So five years after our last full-time travel adventure, getting married and buying a house and we are ready to do it all again! It's been in the works for a while, and a bit delayed due to Covid but the world is finally opening up again. So we just decided to set a date of March 2022 to set off. We have both quit our jobs, given up our lives in the UK and are ready for full-time travel and some more adventures.
For ease of travel with Covid, we decided to start our travels with a trip around Europe for 3 months (all we are currently allowed due to Brexit). Dave had shown an interest in learning to ride motorcycles since we had rented scooters in Asia, so we decided to tie this in and do a 3 month Europe motorcycle trip, just to make it extra interesting!
This meant some very stressful and busy months where we sought renting our house out, Dave learnt how to ride a motorbike and passed his Mod 1 and 2 tests and we got everything ready that we needed to go!
At the end of January, we picked up our noble steed for the trip… a Suzuki Burgman 650.
This maxi scooter has enough storage under the seat for Dave's bag, in the top box for my bag and we added some panniers for little bits leftover. It also is super comfy for 2 of us, has enough power for the motorways (if we need to use them) and heated seats- as March isn't known for being super warm!
Due to our age now (early 30s) we are unable to do any working holiday visas as was originally the plan (as they all stop 30/31). We have a decent amount of savings but plan on travelling for 2 years so that makes our budget very tight- especially in Europe. Luckily our transport for these months (apart from fuel) is outside our budget and we are going in shoulder season when things will hopefully be a bit cheaper. But we plan on housesitting- looking after people's pets/ houses whilst they are away or Couchsurfing where possible to keep the costs down.
We didn't have a set route around Europe initially, so managed to book a few houses sits (using TrustedHousesitters see referral link below if interested) in Berlin in March, Stockholm in April and The Netherlands in May before heading off. These give us a few days/weeks as bases in places so we can explore local places, cook for ourselves and get to spend time with lovely pets! Plus gives us a few weeks' worths of free accommodation so our budget stretches further. We are currently aiming for about £900 per month for both of us. To keep costs down the weeks between Berlin and Stockholm we plan on travelling through Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland). After Stockholm, we home to travel down through Sweden and across northern Germany to The Netherlands.
We both have a lot smaller backpacks this time around, trying to make it so we are following one bag travel for ease and so things fit in the bike too. So for me, I have a 30l backpack and Dave has a 35l backpack.
After finishing our jobs and moving out of our house in February 2022 we spent a couple of weeks at a friend's house working out how to fit all our stuff into our backpacks and how to pack up the bike. Now we are all ready to set off for the 1st leg of our trip… 3 months in Europe here we come!
Thanks
Alex
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