The next day when we woke up, we were determined not to miss the train again. Missing this one would be big – it was our first overnight on a train and the start of a carefully planned itinerary, with all hotels and trains booked right through to Ulaan Ude. And for three of us, it was the first ever overnight in a train coupe. So, even though the train wasn’t until 19:40, given the events of Friday, we were…
The night before Aunt Nancy left, I was checking Facebook before I went to sleep. A friend of mine had been in the hospital, in a medically induced coma, and that night I heard that he wouldn’t be coming out of it. David was an internet friend, one I had never met yet I felt that I knew him very well. We’d both been on a now defunct discussion forum, one on which many erudite and thoughtful people discussed all…
The next part of our journey was to be spent with my aunt Nancy. She’s the kids’ great aunt, or as K calls her, the greatest aunt (and I concur). We were a bit concerned that our style of travel would be hard on her since we walk a lot, and parts of it probably were, but she turned out to be the more hard core tourist. The first part of our journey together was by far the most brutal…
On my solo trip on Barney in 2004, my goal for coming north was just to see where Helmer had come from – I wasn’t expecting much in the way of meeting people, especially since I then had absolutely no idea about the size of the family and only had those two email addresses – I thought I’d be there a few days, see the house, meet the family at the other email address and be on my way. I…
Between 1820 and 1930, a million and a quarter people emigrated from Sweden, mostly to America. By 1930, there were 3 million Swedes in the US and only 6 million in Sweden. They left because Sweden was then very poor (as hard as that is to believe now), and had been caught in the typical vise of decreasing infant/child mortality and continuing fecundity and hadn’t had any wars for a century. Added to this was the practice of dividing farmland…
I think in the end I was a bit scared to actually go. Normally as I approach a deadline I get super efficient and get everything done like Super Woman and I was counting on that burst of energy and anxiety to kick in. But as this deadline approached, I found myself stalling and not being efficient at all. Was I having second thoughts about it all? Was I actually a bit nervous, even though it’s what I’ve wanted for…
We chose the campsite in Torre La Sal because it had a heated pool and was on the beach, but it was definitely the campground equivalent of the boring concrete boxes that line the Spanish Coast. Rows of identical spaces in straight lines, with little between them. And, like the concrete boxes, it was full of mostly retired and tanned Dutch, German and British couples down for the winter. And while some of the couples seemed to be getting out…
Now completely done with cities, we decided to head for the beach. Well, maybe we’d hit just one more old city along the way – Toledo was supposed to be pretty impressive, the whole old city being a World Heritage Site – so we’d just stop there for a bit. It’s an ancient city influenced by all of the cultures who have held sway in Spain – the Romans, the Visigoths, the Moors and the Spanish. After finding parking and…
The other side of switching to Spanish time and getting to bed late, is that we’re really getting a late start in the morning. Of course, as a night person, I’m OK with that. I’m actually pretty sure that my culture that best matches my body rhythm is Spanish. So, after catching two busses into the centre from the campsite, we were just in time for a late lunch (on Dutch time, perfectly normal lunch time for Spain). We decided…
Figuring that the kids have about one cathedral in them per trip, we chose the one in Burgos. It’s a good choice, a World Heritage site, with enough ornateness to last us pretty much the entire trip. And the fact that we again had audio guides helped the kids keep interest for much longer than is normally the case. L was bored a lot sooner than K, who actually likes beautiful places and looking at pictures of Jesus. She’s actually…
The problem with being Dutch is that everything is very well regulated. Everyone eats at 6 pm and has the kids in bed at 8 pm. It works really well, as long as you’re in the Netherlands. When you go elsewhere, it’s cultural jet lag. Nowhere is it more true than in Spain, where no one eats until 8:30 at the very earliest, and kids don’t go to sleep until at least 10 pm, later on weekends. But our kids…
This year we had a three week May vacation so we decided to head to Spain in the camper. But as usual with our camper vacations, we didn’t get off to the start we wanted. The original idea was that I would leave on Monday with the kids and get to the Bordeaux area of France. I would then stay there on the beach for a couple of days before meeting Ivo in Bilbao on Friday. But then the delays…