Date:         Sat, 25 Jul 2015 04:33:05 -0700
Reply-To:     mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET>
Subject:      Westy camping in Europe, home now, part 2
In-Reply-To:  <tsPg1q00L3iShQZ01sQ8Ge>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Several people have asked about official hassles in bringing a van into
Europe and driving it around. We didn't have any questions raised and no
big hoops to jump though. We stayed inside the EU though. The van was
shipped with the license plates removed and I carried them in my luggage
on the plane. We never dealt directly with any governmental entity, just
shipping company and customs brokers.

Before we could pick up the van in Belgium we stopped at an autoclub
office in Germany and bought what is termed "green card insurance" to
have liability coverage to meet legal requirements within the EU. We
gave a copy to our customs broker in Belgium who provided it to Belgian
Customs. Several days later we were given clearance to take delivery
from the shipping office at the port. We took a cab to the dock, handed
a piece of paper over to the shipping company, and drove it away. Then
we stopped to put some gas in it since you have to ship with the tank
nearly empty. At the gas station I also installed the license plates.

We suffered no real hassles of any kind while traveling around. The EU
countries have no border guards to speak of between member countries.
You can't always tell you are even crossing from one to another. We
crossed many borders without being sure exactly when the line was crossed.

We saw police many times in many places as we drove. At various times I
thought we might be pulled over by a cop driving right behind us or a
traffic cop standing on a corner in a small town looking at us. It never
happened. On our last day we were in the Netherlands headed for
Amsterdam to store our van. Outside of town there was a police
checkpoint setup for some reason. About 8 cops, directing all vehicles
into a parking lot. The cop said "are you American?" and then asked for
"license and registration" and made friendly small talk in English as he
looked at them. He pulled out his phone and took a picture of my Calif
driver's license before showing it to his buddies. Then he gave our
stuff back and said we could go.

The camping was great overall and gave us a place to leave our vehicle
without worry when we took a bus or train into town. We had a UK
AutoClub Europe Campground guide that helped us pick camps with good
public transit options. Anytime we had to leave our van parked somewhere
else we were nervous until we got back to it. The camps always gave us a
safe feeling no matter how long we were gone from our van. More on the
camps later.

Mark


Theodore Hoekman wrote:
> A good friend of mine who has an identical 95 Eurovan Winnebago camper (EVC) to mine did the same thing.
>Shipped it over, then lived in it and traveled for 3 years all over Europe and UK.
>They encountered a small number of campers with US/North American plates on them.
>There were significant hoops to jump through in some jurisdictions, and the papers which made it clear you were going to take the van back to the US.
>They had Washington State plates, which drew a lot interest/queries.
>
>
>
> On Jul 18, 2015, at 10:13 AM, mark drillock <mdrillock@COX.NET> wrote:
>
>> We shipped our Westy over and camped in 10 countries. We covered about
>> 6,000 miles in 2 months, mostly on secondary roads and smaller. We
>> stayed at public and private campgrounds and often took trains or buses
>> from them into the cities for tourist activities. The camping was easy
>> and the people were friendly. Our Calif plates stood out and people
>> gawked at them everywhere we went, at times like we were in a UFO. I
>> can't tell you how many times someone saw the front plate and then went
>> to the back to see if it matched, then scratching their heads.