It’s a beautiful day here in Dülmen Germany as I write this final blog. Tomorrow morning we return this impressive “Burstner” motorhome to Dümo and hop a train for Amsterdam. Over these last few days we’ve occupied our time with dismantling the motorhome and packing our return travel bags. As we “wrap-up” this latest trip we find ourselves evaluating the success of the ten weeks and 12,000 kilometres of European backroads.

On this trip we decided to focus more on the rural countryside experience and less on specific tourist destinations and popular visitor sites. We therefore bypassed many very interesting places along the way but non that we haven’t seen and enjoyed before (with a few exceptions). So, the vast majority of roads we did travel really were the “back roads” and all new to us. One might think that you’d be hard pressed to find interesting things to see on the back roads, but that would be wrong. In fact we found all kinds of interesting places, way too many to explore, and all deserving much more attention. From beautiful castles and monuments, little towns and villages, to amazing drives in the countryside while meeting wonderful people all along the way. This trip was unique. In past trips, we really did love the experience of walking along the beautiful Champs-Élysées in Paris but, I can tell you this, slowly driving along the Northwest Coast of Spain is just as impressively magnificent.

So, with most of our serious trip evaluation now complete, we’re pleased to report that we really did enjoy this opportunity to see and experience a limited selection of beautiful Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Austrian, and German back roads… despite some occasional tight squeezes with the motorhome.

As we now prepare for our return home to Victoria we do so with the knowledge that we have been very privileged and blessed to have had all these years of international travel opportunities. But, without any doubt, the best part of all these experiences is the excitement we feel when it’s time to return home to our children, grand children, family and friends.