This beyond belated blog is intended to wrap-up and complete the story of our latest motorhome trip in Europe. For each of our major trips I eventually publish a travel book based on my published blog posts and then these postings become a chronological hardcover diary of our most significant trips together. Upon returning to Canada in June we became so busy, so quickly, I never did get a chance to complete the final blog entry for this trip and therefore this posting will fix that. 

May 25th – June 8th

After a traffic congested exit from amazing central Paris we headed eastward to Reims where we saw the magnificent Gothic Cathedral Notre-Dame and got an up-close sense of how it dominates the city centre with its grandeur. Onward we drove through the Champagne region with a wonderful drive along the “Route touristique du Champagne”. Miles of rolling hills with immaculately groomed vineyards and wineries of all types, size and age. Enough to impress even a die-hard beer drinker.  We camped the night in an “Aire” just outside the defensive walls and moat of a very interesting little fortress village called “Rocroy”. We can highly recommend the little bakery just off its main central square. North to Dunkirk then east along the popular Belgium coastline and on into the magnificent Netherlands. We skipped across the beautiful Dutch islands populated with picture perfect farms and villages as we made our way towards “The Hague”.  Along the way we saw first hand why the Dutch are considered worldwide as the masters of water management. The water control systems along this route are something you have to see to believe. Miles and miles of extremely high dikes, causeways with hundreds of flood gates, huge tunnels, locks, canals and bridges of all sizes. So impressive and so easily taken for granted when driving about the country’s beautifully groomed and dry lowlands. As rising water levels challenge many regions of the World, there is no question who should be in charge of trying to solve the problem, and then control it. 

Once we reached Leiden we were once again greeted with love and warm smiles from the best family relatives imaginable. It was a brief stop with Hedy and Kees to drop off some bulky luggage in preparation for our upcoming flight home from Schiphol Airport. We moved on quickly toward Dulmen Germany where we returned our rented motorhome to our good friends at Dumo Reisemobile.  Every-time we arrive here we feel like we’re among good and caring friends. Once again they took care of all the details. Michael & Anne, Jorn, Dominik, Eddy, Sanna, Sandra and all the Dumo staff make us feel like we can hardly wait for our next return trip to Dumo. Speaking of good friends, we cannot forget to include in this list Hendrick and his mom Anne who own and operate the Hotel Van-Lendt in Buldern just outside of Dulmen-Hiddingsel. Every stay we have with them is truly amazing in every way. It’s like a perfect reunion providing us with a chance to catch-up on all the latest news, and we never leave this beautiful hotel with the feeling of “this was just another transaction”. Thank you again to all of our wonderful Westphalia friends. 

And now back to Holland and a final few days of fun and heartfelt goodbyes with our dear friends and family there. Despite a minor covid related issue that required a few adjustments to the plans, we managed to have another wonderful visit with everyone and we will cherish this visit, like all our others, forever.

A little “Road Ramble”

Fancy-free living is not always care-free living. Unfortunately things can and do go wrong wherever you may be. When you’re on the road and your health and/or welfare is negatively impacted it can be extra stressful. Over the years we’ve been super fortunate in this regard and have experienced very few health related situations but on this trip we did have a few issues to deal with.  Some were illness related and one was hospital related. In all these cases the final results were positive including the overnight hospital scare I had in Quimper, France. Our desire to travel remains strong, but we’ve learned the value of having flexible “back-up” plans and procedures in place for as many situations as possible. Pre-organizing your thoughts and actions for various scenarios can potentially save you a great deal of stress, anxiety, and time. Generally a good idea for home living too, but even more important for when you’re traveling and on the road. Kinda like having an earthquake preparedness plan in place, but for traveling.          

Changing plans on the go:

This 2022 trip to Turkey unexpectedly morphed into an opportunity to revisit and explore new parts of previously traveled regions of Europe. Our original plan was to travel a circular route through Western Turkey arriving there via Romania and Bulgaria.  Unfortunately the Ukrainian war situation negatively impacted that plan. Not wanting to put additional stress on limited resources and harbouring a certain amount of apprehension about traveling in a turbulent region, we reluctantly decided to concentrate our travels on the Western side of Europe instead. Thankfully we had a predetermined plan B option available and though this was a discouraging turn of events for us, our real feelings of grief and concern were for the Ukrainian people impacted by this unnecessary Russian aggression. Hopefully this horrible situation will soon come to a peaceful and lasting conclusion.  

We really did enjoy our motorhome travels on this 2022 European adventure and even though we had to deal with a few minor setbacks along the way, we recognize how privileged and fortunate we’ve been to have had the opportunity to travel like this and we will never be taking that fact for granted.