46: Eurovanning 101: What RV Travel in Europe is Really Like with Kathryn Bird

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a nomad abroad, traversing the beautiful landscapes of Europe in a van? That's precisely the life Kathryn Bird from wanderingbird.com leads. In our enlightening conversation, she reveals her experiences on the road, contrasting the realities of van life and RVing in Europe versus the US. The chat also includes a peek into how passive income from travel blogs fuels our passion for this unique lifestyle.

In one of the most thrilling parts of our conversation, Kathryn recounts her journey across four European countries in a single day. She introduces the concept of 'aires' - designated town center car parks perfect for overnight stays and local exploration. We delve into the amenities these spaces offer and compare RV and van life policies between the US and Europe. The conversation also goes through the importance of attempting the local language, the simplicity of driving on European roads, and the best RV size for your travel style and destinations.

As we wrap up our chat, Kathryn provides helpful tips for those planning to embark on an adventure in Europe. We discuss the challenges involved in navigating large vehicles through Europe's bustling cities, what you need to know about accessing data  on the road, and all the must-visit places.  This episode is brimming with practical advice, captivating anecdotes, and unbridled enthusiasm for van life and RVing in Europe.

Follow Kathryn Bird:
Wandering Bird
YouTube
Facebook
Instagram

Links Mentioned:
FREE Touring Europe checklist
FREE Full-time Vanlife - how much does it cost

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, I just love campervanning here in the US, but lately I've been dreaming of experiencing van life in Europe. Countries are just so close together and easy to get to. Cities tend to be more campervan and RV friendly, and there are beautiful natural areas to explore, like the Dolomites in northern Italy. Sure, I've heard the boondocking isn't quite as good and there aren't these spread out tree lined campgrounds like you get in the US, especially in some of these beautiful state parks. But still, I think it would be fun to go over there and try it out. I chatted about van life in Europe with Katherine Bird of TheWanderingBirdcom. She lives in a small RV by herself and has been traveling all over Europe for years. She's full of tips and advice on van life and RVing in Europe and her site is just a goldmine of information on that topic. So I'm really excited in this episode of the Wayward Home Podcast to be talking all about what it's really like to live van life in Europe. Let's go.

Speaker 1: 0:53

Welcome to the Wayward Home Podcast. All about van life, boat life and nomadic living. We'll bring you tips, interviews and stories from the road and on the water. Now here's your host, kristen Haines. Hey there, I'm Kristen Haines with TheWaywardHomecom, and I spend half the year in my campervan and half on my sailboat in Mexico. My goal is to inspire you to pursue your nomadic living dreams. As I'm recording this podcast episode, I'm sitting in my van at Mount St Helen's National Monument in Washington State. It's drizzling outside and just a cozy day, so I'm sitting in my van working, and hopefully it'll clear up later so we can go hiking. So that's where I am and what I'm up to right now as I record this podcast and before we get into this episode about campervanning over in Europe.

Speaker 1: 1:34

I just wanted to talk about a topic that so many people on my email list ask, which is how do I make money so I can travel full time? This is a huge concern for so many people and I'm wondering are you also curious about this? Do you dream of making passive incomes so you can live the life you want Exploring, hiking, being in nature, crafting your own days that look just like what you want? But maybe you have no idea how to do that. Well, I have just the thing for you. I was once in your shoes, having no clue how I'd make money remotely, so I could travel in our boat and in our campervan, but with lots of time and effort, I figured out how to make a passive income from my blog, which is thewaywardhomecom.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Building a blog is no easy task, but it's so worth it. Once your blog starts making an income through ads and affiliate marketing, the money just keeps rolling in. Day after day. I can go hiking, like I'm doing right now at Mount St Helens, paddleboarding, windsurfing, and I know I'm making the same amount of money every day no matter what I'm doing. It's amazing and it feels like a dream come true, but it is a lot of effort. I don't want you to think this is easy money or it's going to happen really fast, but it is possible and it's an amazing way to make an income as a nomad.

Speaker 1: 2:44

If you're curious about profitable blogging because it's really one of the passions of mine I have a course that just came out called Nitch Sites Made Easy. In this course, I teach you all about how to choose a profitable blogging niche. I help you figure out what topics to write about, how to write your articles so they rank on Google, and so much more. I literally walk you through every step of the way in creating a profitable blog. You can get 25% off this course right now, but only if you grab it.

Speaker 1: 3:12

If you're hearing this podcast episode this week, if you want to learn more about niche sites made easy, head to wwwthewaywardhomecom forward slash discount. That's wwwthewaywardhomecom forward slash discount. You'll also find the link in the show notes. This is the same way. My guest on this podcast also makes money with her travel blog set in Europe. So I'm here to tell you it's possible and I want to help you out. If you're interested in this type of online business, it really is the best for a nomad. Okay, so now that I've told you about my course, nitch Sites Made Easy, let's get into this episode about campervanning in Europe with Catherine Bird. Hey, catherine, thanks so much for coming on the Wayward Home Podcast. Oh, no, thank you for having me. Yeah, so let's go into how you started. I think it was 2018 that you gave up the normal life, so tell us a little bit about your story of how you got in your motor home.

Speaker 2: 4:00

Yeah, I did the very responsible thing of quitting my job to go traveling. So I used to be an air traffic controller and my husband and I we got a motor home back in 2017 and learned how to use it. We went touring around Europe and we were sitting up on a mountain in Switzerland and just we had a two week holiday from work and we were just staring up at the Milky Way and I'd never seen the Milky Way before. I was just awestruck and I said to my husband I was like how, how do we do more of this? He was like well, your job is not the kind of job where you can't be in the option.

Speaker 2: 4:35

They really don't don't like air traffic controllers being up a mountain in Switzerland. It was a bit of an issue. So, yeah, we saved and we budgeted and we well, I left my job. He was lucky enough to have a software job so he could do a lot of that from the road, and that's how we started off motorhoming and touring around Europe and did that. We don't talk about 2020, but we did that pretty much full time ever since.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Wow, very cool. And then so you guys have I believe you have a motor home that's not available here in the States. If you could describe the motor home you're using to travel around Europe for people who aren't familiar with it?

Speaker 2: 5:10

Yeah, so I have. It's called a Swift Escape and it is I think it's what you guys call a class C motor home. So it's not a camper van. It's bigger than a camper van but it's not as big as an RV, so it doesn't have like the slide outs or anything like that. But she's about seven meters and about three meters tall, so big girl intimidating to drive?

Speaker 1: 5:31

Yeah, for sure. And so, before we jump into the Europe part of it, I know that you first traveled with your family and you're now solo. If you could tell us a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: 5:40

Yeah, so when I first started, our daughter was still in school, so she was having some issues with her exams. So we had this weird situation where I had an opportunity to leave work and we decided to homeschool her for years. I spent a year touring around Europe and homeschooling her, which went amazing, and then she set our exams and passed them with flying colors so amazing. With that She'd be proud of her, and then my husband. I traveled for a couple of years on our own and then lockdown had its had its effect. That has on many couples and sadly we separated.

Speaker 1: 6:10

So I'm now traveling, so Very good, and so European van life and RVing sounds so interesting to me. I know some couples that are actually going over there renting RVs or vans, so like what's the culture like over there surrounding traveling in an RV or a van?

Speaker 2: 6:28

Europe is amazing and it's quite funny coming from the UK, which I know is part of Europe, but for the purposes of this conversation I mean from the UK where motor homey and camper vanning is Fine and there's plenty campsites and all the stuff, but we don't have the same facilities or infrastructure that they do over in mainland Europe for vans. So camper vanning and motor homey over there they love it. So load of the big town and the cities, even the small villages, have provision for you to stay overnight and they have these things called as where you can't book them in advance, so you can just sort of first come, first served and you just turn up and if there's a space you can stay. And they're really cheap, like 10 euros for a night, and you can stay for a night or two and explore that area. And it is a tourism thing. They do it to attract people to their village or town or the city. It's like so much easier because you can just tour around and you can see all these.

Speaker 2: 7:24

The history in Europe is incredible, like even if, going back sort of the last couple of hundred years, you've got Castles and obviously got all the world wars and you've got all of the different factions, of all the different cultures, because it is a huge lump of different countries with your own languages and Money and all the different things that go with that, so you can cross in like I did. I drove up to Iceland recently and I did four countries in one day, which was insane. Now I had actually explored them before then, so I was just driving, but you, you know, you can see so much so quickly when you're over there and get a real flavor for the different countries. It's brilliant.

Speaker 1: 8:01

I love it. Yeah, and I love that concept of the air. If you can tell me a little bit more about like what do those look like and like what amenities do they have? Where are they like? We don't have anything like that, so I'm curious more about about what that is.

Speaker 2: 8:14

Yeah, we don't have much like in the UK either, so it was totally foreign to me when I started touring over there. They're basically Carparks, if one of a better word, but they're there, carpaks, where motorhomes are allowed to stay overnight. Motorhomes or camperbans are allowed to stay overnight and they are often just a big space. Often they're things like a town hall car park and you know, overnight you're allowed to stay there and sometimes you can get fresh water, you've got a tap and sometimes you can empty out your toilet and your waist. I think you guys have like proper pump outs, don't you for your toilets? Yeah, we have like cassettes that you go and empty, so we don't have the same pump out things. So you can do that and you just need a couple of coins to activate the machine to be able to dispose of it all safely. And Often, most importantly, they're within walking distance to a bakery or boulangerie so you can get your fresh bread and your croissants and that's the best bit. I put on about two stone when I'm touring for us.

Speaker 1: 9:13

That's really cool. So they're actually located near a city center so you can get out and walk around.

Speaker 2: 9:19

Yeah. I mean the main the big. Big like I wouldn't drive into Paris with a motorhome. That's crazy. But the so the big cities like Paris that I'll have them on the outskirts and then they have them like really near a tube station or a bus station or whatever. But yeah, most of the towns and small villages will have them right in the center so you can actually get right in and walk around and see, see what that town's got to offer. That's really clever.

Speaker 1: 9:41

Oh, that's so clever about Europe, because I feel like here in the US they want to keep RVs out of the cities and towns and I keep thinking if they would only make a Parking lot where you pay money and they would really increase their tourism, because not everyone living in a van is, like you know, poor or down and out. There's a lot of professionals, people that just are people that are touring, that just want to go into these cities and spend their money in Sitesy, but we're just banned from them. So that's something that's really hard for. For us here in the US is you have to park very far Outside a city, get a campground. You're not really welcome there, and so that's that about Europe is really interesting to me that they're actually welcoming of Vans and motor homes.

Speaker 2: 10:22

Yes, it's. We have the same problem here in the UK, but they have they because they built up their infrastructure around these spaces. It's that they're everywhere. They're absolutely everywhere. They're brilliant.

Speaker 1: 10:33

Yeah, and so, besides the air, what other kinds of accommodations can people find if they're traveling around Europe?

Speaker 2: 10:41

So they can have campsites, which I'm assuming are the same in the US and I have the pleasure of exploring the US in a van but they're the same as we have in the UK. So you know, you turn up and pay and if you can want to book them in advance, you can do, and then you can wild camp or boondock, and we have very similar sort of rules, I think, what you guys have in boondocking. So basically, stay as far away, don't go in a national park, don't cause a disturbance or cause destruction or empty your toilet out in the middle of the wild, and but yeah, a lot of people are quite sort of tolerant over those, as long as you sort of turn up late, stay overnight and then leave the next morning.

Speaker 1: 11:20

Yeah, and so here in the US, when people typically boondock, we're on public lands owned by the government, like federal forest service lands or Bureau of Land Management. But that doesn't really exist as much in Europe, right, those federal lands.

Speaker 2: 11:34

No, they don't have them. So pretty much all land in the UK and in Europe is owned by somebody and that's not the government as such. I mean, national park obviously is like different, but a lot of places have set up almost like boondocking spots, so like in Scotland. I know we're talking about Europe, but Scotland have got a really good example of that, where the forestry service have allowed parking in certain car parks overnight, which is fantastic Because again, it encourages you to go and see those areas and you want to preserve the national park but also go and visit them. So it's the fine line to walk.

Speaker 1: 12:09

That's interesting. So when you're finding, like a boondock spot in Europe, are you typically possibly on private property when you're doing that?

Speaker 2: 12:15

Yes, and that's where it becomes an issue. So the issue is to basically be as small as possible. So don't get out awnings and all your outdoor furniture and stuff. You're literally parking rather than camping and turn up late and leave early. So you are basically trying to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Speaker 1: 12:34

Right, that's very interesting. We do that here. We call it stealth camping, but we're in more public, private on private property, and you do leave early. You know, leave early, arrive late, you're very trying to be kind to the area. But what's cool is there are these public lands where you can go for like two weeks and you just sit there, and that's something that's really interesting about the US. That's a little bit different, so you can just stay there for longer periods. But yeah, that's what I love about these differences.

Speaker 1: 12:59

That felt like fun. Yeah, I know you'll have to come over, but cool, so you can boondock and you can. You know there's a variety of places to stay. Do you have an app where people can? Because here we use iOverlander. I don't know if you use that over there, but how do you find these sites?

Speaker 2: 13:15

Yeah, so I think iOverlander is over here as well, but the one that I use is called Park Four Night and that's the number four and there's a couple of them if you've got a bigger vehicle. So I used to tour with an eight-meter motorhome with a two-meter trailer, with the motorbikes on the back, so obviously we were 10 meter train and that meant a lot of the spots that we might otherwise have used we were too big to get into. So there's one called Camper Contact where you can filter down the spots by size, which is really helpful. But yeah, park Four Night I tend to use, and then in the UK and Ireland I use one called Search for Sites, which is the same thing. But that one's got this brilliant part on the outway it shows you like pubs that will allow you to stay in overnight. I don't think you have pubs in the same way, which is such a shame, but over here we've got like pubs that will allow you, if you have a meal or have some drinks there, whether they'll stay, or restaurants.

Speaker 1: 14:07

That's very cool. It sounds like it's the friendliness aspect of being over. There sounds way better than here. I think that there is one program here you can join called Harvest Host, which you can stay at a winery or a distillery but if you purchase something you join this membership. But it sounds like there you can use an app and do you have to call the pub ahead of time or how do you handle that? I?

Speaker 2: 14:29

tend to just ask and be polite rather than turn up. Or you can just turn up and have the meal anyway and ask them afterwards. A lot of it depends on how much planning you do. I don't tend to do all that much planning but, yeah, if you're sort of trying to see where you're going to go, then you can absolutely phone them. In France, talking about wineries, they have this brilliant thing called France Passion where a lot of the times you can stay like the Chateau's. If you want to do a wine tasting there, and so you can book in a wine tasting, do this, amazing spirits then stay overnight. And the Chateau Carpa and it may, just a carpa, there's no facilities, but they're quite happy for you to stay over there and stuff which is odd. And they've also got a couple of chocolatey ears so you can go and taste some chocolate. Nice. And they've got a snail farm in France so you can go and see a snail farm and then stay overnight there, which is quite fun, cool.

Speaker 1: 15:19

So is that a membership program that you would join to do that?

Speaker 2: 15:22

Yeah, sponsor Passion is I think. I don't even want to know what it is in this year, but it was about 30 euros last time I looked. Then they have a whole list. They have a little book. I think they've got an app as well now and you can find places as you go. Again, I would recommend phoning, but if you don't want to speak French, just turn up and ask them. A lot of the times they'll be like yeah, if you pay money for whatever service, then you can stay overnight. It's fine.

Speaker 1: 15:46

Cool Speaking of speaking French when you're touring around Europe. How is it to just speak English? Do people speak English? What's that like?

Speaker 2: 15:54

So it depends on the country. Some countries are fantastic, so Holland, the Netherlands. Their English is unbelievable, belgium is so. So Germany is very, very good, france, the tourist areas. They obviously speak and understand English. They don't like something in their culture. They do not like speaking English. They have a real cultural thing about it.

Speaker 1: 16:19

I heard that.

Speaker 2: 16:20

Yeah, if you go in and at least try to speak French, even just the basics like bonjour for hello or civil play or whatever, they will be a lot kinder and more welcoming towards you than if you go in and just speak English and expect them to speak English back to you. But it does depend a lot on the person and how generous they're feeling.

Speaker 1: 16:43

That's really funny. You say that because when I did travel to France a long time ago, I made sure I knew how to say basic phrases in French which I still remember now, and it did work. Everybody was so nice to me there Like I'd heard all these things. Like French people are so snooty, they won't be nice to you, but they were fantastic to me and would often switch to English after I started the conversation in French.

Speaker 2: 17:03

Yeah, they do that. They do that a lot. I mean, that's great, because we are all really bad at speaking other languages oh, not all of us, but I certainly am really quite bad at speaking other languages, even though I do try. One app that I use all the time is Google Translate, so A you can type in what you wanna say and it will speak it back to you. So you can at least learn what you wanna say before you go into like I do that a lot before I go into the reception and say like I've parked at the camping ground, how do I pay, kind of thing. But also, if there's a sign on the campsite and you want to know what it says, you can hold up your phone and it will translate the sign. Use that all the time. It's brilliant.

Speaker 1: 17:41

Wow, that's cool. I didn't know that. Great tip Cool. So what about if you wanna visit like a national park or like Dolomites in Italy or something? Are there campgrounds within those parks? You can stay at?

Speaker 2: 17:53

Yes, there are, and if you haven't been to the Dolomites, you absolutely need to go. It's one of my all-time favorite places in Europe. It's amazing. So yeah, like I said, wild camping or boondocking is really, really not encouraged in those areas, just like it's not over in the US. And there are campsites and there are again you'll have similar schemes in the national parks so you could stay at restaurants or cafes if you stayed there and spent some money there. The campsites are going to be bigger and also, probably you want to book them up if you're going in peak season, because otherwise they'll sell out because it is quite busy. Everywhere in Europe is fairly busy in summer, unless you're going right inland, but if you're gonna go into sort of a national park, you can expect it to be busy in summer.

Speaker 1: 18:39

For sure, and I know there's a lot of rental companies over there. Are there any particular ones that you've heard of and that you might recommend to people traveling over there and want to try this out?

Speaker 2: 18:50

Yeah, I always recommend a company called Motahome Republic. I hired with them once. They were very good, but also they work with a lot of the smaller companies, so they're like a provider that will give you quotes from lots of different companies and, rather than having to go to like 10 or 20 different ones, they will give you a range of different prices, which I find better than having to type it all in.

Speaker 1: 19:11

however, many times, oh cool, so they just kind of show you the prices from all these different companies.

Speaker 2: 19:17

Then they can show you different options based on what you've put in and your requirements and things.

Speaker 1: 19:23

Very cool. Is there a certain size RV you would recommend to people coming over?

Speaker 2: 19:28

A lot of. It will depend, I think, on how many people, but if there is just like a couple, I wouldn't. You don't need to go bigger than a seven meter Motahome. If you're good with a camper van, you'll find it easier to park and if you're not used to driving a big vehicle, I'd go for a camper van rather than a Motahome if it's your first time. But if there's more of you, you're obviously gonna need more seat belts. That's the biggest thing, because you could get a sixth birth like my Motahome I'm in right now. It's a sixth birth Motahome. I do not know how, but it is, but it's only got four seat belts. So pay real close attention to that when you're hiring, because not always the births and the seat belts are not always the same.

Speaker 1: 20:04

And what's it like driving there on the roads and in the cities? Do you just avoid the towns or like? What's your advice about that?

Speaker 2: 20:11

Well, it's really fun being from the UK because we drive on the wrong side. We drive on the other side like the rest of the world when you go from the UK over to Europe. That's what puts a lot of British people off is driving on the wrong side of the road. Same for the US as well. I mean, good, I don't want to drive in the US, and it's not that hard, it's really not. So it's a lot of Europe. We've got these amazing big toll roads or big motorways where it's really easy to drive. Germany is fun because there's no speed limits for most of Germany on the Autobahn, so you can just go as fast as your little van can go. Brilliant, Amazing, yeah. Yeah, I mean the town.

Speaker 2: 20:48

I wouldn't drive into a lot of the cities I wouldn't do it in the UK either in a big van, because these are old cities from many, many, many hundreds of years ago. They were not designed for big vehicles and you know you get a truck or a bus coming down one lane, that they sort of take over a lane in a bit. So you can get a bus in a car, but you couldn't get a bus in a motorhome next to a lot of them and I once accidentally ended up with my motorhome in the middle of Edinburgh, Beautiful city I highly recommend you go. Do not drive your van into the middle of Edinburgh. It was horrific. Oh my goodness me, how do I get out of this? So yeah, if you're going to go into the big big cities like London or Edinburgh or Paris or Nice or you know any of the big, I wouldn't actually drive into the centre of it Park outside to get public transport in For sure, for sure, and I'm curious.

Speaker 1: 21:41

Another thing that people might want over there is a cell phone signal, especially if they need to be working or accessing their maps. How do people like are there hot spots? Or how does it work over there in terms of getting data?

Speaker 2: 21:53

Yeah, so exactly the same as you guys. We want our phones. I am addicted to my phone, so most for G and often five signals. Now I don't know how American Networks would roam on in Europe. I'm assuming that they will, but that's something to look at. The UK can roam in Europe Absolutely fine. So I'm assuming it'll be something different, that you just pick up a different network and it should be fairly easy. A lot of places, if you're worried, where you can get free wifi place like McDonald's is exactly the same, so you can stop there if you need a hot spot. But you'll generally get a decent signal, unless you're going up to, like, the mountains or in the middle of a national park where you don't have the same infrastructure. So you won't have quite the same level of signal. But otherwise you're pretty fine. I've been all around Europe and very few places haven't had a signal.

Speaker 1: 22:40

Very cool, and are people using Starlink over there, or is that not needed so much?

Speaker 2: 22:45

It is a thing I don't have it on my van. I looked at the cost and went I don't need it that much, so I just have a normal dongle that I got of Amazon, and then I have a little antenna that sticks on my roof like a booster. Boost the signal, and I've been everywhere with that. It's been brilliant.

Speaker 1: 23:04

Very cool. So another question was do you have any particular areas in Europe? You're the most Like Fonda. If someone were to come for the first time in Renevan or RV, are there any certain road trips you would recommend for people or areas to visit?

Speaker 2: 23:18

This is really tough because, again, a lot of it will depend on what you enjoy. If you want to come and see the history, it's difficult because if you want to come and see the history, I probably would say don't rent a van for all of it, because you want to go and explore the cities and do all the stuff and spending your money on renting a van for the whole time is just going to waste it. You're not going to use it in the same way. But if you want to come and see some of the nature spots where having a van is perfect for the Dolomites, absolutely amazing. Norway, iceland I've just come back from Iceland's incredible, but it's a bit pain to get to, so you might not want to do that. But Norway, in fact most of Scandinavia, is just gorgeous.

Speaker 2: 23:54

I love Germany, especially the black forest and around. So the southern end of the castles around there, that's where the Disney castle is, nüstrinstein and castle that inspired Walt Disney, and that's all on the southern coast or southern edge. I should say it's not really a coastline of Germany. That whole road trip is magic and that's actually quite a good one. If you're brand new to Europe, it's a good place to start is that sort of southwest black forest of Germany, because you can go from there straight in front. You can go straight into Switzerland and you can get a really good taste of your and Austria's not far from there, and you can also go straight down from there into the Dolomites. So in two weeks you could see a huge chunk of that middle bit of Europe. Slovenia is nice as well, and Croatia. I could go on for hours.

Speaker 1: 24:41

Yeah, something I was pondering is that it could be cool to rent a rig for a couple of weeks and then give it back and like stay in a hotel, like you said, and do the city centres and some of the city things, and so you can kind of go back and forth. Maybe an option.

Speaker 2: 24:56

Yeah, and a lot of the cities now are linked really well by train links, so you don't even need to drive if you don't want to. You could get like they've got the Euro stuff from London to Paris and then that carries on into parts of Europe. So you could absolutely do that and I think that would be a really if you want to come and do the history, and the history, like, say, is Berlin and all of those places are incredible, but you don't want to be in a van necessarily for those because, yeah, you might not get the most use out of it.

Speaker 1: 25:22

Very cool and I know your website has a ton of details Like what are some of the things people can find on Wandering Bird, if they want to look into this stuff.

Speaker 2: 25:31

Oh, my goodness, the website has become sort of a mega. Well, I've got an entire course, an entire book, about touring Europe. So, by all means, come and have a look at that. But there's there's loads on there about sort of how to plan your trip, because I know it's daunting, so where to start, how I plan my trips when I'm going to a new place, and how you can look at things like your budget and all of that stuff I've got on there. So, yeah, but come, come and have a click around and you'll find all sorts of. And there's also the YouTube channel. The YouTube channel has got loads of different places that I've been and advice and tips for touring Europe and cool and do you think that there are lots more people doing this?

Speaker 1: 26:08

Are they mostly from the UK, or all Europeans doing this now, or what kind of people are you seeing that are doing the RV thing around Europe?

Speaker 2: 26:16

I think it was definitely growing, definitely growing, and I think I think a lot of people now that sort of borders have opened up again and people are getting back to travelling. I think a lot of people spent lockdown planning big adventures. So I am definitely seeing a lot of people from sort of Australia and New Zealand who are coming over to Europe at the moment and they're sort of emailing me and going oh, how do we do this? I've got your book, but I don't know how to do this or whatever, and that's kind of fun. And I've also got a Facebook group as well and a lot of people in there who are sort of one for the other day from somewhere in Africa and they've got a van and they're going to drive their van up from Africa and then come up into Europe. So, yeah, awesome.

Speaker 1: 26:58

Very cool, and so is your Facebook group called Wandering Bird as well.

Speaker 2: 27:02

Yes, if you search for a new model of Facebook, yeah, you'll find it.

Speaker 1: 27:05

Cool. I think it's good to have a point person over there, because coming from the US or coming from anywhere else, it is daunting to figure all this out, you know, and I think it's helpful that you've done so much of it.

Speaker 2: 27:16

Hopefully agree, and when I come to the US I will be talking to you. How do I do this?

Speaker 1: 27:21

Totally fantastic. You're such a great resource. I just love you know. I can't wait to come over there and try this out. So, yeah, did you have any other tips or you know beginner advice that we missed?

Speaker 2: 27:32

I think the biggest thing that I certainly for people from the US and Canada is we have different electrical sockets and different electrical amounts. So I think you guys are 115. Is that right? I think so, and we use 230. So yours should work, but they will be very, very weak. And also we have different plug socket. So you might want to think about that before you bring things like you know, hair straighteners or hair dryers and stuff over there. You might be better off buying a cheap one over in Europe and it will work way better for you.

Speaker 1: 28:05

That's really good advice that I forgot about. So cool, yeah Well, thank you so much for your time and of course, we'll put all the links to Wandering Bird everything in the show notes, so, yeah. So, thank you, and that was super fun and I can't wait to meet you when I come over there. Yeah, that'd be awesome, definitely. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Wayward Home Podcast. Hopefully it's piqued your interest and curiosity about exploring Europe in a campervan. Remember to head to thewanderingbirdcom to check out all of Catherine's helpful articles. I'll see you next time on the Wayward Home Podcast.