All you need is Ecuador

All you need is Ecuador is the tourism motto posted all over the country.  It is true. The jury is still out, but I think it is my new favourite country.  Being the first time in South America I was completely surprised by the brand new airports, bus stations, highways and general ease of travel. Ecuador has it together.  Their ability to positively use tourism as a way to manage national parks and to protect the Amazon basin, Galapagos Islands, and other natural areas is second to none.  We should all take a page out of their book.

Quito and Cuenca are worth a visit and they offer lots of parks as well as funky places to stay and a variety of restaurants.  But they are cities and Ecuador has so much to offer from an outdoors perspective that is where we concentrated our time. In fact, one of our three days in Cuenca we spent in nearby Cajas National Park hiking to a peak at 4267m.  Both cities are really high in elevation!

The two highlights of our time for me was a four day foray into the Amazon Basin (Cuyabeno Natl Park) and a visit to the Galapagos Islands; seeing so much life - much of it creepy and crawly. In Cuyabeno we spent days in the river canoes looking for life in the river and on land and then hiking through the jungle at day and night finding all sorts of unique and unusual insects, spiders (as big as your face), snakes  (such as enormous anacondas) and bugs; not to forget the stampeding herd of wild pigs and many types of monkeys. This was not for the feint of heart.  We'd get back to our open cabana and hunker into our mosquito net covered beds hoping they'd keep out the insects we had so longingly searched for all day!

The Galapagos Islands were absolutely stunning.  I had no idea! I knew it would be amazing, but until we were there I didn't realise how much the islands team with life in and out of the water.  We were lucky to find a last minute deal for the seven of us on a small Catamaran, Solitario Jorge, which made our cruise through the islands really personal and flexible.  The other five guests on our trip were lots of fun and truly added to our experience. We snorkeled 2 - 3 times a day and hiked at least once a day.   I could go on about everything we saw, but the pictures should be up soon and you can see for yourself.

Mattias can also add to his list of surfing destinations - Galapagos, as we all had a beach day at the incredible surfing and swimming beach Tortuga Bay yesterday. He is now with the Cosbeys heading to Banos, the adventure capital, and is sure to have some fun times and a nice break from his parents for a week.  Bernie and I head to a job fair in the USA and then I am off to spend time with Mima in England (yay GB's) and Paris while Bernie joins the Cosbeys and Mattias in Chile and they'll head out for what should be a fantastic Patagonia experience.

It has been a while!

Well this year is screaming by and without many updates to the blog!  There is so much to do and see and at the same time we are spending a lot of time on logistics that we didn't five years ago. With Mima in France and connecting with her daily and now traveling with our good buddies the Cosbeys, we are finding it hard to find time to write.

Travel in Nicaragua was incredible.  Definitely on the developing country list, but pretty easy to figure out. We lived with a wonderful homestay family in the sleepy fishing village of Gigante Bay while taking three weeks of Spanish classes and surfing ( well Bernie and Mattias surfed....). It was really nice to slow the pace and really get to know what daily life in Nicaragua is like.  We made some wonderful friends and had a chance to use our brains to learn something new. Though our Spanish isn't anywhere close to perfect, it certainly helped us to  manoeuvre our way through the rest of our time in Nicaragua.  From Gigante Bay we had a day in Granada checking out the colonial city and moved on to Little Corn Island on the Caribbean Sea.  Getting there is an event, but once on the island life slows right down.  We all took our diving certification and had some incredible dives.

We finished our time in Nicaragua in the old capital of Leon and were lucky to be there during a huge festival.  Lots of people, noise, events, and chaos made the few days exciting.  We decided the festival was a strange mix of Hallowe'en meets Christmas. It rounded out our Nicaraguan adventure nicely.

The people in Nicaragua were so kind and friendly.  This is a country I am really glad we spent six weeks in  and am glad we didn't try to visit other central American counties in the time as it would have significantly impacted our ability to see how much diversity Nicaragua has to offer.

Just When You Think You Have Seen It All!

"Just when you think you have seen it all!" is now the family motto! While we were in Nepal hiking through the mountainsides full of blossoming rhododendrons, Emilia came out with this. How true it is. Nine months of seeing so much and doing so many different things and there seems to be endless more to do.

Hiking at 3000m

In Nepal we reached new heights, hiking to a peak of 4780m...in the beautiful sun - only to be socked in the next day and hiked out in 15cm of freshy. Timing was everything on summit day. Eating delicious Yak cheese made in the village at 3500m that we stayed in for 3 days, playing with the local villager children and stunning the other hikers and porters alike with our kids hiking 10 days with no porters or guides were just a few of the things we did in the Langtang valley. The kids felt proud and confident after that. We were proud of them.

Hong Kong was not new for Bernie or me, but it was fun to share our favorite haunts and to find a new one - HK Disneyland! What a blast and really we just got there in the nick of time for both kids to still appreciate the cheesy little kid stuff.  It is a small venue so we did spend a lot of time on Space Mountain (see Mima's blog). And thanks to Dave and Shelley for putting up with us for so long. Our rushed one day visa only took 7 days!

On to China where we became more the attraction than the attraction we were at. The kids tire of it at times but have been in lots of photos too.  Hanging out at Blu's place was great, the kids are ready to move in...good food, comfy bean bag enormous chair, pools, soccer fields, kids-this is a life of the rich and famous.

Sightseeing with Blu Man Chu

We volunteered at the panda research and breeding centre - yet another highlight for all of us ( see Mattias' blog). We battled 1.4 billion Chinese to see the terra-cotta warriors, hiked nature's stair master up one of China's 4 sacred mountains- the best part was getting high enough to be above the smog ( seriously), and then.....just when we thought life was good and we started to get a bit cocky about how easy travel was.... Our flight to Beijing went sideways. Really, we landed two hours west of Beijing for some unknown reason. We were held on board for three hours, fed dinner and then told the flight would get to Beijing, but perhaps not for another 3 hours or so, maybe.....so a new adventure of busses, fast trains, subways and taxi to get to Donna's. We have a few unknown 20 something helpfuls to thank for getting us here.  First on the plane, then at the train station and then at the taxi stand in the middle of nowhere at midnight! Our Chinese is non existent and we were hooped without their help.

And now after the Great Wall excursion - yet another icon on the world list checked off.... Mima has decided to go to school. She is joining a grade 2 class tomorrow at Western Academy Beijing. Who knows what she will see in the classroom?! She is converted and is trying to talk us into moving abroad to teach internationally. The three schools we have toured are state of the art, and all top notch in all they do, and our friends who work at them all live in pretty swanky places.  But not to worry, though she is sold, we are not. We love the fresh air life at home and think our schools are pretty good too, not to mention our home.

Great Wall image by Mattias

We had the luxury of traveling with some new friends for half our China visit - the Rahals: Daren, Cynthia, Molly and Marcus are on a very similar trip. We were sorry to say goodbye to them;) but hope to see them in Vancouver when we get back!

Hangin with the Rahals

Who knows what is left on our "just when you think you have seen it all" list, but we can't wait to see. And we will let you know as we see it!  

Ramblings of Cambodia

Cambodia is a fascinating country. We have only been here three days and will only be here for two more, for various reasons our visit here is short...mainly time, but here are a few impressions and things I have found noteworthy so far.

Cambodia is a poor country - on the scale of the poorest we have seen to date, perhaps on a level equal to Tanzania. Having said this, the people are happy and their smiles are contagious. They all smile! And the country is safe for travelers.

Siem Reap is far more developed and clean than I would have ever expected; they get over 2 million visitors a year. Tourism is rampant here; however, it is easy to get beyond the facade and see beyond this to the real Cambodia.

Many hostels and restaurants are affiliated with orphanages, NGO's and street kid organisations. In other words, it seems as though much of the tourist development is connected to community development. It is easy to stay and eat where you feel you are making some (ever so slight) positive impact rather than just stay or eat anywhere.

Our kids are learning quickly about the devastating history of Cambodia. Missing limbs and other landmine atrocities are up front and centre. Helping people who are helping themselves by selling goods, entertainment or knowledge is a focus, rather than helping those looking for handouts. It is easy to make a real connection to the saying "Get a Life". In fact many working locals and volunteers promote this saying with the street kids and then actually help to train them in some way.

Landmines are a fact of life - don't stray off the beaten track - even to pee by a tree!

The US$ is the main currency. They have Riel but it is so tied to the $ that you can use the currencies interchangeably. ATM's give US$, if you want Riel you have to go into a bank, get out US$ and then convert it. You can pay with a combination of the currencies and it is not unusual to pay in one and get change back in the other.

Corruption is part of life:

-At the land border crossing (the one we went through from Thailand is known as the most commonly used and most disfunctional) it has become a business to have people pay extra (double the visa cost) and presto you get your visa - or you can take your chances and see who your visa officer is and see if you will a) get your visa without delay (not a likely event) b) pay extra because it is demanded (and get your visa in up to 3 hours) c) pay a lot extra and either get it quickly or in up to 4 hours. We opted to support the local "business man". Probably the wrong thing to do, but at least a Cambodian got paid for a service rather than a paid official getting pocket money. At least that is how we reasoned it to ourselves.

-If you get robbed - expect to pay the local police to fill in a report about the robbery!

The local Tuk Tuk drivers are great - you pay a driver and he is yours for the day and will take you around to any of the sights. Ours, Lee, is funny and friendly. He has been at our beck and call for our whole time here. The key is to get one from the beginning who doesn't try to suck you into an unrealistic price for the day.

Locals are paid small wages... a silk weaver is paid $85 per month. Cost of living is cheap - but gasoline isn't! So the low wages are probably ok ( at some level) if you are content to live very locally. We could all learn a little from this (says she who is traveling far and wide).

One day when we have more time - a year is simply not enough- and are less concerned about sitting on boats or buses for hours, I would like to return to this beautiful country and see more of it. Angkor Wat (and all of the surrounding amazing temples ) are worth a visit by all. I am sure Cambodia has lots more to offer - we will just have to be patient and see it another time.

Memories of days / years gone by

I really wasn't sure what to expect coming to Thailand. I had my 20 year old memories of hating the heat, smog and hustle of Bangkok and the fond memories of quiet southern Thailand beaches and rural life of the north. Thailand has changed, but what it has to offer hasn't.

Bangkok has been pleasantly surprising. The hostels offer air con and heated showers(not that you need hot water here), the air is clearer, the people friendly, the sites still amazing and a general safe feeling (knowing of course that scamers are everywhere-but that seems true of everywhere anyone travels these days). Major changes in Bangkok- Khoa San Rd, the alternative and ultimate hippie hang out and hostel area has grown up/gentrified - For better or worse....it has a Starbucks. I think that says it all! Not quite so alternative anymore. Taxis are metered (good if you can get the driver to turn it on). There is a sky train. Road signs are in English and Thai (making finding your way around a lot easier). Travellers Cheques are passé. Travelers and tourists of all types are everywhere. Getting around is easy. Long distance buses are on time, comfy(relatively speaking) and easy to figure out.

In the south, the beaches are still amazing. The difference, they are far more built up. In fact the bungalows of days gone by were mostly wiped out by the tsunami and replaced with cottages out of our budget range. We, however, were able to find one beach not quite resort only and with a five minute walk one is able to leave the crowds behind. Tomorrow we head for a new area, the latest upcoming area, Koh Chang in the Gulf of Thailand, and we hope to get to it before it has really exploded. Fingers crossed.

The North will have to wait a few weeks, until we have been through Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Well, we hope Cambodia....we will wait to see what happens on the borders there. A bit volatile to say the least, but seems to be pretty local.

This is Africa

Tanzania has been a wild and amazing ride! We came here with a lot planned, unlike most of our travels to date.  All we had to do was make sure we got busses and ferries to get to and from our various points of interest.  Dar Es Salaam is not the city of dreams, rather, a city to avoid. Even the TI office was stumped when we asked if there was anything worthwhile to do!  Having said that, we knew it would be a point of departure and arrival - so today, we have a full day to get ourselves caught up while sitting in a muggy, humid 35 + degrees before flying to S Africa tomorrow.  The power is off for now, so the AC is not on either.  This is Africa!

Our travels began with the fun bus to Arusha, 9 hours turned 12 - but best slow than option b, the driver who gets you there in 9, but you are so shell shocked when arriving you aren’t sure how you are still alive - luck of the draw. Arusha is the starting point for most safaris in Tanzania.

What a 10 days - too hard to describe - phenomenal. Mattias is giving a day by day highlight so I will leave that for him.  Seeing the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, Arusha National Park was a once in a lifetime experience - and we will never forget it.  Bernie is working on getting the photos up - but the power here is on again off again and it is slow going - This is Africa.

From Safari we made the trek back to Dar to make our way to Zanzibar by ferry.  Most tourists travel between places by air - now we know why- chaos is endemic in public transport here ( reminder to self -this is Africa). Emilia’s blog tells most of the story of Zanzibar - beautiful beaches, warm waters, lovely hotel for Christmas and lots of fun. We met lots of people, and the kids even found a good buddy to play with, Sonny from Germany was a great kid and they spent lots of time together.

Jambiani Beach allowed us some freedoms not seen to us in the rest of Tanzania. Feeling quite segregated from the locals in Dar and Arusha, we finally were at ease to mingle freely and not have the same security concerns. A breath of fresh air, and some fun getting to chat with the Africans.  Mattias is a great barrier breaker as he wears a footie jersey daily and it always brings comments his way. It even started some footie games on the beach.

Tanzania has been a country of highlights for us, our only regret being that we often felt cooped up and unable to really get out and to mingle with the locals. We are reminded daily by ourselves and others - This Is Africa.

Happy New Year everyone - we long to hear your holiday stories too.

Heading for the longest day...

And so a few days of amazingness in Jordan. We saw only a little of it as we had to decide between south along the Nile or Jordan in 5 days, and in the end we are glad to have escaped the mayhem of Egypt for a more leisurely pace. Two nights in a Bedouin camp is something not to be missed....if you ever get the opportunity, take it. Then three days in Petra wandering the ruins of the ancient sandstone city, the high points and the canyons while singing Indiana Jones Theme songs was pretty fabulous too.

In the midst of all this, Knecht Ruprecht came with St Nicklaus and the kids fears that Santa may not find us were alleviated as they learned that they are worthy of a visit from him in a few weeks.

But alas, all the fun has come to an end for a few days as we head to Arusha, Tanzania. A full day of chaos getting from bus to ferry to bus via border crossings, a nine hours bus to Cairo ( guaranteed to be frightening and dirty), a night flight in to Tanzania and then who knows what is in store on the the 14 hour trek from Dar to Arusha... What we all know is that at the end of the next few days of travel, we have a 10 day safari awaiting us. Now there is a carrot! So, the longest day may be about epic travel stories, but truly our longest day will be on Dec 21 in the southern hemisphere while on Safari!

Our Egypt and Jordan photos should be up in the next few days, it has taken a while to get them uploaded on slow connections and we still have to sort them.

We are not sure of our ability to be online once in Tanzania, there are varying degrees of reports about power and connectivity..so this may be good bye for a while.

Merry Christmas to everyone...sorry no individual cards this year, but know we are thinking of each one of you and wish you the best for a fun holiday with family and friends.

Best wishes
Karen and family

Get on the bus

If you have kids, you may have heard of this song by the Doodlebops, well, it has become a regular hit with our family in Turkey given the number of buses we have taken in the last month.

Our first bus was spectacular and I can see why people rave about the Turkish bus system. We started with a bus that was pretty average, only to realize this bus was just the shuttle to take us to the otogar (main bus station) that are all a few km out of the centre of town. A huge coach arrived, seats were assigned, there are two drivers and ticket taker, and then, another guy appears and he is in the in-house flight attendant - no kidding -service similar to that on and Air Canada Jazz regional flight, only better because we also had wifi for the entire trip. Did I mention personalized tv's and direct trip door to door too? So our first experience- pretty good.

Our next trip baffled us as we couldn't quite figure out how a 220 km trip was to take us 5 hours. We started off on the shuttle and found out it wasn't the shuttle, it was the bus and it took 5 hours because it went through every little village en route. We still had drink service, but no wifi on this bus. This bus was direct too...sort of... we had to change twice and the last bus wasn't included in our ticket, we had to pay more.....

The third trip confused us further as we were on an overnight journey and we knew we'd be on a big coach again. But 9 hours for the 450 km still seemed long. Well, a mini bus, another minibus, a few hour wait at a main city to get the 9 hour bus and finally we were on our way. Hmmmm... No flight attendant service, no wifi, Turkish movies played out loud on the one tv screen and a stop every two hours for half an hour with announcements and lights on... Pretty poor sleep quality and when it was time to get off, we were the only ones getting off and we were pretty much tossed off at 6am with not much more than a look of disgust that the attendant had to get off to get our luggage out from underneath... Pretty much direct though.

Bus 4 direct to the north...pretty good and met our definition of direct...no minibuses and it did include inflight service, but no wifi and no tv's.  Emilia was getting a little too much attention too, so she had to move to a window seat just to be left alone for a while. Not much meeting up to that first bus standard.

Bus 5 was the classic. This bus was old. It didn't even stop at the otogar ; we had some bus helping guy show us where to and how to flag down the bus on the road as it drove by. Our seats were taken and the rest were dirty or broken. This bus had no service or tv or wifi, in fact it was more like what we expected before the first bus ride in Turkey. The best part of this trip was that we were to get off at some named town we couldn't find on our map and then just wait on the side of the road for one of the many minibuses to go by to get to our actual destination. Apparently there are lots of minibuses from our drop off point.  We got dropped off at the junction of two highways as the sun was going down. No town, no minibusses going by.  After some deliberation we walked up the road a ways to find help. Glad we did.... The traffic policeman who was the only guy around for miles...lucky moment.... helped us by waving down the most decrepit vehicle and putting us in it with instructions to the driver to take us to the next town. We were way over charged but happy to be on our way along the 10km hike we would have taken with our packs in the dark on a hwy....to the next minibus and then the final minibus.

We are not sure we actually want to get on another bus since they seem to be getting a little worse each time. The best part was that the kids attitudes were great. Emilia told us that the hiking we were doing along the highway was what she had envisioned when we talked about going around the world so it wasn't so bad. Mattias reminded us if all else failed we had the tent with us and we could pitch it and deal with getting to our destination in the morning. I am not sure at 7 or 9years old I would have had the same attitude! Oh, and once we had got our wits about us, we looked at our dictionary for the name of the town we were supposed to be dropped off at, and it wasn't a town, the word meant junction/crossroads. The joke was on us but we laughed pretty hard especially when it made us think back to the bus driver's look when we showed him where we wanted to be dropped off. He needed to know "where".... So we just told him our final destination and all seemed to be okay. We had assumed he just knew as a result of our trip direction. What did we know?!

So, we have learned that the bus company does matter, sometimes you are shuttled and sometimes the shuttle is the bus, and the meaning of direct changes dramatically depending on who is selling the ticket and how desperate they are for a ticket sale.  Our 300km journey to Istanbul tomorrow is 6.5 hours and direct on a large coach.... we will have to see what that actually means.

Pamukkale Paradigm

As soon as we arrived in Pamukkale, I knew I would have difficulty with the travertines from an experiential point of view. From a distance the travertines look a lot like an early season ski hill or a small glacier- the ice falling over edges, the colour of the dirt and algae on the surface, the look of the slippery slope. We have had windy and cool weather while we have been here, adding to the difficulty of thinking about swimming in the warm pools made out of calcium carbonate rather than skiing down the relatively short slope. Even at night, looking up at the hill made me think of Red Mtn with night skiing. Added to this were the emails from Big Red Cats showing photos of the early season skiing back home.

It wasn't until we were walking amidst the travertines shoeless and geothermal water running over our bare feet that I really could get a grip of the fact that this was a very different formation and not ice or snow. It was a fantastic experience and today we are all back into the preset mind state as we slip on our words and say ice rather than salt to describe our experiences. It really speaks to the strength of our experiences as we try to change our paradigm of what really could be.

See photos in Emilia 's blog below.

Quarterly update

Amazingly we are, to the day, three months out! This is one quarter of the way through our trip so we decided it was time to reflect on the many adventures we have had so far. We are doing this as a family, so some of the comments may include more than one response if we have differing thoughts.


Iceland
Best attraction: Minke whale, geyser, natural hotsprings
Best food: homemade soup
Biggest challenge: staying awake the first day; sleeping during daylight

England
Best attraction: salcombe sailing, Oliver, crabbing
Best food: Salcombe ice cream
Biggest challenge: Saying goodbye to the car

France
Best attraction: classic hike in Pyranees, Eiffel tower, Puy du Fou, Chateau Breze , Lascaux caves (so many...)
Best food: pan au chocolat, Camembert, mussels
Biggest challenge: finding camping in the middle of the night in Moisac(they lock the gates); kids biggest challenge was talking the parents into letting them have a pan au chocolat
every day

Spain
Best attractions: FC Barcelona museum; hiking in Picos de Europa, aqueduct in Segovia
Best food:we camped and cooked our own food mostly so we are not sure what we missed...
Biggest challenge: parking (anywhere in Spain), getting away from the cigarette smoke

Portugal
Best attractions: uncle Paddy and playing in the waves, archaeological site Citinia de Briteiros
Best food: BBQ fish, rice bowl with egg, vegetarian platter
Biggest challenge: getting info from Tourist info about anything other than the specific town we were in.

Germany
Best attraction: FC Koln game, riding Marina and Geronimo (auntie Chris' horses), hiking the steepest vineyard in Europe
Best food: pretzels, Daddy's birthday cake, Chris' pumpkin soup
Biggest challenge: beating Michy at footie (Mattias), none for the rest of us

Austria
Best attraction: Crown jewels in Vienna, meeting all the family, hike on the Hohewand with the petting zoo and zip line
Best food: sacher torte, heurigan food
Biggest challenges: getting cold milk, finding a happy Austrian in Vienna

Slovenia
Best attraction: Skojan caves, Vintgar gorge
Best food:Slovenian pub fare in Bled
Biggest Challenge: staying dry

Croatia
Best attraction: Plitvice Lakes, old city Dubrovnik
Best food: seafood risotto, ice cream/ gelato in Croatia
Biggest challenge: finding an easy route to Greece

Greece
Best attraction: black sand beach, Santorini; quads, old streets of Rhodes, Zeus' temple
Best food: halva, olives
Biggest challenge: finding fresh pita in the stores, not stepping in land mines (dog poo), finding legit TI offices

And there you have it....some of the best, not really much to complain about, and lots of yummy food.

Groovy Greeks

Classic Greek vs our version
Corrupt police sounds like carped police - Emiliaism
Socrates sounds like great soccertes - Mattiasism ( disappointment at learning he wasn't a soccer player)
Typical Greek corner today - looking one way you see riot police and civil protesters (every other day event right now) less than a block in the other direction a ceremony marking the end of the German occupation, more police, but his time dressed in their best....hmmm. The irony not lost on too many on that one.

So here we are, in the heart of the city of Athens. Athens wasn't even on the original itinerary, but Greece, well it is so enticing! Getting from Croatia to Greece is an interesting dilemma and a long way given the options, we opted to take a ferry to Italy, wrong direction - we know, and then the 17 hour haul to Greece. The first ferry time flew by as we met some really fun Brits doing a year trip too- we hardly saw our kids, they were having a blast with their new friends Charlie and Billy, while we were being taught a new card game that Bernie, well, I'll leave that unsaid.

Surprisingly - in Greece, everything so far has been just that....surprising.

For me, Athens is nothing like the city I remember from 24 years ago( to be honest I was dreading coming) - it is cleaner, more welcoming, the hostels are great and the site-seeing really is amazing. The sights haven't changed much I suppose, but my outlook likely has!

For Bernie, the history has been fascinating (bit of a history buff he is) and the photography is fantastic.  Mostly the later as a result of the man we met who cleaned his camera.  For about 6 weeks, Bernie has been disgruntled at a dust speck you can see on most of his photos. He tried cleaning it himself, but ... When we arrived in Athens he did some internet searching and found Picopoulous cameras. Off we went - and discovered a man who had been in business -with his father- since 1935. His father was the only Greek to ever produce cameras - named Picca ( pic from the last name, ca for camera) . And he was totally up to date with his knowledge of digital cameras.  Bernie got a scolding for trying to clean it himself ( apparently it was obvious once opened).  The kids got a glimpse of his camera collections - wow! and the best part, the man was brilliant - a doctorate from Cambridge in Philosophy.  He was friendly, fun and obviously loved his work. It really helped that his English was good too - it meant for some great conversation. What better Greek to meet!?


The kids have enjoyed learning the Greek history (nice and gruesome) and seeing some for themselves, but today, they found the best thing yet - at Hadrian's Library ( yes, a Roman in Greek territory) they scouted out 9 tortoises, one a wee baby. They were in heaven.

Sorry for the lack of photos on the side bar - we are having trouble finding a connection fast enough to upload them... wait for Croatia tho, they are pretty great!

Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who are Canadian.... we know we have lots to be thankful for....

Till next time,
Karen

Hvala, Croatia

Croatia has been everything and more than we could have expected. Even on the
back end of some bad flooding - read: rainy weather- it really has been fascinating. We started at Plitvice lakes, a spectacle of nature unlike you can see anywhere else, as far as I know anyway...and we were lucky enough to be there while all the colours were turning on the trees. 12 lakes, one above the next, with a veil of water cascading down from each to the next, the cascades in various heights. The only negative was the massive number of tours going through. Very few people travel on their own at this time of year, but there are lots of groups around and they don't move very quickly.

From Plitvice we went to Split via the only public transport possible, six hours on a bus to get 220 km. Can you say milk run..... And we weren't
even convinced we wanted to got to Split after various reports from people about there not being much there. What we found was a real living city where you could get a glimpse into Croatian life. We thoroughly enjoyed our two days there, with nothing to "must see" and lots of time to wander and observe. The old city is intriguing and we did see a lot, but to the kids dismay no turtles. Mima's eye, if you are wondering, is looking pretty good and the swelling has gone down a lot- should be back to normal in a day or two. Thanks to everyone who sent her a note!

Now we are enjoying island life as we kick back for four days on the island of Korcula. The low season allows for some great accommodation deals and we are happy for four nights in one spot with a terrace on the Adriatic. We have seen dolphins twice and so the kids are on the lookout.

That's all for now....Croatian pics not loaded yet, but when they are I'll attach a couple...

Miss everyone at home,
Karen

Aufwiedersehen!

And so it is, the end of the summer and the end of the easing in to our trip. We have had a fabulous two months of what I would call pretty easy travels with some fabulous meeting, reuniting, and seeing so much family and a few friends.   Bruce and Mona were more than generous with their box full of maps and camping guides as we found our way through France, Spain and Portugal.  Everyone else, as mentioned in Bernie's post, sooooooo (as Emilia would say) generous with their homes and the dolling out of ice cream to the kids! I think we will all go into some withdrawl as we head out on our own tomorrow.  We will learn to carry our own packs, find our way through various public transportation hubs, and likely slow our pace and eating habits. Hopefully we will not become so desperate that we have to "pick a pocket or two" .... Or as Oliver would sing - "food, glorious food"....could I please just have a little more..... (Thanks Grandpa B and Granny Bird for the great evening out on Drury Lane, London and the Theatre Royal, the kids are constantly singing these songs.)


We will head south through the Balkans as Indian summer has arrived back in Europe and start by trying to squeak out a few more warm days in the Slovenian Alps before Autumn truly arrives.  The tent will be folded away for emergencies and then probably not for use again until Africa. Hostelling, pensions and whatever else we can find will be our new homes en route.


We are looking forward to a new start to the next part of our trip - and as always, hope to hear from many of you via your great comments or email!

Real Madrid

Too bad that Real Madrid are in the south of Spain, while we are close enough to go to a game! Serious disappointment for Mattias, but.... hard to complain after three nights in a Hotel and one in a bungalow while we got in a great visit with Auntie Chris and Uncle Hans 'banana'. The Good times with them were fun while learning more about the pilgrimages, St James, and the significance of the scallop shell to Santiago de Compostela, visiting Nat'l parks in northern Portugal while the forest fires are burning, but it is raining hard out.... Getting to see an amazing archaeological site that is partially 3000 years old... And the best part, drinking port wine at the Sandman Port Wine Lodge in Porto.

Then we got in a great beach day with Paddy and Tiago in some wicked waves. Apparently the first day in awhile with sun and a green flag for swimming. Paddy treated us to a Portuguese feast of squid and sardines and then a surprise visit the next day for yet another feast out. I am not sure if he is trying to out do the French cuisine, but if he is...well, it was really good and so was the French food - but far too different to compare.

Picos de Europa

As I sit in the early morning at the European style campground (big, pools, games, restautaraunts....) and look up at the vast and rugged peaks of the Picos, I reflect on how much we have already done in our few weeks so far. The two weeks in Iceland with the dramatic scenes and geology, connecintg with family and relaxing while the kids crabbed and played at the beach in England, meeting long lost family and discovering castles, pastries, medieval villages, churches and excellent wines in France and now in Spain discovering the less crowded beaches with their fascinating flycss rock formations and into the Picos for some hiking.

We struggle daily with how much time to spend in one place, with where to find soccer fields for Mattias, swimming for Emilia and considering dates and what we really want to get in before heading back to Londond mid Sept.

So far the traveling has been easy - but we have had our own car. We go and do what we want when we want. Very much ke a fabulous summer vacation. For now we will take it, come Mid Sept our travel will change. It will be interesting to see what is to come.

For now, the stunning peaks of the Picos await.

Happy rest of the summer to those of you at home.

Salcombe - childhood memories!

Here we are, day 3 in Salcombe, a beautiful town that in southern England that I came to every summer as a young child. It is so fun to do the things that we  used to do as kids with our own kids - eat jelly donuts, devonshire icecreams each day,and now as adults to drink yummy beer and real cider (you can guess this is not the place to lose weight) and to spend real quality time with family.  The kids have loved the crabbing off the quay, hiking the cliffs along the Devon coast and today we had a spectacular morning of sailing in some high winds and 4m swells.  For those of you who are Rosslanders reading this, I equate Salcombe to the summer version of Rossland - quaint, hilly, and a great little known spot to hang out a while - in the summer months.

It has been nice to spend time in a home - catching up with family from Canada and Germany on the phone - eating lovely home cooked food, sitting around chatting in the evenings out of the wind, and generally taking over Grandpa B and Granny Bird's home for a few days... not to mention make off with their car to the continent for 6 weeks!

With mixed emotion, sad to leave family and Salcombe yet excited to see France, we leave in the am to head to the ferry for Brittany, France where we embark on the next set of adventures.

Good bye for now!

Iceland-half way

Iceland is a land of wonders. From stunning waterfalls, even though we all don't want to see another one for a while, whales and dolphins, moonscapes, gorges, hot springs that you cannot plunge into- they are not hottubs- lava fields, massive cliffs with holes and arches, cliffs, puffins and on goes the list! The kids are fairing well and fit well into the life of being on the road. The occasional horse slober on Mima or races to the top of a volcano crater for Mattias has kept things in check. Already it is nice to be able to spend time away from regular life with the family. Once we are in a place with faster wifi, then we'll upload photos for all to see! Bye from the natural pools at Myvatn lake!

Pre Trip Ramble

As we get closer to our departure date everyone asks " how many days?" and yet, we are so focused on work, finishing the house and planning the trip, I don't think any of us really knows - we are not counting down - just getting very excited.

I spend more and more time as the planning subsides and the list of things to get done diminishes thinking about the real part of the trip. Not the details, not the where are we going, not the what do we need to take - but the why are we going, what are my goals and my family's goals, what can we expect from this, and how will we be changed as a result of our time away together? The last of these questions is likely the most difficult to measure as we will never know what we would be like if we hadn't had some of the unknown adventures ahead for us.

Though the practical part of the trip will expose us to so many geographical, cultural and life changing experiences, it is the family time of being together, bonding, sharing and living life without the fast pace of always needing to be somewhere or doing something that excites me the most.