Travelogue

First night camping at Cala d'OquesHaving gained experience two years ago with driving a camper van in Europe, we were much more knowledgeable about what to expect in terms of roads (they can get pretty narrow!) and the size of campsites to squeeze into. As a result, we wanted to go no bigger than the 6-meter van we had rented before. Although much less spacious than our Lazy Daze, it was comfortable enough and much less stressful to drive around a strange country.

We started the search and completed the booking process about 4 months ahead of our trip. We knew exactly what we wanted - a 6-meter long Urban Plus from McRent - just like we had in Munich. It was the perfect van for us - very efficiently designed with a big queen-size bed across the back, bathroom with shower, dinette, refrigerator and stove, and lots of storage space. Not cheap though. It cost us $2,833 for 25 days, which works out to about $113 a day.

Unfortunately, McRent’s Barcelona facility only has larger campers, but Herb was able to find the one we wanted at their facility in Tarragona (just an hour south of Barcelona by train).

So, after four wonderful nights in Barcelona, we took a taxi to the Barcelona Sants train station and from there it was only a little over an hour to Tarragona (8 € apiece). Trains are wonderful in Europe - on time, fast, clean, comfortable, and inexpensive.

One little glitch getting to McRent. Google Maps directed our taxi driver to an empty lot, which according to Google was McRent. We all sort of stared at each other blankly wondering what to do next. Although our driver spoke zero English, we were able to get the point across, and he was kind enough to call the McRent number and speak in Spanish to the receptionist, who gave us a different address for a place called Carvisa, that acts as McRent’s depot in Tarragona.

Things got a lot smoother from there. The people in the Carvisa office were great, and knew enough English to explain the details of the vehicle, which went fairly quickly because Herb was already familiar with the it.

Not wanting to stress about finding a place to sleep on our first night in the camper, we had booked in advance a campsite at Camping Cala D’Oques, right on the beach along the Costa Daurada, less than a half hour from Carvisa.

First Spanish superm ercado after picking up vanHowever, our first order of business upon hitting the road was stocking up the motorhome, so we stopped at a Mercadona, a supermarket chain in Spain that we came to love. Food shopping in a foreign country is always a bit challenging at first, but besides the different brand names, it was quite similar in quality and variety to our own - except there was a lot more jamon!!.

Herb did have a little problem selecting coffee, as the van only had a mocha pot rather than the drip type we were used to. He had taken a picture of it on his phone and stood looking at it somewhat pathetically in front of the coffee selection, until a woman took pity on him and pointed to what he wanted.

Wine was amazingly cheap - you can get a good bottle of white for 3 to 5 €. Beer was reasonable too, except for Lagunitas, an American brand which ironically is brewed right by our house. One bottle cost 3 €, which is practically the price of a six-pack in Spain.

Breakfast and lunch items were fairly easy, but cooking dinner in the camper is a bit tougher, since there is only a 2-burner stove - no microwave or oven like I am used to in our Lazy Daze. Besides, campgrounds in Spain have restaurants, so I wasn’t planning on having too many dinners in the camper. However, for those times we would, we bought salad ingredients, bratwurst, and tortellinis as easy to make dinners.

Amazingly the camper refrigerator fit everything quite nicely - very efficient design - and there was plenty of storage for the non-perishables.
Now, onto the vacation part.

Description

A motorhome rental service operating throughout Europe that offers all kinds of motorhomes. In fact, it is Europe's largest motorhome rental company.
Here is a link to their fleet, which ranges from small camper vans to larger Class C and Class A RVs: https://www.mcrent.eu/motorhome-rv/

You can currently find McRent motorhome rental in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Estonia, Poland and Iceland.