Motoring across the continent
Language barriers, electrical conversions and currency were not the only challenges Bob Tait and Maureen Kelly faced last summer in Europe.
They also had to maneuver their motor home, the Bothan Taistil, through narrow and winding roads in Italy, Spain, Portugal, England, Wales, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium.
Pronounced “bohon tashteel,” the couple’s name for their motor home is Gaelic for traveling cottage. It has traveled to much of the United States, Mexico and Canada, and this summer took its first journey across the Atlantic to meet up with its owners for a three-month tour of Europe.
Last fall Bob and Maureen Kelly, his wife of three years whom he calls “Kelly,” met with a friend who read a book on motor home travel in Europe and talked about going together.
The Shaler couple went home and said to each other, “Let’s go.” Their friends eventually backed out, but that didn’t stop Tait and Kelly.
“We’re not putzers,” Kelly said.
The couple is spending much of their retirement traveling to national parks and other outdoor areas of interest. Tait is the state coordinator for the North Country Trail and is the founder of the Butler Outdoor Club.They immediately started planning for the big trip.“I was a little bit overwhelmed,” Kelly said. “I’m the detail person. He is the big picture person. All of a sudden I was making lists in my head.”First, they had to decide whether to take their own motor home or rent or buy one in Europe. After calculating the different costs, they decided to take their own.“We wanted our own little home,” Tait said. “She (Kelly) wanted to know where her dishes are.”They found Seabridge International, a shipping company in Baltimore that ships vehicles daily. They were given a sailing date for their beloved Bothan Taistil and had to leave it in Baltimore until they would meet again in Belgium.Tait described the Seabridge ship as a floating garage. The ships can carry 6,000 vehicles each, according to Vern Martin, company president.After coordinating their flight with their shipping date, the couple flew to Paris and traveled by train to Belgium to meet their wheels.Tait and Kelly also had to insure their vehicle to legally drive in Europe as well as adapt it to European electrical outlets.They had to buy a new SIM card for their cell phone in every country they visited. Kelly said they kept a journal of all their different phone numbers. “We did a lot of e-mailing,” she said.
Their itinerary took them from Belgium back to France and up to Normandy, where they visited Omaha Beach, one of the D-Day landing sites.“It was a touching thing, the cemetery stones, to witness the beach,” Kelly said. “We’re standing on American soil in the top corner of France.”From France, they headed to Spain and learned that curing ham is an art form there. Tait said that the ham is delicious, but quite pricey.They visited the coastal city of Sagres where navigators such as Magellan were trained.One of the key reasons Tait wanted to tour Europe was the churches sprinkled throughout the continent. His love for church architecture led many of the couple’s adventures.“I could stay in a church for half a day,” Tait said.A favorite was Mont St. Michele in France — a cathedral and monastery surrounded by water.Churches in Spain and Portugal intrigued him because many were Muslim mosques that had been turned into Christian churches during the crusades in the Middle Ages.Concerns about a language were unfounded in many countries because they could always find someone who spoke English, but Portugal was an exception.Kelly said they thought Portuguese would be similar to Spanish, of which they knew a little. But the language didn’t resemble Spanish at all. It was also difficult to find an English-speaking helper. So in Portugal, their favorite — and only phrase — was “Thank you.”“We made a point to learn ‘Thank you’ in every language,” Tait said.From Portugal they went back into Spain, then into southern France where they enjoyed viewing the Roman architecture in Nimes such as aqueducts and amphitheaters. They also got to see the Palace of the Popes in Arles, which once served as the home of the head of the Catholic Church during a tumultuous period in Rome.
When they ventured into Italy, a favorite spot for both Kelly and Tait was the Cinque Terre, a chain of five villages where the homes are built on rugged cliffs running down to the sea.Kelly said, “The scenery is amazing. They’re (the towns) are all connected by this marvelous train system.”Tait said that visitors can walk to each of the towns and catch the train back whenever they get tired.They also visited Lake Como.“It’s all movie stars. (George) Clooney has a house there,” Tait said.The Bothan Taistil also took the couple into Switzerland. There they stayed in Interlaken, a popular tourist destination located in the center of the country between two lakes. They also went to the top of the Alps. To go back down, visitors can rent bicycles with no seats or pedals. Riders just stand on a narrow platform and roll down the mountain.During the European soccer championships, the couple stayed next to a campground where the Dutch team and fans were staying.“It was worse than Steeler football,” Tait said.From Switzerland, they traveled into England and visited Avebury, a ruin larger than Stonehenge and one that visitors can actually touch.One day in England, they decided to map out a walk. On the walk, they encountered the Ramblers outdoor group of the town. They belong to a similar hiking group and decided to join the British contingent’s hike that day.In England, Tait tried a drink of the legendary mineral water in the city of Bath, they visited the library at Oxford and hiked in both Dartmoor and Exmoor national parks.They also enjoyed Spinsters’ Rock in County Devon, a 16-ton rock sitting on three stones. Local tradition says three spinsters thought to be witches set the rock up after it had fallen down.The couple happened to be on the coast of Wales on July 4. Toll takers were so excited to have Americans in their country that day they decorated their booth in Fourth of July decor.In Wales they went to the Brecon Beacons and Pembrokeshire Coast national parks and took a ferry to Ireland. Tait was especially interested to see how Northern Ireland “had taken a beating because of the religious wars” between the Catholics and Protestants.The couple realized it was time to make their way home, so they drove their motor home into Germany and stored it there until they plan to meet up with it later. They will soon again spend a few months in Europe, probably beginning this spring.
Driving on the old, winding roads of Europe gave the couple’s beloved Winnebago a few bumps and bruises, including a knocked-off mirror and side scrapes from a tunnel.Tait was comforted when they reached a campground one day and found another motor home that had fared even worse.“There are curbs everywhere — you don’t dare hit it,” he said.As the passenger facing oncoming vehicles in European traffic, Kelly said she “was in the death seat!”Part way through the trip Tait learned that European drivers in training place large, red Ls on the front and back of their vehicles to signify a student driver. He said it helps other drivers not to “get annoyed with you.”Tait did most of the driving through their months in Europe but rarely traveled more than six hours per day.“I really enjoy driving and seeing things,” he said.
Unlike America where campgrounds are typically out of town, Europe proved to be a camper’s heaven. They noted Europe provides free camping in many church parking lots. Bed and breakfasts often have camping lots. They even camped once on a racetrack in England.“They love their camping in Europe,” Tait said.At a campground in Paris, a local baker would take orders for baguettes or croissants at night and deliver them to campers in the morning.Almost every campground had laundry facilities, though they were expensive, he said.Kelly enjoyed motor home travel for many reasons, including freedom.“Having the motor home, we had the freedom to stay another day or two. We weren’t locked into reservations. We didn’t have a group to hang with,” she said.She added that the next time they go to Europe, they’ll “stay longer at the camp sites.” The pace they kept from May to August is one they could only keep up with for a short time.Tait agreed that this mode of travel is “not for the weak of heart. You have to figure out the night before where you’re going the next day. You have to find out where the grocery stores are.”Now that the couple knows more about what they are in for, they plan to return for a more relaxed view of the continent. Places they hope to visit include Germany and the Scandinavian countries.
Bob Tait and his wife, Maureen “Kelly” Kelly of Shaler, are retired and enjoying it. They both walk and bike every day. They have traveled to high points in almost every state and have visited almost every national park in the United States except for the far-reaching parks in Alaska. The adventurous couple takes a long trip about every six months with shorter trips in between.They really miss their motor home, which they call the Bothan Taistil, while it is being stored in Germany. Tait said when the motor home is stateside they sometimes just drive it to Wal-Mart, and he sits inside to read while his wife shops.
