Food Shopping - LIDL and E.Leclerc Our Favorites

LIDL is a German based small market which can be found all over Europe.  It is the kind of market very popular in Germany known for cheap prices.  It is small though but it has all the basic food stuff and all kinds of drinks - water, different kinds of fruits and tea drinks, soft drinks, wines and alcohol.  ALDI is LIDL's main competitor - both are very similar, both have cheap but good quality food stuff and groceries.


E. Leclrec is a huge market, sometimes it is called E.Leclerc Supermarche or E.Leclerc Hypermarche depending on its size.  It is founded in France by Edouard Leclerc in 1949   Inn 2007 it has an annual sales of Euros30 billion.

Sometimes the building is like a mall accomodating all kinds of shops - from clothing to jewelry but the biggest part obviously is the supermarket.  We like E.Leclerc because of its cheap prices, good seafood selection, huge parking lot which we sometimes use to stay overnight without a problem and another very inspiring feature,  E.Leclerc has gasoline pumps which sells the cheapest diesel so far in our 4.5 months touring Europe this year.

In Germany and Netherlands, huge super and hypermarkets are non existent and I can simply assume it is due to the fact that they are known for being frugal in nature.

In France, we like that they have several super and hypermarkets like Carrefour, Casino, Auchan and E. Leclerc.  They have huge parking spaces and they tolerate free camping.

Books, Sudoku and Movies while RVing Around Europe

Several weeks before leaving our home in Surrey, BC for this year's European tour, my husband downloaded hundreds of movies to my computer.  One of my favorite things to do in my home in Canada is watching downloaded tv series' which I can enjoy watching non-stop and without the need to watch the commercials and of course watching downloaded movies, not really the Holywood American movies, but what is typically called "foreign movies" which means European, Korean, Japanese, etc.  I am actually overwhelmed and indeed extremely happy knowing that thousands of movies are available to me in the internet anytime I want to watch a movie - we have a super fast internet connection which enables us to download anytime, all the time.

So for this trip, I have hundreds of movies in my computer.  It turned out, I will not be watching much.  I am not fond of watching a movie in my 17 inches screen.  At home,  I have a recliner and a huge screen.

Another favorite thing to do is playing sudoku.  In 2007, we accidentally found our favorite sudoku book in Germany.  I have bought and tried several other books but I found the German sudoku book to be quite challenging and it has puzzles from light to medium to hard to extremely hard which I like.  In Canada, last year, we found the book in Amazon and had it shipped to our home.  So this year, we made sure to buy it and while having difficulty finding it in bookstores, we bought some other types which turned out good but not as good as the German sudoku.

Books are bulky and takes up a lot of space - but not anymore.  We are too cheap to buy Kindle though but we both have Blackberry (gift from our son Ryan).  My technical support, my husband Mar of course, downloaded lots of books in his and my Blackberry.   He said our Blackberry can accommodate 3 thousand books with its current 2 gb memory card.  Wonderful thing about reading books using the Blackberry is that light is not needed - Blackberry screen is lighted.  This is actually great because most times we are out of power having used up all our juices using the internet, doing emails, FB, googling and researching towns, cities and countries in Europe and reading Phils., Canada, Europe and US news.

The authors we are reading now are James Patterson, John Grisham, Janet Evanovich and Tara French.  Mar and I have finished about 10 books each.

IKEA - Our Favorite Place for Breakfast

We discovered IKEA breakfast in Innsbruck, Austria around the first week of July this year.  What I like about it is - it's cheap and coffee all you can.  I am a coffee drinker in the morning and I usually take two mugs. 

Another good thing is IKEA's huge parking lot - not to mention their washroom is also huge and clean.

We have been googling for IKEA locations ever since and whenever there is one on our route, that is where we go first.

Euro 1.00 breakfast at IKEA Lille, France

Every country has their own version of IKEA breakfast - Austria has the most content - smoked salmon, 2 slices ham, 2 slices cheese, 2 bread rolls, butter and jam packets for Euros1.95 while France is Euro 1.00 with a croissant, orange juice and coffee only.

Swedish meatballs with Fries Euro 1.95

In France, they have a promotion for their signature dish - swedish meat balls and fries - reduced price at certain hours in the morning and afternoon.  So if you want your meatballs meal price reduced by Euros 2, the time to come for lunch is between 11 and 12 noon or between 2 and 4 pm.

We like IKEA Lille, France better because they have free internet for 20 minutes which actually is free wifi unlimited since 20 minutes is never enforced.  IKEA locations in Austria, Germany and Netherlands do not have free wifi.

Euro 1.00 breakfast at IKEA Gent, Belgium

We Liked Bruges, Belgium - UNESCO World Heritage Site

The whole city centrum of Bruges, Belgium is UNESCO World Heritage Site. That means all the buildings in the city center is included in this prestigious recognition.  It is quite impressive so we decided to visit this city.

We were not disappointed, the city is quite beautiful especially at night with the dramatic and romantic effect of lights.   We drove through the city twice during the day, and once at night which we were fortunate to be able to park very near the church and the most important buildings.  By experience, we learned that visiting towns and cities at night is when parking is available and free.  Free parking usually starts at 7pm.

Lindt chocolate was my favorite.  Now I am converted - Belgian it is.  I bought one small box for Euros 7.25.  Super creamy and delicious.

For wild campers/RVers, free parking just outside the city center is so many, there is always available parking whenever we went.  We did not see signs not allowing campers to park or stay the night.  Bruges is camper/rv/motorhome friendly city.

Wherever we park, open internet connections are available.  We enjoyed internet the whole time we were there.

My husband found the new bike in Bruges he was looking for - priced below Euros 100 - his budget.  He got it from Carrefour Saint Kruis.

I went shopping, first time, for some clothes and blouses. They were nicely priced too at Carrefour.

We enjoyed Bruges so much, we stayed 4 nights.

Help from Stangers in Europe

Europeans are kind and helpful when a foreigner/tourist needs help, an observation derived from first hand experiences while we we RVing this year in Europe.

The first time we were helped was in Austria when we were out of LPG and our GPS led us to a place where no LPG station existed as confirmed by a man whom my husband approached to ask.  He told us to follow him in his car which we did and he brought us to the right place which unfortunately is out of a proper gasket to make the LPG tank work so he called another shop to confirm we can be helped there.  He gave us the adress and so we went and finally we were able to buy an LPG tank and a fitting.

The next was when we were out again of LPG in France.  We went to a lot of shops and gasoline stations but they would not accept our tank from Italy and Austria.  So we were ready to again put a deposit on a new tank to be able to have LPG.  Now, the problem is communication.  The lady cashier does not speak nor understand English.  A gentleman behind my husband helped with the translation and offered to take us to where we can buy LPG and make a deposit on a tank/bottle.  We drove not quite a short distance, he even got out of his car to talk to the cashier to discuss our requirement.  He left only when  he was sure we were fine with the purchase.

The third time was when I needed a pharmacy to buy something for my painful arm but it was a Sunday and the pharmacy was closed.  A gentleman noticed we were having a problem and approached us in our camper.  We told him what we needed and he told us where to go to buy the med which was a gasoline station which he said sells paracetamol.  He changed his mind later, got into his car and asked us to follow him.  Once we were at the gasoline station, he even got out of his car to accompany my husband inside to make sure the shop has the med, only then he left.

We have good experiences aside from the above examples like people smiling at us, talking to us, waving at us which are small things but means a lot when one is a stranger in Europe.