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.

Weeds While in Netherlands?

I was doing my laundry in Vlissingen, Netherlands and while waiting I chatted an older lady who was doing her laundry too.  She told me her life story, where she came from, how and when she started living in Netherlands, her opinion of Netherlands and the Dutch people and her business.

She is a shop owner, three shops in all, where she sells weeds = marijuana - legally.  I asked her how much and this is what she told me:

1 roll Euros 3.50 or 4.00
1 package Euros 8 (makes 3 rolls)

Did we buy and had fun?  Nope!

Laundry for up to 7 kgs is Euros 4.00
Dryer Euros 2.00 just enough minutes to dry my one load

Getting Sick While Travelling

My husband and I were on a Mexican Riviera cruise in 2009 when I got sick.  I was with colds and coughs and one morning, I woke up with a very bad asthma attack and I asked my husband to bring me to the ship's doctor.  I was seen by the resident doctor immediately, x-ray was taken, some more test were done and I was diagnosed with COPD = Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.  I was given oxygen and a bed.  More tests were taken and when the doctor was confident that my oxygen level was close to normal, one hour later, he released me from his care with antibiotics and Ventolin puff.  He emphasized this instruction that I should go the the ER immediately  (hospital ER on land) if I had another bout of breathing difficulty.  This happened on the morning of our last day on the cruise ship which means it was check-out time.  We were actually hurriedly delivered to the customs check-out area, I on a wheel chair, Customs Officer waiting, we were his last clients from the ship.  Our bill from the ship's hospital was US$500 plus.

This month here in Europe was my second experience being sick while away from home.  My whole right arm was painful day and night for a few days already and one morning, I had a severe spasm on my neck and I can't get up from bed.  I was already taking paracetamol for my painful arm but we knew we needed the right medicine for me to get better.  We went to a pharmacy in Middelburg, Netherlands and explained my medical problem and asked for the right medicine for stiff neck.  She can't give me anything other than paracetamol and suggested we see a doctor whose office was nearby.  We went and ask at the reception to see the doctor.  We were told he has a full schedule but he can see me tomorrow.  We agreed and so I was seen by the doctor and was given strong meds which was obviously highly regulated.  The pharmacist needed to ask for my full name and address and record it on her computer before she sold us the drugs.  We spent Euros 25 doctor's fee and Euros 25 for 10 days of medication for a grand total of Euros 50.  Huge but pleasant surprise was the price of paracetamol - 50 pcs. 500 mg. is only Euros 0.95.

It was funny though because I was happy to be given a "pain-killer med" which some people are addicted to so I was waiting for the "addictive effect" which I expected to be all positive meaning a "high" or a generally happy feeling.  Nothing of the sort happened.  I slowly got better though.

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.

Veere, Netherlands is the Best

One of my previous post mentioned RVers who are free or wild campers' needs such as a free and safe place to park for the night, WC for water closet = washroom = toilet, free wifi, water and not to mention food and diesel.

We have been reading conflicting feedback from motorhomers' forums about whether or not free camping is allowed in Netherlands.  One night we were approaced by two police officers who informed us in Middelburg there is s fine of Euros170 for parking in areas not designated for campers.  They were kind enough to point us where to go to sleep and park for free for the night.

We visited Veere one day out of our more than one week stay in Middelburg.  In huge parking lot by the marina which they signposted as GRATIS, we were accompanied already late at night by two motorhomes.  My husband ask both the gentlemen of the motorhomes if they are staying the night and they said they would.  We were not really confident but took the risk and stayed the night.  There was no ticket the following morning, hallelujah.

The town center provides free wifi and where we were parked exactly, there is free wifi despite being not in the center of town.  There is also a clean WC for 20 cents per use, which is the cheapest so far in our experience here in Europe.

Veere, Netherlands is now our favorite town.  We went back another day and slept there again with no ticket the following morning.

Dams, Dikes, Bridges and Barriers in Netherlands

We liked Netherlands after all.  At first we thought we would pass by quickly through Netherlands to Belgium and finally to France where we enjoyed our almost month-long RVing in June this year.

We visited Groningen and liked the old buildings and the cheap breakfast at IKEA.  We then drove  past Amsterdam because we had been there twice.  We were not in a hurry though and stopped at a beach which GPS showed to be interesting, so we made a detour and  found Brouwersdam beach and it's gigantic parking spaces.  We were amazed - there were a lot of RVs parked vertically or horizontally along the beach seemingly not concerned about occupying too much space.  It was a very pleasant place to park because everyone seems to be having a good time swimming, watching the sunset, just relaxing and at about 10pm there was about fifty hook and line fishermen in a row in an opening from the other side of the dam.  We watched most of them caught one of two salmon, we guessed.  We hang out till about 12 midnight then we went to a small village of Scharendijke and park there to spend the night.

 

We started liking Netherlands and reading about the country.  We learned that 25 percent of their land is below sea level and 50 percent is just 1 meter above sea level.  We read about Delta Works which is a series of dams, bridges and barriers designed to protect their country from flooding.  Due to global warming, should the North Sea rise, these Delta Works should be able to protect them, at least this century, their government said.  I  then, admired the Dutch people for their resilience and tenacity to fight the nature as best they can and their being able to be a rich country despite this huge challenge.

We drove to Middelburg where by stroke of good luck, we where pointed to where to park legally at night for free by a policeman, so we made Middelburg our homebase.   We visited neighboring villages/town mostly along the coast like Vlissingen, Westkapelle and Veere.  Some more towns we visited are Oostkapelle, Zoutelande and Biggerkerke, Goes, and Krabbendijke..

Coming to Middelburg, we crossed Dammenweg, Brouwersdam and Pijlerdam.  We became very impressed with Netherlands.  So we decided before leaving Zeeland, we might as well cross the other dams/briges/barriers.  One sunny day we did - we crossed Zealandbrug, Rijksweg, Philipsdam and finally Oesterdam (Oyster Dam) which is the longest dam with a length of 11 kms.

We have a huge respect and admiration for the Dutch people and even ourselves were surprised, we like Netherlands.

Encounters with Police In Europe

We did our first European tour of Europe in an RV in 2007.  We had two encounters with law enforcement agencies - one with two traffic policemen in Czech Republic and the second with Douane in Germany (Customs).

We were driving towards a mall early morning when these two policemen came out from their hiding place.  We were signaled to stop so we did.  We were informed our violation was that our headlights was not on.  We were told if they wrote the ticket the fee would  be over Euros100 or something but they can settle for half.  We told them we only have Cad$20 and even showed them my husbands wallet.  Of course we have more money with me but we know how to get out of this situation having learned from the same experiences while living in the the Philippines.  The two parties did some haggling but eventualy the two policemen accepted the money and so we went to the mall.  In the mall's food shops level, we saw them about to spend our money for their breakfast.  How similar is this to the Philippines? It's so funny.

Second and last encounter in 2007, out of 5 months of being on the road in Europe - we were getting out of a parking space when a Duane car pulled us over.  We stopped, they approached and asked for our passports.  We showed them and we were sent on our way.

This year, we also have two encounters so far - out of 3.5 months of RVing.

First was in Kiel, Germany.  My husband was taking an afternoon nap and I was in the driver's seat, deeply engrossed solving a sudoku puzzle, totally oblivious to my surroundings.  I did not notice when the police car stopped right in front of our camper.  I looked up for no apparent reason and saw two policemen, inside the police car, smiling, obviously they found something funny or amusing.  I recognized their presence by looking at them and showed them my sudoku book cover.  They nodded their heads still smiling.  I wanted to ask them, what's wrong or what's funny, but I decided to wait for them to tell me.  Still both smiling, they signaled me to move on.  I confirmed my understanding of what they wanted by signaling back.  They nodded in agreement and so I showed them I understood and they left.  We left that parking spot and went to the mall.

Second encounter -  We parked and slept in a Mcdonalds parking space on our first night in Middelburg, Netherlands.   On our second night, at around 11pm, we were ready to go to bed when a police car drove past us then came back.  One policeman and one young policewoman approached the passenger seat where I was at combing my hair.  I opened the door and we were asked if we intend to sleep right there.  We said yes and asked if it was ok.  He said no and there's a fine of Euros170 if we did and it would be a very expensive sleep for us.  My husband asked where we can park for the night.  They pointed the locations on the map which my husband provided - there were three options which they said we  can park and sleep for free.  We went to the nearest one and once we were parked, the police car drove past and signaled "ok" with his thumbs up.  For over a week, we kept coming back to that location to free camp.

Seaside parking in Kiel, Germany

Train Station Middelburg, Netherlands

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Stress Free and Relaxing Free Camping

We like towns and cities where we can park for free and where we can open our windows and door to get air circulation going in our small home and it would seem ok to do so.

We would also like to enjoy fresh air (sea air preferably) and beautiful views of the sea or mountains or both.

We also need internet connection preferably free wifi.  Paid internet connection is Euros 20 per day which we do not like to pay.

RVers also need to use public washrooms to avoid using our RV's toilet for number two.


So after filling our tanks with diesel and water from gasoline stations and hoarding as much food as our very small refrigerator can take (we have plenty of cupboard/cabinet space for canned goods), we are set to go and find the perfect free camping spot.


We have learned that it is not possible to get all our needs in one spot.  We are happy to travel back and forth between two places to satisfy our needs.

 For example:  In Kiel, Germany, we strongly like the view of the Baltic Sea, the fresh air, the free parking right there on the sea wall and marina and the seemingly friendly people of Kiel.  We slept there 6 nights and for our internet and washroom facilities, we travel about 6 kms each way to the CittiPark Mall everyday and at the end of the day, we go back to our favorite spot with sea view and spend the night.  We liked Kiel so much, we stayed there 6 nights which was our longest stay in any town/city ever, so far.

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Europe Part 1 - Four Thousand Kms. In Two Months

June 25, 2011 marked our second month RVing in Europe.  My husband and I started our journey in Gazoldo degli Ippolitti, Mantova, Italy on April 25 and to complete our Europe Part 1, we decided to go back before heading on to Europe Part 2.  We spent a few days in my niece's home and on July 1, we left again with a determination to see Scandinavian countries.

We have travelled 4014 kms in two months, visiting the many communes, towns and cities of Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany and France.  We have seen several world famous lakes and rivers and the deep blue seas of the Mediterranean in the French and Italian rivieras.

As RVers, our primary concern is our personal safety due to the fact that we are free or wild campers.   Going to private campsites would cost us Euros600 easily per month and to avoid this cost, a lot of long time RVers, as per my research, choose to not pay and go wild camping.  As wild campers, we have parked and slept in different sorts of places like mall parking lot, McDonalds parking, street parking and big supermarkets parking like ELeclerc, Casino, Carrefour and Auchan.  We are glad to report that we were safe the whole time, no incidents of break-in whatsoever.

It was a beautiful and wonderful two months RVing experience in Europe.

Free Camping Five Best Spots - French and Italian Riviera

Bandol, France is one of my favorites.  Our parking is right beside a park where the senior citizens of Bandol play the popular sport called Petanque and where the flea market is set up once a week, which is right beside the marina and is just on the right of the main street's restaurants and shops.    We stayed 3 nights.  GPS 43.13334 5.75185

Outside of the town of Saint-Maxime is a restaurant called Mario Plage.  We think the parking lot beside the sea is for the customers of the restaurants but when we arrived at around 9pm the restaurant is already closed so we thought we can park for the night and leave in the morning.  We stayed one night.  GPS 43.31783 6.66591

After leaving our parking spot in Mario Plage early morning, we drove a short distance and found this huge parking at a commune of Saint-Maxime called Les Issambres.  We stayed here all day and found the place to be very relaxing and we felt we can stay there a long time and nobody would bother us.  We saw two men who set up a tent and hammock in a not very well hidden spot in the bushes/woods.  GPS 43.36172 6.71593

  
Next is a commune of Saint-Raphael called Agay.  We left a McDonalds location around 1130pm because we did not felt safe there so we drove and found this very well lighted street parking across from a hotel with no sign of business (doesn't look like a haunted place though).  We stayed one night GPS 43.42683 6.87630

Our last favorite came unexpectedly.  We have given up on the Italian Riviera because every towns and cities have NO PARKING sign for campers - then came this parking right beside the sea, our closest to the sea parking ever.  On the entrance of the parking grassy lot is a machine meant to collect parking payments but when we came it was not functional.  My husband talked to people from another camper and they informed him they have not paid any amount of money for their 5 nights stay mainly due to the machine being out of order.  The town is called Noli. We stayed one night here.  GPS 44.21582 8.41602


We have an idea of staying "forever" in France in these free camping spots, moving from one spot to the other, enjoying the beauty of nature and living happily ever after.

Saint-Tropez - Where the Fabulously Rich Party

My husband and I can officially say that we drove through the length of the French and Italian Rivieras.  We have seen the beautiful communes, towns and cities of Cote d' Azur in France and the towns and cities of Italy starting from Ventimiglia and finally exiting to the highway in Livorno.

I have some favorite spots where it is free to park and spend the night and where the view is fabulous and the sea is in all shades of blue.  I even have gps locations but I will blog about it later.

The night we were in Saint-Tropez, all seemingly brand new, beautiful, shiny, huge yachts are there parked right in the main street where people walk and the famous bars and restaurants are located.  There were about a dozen of them and I know from what I already saw the past weeks that these are the superstars of all yachts.

A week or so later, after seeing the yachts in Cannes, France and Monaco, it was confirmed, what we saw in Saint-Tropez were the finest babies of all yachts.

One yacht even has a mean-looking, Russian-looking, unsmiling big hunk of a guard.  Some yacht owners and guests were dining, drinking and partying right there on their decks in front of the common people watching them.  Some uniformed yachts crew were visible while tending to the yachts requirements and some were serving dinner and wine to their rich and famous bosses.

Saint-Tropez is a fun place to walk late at night and people watch.  It was alive with a lot of people at 10pm, restaurants were full and when we left at 1130pm, it was still busy and parties was definitely just beginning.

Dumpster Diving in France

Dumpster diving refers to the practice of getting/diving for food and non food items from dumpsters.  Dumpsters, in my opinion is an American term for the huge metal garbage container strategically located in supermarkets and some parts of the cities.

We stayed two nights free camping in a mall parking lot in La Garde, France.  Our parking spot was beside a supermarket and across from McDonalds for its free wifi.  On our second morning, my husband noticed a man checking out the garbage bins obviously looking for something.  So we thought he was looking for food scraps from McDonalds customers.  About an hour later, another man came and did the same.  A half hour later, two women came and also inspected the garbage bins.  All of them left empty handed.

Around noon, a supermarket staff moved the bin closer to the back door of the building and filled it with all kinds of stuff/goodies which they are throwing away.  We did not actually saw this but what we saw was a man and a woman team, probably husband and wife, hauling off about 10 bag full of stuff from the garbage bin which earlier in the morning was empty of goodies.  This couple came at the perfect time and came out of dumpster diving that day with food good for at least a week for a family of 5.

I have heard and read about dumpster diving in the USA and UK in the internet from some bloggers.  It was interesting for me because in the land of my birth, the Philippines, a lot of poor people goes hungry for lack of food and huge amount of food going to garbage is unthinkable and unimaginable.

So we watched and we thought that even some French people are so poor that they had to dumpster dive.

What's Life On the Road Like in a Camper

 What is this lifestyle like?  What does rving means?  What's life on the road like?  
 You must have a ton of money to be able to tour Europe? 

What is this lifestyle called?  Some call it motorhoming (British), RVing (Americans) and possibly campering (my word) since Italians call this vehicle camper.  So basically, the vehicle is called
a.  motorhonme
b. RV - Recreational Vehicle
c. camper
d. etc.

First, let me discuss money matters.  We bought our camper in Italy.  Actually, my niece, who is Italian bought the camper for us, registered under her name.  Based on research, we Canadians, can not buy a vehicle in Italy or anywhere in Europe.  In 2007, we bought a 1990 Fiat Ducato camper for Euros 7200 which we used for 5 months and which we later sold for Euros 4000.  This year we bought a 2002 Fiat Ducato camper worth Euros14700 which we hope to sell for Euros 15000 when were done touring Europe.  The point is, save enough money to buy yourself a camper which cost from Euros 7000 - really, really old model - to Euros 45,000 and up brand new one.

Once done with the matter of buying your home on wheels, everything else regarding expenses becomes as normal or predictable as you want it to be.  This means if at home (Canada or USA or anywhere else in the world)  you are spending $2000 (Euros1400) a month to live "your normal life", in this lifestyle here in Europe you can budget the same, control your expenses, live your life as it was before while touring Europe in your now very small home, your camper.

This lifestyle includes doing normal activities like cooking, doing the dishes, cleaning, food shopping and laundry.
Your budget dictates how often you eat in restaurants.  When you are not eating in restaurants, you are preparing and cooking your own meals.  You can do your laundry or you can use Laverie (French coin-operated laundry shops).  You can free-camp or you can go to a municipal or private campsite and pay an average of Euros20 a night. You can live as frugally as needed or you can spend as much as you want.  A couple can live on Euros800 per month frugally in our experience.

Water can be had from municipal or private campsites and is used sparingly.

Light and computer is powered by car battery while the battery is powered by solar panel.

C'est la vie.  Bonjour.

Bandol, France

Bandol, France is one of many beach towns in Cote d' Azur along the Mediterranean Sea.  Our idea is to drive through these communes and enjoy a slow life, savouring the pollution free, salty, fresh air in these parts of France.  We also thought we would finally be rid of the pollen allergy we had since arriving in Italy on April 16, 2011.

Coming from Avignon, France we have since visited the coastal towns of Sausset les Pins, Marseille, La Ciotat, Saint Cyr Sur Mer and now Bandol.

It was difficult to go to the centerville so we waited for when we know by experience that streets and parking spots are not so busy, that is around 8pm.

On our second try to navigate the narrow streets of Bandol, we got lucky, we found a parking spot right along the beach and got luckier, there's free wifi.   We later drove to where we thought we want to spend the night but found a better one - free parking outside of the centerville, still along the beach.

This was our first time to score a parking spot along the beach with a full, unobstructed view of the yatchs and the sea.

The following morning, we woke to find it was flea market day and it is right there, set up right in front of us.  It was a pleasant surprise, as I am a flea market enthusiast.

As usual there were fruits and vegetables, fresh meat and cured meats, seafood, garments and footwear.  Most interesting were the really huge flat cooking pans where paella, chicken and beef stews, escargots and potatoes were cooked.  There were also roasted chicken and pork. 

I like this flea market better probably because it is right on the sea walk.  Market day is Tuesday.