Europe Main Page

Beginning in March 2010, and continuing through 2011, 2012, 2013...
Europe,
yes, Nurse Betty, THE Europe,
along with North Africa & Western Asia

We arrived in Europe in Spring 2010 with seemingly endless opportunities ahead of us and a multi-year time frame allocated to enjoy as many of them as we possibly can. Once a person is in Europe with a vehicle, the horizons are indeed a long ways off. In addition to the western countries such as France, England, Italy, Germany and the others we Americans typically think of as Europe, all of eastern Europe, Africa and Asia are now reachable by road or ferry. How can we choose which to visit first and how to proceed from there? Not surprisingly, we don’t really know the answer to that. If you come along with us over the next several years you’ll learn our answers almost as soon as we do ourselves.
As we wrap up our third year, we find that we have already visited thirty-two European countries, plus Morocco and Turkey. Before arriving here, I’m sure we wouldn’t have guessed there were that many countries in Europe. As of this writing, we think we’ll probably spend another three years before we’re ready to move on to other shores, but, honestly, we don’t know.
When we first arrived, we began, of course, with certain interests and priorities; and also with one overriding imperative imposed on us from above that controls to a certain extent how we will plan our time. See the sidebar below on the Schengen Agreement for more information on this subject.
Below you will find brief summaries of each year’s journey
along with links to the stories and photos from that year.

In 2010, we traveled about 14,000 miles through twelve countries in just over nine months. We began with two weeks in Paris while awaiting the arrival of our vehicle. Then we spent three months exploring Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of France, Germany and Switzerland. In June we ferried across the English Channel and spent four and a half months becoming enchanted with England, Scotland, Wales and both Ireland and Northern Ireland. Come late October, the cooling of the weather drove us south through western France to Spain and Portugal where we ended the year in Lisbon, flying back to the US in mid-December.
To access all the stories and photos from our 2010 travels go to Europe 2010.

In 2011, we stayed in the south, traveling 19,000 miles in just less than nine months. We visited nine new countries along with several carry overs from the previous year. We began the year in late February by seeing more of Portugal and Spain before crossing to Morocco, where we spent a thoroughly enjoyable six weeks before returning to see more of Spain and southern France on our way to Italy. We spent a wonderful month crossing northern Italy on our way to what would turn out to be a full summer and fall exploration of the Balkans, enjoying wonderful experiences in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia on our way to Bulgaria, where we spent over a month wandering around that interesting country.
Go to Europe 2011 to see all the details.

In 2012, we began our year in England at the end of March and flew home from Greece in mid-December. We covered a bit under 16,000 miles through a total of eighteen countries, thirteen of them new to us. We began in England, where we had left our Tiger at the end of 2011. We moved through Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands on our way to Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. After a wonderful summer in the north, we spent time in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania before moving quickly through Poland, Slovakia and Hungary before pausing a bit in northern Romania. Then it was on to a couple of weeks of catching up on projects around the ‘house’ in Bulgaria before moving on at last to Turkey, where we basically ended our year, moving out to eastern Greece right at the end so that we could leave the Tiger and return for our annual few months in the US. As an aside, both Bulgaria and Turkey, along with other countries, stamp your passport indicating you have entered the country with a vehicle. You are not permitted to leave the country without the vehicle unless you have arranged to have it impounded in a customs facility and acquired the appropriate paperwork.
Go to our Europe 2012 page to see what we were up to last year;

In 2013, we returned to Greece and during the course of the year traveled in thirteen countries and traveled a bit over 13,000 miles. Our plans took us back to Turkey, then on to the Caucasus countries of Georgia and Armenia. We returned to Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, eastern Germany and Slovakia and added the Czech Republic and Austria on our way south to Italy, where we ended our year near Rome.
Go to Europe 2013 to follow our current travels.

An added feature you may enjoy is our Europe by Motorhome summary, which covers many topics of a more practical nature for anyone interested in traveling Europe by motorhome. We’ve added new financial summary information and other updated information for 2012 and will continue to expand this page as we add each new year’s experiences.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
~ Mark Twain

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