We drove 4247 miles through The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany and back through France, Belgium and The Netherlands, averaging 50 miles a day. We spent $2887 on gas, averaging $6.50 per gallon for 444 gallons. We never filled the tank to test the gas mileage, but we had picked Rover up with little gas in the tank and dropped her off the same way, so we figure that an average of 9.5 mpg was pretty accurate. With very few exceptions, David drives no more than 55 mph, even on the autobahn.
We stayed 85 nights in Europe, 8 of them at free camperstops. The other 77 nights we paid an average of $26, which included showers and electricity. The most expensive was in Paris at $45/night. Campground expenses were $2078.
We made a conscious decision to eat out more often this year--3 or 4 times a week at least--so our food costs were higher (and our food experiences more fun) at $3434. It is necessary to pay for the privilege of sitting at an outdoor cafe, so a simple coffee or glass of wine for both of us can easily cost $8 -10. That was often necessary just to find a place to get off our feet and to gain the right to use the bathroom. However, once you have made a purchase, you can sit as long as you like--you will not be asked to move on. Our wine expenses probably averaged €2-3 a day. We had some pretty good cheap wines!
Our additional transportation costs were $1350, very close to the $100 a week we had expected for bus, trams, trains, and tolls. It is slightly higher primarily because of our one-day excursion to London on the EuroStar. Train fare for the two of us was $400.
Our insurance cost $1325 for three months. Rover is uninsured in storage. As far as we can discover, there is only one company that will insure American-registered motorhomes in Europe, and it offers no reduction for long-term storage. Our storage costs until next April are $875, prepaid. We were also able to get a $400 refund on our car insurance because it wasn’t being driven for 3 months.
Direct expenses for Rover were $1208. This includes our new air compressor for the tires, battery work, the work done by the storage people last winter, the oil change and brake check, and various things we added like the laundry rack, rugs, and water hose adaptors.
We paid $142 in ATM and foreign money transaction fees. Our current bank had wanted to charge 3%, so instead we kept open a checking account at our old bank that charges only a 1% fee. We paid all our bills and other financial work on the internet and didn’t come home to a single thing we had forgotten to deal with.
Museums and tours cost $850, but many of our best memories were free: the sand dune at Arcachon, the Pont du Gard, the ride into Italy, all the cathedrals and outdoor markets. Our little 30-hour excursion to London was $700 for train, hotel and play tickets. (Susan thinks this constitutes David’s birthday and Christmas presents, while David thinks the matter is negotiable.)
Of course we spent additional monies on airfare, gifts, t-shirts, internet acccess ($76), newspapers ($136), LP gas ($55), and miscellaneous stuff. But we basically stayed within our anticipated $1000/weekly expenses. We don’t think anyone could duplicate that level of spending while staying in hotels, eating all meals in restaurants and paying travel expenses, and renting an RV in Europe would cost at least $1000 a week.