Year 10 of Our 5 Year Plan
In 2004 we started out on our 5-year plan to tour about Europe in a motorhome. We retired at 60, downsized our home, and bought a second-hand Hymer. Chas resigned from the Lib-Dems and joined the Caravan Club, and the ‘other’ club for good measure.
We had previous experience of camping and caravanning as we’d toured West Germany and Holland in our Sprite 400 when we lived in Germany in the eighties. We then took every family holiday with Eurocamp, or in our own frame tent. Our holidays then followed the usual pattern of flights to foreign parts by air, but Catherine ( ‘Cath’ is her stage name) then took to buying MMM and clipping articles for future use.
We’ve since travelled over 110,000 miles in our ‘van. As well as UK, we’ve travelled to France, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Croatia.
We’ve spent about 6 months of each year on tour, so maybe we’re on track for 5-year plan! We’ve met lots of lovely people, many of whom we keep in touch with and meet up with by plan or chance. They include caravanners!
We’re starting to repeat ourselves, going to ‘favourite’ sites in our favourite locations; however, as we’ve been home for two weeks (we’ve just been in France by car) it’s time to book a ferry again.
We haven’t been back to the Costa Verde or the Portuguese Atlantic coast since the nineties so we may head that way. On the other hand, we may just go back to Croatia and the islands of Cres and Krk. Decision time may be at Calais when we look at the weather forecasts!.
Meanwhile, we’d welcome any up to date advice about sites along the way to Galicia and Northern Portugal in late August and September.