Journey: Folkestone, UK to Home
Distance: 204 miles
YouTube link: Days 29 & 30

Today was a slightly sad day but probably also a bit of a relief for our clothes. We were on our way home. Our bodies had acclimatised nicely to European time so we were up just after 7AM and left before 9AM, which is unheard of for us! The drive back was fine, the motorways were a lot busier than many of the motorways we’d driven on and it was quite odd driving on the left. It was also frustratingly slow driving in miles. I know you end up covering the same distance but kilometres just tick by so quickly that you really feel like you’re making progress. It irked me so much, I came up with a new slogan:

Life is miles better in kilometres.

Getting home was also quite discombobulating. It was lovely to see the cats after so long — they had been splendidly looked after by Caroline our cat sitter — but it was strange being in one place and knowing we wouldn’t pack up and leave again soon. We also had a mountain of washing to deal with and an urgent need to buy food because our electricity had tripped the day after we left and everything in our fridge and freezer had been ruined. Luckily, in preparation for the trip, we had been eating our way through stuff in the freezer and had taken some of the fridge food with us, so it wasn’t as bad as it could be.

All in all though, it was a fantastic month on the road and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. The trip just whetted my appetite for driving around Europe more. The only thing we’d do different is not to book anything too far in advance. We booked three campsites abroad and one ferry before we left, and ended up cancelling two of those campsites and the ferry! Things change: the weather, what we fancy, places we hear about and being tied to a booking is frustrating. Often times we booked the next campsite a day or two ahead but given it was early in the season, we were also able to just turn up to campsites and extend our stays without any bother. I suspect that may be trickier in peak season.

Some stats:

• We drove 3,239.7 miles in total (5,214 km).
• We visited 7 different countries.
• We stayed on 14 different campsites and at one hotel.

Some of our observations in no particular order:

• Slovenia has the nicest roads (best road surfaces, markings and civilised drivers).
• Croatia has the cheapest petrol.
• Italy has the worst drivers, with Croatia a close second.
• UK has the most middle lane drivers by far.
• Slovenia is the most beautiful country we visited with Austria as runner up.
• Venice really is a special place and worth visiting.
• France has the worst toilets (by far) and as a result, the campsites are often not as nice as they could be.
• Croatia and Northern Italy have the smartest campsite facilities (showers in particular).
• Belgium has the worst road surfaces.
• Germany has the best bread rolls.
• Belgium, Germany and Austria tie for best beer.
• Italy is the easiest country to be vegan in because you can always get a pizza marinara, a simple tomato pasta or bruschetta.
• Being vegan and travelling around Europe isn’t difficult — providing you have cooking facilities! We ate out as much as we wanted and had some great food (on the whole!). The supermarkets all have a good selection of vegan goodies and their veg on the whole is far superior to our supermarkets, so buying food to cook is easy. It’s a far cry from the first time we went to France and couldn’t buy tofu anywhere! It’s everywhere now, even in a small village supermarket in Slovenia.