, carrots for 50 cents a kilo, 1.10 a kg for new potatoes, and $2 a kilo for grapes (all in NZD). The choice in supermarkets is fantastic especially the range of fresh bread, fruit, cheese and meat/fish.

P1010905 — Shopping up large at the Central Markets in Riga, Latvia

Eating out is also good value. We went out for dinner in Riga to celebrate 8 weeks on the road, and the meal cost under $100 NZD for two entrées, mains and bottle of wine, and this was at a very nice restaurant.

20170729_191357 — Traditional Latvian Salted Herrings

We were staggered at how reasonable entrance fees to attractions were in St. Petersburg, at only around $7 – $11 NZD for palaces, national museums and cathedrals. The trend continued in Estonia and Latvia where they were slightly lower on average.

So, after two months on the road this is where we are at:

We have excluded the overnight ferry to St. Petersburg from our budget as this was a pre-booked trip, but we have included all additional costs incurred with that trip, including keeping the campervan at a campsite in Helsinki while we were gone. Also, we haven’t included the tolls from Norway as we are yet to receive the bill for these.

Mr. Love’s best investment this month: a double element electric cook top for $70 NZD. He thought that if we’re paying for power in a campsite why use our own gas. It’s important to know that in Europe gas fittings are different from country to country so it can be difficult to re-fill your gas bottles. We have a UK gas bottle that is compatible with Norwegian fittings, but we’ve been told won’t be easy to re-fill in the rest of Europe. So rather than buying multiple fittings we’re conserving our gas as much as we can until we’re in Germany where we can get a more universally compatible fitting. The campsites all have kitchen facilities, some cleaner and better than others, but it’s a bit antisocial to send Mr. Love off to cook in the kitchen by himself. The electric cooker is well and truly proving it’s worth.

With another month under our belt we’re starting to get the hang of this campervanning lark. Here’s to life on the road!