Our second trip to Europe- Belgium and Luxembourg

  In this video we share the tasks needed to get us ready for a 10 week tour in Belgium and Luxembourg.  Cleaning the MH inside and out (including a deep clean of the toilet cassette), saving payload by removing seats, sorting out Low Emission Zone registration, getting Buddy's Animal Health Certificate at a vets away from home and finding a gem of a site near Oxford on the way to the Eurotunnel, with metered electric (for the first time we learn the cost of what we use on EHU), makes it a busy few weeks before we leave.  

 We continue our journey through Western Flanders, heading south towards the World War 1 battlefields. We visit Tyne Cot Cemetery and Passchendale  Memorial Park to pay our respects to the fallen before heading to a camperpark just outside Ypres (Ieper). We explored Ypres before heading to the Menin Gate for the Last Post: a moving experience and one we will remember. We make our way further south to Kortrijk, to another camperpark right in the heart of the city which gave us the chance to visit the UNESCO sites of the beguinage and the belfry. Not forgetting beer and pancakes! Our last stop took us to a small free camperpark on the edge of Western Flanders, sitting out the wet weekend with a tasty activity. 

  As Easter has come and gone we have arrived in the beautiful forests of the Belgian Ardennes. We are still amazed at how quiet it is and haven't struggled to find official aires and camperplatts either for free or for a modest charge, often with electricity thrown in. We haven't seen a UK number plate for weeks and it feels like we are the only Brits down this way. Why aren't you here?   Belgium is a little concentrated country of landscapes, culture and history. It's friendly and easy to get around...we're finding the roads a bit hard on the old bones though! Nevertheless, we are enjoying our trip so much we might spend all this tour in Belgium and Luxembourg and leave the Netherlands for another time. There's so much to see and do. 

 Not everyone's cup of tea this one, but we wanted to learn more about what happened to the Ardennes during the closing of WW2, when Hilter made his last stand and started a surprise attack on Luxembourg and Belgium. We knew nothing about it, having forgotten all our school history, so followed a path from Dinant in the west to Bastogne, close to the Luxembourg border.  On the way, we saw many memorials, flags and of course, tanks. A constant reminder of those that lost their lives. The USA, supported by the British had their work cut out for them during the cold winter weeks of Dec 1945 but successfully liberated the Ardennes by the end of Jan 1945.  Having a motorhome meant we could retrace the key locations in the battle and we stayed at some great stopovers, which were good value for money.  

  We continue our tour of Luxembourg, heading east to Vianden for a stay by the river Our and a walk around the beautiful town to view the impressive castle. On our way to the Mullerthal region we do a quick stop at Beaufort Castle before arriving at our camperpark in Berdorf. This area is a UNESCO Geopark and has stunning scenery with dramatic rock formations. Know as 'Little Switzerland' we explore the gorges and viewpoints before heading into to the pretty town of Echternach, the oldest town in Luxembourg, founded by a Northern English man. We stay on a lovely campsite at the Wolf's gorge and do another hike into the Gorge du Loup. 

  In this vlog we have moved to the Minett region of Luxembourg, with its red soil due to iron ore. It was the steel industry that gave Luxembourg its wealth but now the mines are closed and disused. We visit the open air musuem at Fond de Gras, travel underground at the mining museum in Rumelange and see the blast furnace at Belval.  We also have our first taste of unpleasant French motorhomers as they attempt to steal our motorhome place- may seem petty, but they were rude, racist and sneaky. 

 Our 9-week motorhome tour continues as we come back to Belgium after 3 weeks in Luxembourg. Week 7 of our motorhome travels sees us stopping in parkups in St Vith, Malmedy and Katevennen all for under €10/night. 

 In this vlog we share the costs of our recent trip in Europe. Everyone's budget is different, some have bigger budgets than us, and some have smaller ones. Whatever your budget, we thought you'd like to see our example to help you plan a trip.