A bientôt EU

[Ryemslie]

It’s been a pleasure following you & the familys journey throughout

 

[bigmac77]

Your blog has entertained throughout the last year and I particularly enjoyed reading your posts throughout the UK winter. Sometimes when you didn’t post for a few days I started to worry whether you were ok.

Great trip and I am very envious when I retire I would love to do something similar

 

[Hotel California]

Your blog has entertained throughout the last year and I particularly enjoyed reading your posts throughout the UK winter. Sometimes when you didn’t post for a few days I started to worry whether you were ok.

Great trip and I am very envious when I retire I would love to do something similar

Chris ,
Once your boys are grown up you can hand over the site to them ....leaving plenty of time to tour arround Europe , my door is always open for you !

 

[Amarillo]

First thing every morning is right. Tom, do you not sleep? Your posts seemed to appear at 3am a lot!

We go to bed at 8pm with the boys. Wake at 3am and need to occupy myself before getting up.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

 

[bigmac77]

Chris ,
Once your boys are grown up you can hand over the site to them ....leaving plenty of time to tour arround Europe , my door is always open for you !

They will be mature enough in about 20 years minimum.

 

[gvick]

Day 340 - Dresden

5 June 2017 was the day we drove to Folkestone, took the Eurotunnel shuttle service to France, and spent the first night of our year away in our van, not really knowing what we had done.

We had tenants for a year move into our home on 17 June, so bridges were burnt: no return home. Our tenants move out on 16 June, and as we return to England on 15 June we have one or two nights with my parents before moving back into our lovely house again. We are very much looking forward to being home now.

This is Day 340 of our blog, not Day 365, why? In mid August, having travelled around the Baltic Sea, we returned to England for four weeks. We had a few nights in our van, but mostly we spent our time in my parents' second home overlooking Chichester Harbour in Emsworth. Those days went unblogged. There appears to be a discrepancy of three days in the blog: if none of the 28 days in England were blogged, then this should be Day 337. I'm unsure what has happened there, but as these things bug me I will investigate properly once I can review my blog properly on a PC.

Best experiences?

Cycling down Flåm mountain on a Brompton, hauling two toddlers in a trailer is up there. Also in Norway, leaving the boys alone and asleep in the van at midnight at Nordkapp and standing hand in hand with my wife hoping to glimpse the midnight sun below the cloud. Snuggled up in the top deck of our van with my wife and two boys watching Mary Poppins while the rain thundered outside. Having the entire city of Pompei to ourselves to explore on a wet and cold November day. Walking down the main road in Viscri late afternoon, watching the animals being brought home for the night. Being presented with a 15 Euro bill for a two course meal, plus drinks, for four people.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

Fantastic entertaining read - well done and very inspirational

 

[burnercan]

I have much enjoyed following you and your family on this adventure. The longest I did in a bus with kids was 6 weeks (including home schooling) and it was no easy task. Well done, Sir! Looking forward to your next adventure..

 

[calibusje]

Hellow
Your adventure was captivating and it will be most pleasant to read over your blog. It's a real achievement for you and your family (and off course also Jess & Meg). I loved looking at your pictures!
Greetings

 

[lancashirelass]

Hi Tom and family, what an amazing trip! We've loved reading about your adventures and have got some great tips and advice, especially for travelling with kids!

Thought you might like to know that we're picking up the baton...for a mini tour anyway. We're currently on our way to Hull from Edinburgh sailing tonight for our own 9 week adventure in Europe. We're all super excited, especially my little girls!

Enjoy being at home.

Cath

 

[106Rallye]

Tom thanks for a brilliant insight into your year away with your family. The posts have been fantastic and my breakfasts won’t be quite the same again with out reading about your adventures and looking up places on google maps!!

 

[Skylark2.0]

I .loved reading about your adventures. Thank you so much!

 

[Amarillo]

Day 350 - Esbeek to Blackheath

We slept in 'Transit mode', an adult and the two boys in the roof, and the other adult on the made up bench seat, with the boot packed. This was to give us a quick start in the morning. However, things did not go to plan. At about 6pm we had light rain, and this deterred me from packing the tent awning, and in the morning it was still damp, so it was not until 10.30 that we departed. Still, we had nearly six hours before our 4.20pm crossing for the three hour drive to Calais.

We wanted to stop twice on the way, once for lunch and once for wine. We were forced into an early toilet stop, and then traffic around Antwerp delayed us by another half hour. 50 minutes down, and the need to check in Meg before checking in Amarillo at the Shuttle terminal meant we were under pressure for lunch.

We identified a suburb of Ghent called Flora as a good place just off the motorway for lunch, and Clare found a 'child friendly' restaurant for our last meal. I'd envisaged Clare tucking into a massive bowl of moules-frites, the boys a steak hashe and me a steak-frites. All quick, and all easy.

Instead the restaurant was rather posh, certainly child friendly with its own bouncy castle and 'Little Tikes' plastic slides and modular climbing equipment - but still rather posh. With no time to search alternatives we stayed. Clare and the boys shared two set menus, and I had my steak and chips - excellent fillet with about six hand cut soggy chips. The boys ate three each, while I was a pure carnivore.

On another occasion I could have really enjoyed the meal and the restaurant. But it just didn't work for us. No wine, just water, but the Belgians don't do tap water in their restaurants: we were charged 10 Euros for 750ml of sparkling and 250ml of still. Wine would have been cheaper!

We arrived at the tunnel terminal at 3.30, checked in Meg which was painless and efficient, then checked in ourselves.

I'd booked in the van as a 'car over 1.85m' with an unknown registration. When I plugged in the registration the website tried to overcharge me as a campervan, but our van does not fit Eurotunnel's own definition of campervans (which includes a kitchen and fresh water tank). I wondered if I'd need to argue our case, but no, we sailed through as a car over 1.85m.

The queue for UK Border Control was slow, and all four of us were checked carefully, with Ben and Jack having to wave at the official through the open sliding window that Ben has now learned to open and close himself.

Then we were waved straight through the terminal and onto the platform ramp just as the 16:20 train pulled out. We were stuck on the platform ramp with one other vehicle, and were the second vehicle onto the 16:40 train. No time to buy wine...

The drive into South East London was painless, stopping once for a bottle of M&S wine for dad. An hour and a half from Folkestone and we were all tucking into mum's roasted pork, red cabbage, too few potatoes, gravy and extra crunchy crackling. We were home.

375 days since we left our house, and 348 nights overseas. I need time to work out how many nights we slept in the van, but I'm confident that it's over 250 nights and probably close to 300 nights. I also want to work out the cost, as I'm sure others thinking of doing something similar would be interested. I am genuinely unsure, somewhere in the region of £25,000 to £40,000 for everything excluding van depreciation. While away I told Clare our limit was 100 Euros per day, but I thought we could spend up to £1000 per week if we used our contingency savings. I suspect our spending over the year was closer to £30,000 than £50,000.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

 

[Hotel California]

The final ride is done , back home....

Don't think you can get a botlle of wine under 10€ in a Belgian restaurant doh....
They do start to put free (tap)water on the tables in some places.

Shame you did not take the chance to stay longer in Belgium

 

[Amarillo]

The final ride is done , back home....

Don't think you can get a botlle of wine under 10€ in a Belgian restaurant doh....
They do start to put free (tap)water on the tables in some places.

Shame you did not take the chance to stay longer in Belgium

We had some time in Belgium at the very start of our trip, and also on honeymoon seven years ago. Our trip was always intended to be about visiting those countries in Europe we knew least about or had never experienced. Excluding the micro states of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City and Lichtenstein, major European counties I visited for the first time were Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia (I should also add that my one previous visit to Czechia was in 1967 when I was still being nursed by my mother). Even in a year, 12/13 major countries is a lot of new counties to visit.


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[Verity]

We had some time in Belgium at the very start of our trip, and also on honeymoon seven years ago. Our trip was always intended to be about visiting those countries in Europe we knew least about or had never experienced. Excluding the micro states of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City and Lichtenstein, major European counties I visited for the first time were Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia (I should also add that my one previous visit to Czechia was in 1967 when I was still being nursed by my mother). Even in a year, 12/13 major countries is a lot of new counties to visit.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

I'd never heard of Czechia, and had to look it up!

 

[Jabberwocky]

Welcome home. See you all in Tenby next week!!

 

[Amarillo]

I'd never heard of Czechia, and had to look it up!

I got bored with typing "The Czech Republic" and found a lazy alternative.


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

 

[Max-Felix]

Welcome home. Have to laugh though, 350 days and 30+ countries across the vast span of Europe and you end up buying a bottle of plonk for the old man from a London Marks & Sparks!!

 

[Amarillo]

Welcome home. Have to laugh though, 350 days and 30+ countries across the vast span of Europe and you end up buying a bottle of plonk for the old man from a London Marks & Sparks!!

I thought that tidbit would amuse some. I wouldn't have bothered, but Clare insisted.

Our intent was to fill our empty fridge with French wine, but we ran out of time and were then waved straight through to the train - which we missed...


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[Jay586]

People will love the sums, if you do them, think it would be helpful.

I certainly want to somewhere else next winter, if I can find a chicken fosterer!

 

[Verity]

I thought that tidbit would amuse some. I wouldn't have bothered, but Clare insisted.

Our intent was to fill our empty fridge with French wine, but we ran out of time and were then waved straight through to the train - which we missed...


Follow my blog: www.au-revoir.eu

We almost ALWAYS run out of time for stocking up on booze before we come home.

We have form though.

We once arrived back at the ferry port after a 5 day mini break in a 2cv (during which we drove all the way to Montpellier looking for sunshine) exactly 24 hours late. We arrived to find no ferry, no queue and a bemused staff member as we blustered and flustered and waved our tickets indignantly in her face. The lady calmly took our tickets and looked at them and informed us we were a day late, and suggested we go off for some lunch, which we did, with rather red faces!

On that occasion, we did have plenty of vino though, having visited a few vineyards down south. We had already taken the rear seats out of the 2cv for our camping equipment etc and actually had to sit on a case of wine each, jammed under the flimsy front seats, which made for a very numb bum all the way up from Montpellier - those who have experienced 2cv seats will know what I mean! Ahhh … carefree, pre-child, happy days (which we are now replicating in the Cali some 30 years on)

 

[Velma's Dad]

Welcome home Amarillo!

 

[Alied]

Throughly enjoyed your blog it will be sorely missed.

 

[H Marriage]

We thought of you today Tom - we’re currently camping in Flåm, and did the Flamsbana train this morning. Hats off for cycling down that mountain with two children in tow!

 

[Amarillo]

Money Matters

We set off on our adventures with net cash assets of £6,752 (£18,099 banked and cash; £11,347 on a credit card*).
Over the year £56,410 went into our bank.
£17,400 went out unrelated to our travels (mostly mortgage repayments).
We returned with net cash assets of £10,603 (£20,000 banked and cash; £9,397 on a credit card*).
Our trip cost us £35,159 excluding vehicle depreciation.
This includes insurance, fuel, accommodation, food, excursions, new clothing, ferries and Clare's three flights back to England, and her car hire.

We estimated in advance 100 Euros per day; at 375 days away from home this turned out to be remarkably close.

*We paid 3% for a cash advance on a credit card, 0% interest for 21 months.