Of course it's too soon to make any firm plans, and whatever we end up doing will depend totally on what time of year it is. We know that we will have maximum three months in Albania, so that brings us up to June 15th or so. With any luck at all, hopefully we will be allowed into Germany by then so that we can pick up our new motorhome.
If that happens at that time, our plan is to head north!
There is a popular hike in Norway called Trolltunga that we want to do. Our son did it a couple of years ago, and he said it's a tough hike. He said we had better do it soon, because of course we're not getting any younger!
The Trolltunga Rock.
It's a single day hike, but it's a long day! It's 28 kms (17.4 miles) round trip! Fortunately, it's only 800 meters (2,600 ft) in altitude gain, and most of that is at the beginning of the hike. I know that's still a lot, but now that we've done Kilimanjaro, everything is perspective!
Anyhow, that would be the main goal of heading up to Norway, although we realize of course that there is a lot more to see and we would likely stay for a couple of months.
But that depends on what we end of doing with regards to visas and residency. The plan is to get German residence permits so that we don't have to worry about the 3 months in, 3 months out Schengen Visa that applies to most of the European countries.
Germany to Trolltunga, Norway.
What we would really like to do is to drive up through northern Norway and through Sweden and Finland then back down through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania but that's a six month trip for us and so we would need to have the residency thing sorted out, and I expect that will take a month or so at the outset. Which means we would have to get going by June at the latest and of course that is still up in the air. So I doubt that is going to happen.
And once we do get going in the new motorhome, we need to have some sort of a plan for next winter. Even if we get German residency, not all of Europe is RV friendly in terms of winter weather. In fact, you're fairly limited to southern Spain and Portugal, southern Italy, and Greece. Outside of the EU countries, there is also Turkey, Cyprus, and Morocco for half decent weather. Alternately, we could park the motorhome in storage for a few months and fly somewhere warm to wait out the winter.
Anyway, it's all just rough ideas for now. We're prepared for the possibility that we won't get into the motorhome for at least another three months , and if it happens sooner than that then it's a bonus.
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Nice deal on this Propane Gas Firebowl.
And in Canada...
Looks like a great plan guys. We've considered applying for residence outside the UK but, as we understand it, national residence doesn't confer unlimited time in the Schengen countries outside the one you have residence in. In usual times there are no border controls between Schengen countries, so it seems impossible to police this in practice. There's the tax question too, at what point we'd become legally liable to start paying income tax etc in our 'new residence' country, after 6 months I think. All of this is completely new to us two, looking forwards to see how you guys get on. There's a little about the residence/Schengen visa stuff on this page, which is for Spain but I **think** applies to all Schengen members: http://www.exteriores.gob.es/portal/en/serviciosalciudadano/informacionparaextranjeros/paginas/requisitosdeentrada.aspx cheers, Jay
ReplyDeleteYes, you are correct that having a residence permit does not officially give you unlimited time in Schengen countries. But it is a work around and you're right that it's impossible to police. Even getting the residence permit involves some white lies because obviously the intention isn't to live in the country... it's to loophole your way around the continent which is what most full time travelers find a way to do because the systems aren't geared towards what people like us want to do. But, it is doable, and we know people who have done it. The other option we have is a little known bilateral visa agreement that Canada has with several European countries. To make use of one of these would require that we spend an entire three months in one country... which is certainly doable and it would give us a total of six months in the Schengen zone before we would have to exit for three.
DeleteAll makes sense, best of luck guys. 👍👌
DeleteHi folks,you might check “ the chouters.com” as they are already touring & just returned to France.They certainly know the intricacies of the purchase,the residency & visas .All the best
ReplyDeleteYes, as the comment below states, the Chouters are in a totally different situation.
DeleteLinda and Steven (the Chouters) are a great, inspirational couple, but maybe not the best example in this case as (I understand it) Steven has Irish citizenship (and Ireland has remained in the EU) plus they're married, conferring some residency rights to Linda. They travel full-time and don't have a house in Ireland (or another EU country) and did have a problem with a Slovenian immigration official over the intricacies of Linda's status around Schengen, but overall they're pretty much have the Schengen status of EU citizens. Cheers, happy travels! Jay
ReplyDeleteThanks Jay, yes you are correct. Their situation is quite different from ours.
DeleteHow much are you budgeting for fuel in Europe?
ReplyDeleteEssentially, whatever it takes. But our new motorhome is quite fuel efficient! Real world tests rate it at the equivalent of 27 mpg.
DeleteSounds dreamy! I wish you all the best and success in your plans. It doesn’t matter where you go...it’s how you’re doing it and the blogs you post about the fun you have and frustrations you encounter that make your life eclectic and fun to read in my books! Power on you two!
ReplyDeleteIt does sound wonderful doesn't it?! We just hope that we can first make it to Germany to pick up our motorhome, once we can do that then we will figure out the rest as we go, especially with moving from one country to another with this whole COVID mess around.
DeleteWe are so happy that you enjoy reading our posts, whether they are about our fun adventures or the frustrating issues that we sometimes come up against, it just makes life real! :-)
Just want to point out that Norway is stunning beautiful and expensive country! Looking forward to your travels there.
ReplyDeleteYes, we totally understand that it is an expensive country but it will help that we will have our own "house" with us, so that will save us a bunch right there. We love hiking and just exploring in general so we shouldn't have too many expenses in the entertainment category and our motorhome has a good fuel rating. We did well up in the Yukon in Canada a few years ago and I would expect that pricing should be similar plus at that point we had a gas guzzling motorhome.
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