Our daughter, wife, the campervan (aka Betty Sue) and I went on a 3-month tour around Europe. From January through March. 10,500 km. 15 countries. 4 ferry trips. It was amazing.

Let’s start from the beginning. How could anyone (who is not retired) do this kind of a trip nowadays? I can tell you it’s not easy but definitely possible! The idea came from our daughter, who said, “I was born in Europe but have never lived there.” Indeed, she was born in Prague; our family moved to Dubai when she was 9 months old, and later, when she turned 8, we moved to Bali. Obviously, she visited several European countries many times on short holiday trips but according to her, “it would be amazing to experience countries, people, culture, food & and learn how it feels to live here”.

I got, of course, excited immediately!

There were few challenges to overcome though. First: the school. Second: my work. Third: our dogs. Fourth: money. She presented the idea at school and all the teachers started cheering, recommending places to visit and asking if they could come along. Done. My work simple too as I work mostly online – I told all my clients about the plan, committed to work en-route and somehow got away with it. 

Dogs…well all of you, dog lovers, know that this one is not so easy. Luckily, two things happened: my wife decided to join us for one and half month only and could stay with them, plus we found a lovely young yoga teacher who agreed to ‘dog sit’ in exchange for staying in our house. 

Money: luckily, we have a propensity to spend on travel and experiences (and save a lot on expensive watches and handbags). I drafted a budget and said to the rest of our travel group, “let’s go in a campervan!” Both girls obviously claimed that camping was ‘my thing’, nevertheless I came up with a ton of arguments of why it’s the best option, money being one of them. As we later found out, one could rent a campervan for a fraction of the usual cost, during winter months. Probably thanks to the fact that many people don’t know how to camp in snow. Ourselves included. Let’s see.

How to chose a campervan? I didn’t want anything too big as the idea of driving an 8-meter mastodon on icy roads was a little freakish. Also, I wanted to ideally avoid the necessity of being rescued by a crane after getting stuck in the narrow streets of some medieval Italian town. At the same time, the camper had to have a bathroom as many campsites are closed in winter. 6-meter Weinsberg 600 was the choice, thank you Hykro Prague for providing us with the right vehicle.

Next was to learn how to camp in cold. As we are experienced ‘campervanists’ – been for one week in Austria in August ten years ago – I had to learn a bit. There are so many resources on the web these days, you can find anything. And, hope that the reality will be at least similar to what you watch on Youtube. How to make sure the water inside of the van does not freeze? What about heating? The issue of condensation? Let me not bore you with details here, if you start contemplating such a trip – there is a list of useful links at the end of the post. Just one resource from many: park4night app. Priceless.

There was an idea of working on the trip. My daughter doing few subjects for school and me connecting online often. In terms of education, she did a geometry course via google classroom with the other students at school. The plan which never happened was to read books about different countries that we visited and write a report. Last but not least, our daughter asked me to put together a basic personal finance and investment course for her. I did, the curriculum was approved by the head of high school, off we go.

She did the itinerary, selected countries to visit, I put everything in google map and created a spread sheet where we put together a rough plan. Cities and places to visit. Friends to surprise. Must-see sightseeing. The plan got altered many times on the way but it was a good starting point.

The D-day has arrived! 2nd of January. I picked up the car, we packed everything (really everything!) and started our journey from Prague to Italy as our first stop had to be skiing in the Italian Dolomites. Just me and daughter for the first part of the roadtrip. The campsite there was the only one that we booked upfront, all the other places we kept finding on the go.

Looking back at the journey now, it has been one long beautiful experience assembled from hundreds of little pieces. 

Dolomiti Superski. Camping in the snow and -10*C. Being alone (almost) in Venice. Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Visiting a dear friend at his family wineyards near Valpolicella. More skiing with other friends, this time in Madonna di Campiglio. Parmigiano and prosciutto shops in Parma. Discovering surprising beauty of the Genoa coastline with another local friend, tasting pesto genovese and focaccia freshly made every day. Menton, the french coastal town, like from the postcards. Trying to drive through the tiny up- and downhill streets of Monaco. Famous Gendarmerie at St. Tropez followed by special ‘Tarte de St. Tropez’. Fresh, crisp, freezing air on a morning run in Sanary-sur-Mere. Medieval castle of Carcassonne.

Staying in our friend’s apartment in Barcelona, motorbike and car included. That’s where mummy joined us. Barcelona is one of the best cities! Visiting a weekend house of great friends in Gualta. Toulouse, Rocamadour castle, Paris, ferry to England, Oxford and lovely lunch with another family we haven’t seen for years. Incredibly beautiful nature in Wales both inland and the coast. Ferry to Ireland. Amazing experience of visiting a place in Cobh from where Titanic departed on her first and last voyage. Sleeping completely alone in the middle of Gougane Barra national park. Cliffs of Moher, stunning, rough. Tullamore Dew distillery tour, must visit for any whisky lover.

Visiting an Irish family who we met in Bali – getting caught in a snowstorm on our way to Dublin. Guinness experience. By this time, we realized that we wouldn’t manage our itinerary and had to extend the rental… Back to Wales, Snowdonia mountain with its horizontal rain and hurricane-style wind. Back to England, beautiful and energizing Cambridge with thousands of students on bicycles. Ferry to Rotterdam, back to the continent. Uluwatu beach restaurant in The Hague. Dinner with old friends from Dubai. Amsterdam, of course. Catching up with my former colleagues from the bakery business was another highlight, followed by randomly finding a great pub in Gouda and sampling several beers with the locals.

Belgium, another place where one could spend weeks: old cities of Antwerpen and Bruggy. Mama flew back to Prague from Brussels. Slowly, slowly we started to feel that the trip would be over soon. We still managed to visit Luxembourg, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Munich with its famous Bayerische Hof. Driving back to Prague while signing “Ryba z Havaje” together.

It felt so long and so short at the same time! Weird how time perception changes when we do something intense and entertaining. What was the best, one can ask? I don’t know! We loved the nature of Wales and Ireland. Catching up with friends along the way and learning first hand about their countries. Sampling as much local food as possible. Visiting amazing cities, museums and just walking around the medieval towns. Camping itself with all the stuff one has to keep arranging. Beautiful time together as a family. No people – no tourists was great, though many campsites were closed which occasionally forced us to sleep in the streets.

My only challenge, except for sourcing gas for heating and cooking (there are 4 different connections in Europe with sooo many different gas tanks), was to combine work and travel. It was manageable but I felt quite stretched and torn between the trip itself and work engagements, especially in the first two weeks of the trip before I found some rhythm. Schedule phone calls for early mornings or while driving, then take a break, visit, tour, organize, drive, shop, cook…and open the laptop again in the evening to catch up on emails and any strategic work. It was a lot! I am grateful that my work allows me such flexibility but I needed a holiday after we returned to Prague. 😉

Probably the most incredible highlight of the trip was our time together. With beautiful, deep discussions as well as occasional conflicts. Preparing meals together. Visiting art museums and then discussing what we saw. Countless wonderful local meals (incl. gelato, of course) again together. Signing aloud while driving. Such time, either as a family or just dad-kid, well…teenager, is indeed priceless. How often does it happen that a teenage daughter wants to spend three months with her parents? Moreover in the confined space of a campervan? 

She put a cherry on top of the cake when she wrote a heartwarming and tear-dropping reflection about the trip for school: 

“The experience of taking three months off of school and travelling around Europe in a campervan is not something many people can claim to have done. Driving from city to city, over mountains, highways, small towns, seas, and more has been extraordinary and I believe will continue gaining more meaning as my life continues. I think that when I’m 30, having lunch with my parents somewhere in the world we will look back at this time and smile. Smile, because of how remarkable it was that we went through with my dream, and had an amazing time. Even now, though it’s barely over, I miss the excitement and wonder of repeatedly experiencing new landscapes, cultures, and cuisines. There were challenges, of course, both expected and surprising, but the positive outweighed every one of them. Spending time with my parents was something I hold very dearly because it made me realise how much I love them and still need them in my life. They are two very cool human beings and the fact that they allowed and supported me in this adventure is wonderful, and I could cry for how grateful I am.”

One of the most joyful experiences of my life is over now, and as I am sitting in the plane to Bali writing this post I just can’t believe how lucky and grateful I am.

Well, everything in life comes to an end including our European roadtrip. Time to think about another adventure! My daughter already started talking about Scandinavia…

How do you make sure to spend enough time with your family and friends? How often does ‘other stuff’ take over? How often do people regret not having done something in life, not having fulfilled their dreams? Friends ask me “how did you do it”? I just smile and say “well, start with renting a campervan…”

If you want to learn more about our journey, campervaning or anything else, just write me an email as always. I read and try to reply to all the messages from my dear readers.

Have a wonderful day & Learn, Enjoy, Live.

PS: after all the cakes, sausages, cheeses, wine and pasta…a 3-day Ayurvedic detox is already booked back in Bali…

Resources:

• park4night app
• Hykro Campervans
• ACSI Eurocampings
• 10 Tips for Living in a Camper in the Winter
• 10 Epic UK Winter Roadtrips
• The Ultimate Guide to Winter Camping
• And finally…if you like luxury…we saw one! Morelo Grand Empire