I took a shower today. That may not seem like a big deal. Or am I turning some of you off just by even broaching the subject? Believe me, I love showers. You could say I am the queen of showers; hot, long and preferably with some beautifully smelling soap. Not so much when we are traveling. Not because I don’t want to bathe in the daily luxury of steam and roses, but if your travel journey is on a tight budget, compromises have to be made. I don’t know why, but didn’t occur to me earlier. The water heater in our RV has after all been working less than…
-
-
How to juggle multiple passports
You might think that having multiple nationalities is a blast. In a way it is because it literally opens doors. But what about the disadvantaged that come with keeping up with different passports? When we travel with three nationalities between the five members of my family, we are used to playing the passport game with care. After having been turned down to re-enter the United States on a French passport once after a quick visit to Canada, we broke laws to get my hubby’s American passport shipped to us from our home in The Netherlands when we unexpectedly flew to his home country from Spain. We even had to chase…
-
Five earth nomads in Paris.
Our 7 year old has been talking about the Eiffel Tower for a very long time. While we skip the city of lights traveling south, there is no way we want to deprive our kids of experiencing Paris, no matter how young they are. Absolutely last-minute we decide on accommodation through Bookings, and we land in an apartment on the Quai De Marne inside of the Périphérique, walking distance from the metro. To be clear; we had to drive our ancient diesel bus into Paris, where we supposedly needed a vignette for environmental reasons. We could never obtain this vignette with our Berry Bus, so according to all the official…
-
Pastries and coffee in the rain.
According to the blog, we have been stuck in France for a few months now, but nothing is further from the truth. Since the last blog, we made our way back north to The Netherlands with our little Berry Bus, ferried to England, flew to Colorado and drove all the way to Alaska with truck and trailer. Pfew. We choose to drive up the west coast of France because the weather just seems to hold out a little better here. Of course that turns out to be just a theory, and we are once again at the mercy of major fronts, dodging rain storms. It doesn’t matter as much as…
-
Hot springs, cliffs and forest.
After staying put in one spot for about a month, we have now been back in our van for a week. It’s about time for an update. We are still south of Valencia, so taking our sweet time to drive back north. Why heading for cold weather sooner than absolutely necessary? Leaving the apartment in Vera on the late side, and of course in a rain storm, we did not try to get very far. Just after the next town down the coast, we set up camp on the rocky cliffs next to some other campers. There was not much of an evening since it was late as we were…
-
The journey to Europe
I know we could have opted for 24 hours from door to door. I know we could have looked at the travel as pure necessity, the only way to see our European friends and family. But why would we, if life is a journey in itself? We flew from Denver to London, took a train to Newcastle, slept in a hostel and then took a boat to The Netherlands. Except for the part of flying for eight hours with a 2-year-old, we enjoyed every minute of it. Everyone was exhausted after the flight, and it was a good thing that we had our Ergo Baby and that the 4-year-old still…