Author: World of Wise

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Viva la France

Maybe it’s time again to put some things on paper 🙂 We do get some questions now and then about how we are doing and what we are up to. And why we never post anything anymore. We are already one year further from our last message. Oh yes, and more than 5 years away from the Netherlands, bizarre, right? Why do we write so little, I think we have been living in our own bubble a bit in the past year.

In our experience, we are still living our dream life, but to constantly post about our winter sports adventures and add the snow/mountain photos, we think that might get a bit boring for you. Our life has simply become less adventurous in terms of travel. A conscious choice, we live in Bourg Saint Maurice in France, staying at a fantastic place with super friendly landlords. We have also met a few nice and lovely people in the area who became our friends. The view from our house is simply amazing, distant views of mountains. Morgan can walk to school by herself and we are just minutes away from the village center. We are very content because our landlords Olivier and Arantxa have also indicated that we can stay as long as we want, which gives us peace of mind because we only need to move occasionally between Ella and the chalet. Very grateful for that!

Morgan is turning 10 years old next month, we believe it was a good choice to send her to school. We see the positive impact, she makes friends, integrates, and speaks/writes/reads French. What a great foundation for her life. She is now in the Freeski club, getting lessons three times a week for 4 hours a day from probably the best free skiers in the world, most of the coaches have competed in the Olympics – Incredible! The group dynamic is great, training but also various competitions in different ski areas in France. It’s crazy how good she has become at skiing these days, going off-piste with Morgan is almost no fun anymore, we are all looking for which rock she jumps off or which forest area she dives into… And then you lose her for a bit. But super cool, we are just jealous. Meanwhile, we are also becoming more all-round winter sports enthusiasts. Last season we spent 80% of our time on the mountain on skis. I think because we snowboarded so much in the first seasons, we were ready for new challenges. By now we ski very well and can even keep up off-piste. For the upcoming season, we will take off-piste courses, we are pushing the limit… We also enjoy ski touring. And about Freeski, they continue in the summer, practicing tricks on trampolines and iron rails.

We have started our first summer season here in the mountains. Again so much to do here, we are taking it step by step. Down hill mountain biking is a big sport in summer, which we want to try but keep postponing. We know it’s super cool but also quite expensive. We can’t do everything, so we are focusing on mountain hikes now, which is also great, allowing us to explore the surroundings. Today Morgan and Stephen also had a great hike, climbing 1000 meters with ibexes and marmots just a few meters away from us, so beautiful! The landscapes are so cool, sometimes we feel like we are walking in a Jurassic Park movie. Additionally, we will start rock climbing this month, secured. And yes, if there’s something cool to do, it’s paragliding, all three of us look at this sport with admiration, how cool is it to fly above the mountains…? Are we going to pick it up? No idea…

In other words, life here is not boring at all. We never get tired of it, and that’s why we will stay here, possibly for many years. Luckily, we still have our camper Ella, we tour around with her and will try to get it on French license plates because then we won’t pay any tax. But not everything is paradise here, French paperwork is quite challenging, more difficult than in the Netherlands. You need patience here, and hope it works out because in France the rule for many things is – rules are rules.

Is everything paradise? Mostly yes. But we do see our family and friends in the Netherlands much less. Stephen’s father is really getting older, and that remains difficult for him and us. Fortunately, because of work, we still have to be in the Netherlands occasionally and can visit him. We speak to him regularly so we know what’s going on. Luckily, Anja is close by, who sees him regularly. Unfortunately, it’s no longer possible to bring him here to France for a “holiday”, he has neuropathy and then you definitely don’t want to stay in the mountains. We do see Lillian’s family from time to time. We still see several friends, either they come to France or we see them when we are in the Netherlands. It remains a puzzle, and sometimes friends or acquaintances pop up at a party or a festival. Also nice!

Funny, as I write this down, I also realize how busy our little family is. Sitting still is not an option, we have never been good at that. Although, we still have to work and then we do sit a lot behind a computer. Fortunately, we have enough work at the moment, in fact, Lillian even has a bit too much. She now has three clients, one in Germany, one in the Netherlands, and one here in France. What she likes most is working with a team and improving processes. Even that can be done remotely, isn’t that great? She currently works quite a few hours, investing for the winter period when she wants to be on the mountain a lot. Stephen worked for two months on a research project about behavior change among citizens regarding sustainability. He dreams of initiating something through an online platform to achieve this. The research points positively, and he will continue working on this in the coming months, hopefully years. Additionally, he continues to work two days a week for commercial companies to generate income. In his case too, it can all be done from France.

We have realized that dreams can actually be fulfilled. It’s a matter of doing and simply expressing it and getting started. Yes, nothing is without risk, but if you work step by step towards something, it will be fine. Simply sitting still and doing nothing with your dreams also carries risks. Some things take shape during the process. Don’t let yourself be influenced by what some others say. Because if you do, we would still be sitting in Utrecht and always wondering, how would it be…. By the way, nothing wrong with Utrecht, but not for us and our dreams. 🙂

Is this our last story on our website? I don’t think so. I think it will be an annual update. The journey with Ella is somewhat over for the coming years. What an adventure with the biggest turning point being Corona. Returning to Europe was bitter. Once back, the journey would never be as we had planned. How much we would have loved to see more countries outside of Europe where we would be inspired by the people and nature. Unfortunately, it was not to be. There must have been a reason for it. Perhaps it’s now our task to make the world a little bit better, we are working on it – keep you posted and cross fingers.

One last thing, it almost sounds like we haven’t had a great time within Europe in countries like Portugal, Sweden, Norway, and Italy. Of course, this was wonderful, but the adventurous aspect outside of Europe with our own transport is on another level. Discovering new cultures had a bigger impact on us than we would ever imagion.

Everyone, have a great summer! Enjoy life.

Love, Morgan, Lillian & Stephen

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Coucou

Were back!!!!! 9 months ago, we made our last blog…. We couldn’t even remember what the topics were… Just too busy enjoying life 🙂 Below a little summary of what have been up to lately. For sure we are doing well, we are happy people and enjoying life as usual.

Last year after visiting Italy we came back to the region of Bourg Saint Maurice. The first people we visited are our friends Lelani, Greg and their kids. Wonderful to see them again. We stayed for 2 weeks in their big chalet which they rent out during the different seasons. We could stay until we moved into our rental house in the village of BSM this time. Thank you, dear family, also for just being you!

Our winter season was quite different in terms of work compared to last year and we really loved it. A very good ballans between working and enjoying the mountains. Lillian mostly worked during the morning and Stephen worked on set days, Tuesdays and Thursdays. But all with one exception: If there was fresh snow we worked whenever but the priority was going up the mountain. Work is going well. We have a good balans and the feeling that we found our way of working for the next couple of years. Lillian still likes to work for hotels and is picking up her old job again. Stephen is back in commerce and is able to do this remotely.  Lillian started her new project with her second client and Stephen is finalising his first project and looking for a new client (no sander, you are Stephen’s friend – not our client 🙂 ). That remains of course the thing with freelance, assignments ends and you always have to find something new, but that’s fine. We are working 2 – 3 days a week, not too much pressure…

Morgan went back to the same school as last year. We are very proud of her because she “must” always be flexible with parents like us. But we still see that she is happy. In the meantime, she speaks fluently French. When we listen to her in the beginning, we were so proud. A friend from school came to play, and we were secretly listening at Morgan’s bedroom door like two little children. Morgan spoke French the whole time, super impressive to hear. We hope a benefit for the rest of her life. School went with ups and downs this year. The teacher was very good and helpful but it was just difficult sometimes because children can be very hard on each other. Especially between the ages of 7 and 10. Morgan finds it hard from time to time because she is incredibly social. With a little help from our side, we hope we can give her the right tools so she still likes going to school.

After school there is a lot of time for skiing and snowboarding and we do this a lot together. This season Morgan still had ski lessons every Saturday, for 2.5 hours. Honestly, she can ski beautifully, with great technic, no fear and she made a lot of progress. Her off-piste is also going well and she is now faster than her parents, with only 8 years old. Since we have decided that we are going back next year (I’ll get back to that in a minute) we decided together with Morgan that she will join the Freeski club (https://nl.lesarcs.com/news/freeski-academy)  She has done a test and she is good enough to join next year. Frankly, in the beginning, Stephen thought it was not the best idea because she had ski classes every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Isn’t it a little too much? But when she came back from the introduction/test day, she just loved it! Ski jumps, lots of off-piste skiing – she thought it was the bomb. She will be trained by some of the best free skiers in the world. So who are we to say no.

Last ski season started slow in terms of the amount of snow. There was really little snow. Many slopes were closed and off-piste was not possible. The big advantage was that we (Lilly & Stephen) started to do more skiing and really made progress. We also liked it a lot, another hobby on the side (and more stuff….). The last 6 weeks of the season it became paradise! Finally, a lot of fresh snow. This was our second season in Paradiski ski area, we still can’t get enough out of it! We worked and many days of the week you could found us on the slopes. Riding the slopes or with a beer in our hand, sitting in the sun and enjoy time with friends. A lot of friends came to visit us this year, thank you for that! We enjoyed every minute of it.

The thing is, we are a bit in love with this region of French. People who are living in the area are telling us that winter is great but summer is even better. Locals are much more relax because in wintertime everybody needs to earn their living for the total year. In the area there are a lot of nature parks to visit. This area is great for many outdoor sport activities. Last and also very important, we got to know some very nice people in the surroundings who became friends.

All these advantages have made us decide that from coming November, we will stay 1 year in Bourg Saint Maurice. We are renting the same house as last year for a full year now and we are very happy with that place. When we work, we have an amazing view over the mountains and can see when fresh snow is falling (very important!) The house is also just a 5-minute walk from Morgan’s school.

The last two months we were back in the Netherlands. Most of the time in Friesland at the farm of Lillian’s sister. The best place to be when we are in the Netherlands. We are enjoying the place, being with family. Morgan can play a lot with her cousins. Unfortunately for Morgan she still has to do some Dutch school homework. It’s was very good to see Stephen’s father, he is in need of a lot of hugs. It’s was amazing to see friends again and dance at a festival and party our heads off! Being back in summertime gave us also the change to create a big birthday party for Morgan. The last time we did that in the Netherlands was when she was 4, five years ago. It was great, we created a big child festival for Morgan and her friends 🙂

At the beginning of August, we left the Netherlands again. We travelled with Wiranda (Lillian’s sister), Egbert and kids. They rented a camper for 1,5 weeks. We could let them experience our lifestyle and showed them how we live and travel when we are on the road. We started in Normandy and went slowly down the coast line with the D Day beaches as main goal. Beautiful sceneries with some history lessons. They drove back home on Friday and we said goodbye again for a while. The next months we will travel through French to enjoy the rest of the country and to carry on practicing our French lessons.

“What our long-term plans are “ well, that’s a thing you never now with the family Wise. For now, we will go back towards French and after the 1 year we hope to do some adventure again. If all go’s well we want to do something very adventurous again for a year or so. Direction? We are thinking about traveling through Africa. We want to be back in Europe somewhere before Morgan turns 11 years old and needs to start with the next school period. The next step after primary school. Somewhere the beginning of next year we will make a decision if we want stay in France for a few years or not… Ah well, enough plans and dreams. Step by step, first of all we started again with a great road trip with Ella through France for the next 2,5 months.  We are very curious what France looks like outside the French Alps.

We hope everybody is doing well, big hug for you guys.

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Addio & Bonjour!!

It’s time again for an update! Lot has happened and decisions are made 🙂 We left Sicily about three weeks ago. Lillian and Morgan went to the Netherlands for two weeks (Lillian also started a freelance job and met the team in the Netherlands) and Stephen explored the southern part of Italy. We met again in Bari and went to Venice to explore the city with dear friends.

The month of October we spent in Sicily with perfect temperatures. Average temperatures of 25 degrees during the day, lots of sun and not a lot of tourism. A literal highlight of the island was certainly the volcano Etna. Stephen researched to see if we could climb it ourselves without a guide and without spending a lot of money but the possibilities were difficult to figure out. We got a little bit allergic to commercial group tours. When we arrived at the Etna, Stephen met by coincidence a German man called Andy, an experienced mountaineer, who asked us if we wanted to join him climbing up the volcano at 04:00 in the morning. 1,500 meters climbing and at least 20 kilometers. We decided that that was a little bit too much for Morgan. The next morning Stephen went up with Andy.  An experience which he would never forget. Watching the sunrise on an active volcano. Once at the top you could hear the loud growl of the mountain, the ground was shaking. You do feel very small up there. The top of this volcano is one large plateau with three craters, spread out over a length of at least 2 kilometers. One moment they got spooked because they didn’t realise when they walked over the plateau that the smog would hit their lungs immediately. They had to get out of there very quickly. They stayed up there for 2.5 hours. Something which Stephen will remember for life.

Italy is like an open-air museum. Everywhere you go you will find beautiful old buildings, history from the romans with a lot of culture. Of the bigger cities we loved Naples and Palermo.  Places where the Italian culture comes together in terms of temperament, food and friendliness of the people. Stephen visited the Catacomb of Cappuchoni in Palermo by himself.  More or less 8.000 mummified bodies and skeletons lie and hang in these catacombs. Monks, noblemen, doctors, professors and children of wealthy families, in their most beautiful clothes, have found a final resting place in the corridors.

In 1920 one last body was interred. The body of a two-year-old child, Rosalia was added to the underground catacombs. She is called the Sleeping Beauty. Really bizarre…. The photos you see here are not made by Stephen; they are from internet. But it gives you an idea of how the place looks. We found it too lugubrious for Morgan.

We have been in Italy for 5 months now. The question we always ask ourselves; could we live in this country? We were also exploring Italy to see if it had any future potential for us to create a home. After these 5 months we both totally agreed that we don’t see that happening. We noticed that we found it too busy. The country is quite full and the culture can sometimes be too intense. They call it the Italian temperament. Don’t get us wrong, we met really nice, incredible and lovely people but to live here would be a different ball game. It remains special to see how each country has its own culture and habits. The funny thing is that we do see a lot of similarities between the people of Turkey, Iran and the ones from Italy. Family is important and people love to get together. In Italy you stand side by side at the beach, in nature and at the campground. Where we are sometimes hoping to get some privacy (yes also we😊), the majority of the Italian prefers to be on top of each other. The villages and cities are great, but we do miss being out in nature and quiet places.  Scandinavia showed us last year what it means to be in nature like we did there. A lesson well learned for the future. The last days we spend with an old friend of Stephen, Mireia aand her husband Thomasso and daughter Laia. Mireia and Stephen know each other through a mutual friend for more than 20 years.

Meanwhile, we both started working remotely. Lillian has found work at YTL hotels & resorts where she is involved with the revenue management for curtain properties. Stephen is still working 2 days a week at CanvasHeroes which goes well. Our journey has acquired a slightly different dimension now but in a good way. We like being busy again with some work and use a bit of our brains in a different way again. It also has given us the opportunity to look for an apartment in the France Alps, in which we succeeded. We will be going back to Bourg Saint Maurice, the place we worked as chalet hosts last year. We will spend another winter season there.  No more chalet work, (Stephen is very sorry, not 😊.) but remote work for the both of us. Next to CanvasHeroes, Stephen will have more focus on the photography of the chalets in the area. We are really looking forward to going back to Bourg Saint Maurice again. We met really nice people, so it’s nice to meet up again with them. And, we will do a lot of snowboarding and skiing again!

Morgan will go back to the same school for 6 months. We hope it will help her to learn the French language even better. She got her foundations last year and with 6 months of extra French lessons we think she’s going to get a lot better at it. With her 8 years she will know 3 languages when we leave French. Morgan is doing very well. Her school does require more time these days, but we know how to combine this with our working days. She is still a happy child and wants to be with us in the camper exploring. Like her parents, (and logic of course) she prefers to be in nature. The busy cities are as less pleasant for her.

Before we arrived back in Bourg, we had a very nice meeting in Venice. Our dear friends Michael and Robert, whom we would visit with our camper in Australia went to Venice and would go on a road trip through Italie. We meet with them for 5 days. They came together with a dear friend of them Delini, who we also met in Australia already. Unfortunately, we still haven’t been able to meet them in Australia for all those years, but luckily, they also enjoy coming to Europe. We were super happy to see them. We explored the city together and, in that period, there are a lot of art exhibitions. We explored and enjoyed!

Okay, another update from our sides. Hopefully everybody is doing well.

Love,

Morgan, Lillian & Stephen

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Ciao Bella,

Ciao, Ciao, Ciao……..food, friends and a lot of passion were the ingredients of our last two months in Italy.

After leaving Alice, we took a “holiday time off” from writing 🙂 We met so many friends and family during these last two months that the writing took a little bit longer than usual. Much has happened but all good. We enjoyed being on the road again but had to get use to the busy holiday season and hot weather.

We left Les Granges in the beginning of June. We said goodbye and see you later to all our friends we met during the season and went towards Barcelona to get our yearly check of the car. We go the advice to drive through de Massif de Chartreuse and Parc National des Ecrins. A really beautiful part of French. We stopped to meet friends nearby Chambery and spend some days on the lake with them.

After the check up of the car, we took the boat to Sardinia. We booked a hut so we slept very well and when we woke up, we were close to the Island. We met our friends, Sander & Marijn with their daughter Vie. We first saw them in the Norther part for a couple of days and after spending a week separate we met again somewhere in the middle for some days. Sardinia has beautiful beaches with super clear water to snorkel. We have never spent so much time at or around a beach as we did on Sardinia. We had to get used to the temperatures which were at least 30+ degrees every day and at night it did not get cooler than 24 degrees. We always tried to find a spot around water for a dip. The Northern part of the Island is quite dry and especially in summer isn’t really green. After being in Scandinavia we are just to spoiled with how beautiful nature and mountains can be. We found it hard not to compare the nature and we found it not very impressive. The middle is a little bit beter and has a couple of national parks.

During our time on the Island, we met the Fam. Zuurstof again. We met them in Portugal and French and they are like us a nomadic family but from Belgium. We spend nice days together at the beach and enjoyed each other’s company.  

For the first time we experienced the “holiday season” again. When we left in 2019, we spend the summer in the east of Europe with less tourism. The next two years we travel with COVID so almost no tourists. But now and especially in Italy/ Sardinia it was full force holiday season. We had never seen so many campers as we did see in Italy and at Sardinia. It scared us a bit and we had to get used to the busyness of it all.

After 4 weeks on the Island, we took the boat back to the main land. We arrived in Civitavecchia and met with our dear friends Herman and Sindy. Sindy’s parents celebrated their 50th anniversary and rented a beautiful house in Tuscana. We spend a day and night together with the fam. Fransen. We had an amazing time! Thank you so much Fam. Fransen for taking us into the family for these days. It was great to see everybody again!

A couple of days afterwards, Lillian’s sister came with her husband and kids. We spend a week in Umbria around Lake Trasimeno. It was one of the hottest weeks of this summer, 40 degrees +. We spend the mornings or late afternoon sightseeing but mostly we stayed at the pool of their apartment. Morgan couldn’t be happier. The whole week she played with her nieces and we enjoyed our time together so much, wonderful! After that week we drove to the Adriatic coast to meet with our friends Govert, Nienke and their daughter Liselotte. We spend a day in their beautiful agriculture farm and had a lot of fun. 🙂

After saying goodbye, we drove to Parco Nazionale Monti Sibillini. We found a spot in the middle of nowhere on a mountain and stayed for a week. We really needed just nothing. No people, no heat, just the 3 of us and nature. We had to sort out all kind of stuff. We both were/ are looking for a consultancy job and Morgan had to finish some schoolwork. It was a wonderful time with all our friend and family but after almost two months of constantly visits it was nice to just don’t travel. Being in the mountains where it wasn’t hot. Parco Nazionale Monti Sibillini is a park that connects Umbria with Marche and has a lot of options. We did some walks and swam in the lakes in the parkl. We could breathe again.

As of September, Stephen found a freelance job with CanvasHeros. Because of the start of his job, he had to go back to the Netherlands for two weeks. One week at the office and one week to see family and friends. Lillian and Morgan decided to stayed in Italy and had two weeks “girl time” hahahaha. They drove to the National Park Gran Sasso in region of Lazio. After the National Park they drove again to the Adriatic coast and spend some time around the beaches there. The week of the 15th of August is the busiest week of the year in Italy. The 15th is a national Holiday and in that week nobody works. Everywhere it was completely packed with campers and people. Funny enough we always look for the quiet places to park but the majority of the Italians are looking for companions. They love to be together and making fun together. Unfortunately, they still forget to clean up when they leave. The trash everywhere is really horrible.

The last days we spend close to Rome. We met a lovely family in Sibillini National Park and they invited us to meet up again. They run a sail and surf school close to Rome and even without speaking English, Morgan and their two girls, Azzurra and Gaia have a great time! Morgan was able to join the surf lessons and we are enjoying our time with the family a lot!!

Stephen is joining soon again and we are looking forward to our new way of traveling. Combing working with travel. We did it already but not like we will now. Again, a new chapter. Lillian is still on the hunt for a job but as soon as she finds one, we will make plans for the winter. There are several options so let’s see where it will take us.

Hope everybody enjoyed the summer like we did. Being able to live and travel again without any restrictions is a great feeling.

Lots of love and hugs from us!

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Bonjour, Au Revoir, à plus tard

While we write this, Lillian and Morgan are in Les Granges (FR) and Stephen is visiting family in the south of England. Stephen is out of France for 10 days, he picked up his father in the Netherlands and went to visit Family in Storrington, UK. Four weeks ago, we said goodbye to our last guests in the chalet. As of the first week of January, we had guests and worked 6 day’s a week. Unfortunately, Stephen got Covid again but less bad than the first time. It saved him from having an extra shot of vaccine. Lillian probably also had Covid but did not got sick at all. It was a long time ago we both had to work on a contract. The alarm went off every morning at 7AM, 6 days a week. As you can image– it was an exhausting time!  Hahaha just kidding of course but we had a busy life the last 6 months. When we finished after our morning shift around 11AM, we went up the mountain for skiing or snowboarding. Almost every day we were up the mountains! The evening shift started at 6PM. Normally we finished around 10PM.
We welcomed over 200 guests during the season in our chalet. We tried to give all of our guests an incredible time during their holiday. For many, it was over two years since they had been on holiday. This certainly helped on the positive vibe we had in the chalet during the season. I think we are able say that our guests were happy with us as chalet hosts. 🙂 This resulted in some nice tips. 70% of our guests were English and the remaining 30% Dutch. We had a big variety of guests. Student groups, families, former colleagues and groups of friends. For some we were “just” the chalet hosts, but for the big majority we were much more than that. With some guests we had a lot of fun and laughter. They made our weeks going fast and very enjoyable.
The time we spend in France gave us inspiration and motivation to start our own company. Last year we bought a second hand SLR camera and a drone and thanks to the help of our dear friend Herman we started to take photos of chalets and campgrounds to provide new content. Stephen practiced a lot with the camera already. Our clients where very positive about the outcome of our pictures and we could take photos of 8 chalets for the company we worked for during the winter season. We also made photos of a hotel in Peisey and we found another chalet which wanted new content. We had a lift-off! Before we came to French, we created a new website including content, SEO etc. for a campground in The Netherlands (www.camperplaatskaleduinen.nl), this included a reservation system which the campground did not had. The website and the new content created much more traffic and reservations. We had happy customers. Pitch on…. *If anybody needs a website, advice about revenue management/marketing or need new content for their website, please do let us know!* Pitch off…. A new chapter in our adventures. We want to life the “free” live and we hope with our own company we are able to do this. Finding a balance between work and freedom. During our travel we will look for extra consultancy jobs in the countries we are in but we hope to create a base with contracted work for longer periods. We learned a lot during this winter when it comes to snowboarding and skiing. We created a decent level with skiing. We are able to come down any blue and red slopes, not quick but we are getting there. We still prefer snowboarding. Especially when there is powder snow! Our great neighbours showed us around and slowly we started to known the good off-piste routes. Going off-piste is what we loved the most. Even Morgan started to show us around (her French teacher knew the best off-piste areas!). We went off black slopes and then she would take us off-piste into the forest. Madame flies down the mountains were we sometimes had to hold our breath seeing her coming down like that. After 5 months being in the snow, we were still not bored of mountains, snowboarding and skiing.  We hope to find work next year in the Dolomite – Italy and do another season in the snow. Our goal then is to learn ski Rando (tour skiing but not before you walked up the mountain on skis…).
When we were in Iran, Pakistan or India we did not see friends or family joining us for a holiday. But when we were in the French Alps at a ski resort a lot of friends and family showed up… We loved every minute it! During Christmas Lillian’s parents, sister Wiranda – partner Egbert & kiddies were here. After that we had a lot of friends came and visit us. Han and Cindy, Mark & Wendy, Marty, Randy & kids, Sander/Jasper/Jeffrey/Vincent & friends and finally Hans, Judith & “ kiddies ”. We hope they all come back next year when we are in the Dolomites.
At last Morgan had a great time at school but the first weeks were a little bit hard on her. The teacher didn’t spoke a lot of English and neither did the kids in her class. It was difficult to connect with the other kids. Luckily, she made a friend who spoke English during the breaks at the playground. That made her like school much more. Morgan’s level of French grown quite a bit and she is doing really well. Sometimes she starts to talk French towards us and she knows we are not understanding a lot of it. She has her own secret language. The roles are reversed (we always had a secret language for her) and she loves to confront us with that…. Last week was the last time she went to the French school. She got all kind of gifts from all the kids in her class (we don’t think they know we live in a camper!). It was super good that she went to school the last 6 months. Playing with other kids, disagreeing with each other and failing in love with 2 kids from her class. Luckily, if we ask her if she does not mind to go back into the camper and start traveling again, she says no very convinced. As of next week, she will go back the Dutch schoolbooks and she can start complaining again that we are very strict parents when it comes to homework!
In the beginning of June, we will leave La Grande D’Alice after 6 months. At the end of April our contract ended and we were able to rent the chalet we lived in for an extra month. We wanted to see more of the surroundings beside the ski area. The French alp region is large and there is much to discover, especially in spring time. Two weeks ago, Lillian’s parents came to visit us. They wanted to see Morgan, and we were the extra benefits … We took them to various places. From mountain walks to sightseeing in the beautiful French town of Annecy. It’s always nice to have them around and luckily, they like to visit us. They like to see how we spend our days. They are really openminded people who believe it’s good we take these adventurous steps in our lives. Sometimes it can be difficult for them, especially because they are missing their granddaughter a lot. Mid-June we will take the boat from Barcelona to Sardinia. Our plan is to discover Italy the next coming year. We will stay in Sardinia for at least 1 month and after that we will go to the main land. We don’t really plan much. We definitely want to find a place to do volunteer work again. We will see if we can find work or assignments for the winter season in Dolomites. When we are writing all this down, we get butterflies in our stomach again for all the beautiful things to come. We still get excited about discovering new places and meeting new people!
Last week Stephen went to England to visit his family together with his dad. His father has three brothers. One is living in England, two of them in the USA. Stephen’s father is 83 years old, two of his father’s brothers close to 90 and the “Benjamin” of the family 78. When the four men where young they lost their mother. Stephen’s grandmother died while giving birth to a fifth child at the age of 40. The unborn child also past away. It certainly made a big impact on the family. Stephen’s grandfather was left alone with four boys just after the war. After a couple of years, two of the boys moved to the USA and Stephen’s father to The Netherlands. To get them all together is hard and it only happened ones after the first brother left England. Last weekend three of them were together and the fourth one connected through Skype. There was a 2-hour meeting online with the four of them. To see so many family together made it very special. It doesn’t happen a lot. During the online meeting Morgan gave us a WhatsApp video call and she was very surprised and impresses about all the family she has. She couldn’t believe that there is about forty plus Fam. Wise, living in the USA. It was a special time being together, big thanks lovely family!
We still have three weeks in the Alps before leaving towards Italy and we will enjoy them to the max. We definitely will come back to visit all the nice people/ friends we met in the area and go back to the amazing mountains of Les Arcs. Ella is standing in front of the chalet and she can’t wait to start rolling again. Hope everybody is doing well. All the best and a big hug from us.
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C’est la vie

It has been a long time since you heard from us (sorry, again …) Last time we wrote we were still in Norway and on our way back towards the Netherlands. 

Nimb Hotel
Nimb Hotel
Morgan’s new career
Tivoli by night

Before we arrived back with our family, we made a couple of stops. First stop was in Copenhagen. Funny enough this city felt a bit like Amsterdam. Architects from the Netherlands influenced the city here in the seventeenth century. Our highlight in Copenhagen was theme park Tivoli. An old colleague of Lillian works at the Nimb hotel which is connected to Tivoli Gardens. He made sure that we could stay in this luxurious hotel and gave us two unforgettable days in the amusement park. Tivoli has been entertaining visitors since it opened in 1843. It is the second oldest theme park in the world and the world’s most visited seasonal theme park. The mix of roller coasters, rides, shows and culture makes the park a real treat for adults and children. It was the best amusement park we have ever visited. The combination of the park, great restaurants, eateries and bars made this a unique experience. A must see when you go to Copenhagen! Thank you, Henrik and Eric for making those 2 days so special for us! We felt like VIPs in a fantasy world.

Having a lot of rides!!
Baby shark
Theater @Nimb
Theater @Nimb

Our second stop was in Hamburg to meet up with Michael and Fiona. We met them in Lisbon last year and it was really nice to see them again. The difference between the German port city of Hamburg and the well-organised cities of Scandinavia was huge. The organised cities of Scandinavia in comparison with the chaotic city of Germany. Beautiful how cities can be so different over such a short distance. We really liked the German rawness.

Being back in the Netherlands is always great. Our second home in Friesland, with the sister of Lillian, is always available for us and we are super happy with that incredible spot! We stayed a couple of weeks and it gave us time to prepare for the winter season and to finalise some work. Stephen finished his study, sustainability and Lillian finalised a website, she had to build for a camper spot. It was great to see family and friends again! Unfortunately, corona hit the family just when we arrived. We were a little more tied the Northern Part of the Netherlands and were not able to move around a lot. We quarantined with the family. Luckily nobody was really sick and all the kids were home. Morgan enjoyed the free time she had with here nieces. All and all not bad at all. 

11th of November, trick or treat in the Netherlands
Puzzle with grandfather

At the end of November, we left towards the French Alps to start our new adventure for the next months. At the moment we are responsible for a beautiful chalet from the 18th century in Les Granges, La Grande D’ Alice, in which we provide guests an unforgettable week. This means we have to maintain the chalet tidy and provide breakfast, afternoon tea and dinner for the guests. Dinner includes 4 courses for up to 14 persons. So, you can imagine it’s hard work. Les Granges is located on the mountain above Bourg Saint Maurice, an amazing spot! On the top of our mountain is the ski area Les Arcs. We are in the first ski lift in only ten minutes. Les Arcs is part of Paradiski ski area and has 425km of ski slopes! Every day we have the change to snowboard or ski and that’s what we almost do daily!

Les Granges / La Grande D’ Alice

Morgan also took 2 weeks of ski lessons in December and is going downhill like a Tasmanian Devil. Every Saturday she continues with lessons in the afternoon with her ski class from Bourg Saint Maurice. For us there is enough time to learn new things so we decided to also start with skiing. The last few weeks we do swap a lot between snowboarding and skiing. We know we have a though life. Difficult decisions being made on a daily basis 😉

Let it snow
Mont Blanc

During the week Morgan goes to school and on Wednesday she’s off just like us. In French the kids go to school 4 days a week from 8.30AM till 4.30PM. They have a two-hour lunch break. Food is very important in French . The last 2,5 years Morgan didn’t go to school. We taught her ourselves. So, a new chapter for her and us. She doesn’t speak French and she had to sit down behind a desk and listen to the teacher, someone else instead of her parents. The first 2 weeks where a bit difficult. She didn’t had friends yet and was not playing with anybody at the playground. It made her a little sad (and us!). But when time passed, she started to feel convertible and happy, started playing with others and enjoyed going to school. Slowly she’s learning language number 3 – so good! At the age of 7 she has already so much life experience… When she grows up, what will become the “normal” standard for her?

Enjoying life

The work we do in the chalet has a basic routine. Getting up at 06:45 AM, preparing breakfast, preparing the food for the evening and cleaning the house. From 11:00 till 05:00 PM there is time for us to snowboard or do whatever and in the evening, we are busy till around 10:00 PM. On Saturdays its change day and the busiest day of the week. The whole house has to look and be perfect for new arrivals. Lillian worked all her life in the hospitality industry. She knows there are very nice guests but also people who don’t really care about the “working staff”. For Stephen it’s sometimes difficult to understand that some people have less manners towards staff. Respect every person, doesn’t matter what kind of job they do. Luckily, we also have very nice guests who are grateful for what’s being done for them. We work hard and always try to do extra efforts which guests doesn’t expect – so they can have a wonderful time.  

Mountains of Paradiski
Les Arc

The thing with traveling is that you meet amazing people. We have stated this more than once and it’s oh so true. Ones again we found a family who is great and caring to us. They are our next-door neighbours, lucky us! As of day one, when we arrived in La Grange, the lady of the house Lelani showed us around, helped us getting in contact with the local school, arranged that Morgan could lunch during school break with their grandmother, and so on. We even can borrow their car any time. The list is much longer, but you get the idea! The family is great, one of a kind! Gregory and Lelani have tree kids. Lila, Anouk and Luca. Morgan goes to school with Luca and we drive them to Bourg on a daily basis. They are a big reason why we like it so much over here (next to all the drinks and diners we have together:-)

Happy New Year!

Next to the chalet work we do for Yourmountain.life (the company we work for) we are also asked to make new content for the website for a couple of chalets. We are making new photos and drone footage from the houses which our being sold online. 

We will stay till the beginning of May. Or so we think 😉 Slowly we are starting to making new plans what to do next. There are several options and we are not sure what it will be yet. Fortunately, we still have some time. For now, we are enjoying the mountain life, being on the ski slope almost every day and Morgan loves it over here. So, what else do we need?

Small update how life is up here! Hope everybody who is reading this is doing well!

Big hug from Les Granges – French.

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Living the nomad life

Three months Norway have passed in a blink and last week we said goodbye to this amazing country. We felt strange when crossing the border because Norway left an incredible impression. The same thing happened after we left Portugal. The nature in Norway is truly overwhelming. 

Every day we still realise how lucky we are! We have seen many countries in our life.  Because of this we are able to compare a little. The question which we asked ourselves was, which country impressed us the most, based on nature? Ten years ago, we traveled through New Zealand. Still our number one destination. The diversity in New Zealand is enormous. Our number two is Norway. Many incredible hikes are available, it never ends. It doesn’t matter where you are, you can open any app for hikes and you will find many trails available. Even if there are many famous hikes in Norway, the spontaneous ones are always the best. Great views, surroundings and sky-high mountains without mass tourism. 

Slowly we drove down to the southern part of Norway. By doing that we passed through Trondheim. The coolest city in the country in our opinion. A student city with an incredible vibe. Relaxed and with a lot of possibilities. The industrial architecture in combination with water everywhere gave this place a perfect mix.

We visited so many nature parks and areas as we driving towards Oslo, it would take to much time to write everything down. We didn’t want to stop exploring. We always do volunteer work for a couple of weeks when we are in a country for a longer period. But even that we skipped. It’s strange because we love to help out, meet new people and learn more about the culture of a country. We were just too eager to see it all. We also met a Dutch couple, Brian and Shanna and traveled around a lot together. Always nice to meet others travelers with the same mindset. We had great talks and hikes. Brian and Shanna, Thank you for the great time

Close to Bergen, we picked up our friend Jeffrey. He joined us for a week. We kayaking on a glacier lake and climbed (with a guide) the glacier. One of does things we will never forget. Jostedalsbreen glacier is the biggest one in Europe, almost 500km2. Together with Jeff, Stephen also walked the Bessengen trail. It was a long and hard hike so we decided that it would not be suitable for Morgan.

In April 2019 we had sold our house and started our nomad life. Our lives have changed so much in the past 2,5 years and we feel we don’t want to go back to the old routines. How do we feel after 2,5 years traveling? What will the future bring? When you have more spare time you are able to think more about the important stuff in life. Exploring cultures and many different parts of this world made us reflect our thoughts. Taking care of the planet starts by doing it yourself. How do we consume (focus on second hand), eating (no meat and fish) and how can we anticipate a better world. In our future company, which we will start next year, one of the focus points will be sustainability. Stephen is in the final phase of a study about this topic. We care about our beautiful planet earth so wo need to be kind to it.

Money will always be an important part of life. The good thing for us is that we don’t need much.  Our standard of living is different from 2,5 years ago. We want to combine work with the freedom of new experiences. We are super happy like this. The last 6 months have been a good test. We worked, studied and enjoyed the world around us. We have the luxury of time and are able to explore this beauty called earth together. We are not planning to buy a big house, small is good enough. We are going to look for something like a tiny house, boat or whatever comes around. A project for next year.

We realise the importance of family and friends, which is why we want to spend more time in the Netherlands. But………..first our adventure in the French Alps! We hope we are able to combine work and traveling in the future. The biggest doubts we have are regarding Morgan and schooling. For now, we manage well. We teach Morgan the “ordinary” things and she is surrounded by a worldwide school. Making friends is more difficult while traveling and that will be a focused for us. For now, she is doing very well and is a happy kid. Just like us

In November we will be back in the Netherlands for a couple of weeks. The first of December we will start working in the French Alps and we are really looking forward to it. We were able to arrange a school for Morgan to attend 4 days a week. She will intergrade at a French school (new language skills are on the way) in the village. Some kids to play again! We hope she will start realising that we are not such a tough teachers in the end. We are sure it will be a great time in the snow. Maybe even new thoughts, new ideas. Our life is never boring, let’s see what the future brings….

Hope everybody is doing well. Big hug!

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The best view comes after the hardest climb

Norway, land of the vikings, fords, millions of hikes and waterfalls. We are driving around in Norway for about a month now and only saw a tiny bit of the Northern part of the country. The Artic. We didn’t saw nothing yet but we loved every minuted of it. It was a big wish to see Norway some day but we also knew it would be expensive. Ah, and don’t forget the weather. For the county and it’s people it’s good that it not always (understatement) sunny. If so Norway would be too packed with tourism, because it is unbelievable beautiful. If you love nature and hiking it’s paradise. The crystal clear and blue water reminds us of the Maldives with only a small difference of temperature of assumably around 25 degrees. 😦  

If we felt that the Swedish people were “ reserved”,  we didn’t met the Norwegian people yet. But it’s not that they don’t want to talk, they just want to give you privacy. For Stephen this is sometimes difficult to understand because he is the opposite of  being reserved….Good for getting out of our comfort zone. After travelling through so many countries we are amazed by the difference in culture we see and feel. Even in Europe the difference in massive. The hospitality we felt in some countries, the importance of fe. food and the openness against others is so different that we sometimes find ourselves wondering how those big difference were created and what the past had to do with it. Culture is strange phenomenon but we also keep reminding ourselves that assumption is the mother of all fuckups. 

We decided to do the Artic part first and afterwards drive down to the south. If we wanted to find a good weather for the Northern part it would be in July and August. This was in our case a little bit true. The first impression was as expected. Incredible views of mountains, clear blue water and small roads. We drove to Bodø, were we took the boat to the Lofoten. The wind was quite strong and the waves big. Luckily we didn’t mind the waves and we did not felt any seasickness. Unfortunately 80% of the other travellers on board did not felt the same….. The boat ride took 4,5 hours but for a lot of people I think it felt like a lifetime. 

The first sight of the Lofoten was a massive mountain covered in mist. Mystical and beautiful. The next morning we woke up with a blue sky which is something special we found out later. So we did our first hikes of many and the first test for Morgan if she felt like climbing all the muddy and wet routes. In Sweden the hikes are ( like everything) perfectly marked, well organised and the wet parts are covered with planks or other attributes. In Norway it’s not the case. Wet, muddy and slippery parts are following each other and hiking is not something easy going. A lot of real climbing is included but we love it and it’s all so worth it!! The views but also the hikes itself are all really incredible. We did so many now and every day we are looking for new one to be added to the list. 

We are very fortunate that Morgan is enjoying the hiking as much as we do. If it’s too easy she complains about the fact that it’s too boring….During our hikes we are also creating some “ entertainment “.  Every one of us has to create a story to tell. I think we can write a book about all our imaginary friends and the stories we are creating. It is a lot of fun and “Timmy the goldfish” is our favourite. Stephen created Timmy but he is here to stay. Every day Timmy has new adventures with his friends against the bad guys, two sharks named Peppy and Cooky. 

We drove the scenic route through the Lofoten and went from the tip towards inland. We were surprised about the amount of campers there were and how busy it was. It’s one small road through the Lofoten but its packed. Five years ago the Lofoten were not something special yet but after the pandemic and all the newly bought campers it turned out to be very crowded. We also had to have a little patience once in a while. Norway is super green but it only can be like that due to enough rain. Norway’s weather is something unpredictable so you have to life by the day. Luckily we have the time and are not in a rush. The rainy days were used for studying (Stephen is doing a study about sustainability) and finding a job somewhere in the snow.  We also visited a couple of small villages along the route. After Lofoten we drove to Langøya and Andøya were we visited Nyksund and met Andes and Renate. The are bar owners of a beautiful bar in Nyksund. We spend two days with them and met them a couple of days later for camping. Thank you for nice time! We took the boat to Senja after saying goodbye to Andes and Renate. Taking ferries in Norway is like taking a turn on the high way. Easy and very normal. We drove around and did another great hike were we had to climb two tops (both 680 meters) in one walk. We thought we pushed it too far with Morgan and climbing, but she felt totally fine. We had more issues coming down than she ever had. Through Tromsø we drove back to Sweden. We wanted to visit Abisko National Park but because we crossed the border to Norway much earlier than expected we decided to go back for a two day hike and some (a lot!) of groceries. Funny how prospective is changing along the way. We are getting spoiled by all the beauty so that we found the hike of Abisko along the Kings Trail “ just another hike”, while the scenery was great and we camped in the middle of the national park. 

Our first intention was to go the North Cap but after receiving a message of a good friend who is joining us in the beginning of September we decided differently. We don’t want to drive to just see a sign with North Cap. We want to have the time to explore and feel and see the surroundings. No rushing need to be involved. We did not feel we had enough time to drive up and be in the South on time so we skipped the North Cape for now. After coming back from Sweden, packed with food we drove to Narvik to celebrate Morgan’s 7th birthday. As a surprise for Morgan our French friends, “ The Bears “ , Quentin and Marie joined the party. Even do it rained the whole day, Morgan had a great time. One day per year she is allowed to decide everything. What to do, to eat, when to sleep and that’s on her birthday. So we ate pancakes for breakfast, hotdogs and cake for dinner and did games the entire day. She went to bed at the same time  as us so the next day we took it very slow 🙂

After the 2 days of hiking in Sweden we also hiked Rago National Park. It’s not “ famous” but we were extremely impressed. The scenery changed constantly and we had two days of beautiful weather. Morgan was able to sleep in one of the huts and we slept next to the hut in our tent. What a hike! Slowly we are driving towards the South along the beautiful coastal road. It’s still raining a lot but we make use of the sunny periods to hike and enjoying the scenery. We park everywhere and anywhere and we still have the best back garden of all. 

We also have some other good news. We found a job in the snow!!! We are super happy and exited. We are going to be a chalet host for a beautiful chalet in France. We will work in the area of Les Arcs. One of the biggest ski area in France. We will host a chalet, for up to 14 guests. Our jobs includes cleaning, hosting and of course cooking breakfast and diner for the guests in the Chalet. So…… if you would like to be treated as royalty for a week, book our chalet and we will be the entertainment. 🙂  https://yourmountain.life/chalets/la-grange-dalice/ 

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Picture Perfect

After 3 wonderful weeks @ home we said good-bye again to family and friends. After spending our last days in our second house on the property of Lillian’s sister, we drove to Travemunde to take the boat towards Malmo. Just before we left the Netherlands we were lucky to get our vaccination. Due to the fact we had corona we just needed one shot. At first we didn’t want to get vaccinated but due to all the travel restrictions and our urge to go to Norway we decided to take the shot. For example we also had to take a vaccination before entering India, the yellow fever. Without this vaccine you are not allowed to enter. Period. The big difference between the two is that the Yellow Fever is tested for more than a decade where the corona vaccine is not. 

We had a smooth ride on the boat with almost no wind and a lot of sun. We arrived in the evening in Malmo. The weather was great and there was no darkness. Such a weird thing to experience. We were never early sleepers but now we are completely lost in time. We keep on forgetting that the sun doesn’t go down. We can imagine why everybody is living outside right now. In wintertime the sun is almost never out and the darkness will have a lot of influence on peoples state of mind. Our first impression of Sweden was “ picture perfect”. For us a little bit too perfect in a way. People are friendly but with distance, gardens are beautiful but very tidy, houses are massive and colourful and travelling is super easy. It feels like everybody does some kind of sport and is very active till late. We are sleeping in beautiful free spots. Toilets and water are always available and almost every day we can take a “bath” in one of the clean drinkable lakes of Sweden. It sounds incredible and it really is but after Portugal and even the Netherlands it felt as a little bit too perfect sometimes. Don’t worry we are not complaining at all, but it’s just a weird experience after all the countries we have seen so far on our trip. 

The Swedish people are very proud of their national products. Wood is the main export product but there are more than enough trees to cut. The Swedish government takes good care of the population of the forest. Only 1% of the forest will be cut and the total amount of the forest is more than 24 million hectares. Half of the country really drives a Volvo, of course IKEA is everywhere and you can find huge outdoor shopping malls around the country. 

The first 1,5 weeks we spent along the coast of Goteborg and upwards. We went to Smogen and stood in great little villages along the coast. After the coast we drove to the other side of Sweden towards Stockholm. We visited some villages around Stockholm and went to Sigtuna, a beautiful tiny village with great running tracks. Daily we are doing some kind of sport. There are not a lot of hills, marked tracks and everywhere bootcamp attributes. We shower in the lake. Again perfectly arranged 🙂 One of our friends had to work in Stockholm and so we were very lucky she could rent a house with enough space for us and our camper. What an amazing gift. We almost did not want to go into the city because the house was unbelievable. It was situated 6 km from the centre at a lake, with a slide to enter! We all had our own bedroom and Morgan couldn’t be more happier. After 2,5 years finally having an own bedroom was something huge for her. She didn’t want to get out of the room. The bedroom was decorated for a child so, picture perfect, hahaha. For a couple of days we had a large kitchen, bedroom, fitness room and washing machine! How happy you can be with the “ normal “ things. We biked through the centre of Stockholm and all the islands. 

We spend midsummer night, the most important festival of the year for Sweden in Leksand. Normally there are 20.000 people watching the event. Unfortunately due to Covid the government cancelled all big events so we sat down at the pool and had a nice campfire night with some other travellers at our camp spot. A big part of the Swedish people are in love with old American cars.  At first we did not realise it but especially around Siljan lake they make a “ thing” out of it. You will find old American cars driving around the city square on Friday and Saturday with a lot of people in the car. Loud music is mandatory and it’s a funny parade. 

After midsummer we drove to National Park Höga Kusten. We wanted to do a hike in Skuleskogen National Park which is part of Höga Kusten. After getting some insider tips (thank you once again Lena) we decided to walk from the North to the South entrance of the park. We slept for two days in the park in our tent. The third day we took a boat from Docksta (just below the South Entrance) to Ullvon and then up to Trysunda. An Island which only is reachable by boat and no cars are allowed. What a magical place! We spent 1 night and day on the island and in the evening we took the boat back to our beloved Ella.

We met friends from the Netherlands, Jan Dick and Nicolette at the beginning of the wilderness road. One of the most beautiful roads in Sweden. It’s a 500 km road which takes a loop along the Norwegian border. We drove along forests and lakes and slept on a plateau 900 meters without any trees. The next morning Stephen & Jan Dick decided they wanted to see Norway and so they did a run till and over the border. We visited Fatmomakke, one of the oldest Sami villages of Sweden. The Sami’s are the oldest inhabitants of Sweden and are also covering the Northern part of Norway and Finland. After saying goodbye to Jan Dick and Nicolette we drove back to the coast of Sweden. We wanted to go to a Free festival in Skelleftea, drive further up North along the coast and go back inland to the National parks in the North. But………yesterday we decided differently. We met some other travellers in Umea and they told us it’s much easier going to Norway from this region than from the North. The region we are in right now is still green on the Covid map and so we just have to show our QR code and we can enter. Where, if we would enter from the North part (orange) we have to go in Quarantine for at least 3 days. Tomorrow we will do massive shopping (food is very expensive in Norway) and we will drive to the border. The same 450 km we already did but hey, the drive is beautiful. 😉

After a month of traveling in Sweden we are seeing and feeling more the differences between the different parts of the country. The more you drive towards the North the more the houses are getting smaller, roads are getting emptier and forests are getting thicker. The “ picture perfect” is dissolving and nature is insane. There is one “little” minus point: the bloody mosquitos. We bought a fantastic device which creates a bubble of 20m2 without mosquitos. Fantastic and a real Swedish invention. We used it a lot during our hike. Unfortunately we learned the hard way it doesn’t work on the little midges, the other kind they have in Sweden. After a night around the campfire we got covered by bites and these ones are itching even more. 

If everything goes well our next blog will be from Norway. We hope so. We like Sweden a lot but are also very curious towards Norway. It would be great if we could have a little bit of both!!

Big kiss from us

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See you later, Alligator

Another two months have passed since our last blog. The last period in Portugal we spend in the Northern part of the country. We enjoyed every minute of it! We went to two National parks and visit the city of Porto. Porto is a cool city. A bit rough on the edges but incredibly beautiful from the inside. We visit some great parts of the city and biked to much 😉 uphill and along the Douro. There is a “small” competition between the cities of Porto and Lisbon and in both of the cities the people think, their city is the best.…. We were unable to choose and we felt both cities deserve a visit for sure.

The North is very beautiful and is completely different than the South part of the country. Our first national park was Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela. We drove to the highest mountain (2000 meters) which is in the middle of the park. Ella (our beloved camper) did an amazing job by going up and down the small roads of the park. Piece of cake. Even do Ella isn’t “fancy” and no 4×4, we are so happy with her. She does her job well. After an extreme windy night without a lot of sleep we enjoyed waterfalls along the road back down to the valley. We did a lot of walks and enjoyed the surroundings.

Right at the border between Portugal and Spain there is a city called Viana do Castelo. For some a good spot to surf for us a nice spot for the weekend. We spend the weekend at the farm of Hugo. For the first time since ages, we had a little living room of our own (part of the hostel, but no guests) and we enjoyed the weekend with other travelers who we met through social media but never met in person. Nice and relaxed! Our Second national park was Parque Nacional Peneda-Geres. THE park of Portugal for almost all of the Portuguese we met during our travel and what an incredibly park it is. We spend 1,5 weeks in and around the park. Did two long walks around 15 km each in two different areas of the park and spend nights in the middle of nowhere. Luckily the borders between Spain and Portugal reopened a couple of days before we entered, so were able to drive along and through the borders of the park without any issues. The last days in Portugal we spend enjoying massive waterfalls and very cold dips.

Parque Nacional Peneda-Geres

After 8 months, it was time to say goodbye. Portugal gave us so much. More than we could ever imagined. It gave us a home away from home. It gave us a home in strange times. It gave us friends for life. It gave us new insights for our future. It gave us a new path to travel. It gave us amazing views and wonderful walks. It gave us music. It gave us Covid (unfortunately) but most of all it gave us exactly what we needed, lots of love and happiness. We almost decided to go and live in Portugal for the next couple of years but we also realized due to travel, that our family and friends are very valuable to us. We will come back, that’s a promise! And for us, a promise is a promise.

We left Portugal with mixed feelings and drove easily through Spain toward France. We took a risk of not doing any PCR test but we had no issues at all at the borders. We only got stopped once in France by a toll station controller. No request of test, just our route. We spend two days with an old colleague of Stephen, and his wife on their farm. Before we drove to the Netherlands, we made one other stop at friends we met at the Fabriça in Lisbon. We had a great evening with the whole family playing domino and getting way too much spoiled by delicious food.  

Coming home to see family and friend is always awesome. Even do we really wanted to see all of our friends; due to the short period of time we mainly focused on our family. Both of our dads needed a lot of love and it felt really good to be with our families.  This was the second time we came back “home” during our 2,5 years of travel but this time it felt different. The first time the difference between India and the Netherlands was massive and due to the way we came home (urgently,) it wasn’t measurable. Now, after arriving from Portugal we found the difference much bigger. We noticed much more the neatness of our country and the materialistic approach on life. We realise that our minds are changed and we are more and more adapting to a less materialistic and rushed life. We know money is a necessary but how much depends totally on your own state of mind.

We arrived in Sweden yesterday and are excited about our trip through Scandinavia. We had butterflies in our stomach. We will start off our trip in Götenborg and Stockholm and after the cities we will go into the beautiful national parks of Sweden. For now, we will go up all the way to the border of Norway and Finland. Hopefully we can cross into Norway. For now, the border of Norway remains closed till further notice. If the border stays closed, we will go down through Finland.

We are still in a search for a winter job. We prefer Switzerland but also Austria, Italy, France or Norway (when it opens up) will be an option. Dates are flexible. So, if any of you know a nice job for 3 incredibly lovely nomads……. Let us know 😉

De kyss från oss tre!