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We had been looking forward to our stay near our family’s farm outside of Dunfanaghy, Donegal, for our whole trip so far.  It is where my Dad grew up and I’ve always felt a strong connection to the place and our family.  Brett and the kids fell in love with it during our visit last year. 

We weren’t only excited to get there, we were excited because we would be there, stationary, for 2 weeks. No packing and no moving for two whole weeks. We were staying in the same quaint cottage on a lake that we stayed in last year.

Just like last year, our family was incredibly welcoming.  They all have a way of making us feel welcome but not as outsiders.  We immediately feel like we slip right in as a part of the family. My cousin Roberta and her husband John, as always, were so hospitable. She welcomed us to town, helped organize a day camp for the kids, and just generally made us feel at home. She also helped us by letting us use her address to have a number of parcels shipped to her before we arrived, including all of Ronan’s birthday presents, and a replacement credit card (ours got cancelled while we were in England because someone had been using it fraudulently). We had such drama getting UPS to find her house that in the end, the only reason we received it was because Roberta got out of her car and flagged down the courier van when she spotted it in town :).

We also deeply appreciated the hospitality of all of our family. We enjoyed the many dinners we spent together, the great ‘craic’, and a special thanks to my cousin Janette who organized a babysitter for us so that a number of us could all go out for a Saturday night on the town.

There were two minor problems with our stay.  First, the weather.  For the most part it was rainy, windy, and cool.   We did manage to get out and enjoy brief spells of good weather and we still tried getting out anytime it wasn’t raining, but we didn’t do nearly as much as we’d hoped. 

The second issue, possibly related, was that Brett got a cold during the second week. He felt pretty rough and just didn’t feel like doing much. Luckily, there was a 3 day ‘camp’ at a local church hall. Our kids had a blast from 10-2 and we had time to ourselves. Brett really just wanted to rest. I used one of those days to get my first haircut on this trip. I was very nervous. I haven’t been to a different hair stylist in 7 years. It all worked out great.

The kids had a really good time being around other kids, especially Riley.  She has two cousins in particular that she stuck with like glue, playing dolls and talking about ballet.  We gave the kids as much time as we could to play and get to know their cousins better. 

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There were some amusing anecdotes along the way.   Our kids are young, and they often say words just a little wrong.  Brett usually corrects them but I let it go.  It is so innocent and sweet and I know that they’ll figure it out anyway at some point.  I prefer to just listen to their sweet innocent little voices saying the odd word a bit wrong.  One of the words they don’t get quite right is ‘crotch’.  They call it ‘crutch’ instead (and I have no idea why this word comes up so much in their conversations!).  As in ‘Mama, Iain just kicked me in the crutch!!’  Every single time it makes me laugh.  I never really envisioned a scenario where this mispronunciation would cause a misunderstanding….until now. A number of the kids were playing and a chair leg landed on Iain’s toes.  He was crying, his toe was cut and was already starting to bruise.  The two girls he was playing with, his cousins, were trying to help and comfort him.  They told him that if it gets any worse and he has trouble walking, they can give him their crutches.  The look of pure confusion (and horror) on Iain’s face.  But it kept going…first they said he probably just needed one crutch but then decided maybe he should use both just in case.  So funny.

As far as our adventures in Donegal, we went to many of the same places we went to last year; our favorites. We really like the Boardwalk Beach which is about a 15 minute drive from where we were staying. There are many closer beaches but I find this one particularly beautiful – there’s fine sand, small tide pools that the kids can splash around in without us worrying about them in open water, the beach is so big, and best of all, there’s hardly ever anyone there. There is a 1.1 km boardwalk from the parking lot to the beach. This probably deters many visitors and keeps the beach nice and quiet.

We also went to Glenveagh park, where there is a beautiful castle/manor and some pretty hiking trails with beautiful vistas over the lake and surrounding hills.

I know I already posted about Northern Ireland but I didn’t include any mention of our one-day visit to Derry.  Derry is a fantastic and complicated little city.  I have little to no understanding of the complicated relationship between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland, Derry in particular, but I don’t pretend to know what it must be like to have grown up in Northern Ireland (or Ireland, for that matter) or to have lived through ‘the troubles’.   We tried to learn a bit about the history while we were there.   Derry is the only fully walled city in Ireland.  The walls were constructed in 1613 as defenses for early 17^th century settlers from England and Scotland.  The walk around the walls is about 1.5 km and provides not only a great view of the city and surrounding area, there are a large number of placards that provide a description of the history of each area as you pass by.  And unlike many other European cities, there is no charge for walking on the city walls!

We visited the Siege museum that gave us a decent understanding of the history of the city.  A small museum but very well put together.  We didn’t know much about the history of Derry beyond the recent troubles.  I am not an expert by any stretch but what I learned was that there was a brief period where the King of England, Scotland and Ireland (James II) was a Catholic and had been shifting the power in Ireland to Catholics.  Derry, primarily a town of protestant settlers from England and Scotland, resisted. James and his appointed viceroy that ruled Ireland decided to get Derry back under their control in 1689.   Their ultimate tactic, after a number of attacks, was to starve Derry out.  Derry ultimately prevailed against James but it is said that the population dropped from 8000 to 4000 over the 105 day siege.    The siege is still commemorated by the protestants in the city every year.  

We dropped by St. Columb’s cathedral, the first non Roman Catholic cathedral to be built in Europe after the Reformation.   It was completed in 1633.  There is a small museum in the back of the cathedral that has many documents and memorabilia dating back to the Siege of Derry.  There are portraits of William of Orange and the original keys of the city.   It really is amazing to see these items close-up and in person.

When we weren’t out exploring parks, castles, or other towns, we spent a lot of time in our quaint cottage enjoying the fireplace while the weather stormed outside or playing out in the yard when it wasn’t raining.  There is something so comforting about being inside by a fire when it’s cold and rainy outside. 

If there was a break in the weather, we went to a nearby playground that has a little café that serves amazing coffee and pancakes.  Brett and I would get some time to work or read over coffee while the kids got some energy out on the playground. 

We spent the last few days of our trip dealing with some necessary tasks.  First, we drove down to Naas, just outside of Dublin for some work meetings for me.  The price of hotels or Airbnb’s within an hour’s drive of Dublin were way too high for us.  Nothing under $200/night even for very basic accommodation.  We decided to book an Airbnb in Westmeath, just over an hour’s drive from the office in Naas that I was there to visit.  It was fantastic!  It was a house on a working farm in Westmeath, a county I knew next to nothing about.   We came in with no expectations and were so taken with the beauty of the countryside around the area.  Micky, our host, was so friendly and welcoming.  He even took the kids out for a tour of the farm. 

We took a day trip out to Belvedere house and gardens. It is a country house in Westmeath built in 1740 as a hunting lodge. The gardens and grounds are beautiful. There are a number of follies (ornamental buildings or structures that have no practical purpose) on the grounds, including the most spectacular folly in the country, The Jealous Wall, built to block off the view of his estranged brother’s house nearby.

We also had to drive into south Dublin to get our last round of travel vaccines (finally!).  There was drama once again but the experience was better than the first couple of rounds of vaccines. 

Lastly we drove back up to Belfast for a face-to-face work meeting I had scheduled, then we made our way to the airport for our next adventure.  We will miss Ireland but I suspect it won’t be long until we are back.

Onward to Croatia!

The UK had been a whirlwind so far.  Starting with the luggage delay in London, we stayed in five different places in 19 days.  That’s a lot of moving.  Way too much.  That pace of travel is too much over a sustained length of time.  We were worn out.

Pulling up to our next place in Belfast, we decided to just take it easy for the next couple of days.  The Airbnb we were staying was the perfect place for a couple of days of relaxation.  It was like staying at your grandmother’s place.  It had all kinds of grandmotherly charm (e.g. commemorative plates of the royal family) as well as all the amenities we needed – a washer and dryer, good wifi, separate bedrooms for each of the kids, two living rooms (one for us away from the kids!!!), and a playstation!!  All of this in the heart of the city for $50/night.  Unbelievable.

We used the time there to recover.  I felt a bit guilty that we didn’t do any sightseeing.  Brett has never been to Belfast before but we had to take a break somewhere and we were too tired to enjoy getting out anyway.  We relaxed around the house for a couple of days with the exception to heading out to my cousin Maureen’s place for dinner one evening.  So nice seeing Maureen and her family again including her sweet little grandson.  Such a nice evening catching up and enjoying the company of family. 

My cousin Ronnie and his lovely wife Lucia joined us as well.  While there are family resemblances I notice with many of my relatives, Ronnie has an uncanny resemblance to my father in both looks and more strikingly his mannerisms.  It is oddly comforting to spend time with him.

We traveled from Belfast to our next place in Portrush on the north coast (we’re now on our 7^th place in 22 days!).   Portrush is a holiday destination for many – nice beaches and an amusement park.  Similar to our Belfast house, we had a large house with lots of space for us all.  We chose Portrush because it is near my cousin Jacqueline’s place in Limavady. 

We took the scenic drive around the coast from Belfast to Portrush.  It was beautiful.  We arrived in Portrush around 7pm and decided to head back out to visit the Giant’s Causeway in the evening to avoid the busloads of tourists the following day.  Smart move.  It was perfect.  No crowds and beautiful lighting from the sunset.

The following day we had a wonderful dinner at Jacqueline’s house.  As always, it is so fun to catch up with her and her husband Graham. The kids love visiting them too. They were very grateful to Graham for the tour he took them on.

With the pace of our travels and the many museums, castles, and historical sites, the kids can get burnt out.  We need to remind ourselves that this is their trip too and that they need to be able to do some things that are just purely kid’s fun.  So we spent a day at the amusements in Port Rush.   There were haunted houses, roller coasters, and bumper cars to keep them amused.

The last thing we decided to do was the Ferris wheel.  There was a slight drizzle while we were lining up for the ride.  By the time we got on and halfway up to the top, the skies opened up and the serious rainfall started.  As we got to the top, the rainfall was blowing sideways and into the car we were in.    We were soaked to the skin at the end.  Each time the we made it to the bottom of the Ferris wheel we were cheering and hoping it was going to stop to let us out and each time it kept going back up, there was a collective moan.  It was so bad we just had to laugh.

So that was it for Northern Ireland this time around.  Short and sweet.  It is such a beautiful part of the world and we didn’t even scratch the surface on this trip.  We would definitely recommend taking the scenic coastal route around the north and an evening visit to Giant’s Causeway is the best time of day to go. 

We stopped very briefly in Glasgow to visit with family.  We have a number of cousins that live near Glasgow.  While my dad had emigrated from Ireland to Canada, his older brother had emigrated to Scotland.  I have so many great memories of our Scottish cousins from back in my teen years when I visited Scotland a couple of times and they had visited us in Canada.  It had been almost 30 years since I’d seen them.

We first met up with my cousin Marlene and her husband George.  It hardly seemed like any time had passed since we’d last seen each other.  Probably part of the magic of Facebook that we have been able to keep up with photos in recent years.  The last time I had seen their daughters they were children and it was so special to get to meet them again as adults with their own wonderful families.  Great also to introduce them all to Brett and our kids.

The first day was a trip out to Loch Lomond for a picnic.  The plan was to have a picnic but the rain had started during the drive.  Thankfully we waited because we ended up having a nice reprieve from the rain.  We had our picnic, had a chance to catch up a bit, and watched the kids have fun with each other.  Riley had a great time with two of her cousins – two sweet girls that are about her age.  She is so starved for the company of girls.  It was so nice to see her make friends and have fun.

After the picnic we drove a short drive to Luss, another small village on Loch Lomond.  It was so beautiful and picturesque. 

As we were walking the pier we were approached by someone offering offering a private 30 minute tour on a speedboat.  We piled on; our family (except Ronan who is not a fan of speedboats) as well as our two ‘wee’ cousins and their uncle David.   At first, the 4 kids got up front in the boat and were having the time of their lives until we hit the wake of other boats and it became too rough for them.  Once one started to panic and cry, they all did.

After a brief stop to re-fuel, our kids found their courage again and returned to the front of the boat (with Brett and I).  Such a great memory of watching them enjoy that ride.

We finished the day off with a family dinner, 20 of us in all. 

The second day we took the train to Edinburgh to visit the castle.  The train was so easy to navigate and cost us about $35 for the five of us to travel from our suburb of Glasgow to the center of Edinburgh.  When we arrived, it was raining…hard.  We walked out of train station and were in complete awe of the city. 

At first the rain added to the overall atmosphere of the city – very somber and austere.  We were so awestruck as we left the train station that we barely noticed the rain.  The fringe festival was also in full swing and people were out singing in the streets with beer at 2pm. 

By the time we walked up to the castle, the rain was starting to get heavier.  It was progressively getting colder and colder.  It was starting to rain so hard that streets were getting flooded and we were becoming chilled to the bone.  We did not pack any pants on our trip  – we were definitely the only family wandering around Edinburgh castle in shorts. 

Despite the weather, we loved the castle.  So beautiful and so much history.   As North Americans it’s hard to grasp the amount of history here.  Brett and I both left feeling like we should watch Braveheart again :).

There was an exhibition of armor and weapons on loan from the Tower of London.  Riley saw this armor and asked whether this was what the girl knights wore.  Such an innocent question.

By the time we left we were completely soaked and we just kept our heads down trying to get back to the train station.  We got back to Glasgow at 8:15pm and all of the stores and restaurants in our area had closed (it was Sunday) except for one take-out chicken place.  We got an awesome dinner for < $25 for all of us from a wonderful Portuguese family that had just started up this business.  They were officially closed but stayed open to make our food.  It was delicious.

The following day we met up with our cousins again and went to Briarwood farm – an operating farm with many activities for families and children.  We spent a few hours letting the kids have some fun while we had some time to talk and relax.  Afterwards, we raced directly to the airport to catch our flight to Belfast.

It was a whirlwind weekend but so much fun.   Scotland is absolutely beautiful.  We were so touched at the hospitality and friendliness of our Scottish family.  We feel so lucky to be connected to such wonderful people in such a beautiful part of the world.

Onward to Belfast!

This is partly a post about our car trip from England to Scotland, partly about of how we spent our 11th anniversary. Some people opt to go out for a nice dinner to celebrate anniversaries…we went a different way on this one.

August 9th was our anniversary.  We hadn’t really registered that this was our anniversary when we were making our travel plans. The day was pretty well organized without much opportunity to change things when after we did realize it was our anniversary. We woke up early that morning in the cottage we were staying at near Bishop’s Castle and by the time we would go to bed that night we would need to complete about a 6 hour drive to our next stop in Glasgow (at least 6 hrs is how long Google Maps thought it should be).

Looking back, it would have been hard to plan for so many unpleasant activities in a single day. First step was packing up our car and cleaning the cottage before hitting the road. You would think after so many moves we would be really efficient but it almost seems like we are less organized now than we were at the beginning of the trip.

If we are only staying somewhere for a few days, we tend not to unpack but instead just let our bags continue to spill out over the floor – contents getting farther and farther from the source bag the longer we are there. There’s invariably a disorganized mess that needs to be re-packed into very organized packing cubes – clothes separated by person and must fit back into their designated bag. I’m really not sure why I feel this compelling need to be an organized packer but am capable of living in complete disarray.

Following the initial pack, then we need to make sure we have all the essentials. All electronics and chargers (and there are so, so many) need to be organized into our backpacks. All the treasured stuffies that the kids sleep with need to be tracked down from under the bedsheets. Passports, wallets and glasses all need to be accounted for. All the remaining food needs to be packed, including a small cooler with anything that needs to be refrigerated. Then we need to look in every closet, drawer, and under all furniture for what we (read: kids!) have left behind. If we didn’t follow that last step, our kids would have no more socks left to wear on this trip.

Once we get all of our things out of the house, then we do a pretty decent clean. In the case of the cottage we were staying at this time, we spent extra time cleaning since it was our friends place and we wanted to make sure to leave it as we had found it. The entire process of getting ready and back on the road took about 3 hours. As usual, by the time we were finished we were in a bad mood and were frustrated at the kids for not helping (and usually getting in the way).

Once we finally got on the road, our first stop was to pick up Ronan in Nantwich where he was enjoying a sleepover with one of his best friends. So essentially the first stop on this leg of our trip was to pry our son away from one of his best friends who he probably won’t get to see again for another year until we return to Portland. We were happy to see our friends again briefly and also sad to say bye to them knowing that it would be a long time before seeing them again.

Back in the car again, the moods were deteriorating further. The next stop was one that both Brett and I were dreading, and hadn’t yet come clean with the kids on what we were up to next. They thought we were driving on through to Glasgow and were already grumpy because they hate long car rides. What they didn’t yet know was that we would be stopping just north of Manchester to get our next dose of travel vaccinations. We had to get our second dose of a couple of vaccinations 7 days after the first. We hadn’t realized just how difficult it would be to find a clinic. We were now on day 9 after the first dose. When we got the first dose of vaccinations, the staff at the clinic told us that it was easy to get the follow-up vaccinations and that they do them at most pharmacies. On day 6, we called around to find out where to get the next dose. It turns out that you can get them at some pharmacies but you need to book an appointment weeks in advance. We called around to so many places and they did not have a long enough appointment to accommodate the five of us for at least another 2 weeks. I had to look up all travel clinics between Nantwich and Glasgow and start calling them one by one until I found one that could fit us in that day.

So about 2 hours into our drive after picking up Ronan, we pulled into the parking lot of the travel clinic and dropped the news on the kids. There was some screaming and some tears. Both Riley and Ronan have an irrational fear of needles. If we had told them earlier, they would have just been consumed by their fears. Rightly or wrongly we decided to only tell them when we got there. To make things a little more tricky, the clinician that was administering the shots was young and seemed a little nervous dealing with our overly anxious and crying kids. I suspect that we were in that clinic for about 2 hours, of which there was about an hour of crying and screaming (the kids) and begging and bribing (Brett and I). We were all so relieved when it was over, including the clinician. Another $600 spent on vaccines.

We got back in the car at around 6pm and started back on the road. Everyone was hungry so we drove a little way before we found a rest stop to get some food. Our 11th anniversary dinner was the first fast food that we had eaten on this whole trip. Burger King. We felt sick afterwards.

As we approached the border with Scotland, the sky looked very dramatic and foreboding. Unfortunately no photos that I took from inside the car do it justice. Almost exactly at the border, on cue, the rain started. Heavy rain. The kind where you have trouble seeing the road with the windshield wipers on their highest setting. It made for a very long, exhausting and stressful last part of our drive but likely a very fitting welcome to Scotland.

We had an Airbnb in Glasgow arranged but it did not allow for check-ins past 9:30pm. We were still driving at 9:30, not even in the city yet. We are thankful that the owner was willing to stay late to give us the keys when we finally got in at about 11pm.

All in all, our door to door journey was 12 hours. We wouldn’t ever want to re-live that day but we are still thankful that we all spent it together. It will end up being an anniversary that we won’t soon forget.

We are lucky enough to have a friend that let us use his quaint cottage in this part of England.  The cottage is in a tiny hamlet about 1 mile from Bishops Castle in Shropshire.   Our friend warned us that the place is very rustic but after our last stop, this was almost luxury.  Not only was the cottage nice but the grounds and surrounding countryside were absolutely stunning.  It seemed right out of a storybook.  Beautiful green rolling hills and quaint little homes, each with their own unique names.

The kids had a great time exploring the adjoining woods.  There was a trail through the woods and the plot of land was completely bounded by hedges so we could let the kids run free without worrying about them getting lost or going too far.  Mostly they played in and around the yard.  There was a creek running thought the property and the kids had a blast jumping on rocks through the creek, hunting for worms and frogs, and pretending to fish.

When we were first driving to the cottage, we didn’t realize until we were almost there that it was really close to the border of Wales.  We were excited to get a chance to dip our feet into Wales during our one week stay.  We found a pamphlet in the cottage with information on a hike near Montgomery, Wales.  On our first full day, we packed our lunches and headed out for Montgomery, just a 20 minute drive from the cottage.  The drive itself was gorgeous and the town was very pretty.  We found our way to the trailhead only to realize that it was completely overgrown with stinging nettles.  There was no way I could force the kids through nettles again (after my trail mishap earlier in the trip), especially since we were all wearing shorts.

We turned around from the trailhead feeling disappointed and a bit defeated.  We decided to head up the hill to the castle.  By this point, we were getting less and less excited by castles; we had seen so many in Spain and England so far.  Montgomery Castle was about to renew our interest in castles.  There was no entrance fee and it was freely open for the public to explore the ruins.  The views of the surrounding countryside were breathtaking.  There were placards posted in several locations that told portions of the history of the castle and the battles that had taken place there.  They were very interesting and really made the history of the place come alive in our minds. 

It is really great that there are places like this that are freely open to the public.  People were on the grass in and around the castle having picnics.  There was no litter and no graffiti on the castle.   People, both locals and tourists, seem to really respect the historic monuments.

As we were walking back down the trail to town again, there was a steep drop off on our left side.  We warned the kids to stop running and playing and that they need to walk carefully and pay attention.  As we were walking, Brett and I started talking between ourselves and at one point, Brett turned around to see Iain holding Riley by her arm trying to spin her around right near the edge of the steep drop off.   There are definitely some good things about traveling with the kids when they are this young but it would be nice if they had a greater understanding of hazards. 

We also visited Ludlow, a nearby town that we’ve heard described as one of the prettiest towns in England.  It did not disappoint.  We wandered around the town admiring the Tudor buildings, especially the ones that were leaning quite dramatically. 

The boys all got haircuts in town, the first haircuts since we’d left the US.

The last stop on our day in Ludlow was the castle.   The castle had first been constructed in the 11^th century and was in use until the 17^th century.  There were some original wood details still in place, and you could see where the floors had been on the various levels.  Technically I suppose it is a ruin, but the details still in place made it easy to imagine what the castle might have looked like.

We did end up going back to Ludlow a second time on another day.  Brett says it was because he didn’t feel like we’d explored it enough on that first day but I’m pretty sure it was so he could get another gyro from the food cart in the main square. 

Another interesting castle stop was the Stokesay Castle, a stately fortified manor house built in the 13^th century.  This was so impressive – so much of the original wood within the castle was still in place.  The wood roof in the Great Hall, original wood staircase, intact rooms with wood paneling as well as a wine cellar where you could still smell a faint aroma of wine as you entered.

We saw a sign on the side of the road one day for the nearby Churchstoke country fair.  We decided to treat the kids to the local fair.  We met princesses, got to hold some big birds, watched daredevils, got to try some rides, and eat some sugary fair food.  A good day.

Laundry.  It’s something I haven’t mentioned much in this blog but it is a major challenge to keep five people in clean clothes.  The cottage we were staying at had no laundry facility so we had packed all our laundry in the car when going to Churchstoke since that was where the closest launderette was located.   After the fair, we took the clothes to the launderette only to realize it had just closed.  We drove back the following day to get it done.  It was probably the first time I had to use a launderette in almost 25 years.  It took us a while to figure out how it all worked and then it was a long afternoon of waiting for the laundry to get done.  As we were folding the clothes after they finished drying, Brett asked if I’d seen some of his clothes because they weren’t in the dryer.  In that moment, I remembered that I’d put them in a washer but I forgot to transfer them to the washer we ultimately ended up using.  So after several hours of dealing with laundry, some of Brett’s favorite clothes never even got cleaned! 

On the second to last day, we took a drive to Nantwich, about an hour away.  We told the kids we were just driving to another nearby village for sightseeing.  What we were really doing was driving to see our neighbors from Portland who were visiting family in Nantwich.  Their son is one of Ronan’s best friends.  It was so much fun to see them and to see the boys re-united.   Hilary (our neighbor) is from Nantwich and it was really fun to see where she grew up and explore the town with her.  We wandered around town, spent some time at the playground, got some ice cream and candy for the kids.  A perfect day.

We left Ronan with them for a sleepover and picked him up on the following day when we were en route to Scotland.  So great to see them and so great to let Ronan and his friend hang out for a night, have fun and catch up.

Onward to Scotland!

We were only here a few days but this short stay deserves its own post.  This is one of those places we probably never would have visited if we weren’t being budget conscious.  When I’ve mentioned to others that we are staying in the Leicester area, the response is typically ‘why’?  It’s not that it’s a bad place, it’s just doesn’t have the same typical tourist draw as other places in England.

The only criteria I had when booking was that I wanted to spend less than $100/night and that it needed to be somewhere between London and Glasgow…a pretty wide window to search. 

I came across a place near Melton Mowbray, just down the road from Leicester.   It’s basically a one-room rustic cabin with an outhouse (with plumbing, thankfully).  If it weren’t for budget this wouldn’t have been considered.  But when I kept reading about this rental, it seemed more and more interesting.  It’s on a river and owned by a couple that make canoes and hold canoe-building workshops where you can build your own canoe.   We would have access to canoes to paddle along the river while staying there.  

We arrived to find a very eclectic homestead.   The main house was actually an old inactive train station that was converted to a home.  The couple had built a number of rustic cabins on their property and operate them all on Airbnb.   I won’t lie, we had to reset our expectations and reset our standards for what we are comfortable with for accommodation.  Things weren’t exactly clean (since this was a cabin), there were many bugs – dead and alive – in the outhouse, the shower was a longer walk away from the cabin and was used by all guests in the other cabins, there were very few amenities for preparing food, and the wifi did not work.  On top of all of this, it rained almost continuously for the 3 days we were there. 

We could have focused on all of those negatives but instead we adapted our mindset and embraced all the positives that this place offered us.  There was a great yard with homemade playground equipment including a treehouse.  There was a covered patio with a picnic table where we could sit and enjoy the view and feel very peaceful in the surrounding nature.  We were all sleeping in one room, which could be a negative, but we really enjoyed it.  It actually felt very comfortable to all be in our beds in this cozy cabin.   When I was working on my computer in the evenings, Brett started reading Treasure Island aloud to the kids – a perfect nighttime activity in our cabin that probably wouldn’t have happened if we’d had wifi.   

We had no great ambitions for sightseeing while here, just to enjoy the property and take care of a few errands.   First requirement was for some raincoats and ‘wellies’.  We had just bought the kids new sneakers in London and they were quickly destroying them in the mud around the cabin while searching for snails and worms and frogs.  It was raining continuously and we didn’t want to stop them from their exploring so  we went on drove into Leicester to get raincoats and boots.   

We also found a travel clinic in Leicester to get our travel vaccinations for our upcoming parts of this trip in Southeast Asia.  This was something we had planned to do before leaving Portland but ended up not having time.  Our kids are scared of needles so we were expecting this would be difficult but they took it to a whole new level.  There was screaming and crying (them) as well as begging and bribing (Brett and I).  Iain handled it very well but the other two ramped themselves up into a very irrational state of fear.  Unfortunately a couple of the vaccinations require multiple doses over the next month so we are destined to deal with this again..and again on this trip.

It was a very unwelcome surprise to find out how much travel vaccinations cost.  Based on our planned destinations, we chose to get vaccinated for rabies, Japanese encephalitis, and cholera.  Brett and I also got vaccinated for Hep A and B because neither of us could remember the last time we had been vaccinated.  The grand total for this first dose of vaccines was $1500.  By the time we finish, we will have spent more than $3000 on vaccinations.

Getting back to the positives of this stay, one of the interesting things about the cabin was that there was an easel on the outdoor table along with a wooden box full of acrylic paint.  Iain has a strong interest in art and started painting.  At some point, he asked Brett for help and over the course of that three days, Brett realized that he has an interest in, and aptitude for, painting.   He really enjoyed the singular focus of painting, a way to really relax and let his mind go.  It was also a really good activity for Brett and Iain to bond over.  This spiderman painting was their masterpiece.

On the last day, the rain stopped for long enough for us to finally get out on a canoe.  Unbelievable that my Canadian kids first experience on a canoe wasn’t until they were 6 and 8, and in England!   It was a lovely but short trip down the river – we couldn’t go very far because the water level was too high.  Still it was fun and very memorable.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here and we’re really proud that we chose to see the beauty of the place rather than focus on some of the negatives.  A lesson in keeping an open mind.

Onward to Bishop’s castle!

While most of our first week and a half in the UK was overshadowed by the delayed baggage, we did manage to have some good times. To be honest, I wasn’t too excited about this leg of our trip. I am excited to get to Scotland and Ireland to see family but otherwise, I am all about new experiences on this trip.  I have been to England several times, each time usually near family in London or near Birmingham. We’ve lost touch with our family in England in the last few years so there will be no opportunity for visiting this time. Brett had never been to England so he was much more enthusiastic about this part of our trip.

After dealing with our lost luggage at the airport, we made our way from Gatwick to our Airbnb in Surrey. The space was so perfect for us. It was a detached cottage on an idyllic property south of London.

The kids had one of their favorite features – a sleeping loft that they could share. The hosts were so accommodating and thoughtful – they put the AC on before we got there and it was so refreshing after sleepless nights in 40+ degree heat in Spain to walk into that cool apartment. They were also so happy to help us with anything we might need since we didn’t have our bags. Their son and daughter both came out to ask our kids if they wanted to play and that gave Brett and I some much needed quiet time. We will always be grateful to have landed at such a wonderful place after the luggage ordeal. I hope that the kindness of strangers continues to be a theme in our travels.

Once we got our bearings, we drove into the nearby town of Oxted to buy some essential toiletries. Even the shop clerks were so nice to us, greeting us with a smile and wishing us a nice stay in their town. These small experiences really leave an impression.

The second day we mustered up the energy (in our two-day old clothes) to take the train into London. The primary purpose was to shop for some replacement clothes to get us through until our bags arrive but we tried to plan it around some sightseeing. The train was easy and pleasant. $35 for a ~30 minute ride from Oxted to London Bridge station for the five of us. From there, we walked around, crossed the Tower Bridge and eventually made our way to the One New Change shopping center where we found everything we needed. We wandered around a bit more, ate dinner and then took the train back to Oxted. That was it. That was our London experience. It was short but it was fun. It was enough for us to know that we will want to return some day when we have more time and more money to enjoy.

The following day we drove to our next place in South Cerney near Cirencester on the eastern margins of the Cotswolds. On our way out of London we stopped to visit a friend from high school that I hadn’t seen in over 25 years. It was great seeing Monika and meeting her husband Gabor and son Oliver.

Our standards for accommodation will be tested a bit on this trip because of our budget. We knew that at the start. It makes sense that the standard we look for on a 2 week vacation can’t be maintained for a year-long trip without breaking the bank. Some of the places that we stayed at on this trip were selected mostly because of cost and if we weren’t on a budget we probably wouldn’t have considered them…but as you will see, they ended up being gems.

I honestly didn’t realize until we were driving up to our place in the Cotswolds that it was in a caravan park. This detail was somehow overlooked when looking at the place during booking. We are totally fine with camping but the idea of a caravan park has never interested us – something about the uniformity of all the caravans, lack of trees, ….a massive parking lot full of identical mobile homes. But, it was booked and there we were, so that is where we would be.

Driving up to the caravan park was a bit depressing, knowing we only have a few days in the Cotswolds and this would be where we were staying. We were definitely relieved and even pleasantly surprised when we got inside our Airbnb. It was way more spacious than we imagined and had everything we needed, even TWO bathrooms – that rare treat for Brett and I. Almost every place we have stayed has only had one bathroom. Every single time before we get into the shower, we ask the kids first whether they need the bathroom. Despite this, almost every single time one of them realizes that that they desperately need the bathroom as soon as we step foot in the shower. Two bathrooms is so luxurious.   We may not embrace the caravan park world but we were happy that we had this place to come home to each day while exploring the greater Cotswolds.

The highlight of this part of our trip was undoubtedly our visit to Avebury, the site of Europe’s largest Neolithic stone circles. It was such a nice day. The kids were generally getting along, another rare treat for Brett and I these days, and the weather was great. There were dark clouds in the sky but the sun was shining for most of the day. I’ve been getting more and more interest in, and enjoyment out of, photography. I know very little about it but we bought a decent camera for this trip and I have really enjoyed capturing moments on our journey. As we arrived at Avebury I was so excited about the taking some pictures – the contrast of the sunshine, the large shadows from the stones, and the ominous dark clouds in the sky was so striking. For the first time on this trip, the camera battery died as soon as we got there. For the first time on this trip I hadn’t packed a spare.  All the photos here were taken with my IPhone.

There are a lot of other things to visit and view while at Avebury.  There are two museums that explain the history and significance of the stone circles.  There is also the Avebury Manor, a 16th century manor house that has various rooms restored to resemble the era that the residents lived – Tudor, Jacobean, Geogian, and Victorian.  In addition to the décor of the rooms, there are traditional clothes for each era available try on in each room. 

On the walk back to the car we just happened upon a cricket match.  We stopped for a few minutes only to confirm that we have no idea what cricket is all about.

Another day we decided we wanted to do a bit of a walk through the countryside and see some typical Cotswold villages so we did some research and decided to drive to Upper Slaughter and do the short 1 mile walk from Upper Slaughter to Lower Slaughter. Upper Slaughter was very small and quaint.

We walked around for a while and then started on the trail to Lower Slaughter…or so we thought. We followed the trail for what felt like about a mile and then we got to a portion of the trail that ran alongside a main roadway. It was a treacherous walk with young kids with very fast traffic whizzing by very close to us but that walk will be more memorable for our collective introduction to stinging nettles.

At some point we had gone so far along the roadside trail that we couldn’t turn back and we had to encourage (force) the kids to continue to walk through the nettles since there was no option to walk along the narrow road with the constant traffic. After a couple of hundred metres of this I realized that we had gone the wrong way. We should have gone on the trail on the other side of Upper Slaughter! We had to backtrack. After a few tears and tantrums (honestly not as bad as it could have been all things considered), we made it back to Upper Slaughter and onto the right trail to Lower Slaughter. It is such a quaint and picturesque village. We wandered around and eventually indulged in some ice cream before heading back along the trail to our car.

There was so much more to see in this area of England. I suspect we could have spent a couple of weeks and still felt like we hadn’t seen enough. We were right next door to the Cotswold water park but never did get out on the water. I guess it’s not so bad to leave things to do on the next visit.

Onwards to Bishops Castle!

We flew on a budget airline from Barcelona to London. It was only $245 for all five of us, including charges for our two checked bags. I remember feeling a bit of a rush when I booked it. Is this correct? Did I really just book a flight for less than $50 per person. I never even gave thought to the checked bags. How could there be a problem when we are just on a short direct flight? That thought went around and around in my head as we circled the baggage carousels at Gatwick after all the other passengers had left with their luggage.

We are traveling with two checked bags. One contains Brett and the boy’s things, the other has mine and Riley’s. When we were planning this trip we spent quite a while deliberating about whether we should have two big bags or several smaller carry-on bags. In the end, we decided two big bags would be more manageable since we can’t count on too much help from the kids. The risks of checking baggage hadn’t even crossed my mind.

The people working in the lost baggage office at Gatwick were less than helpful. They gave us out a printed report that confirmed that our bags are indeed lost and there was no record of where they were. They were very clear to explain to us that if we have any questions or need to contact them at all, we were to call the number on their report. They would be more than happy to help. They very carefully highlighted the phone number so we would be sure to remember. As it turns out, when I called to get an update later that day, there was a recording that tells you to call another number. I dutifully called the second number, remembering how reassuring the man was at the airport that they were there to help. The second number has a recording indicating that it has been disconnected. There was no way to contact them. I tried calling the airline and they insisted that I had to take this up with the numberless baggage service.

So there we were in London without even a single change of clothes (I usually pack a spare change for everyone in carry on but let my guard down on this flight). The first day we checked into our Airbnb just outside of London (which was fabulous) and went out and bought the essentials. Toiletries, underwear, socks, etc. Later that day we got a message that Brett’s bag had been found (but not mine). While we were grateful, this was not an ideal scenario. It would take me so much more effort and expense to replace my clothes than Brett and the boys. I hit a low that evening and actually felt like I wanted to go back home.   I trusted everything I’d packed for this year-long adventure to a budget airline that I couldn’t even contact. 

The next day we took the train into London to do some shopping for me and Riley. We have travel insurance that covers us for up to $150/day each for each day of baggage delay. Small consolation. I was mentally doing an inventory of all that I had lost. Everything that I brought had been so carefully selected for this trip. It takes a lot of effort to decide on what to pack for a trip this long. Lots of quick dry fabric, shoes that have several purposes, swim suits that I feel comfortable in, etc. I tried hard to keep perspective. I kept reminding myself that these are only things and that I am still on a great adventure, one that I should feel grateful for every day no matter what.

As we started shopping, I got a text from our Airbnb host to let us know that Brett’s bag had arrived and thankfully he attached a photo – my answer was prompt and brief  ‘Oh My God!! Is that bag GREEN??. I’m sure he had no clue why I was surprised that it was green. You see, Brett and I had identical bags except his was black, mine…you guessed it, green!  Such an overwhelming feeling of relief seeing that photo of my bag safe and sound.  I wasn’t with Brett when I got the message. I tried so hard to suppress any sign of happiness as I approached him to tell him that my bag was found but his was still lost. I didn’t need to worry, he was relieved too, immediately realizing that he wouldn’t need to go shopping for a week with me to re-stock my wardrobe.

We were in a shopping mall when I got the text. We switched gears and went shopping for Brett and the boys. We went into an outdoor clothing shop and, I kid you not, Brett bought shorts and t-shirts that he liked better than his original clothes!! First store – done. We continued on and bought the boys some new clothes and made our way back to our place.

I’m so grateful to our Airbnb host for sending that photo. If he hadn’t done that, we would have spent the entire day buying clothes for me and Riley only to get back to the apartment to realize we had all of our things and the boys had nothing.

A few days later, after we had left London and were staying in the Cotswolds, our other bag was found and delivered to us. We are so grateful to have all of our things back. One very important decision has been made as a result of this – there will be no more checked baggage. There are too many things that are just too hard to replace to trust to checking it. Even if our luggage is eventually found, as it was this time, it still has a huge impact on our trip. Brett had never been to London before and our whole time there was tied up calling airlines, baggage handlers, insurance as well as shopping for essentials. So, this is it….3 carry on bags for 5 people for 1 year.

Oh Spain (and France briefly)…what a wonderful 6 weeks we have had!  Leaving is bittersweet.  We love it here so much and we have made so many wonderful memories but at the same time, we are very excited to see what the rest of our trip brings us. 

One thing that this leg of our trip has reminded us is just how big the world is.  We could spend the whole year traveling around Spain and have a very interesting, exciting, and fun year of adventure. 

Over 3000 km, 30+hrs of driving, 7 stops, 43 days, and a billion memories made. Here’s what our Tour of Spain looked like:

In some ways I feel like 6 weeks and the area we covered gave us a really good sense of what Spain is like.  In other ways, we feel like we barely scratched the surface.  Everything varies over such short distances – architecture, food, terrain, customs, history, etc.   Even though we did a very big loop around Spain, we missed many places that I would like to visit on a future trip.  Top of the list is Valencia, which we had planned to visit but had had a little SNAFU with our plans.  We’d also like to travel across the north of Spain from San Sebastian west to Galicia, maybe one day hiking a portion of the Camino de Santiago.

Some of the kids favorite things in their own words:

Iain  – ‘I really liked the hikes and the beach.  I liked everything.’

Riley – ‘Swimming in the river, the hikes, well…everything about Spain except the time I banged my thumb in the door’.

Ronan – ‘My favorite part was the beach and that we found basketball hoops in most places we went to.   My least favorite part was the car drives.’

Some things we learned on this trip:

1. Take things slower and stay in each place for at least 1 week, ideally 2 weeks.  Anything shorter seems rushed and there is so much to unpack and re-pack with a family of 5.
2. Airbnb is a great option for this type of trip.  So nice to be able to see ratings from other people that have stayed in each place and also to connect with local hosts and support their businesses.  We stayed in 7 airbnb’s on this trip and they’ve all been incredible.  It is also nice, and essential when trying to stick to a low budget, to have a kitchen to prepare meals.
3. Plan to stay in Basque country longer than you think.  We will return.
4. Not many people in Spain speak English.  I was surprised at how few people we came across that could communicate in even basic English.  Google Translate was our friend.
5. Roads in Spain are great and easy to navigate.  However, we didn’t factor the tolls in our budget.  They were quite steep around Barcelona and then again as we traveled across southern France.
6. For 3 euros, you can buy a baguette, cheese, and a liter of wine.  It is very easy to overdo the calories here.  I will spend the next 6 weeks working off the excess!
7. Check your rental car for a spare tire.   It is a major safety concern if you get a flat somewhere remote and you have no spare tire available.
8. Siesta is real.  Plan your day around everything being closed from 2 to 5 pm.  Even after 6 weeks here, 2 to 5 pm is the only time we’re really up and ready to go.  It has been difficult for us to adjust.
9. Make sure you prepare for Sunday.  Almost everything is closed on Sundays including grocery stores.  We got caught out on a couple of Sundays not having any food in the house.
10. There are steep drop offs everywhere in this country that are not adequately protected for small children who have little focus. 
11. People do not pick up their dog poo!  We don’t understand why but dogs just poo freely and so many people don’t pick it up.  We spent most of our time walking around looking at the ground.
12. It can get really really hot and humid in Northern Spain.  We did not expect the temperatures or the humidity.
13. Sangria is very refreshing on a hot day 😊
14. Check with locals on where to get Paella.  There’s varying quality and freshness, especially in the more touristy areas.
15. Wikiloc is an amazing App to find hiking trails near wherever you are.
16. Irnex Parkme is a great app to find parking lots with availability. 

We started in Barcelona and we’re finishing in Catalonia after a 6 week loop around the country.   Our feelings about leaving Spain this week are complicated – I’ll save that for a separate post.  For these last 8 days of our trip, we traveled across southern France and dipped back down into Spain in the northeast corner, into the province of Girona in Catalonia.

If you’ve read my previous posts, you know how the fear of losing our children over steep unprotected drop-offs has plagued me for much of this trip so far so you can imagine how I felt as we approached the town we are staying at here, Castellfollit de la Roca. 

It is extremely picturesque, built on the top of a 50 m high basalt cliff within a very lush and mountainous region of Spain.   I’ve concluded that Spanish children must be very smart and focused (at least compared to my kids) or else not many would make it to adulthood.  The rock mechanics engineer in me was intrigued by the cliffs, the fact that the homes are built right up to the cliff edge, and that you can see toppling basalt columns undercutting parts of the edge of town.   Seems the town will have a finite lifespan unless some ground support is engineered to prevent further undercutting….but that’s not why I’m here and I’m sure it’s not what anyone would want to read about.

Yet again, we have been awestruck by the beauty of another part of this country.  If it weren’t for the high temperatures, we would have liked to explore more.  We hit the highest temperature yet of our trip, 46C (115F) on one of our days here, but each day has hit somewhere between 40-46 degrees.  Unlike the heat in Granada, it is also humid here which really drains your energy.  Most days we tried to get out and do something but our days exploring were not as long as they were in other cities because of the heat.

We took a day when we first got here to decompress and generally relax.  The Airbnb that we are staying at is great (again!).  There is a big yard for the kids to play in and lots of toys for them to play with.   We took a walk down to the older part of town and then down into the valley to get a view back to the town.  Spectacular.

We also had a lot of fun in the evenings at the apartment. There was so much space, we all had a chance to have our own space and do our own things for a change. Here’s the scene on a typical evening at home – Iain is drawing pictures at the dining room table and in the background, you can see Riley outside putting on a some sort of gymnastics ‘performance’ for Ronan who is filming it for her.

There are many beautiful medieval towns near here, too many to explore in just a few short days.  In addition to exploring Castellfolit de la Roca, we took trips into Besalu and Girona.   We loved Besalu.  The town is very beautiful and has a lot of history.  There are gorgeous, narrow cobblestone streets, nice restaurants, and quaint stores to shop for locally made souvenirs.  There is also a long history here that we did not have enough time to research or enjoy.  We did learn that there is a very unique Jewish history here. There is a 12^th century Jewish bath and the remains of a 13^th century synagogue.   In 1966 Besalu was designated as a historical national property and as a result, it has been restored to some of its original grandeur.

We also drove 30 minutes to Girona, a much larger town of ~100,000 people.  The city is beautiful, there is a beautiful river, a number of nice bridges through the city (one designed by Gustav Eiffel), well-preserved buildings, and a number of museums.  Unfortunately, it was so hot that day that we really ran out of steam for exploring.  We stopped at the cathedrals, did a little shopping, got some ice cream, and gladly got back into our air-conditioned car.

After exploring Girona, we decided that heading out into other towns was not really what we were into  for this point of our trip and with the unrelenting heat.   The towns here are so beautiful but at some point one gorgeous cobblestone street looks like any other and we were starting not to appreciate the beauty and history as much as we had been earlier in our trip.  So instead we decided to go for a proper hike.  Since we’ve discovered Wikiloc (does everyone else know about this awesome App?), we’ve used it everywhere we’ve gone to find hikes to go on.  The one we chose was only a few miles long up to a series of limestone caves on a nearby mountain .  There was about 450 m of elevation gain which normally wouldn’t be a big deal but it was 41C that day (105F).  The kids were awesome and managed to have a lot of fun exploring despite the heat.  We all enjoyed having a picnic lunch at the top.

Our amazing Airbnb host Ana invited us to go with her and her two children to a local swimming hole that same day after the hike.  There couldn’t have been a better way to end that day.  It was only about 10 minutes away in a dammed off portion of a river below a very picturesque 14^th century limestone bridge.  The water was warm and the river was narrow enough that the kids could swim back and forth independently between its banks.  We liked it so much that we spent the following day there as well just swimming and relaxing and swimming and relaxing.  It hit 46C (115F) that day so this was really best way to get through that day.

Ana also helped organize a babysitter for us.  So, for the first time in almost 2 months, Brett and I got the chance to go out to dinner without the kids.   Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly I suppose, the kids were just as excited to get a babysitter as we were to get an evening out to ourselves so it worked out for everyone.  Dinner was so nice.  We went back to Besalu and had dinner on a beautiful patio overlooking the river and the city.   We didn’t even talk about the kids.

On our last day, we were busy packing and taking care of errands but we did manage to walk over to the town swimming pool that was only a block away from us.  We had no idea what a nice pool it was or we would have been there many more times over our stay.

Catalonia is absolutely beautiful.  The medieval villages are interesting and picturesque, the terrain is very lush and mountainous, and the people have been very friendly.  I think we would have enjoyed this part of our trip even more if it hadn’t been so hot.   There was no reprieve and it really zapped us all of our energy.  We still did a fair amount of exploring and enjoyed all of it.  Ana, our Airbnb host, gave us another reason for why we prefer staying at Airbnb’s.   Not only is her apartment great, she was such a gracious host and really made our week so much more enjoyable for taking us out to the local river for swimming and organizing the babysitter for us.  It is nice to get to the chance to meet someone local and know that we are supporting their local business.

A summary of this leg of our trip:

Accommodation:  A really nice Airbnb apartment in Castellfollit de la Roca.  If you have kids (or even if you don’t), this place is ideal.  It has two bedrooms, has been recently re-modeled and looks fantastic.  There is a great backyard and you can walk within a few minutes to the local store, bakery, playground, swimming pool, etc.  There are many fastastic looking hikes that start from the town center into the surrounding hills. 

Budget:  We spent on average $240/day here including everything (accommodation, car, food, activities, …).  This also includes the tolls and gas for the drive here as well as the costs for us to send back a box of stuff to Portland (things we’ve bought in Spain, extra things we packed but found we don’t need, etc.).

Favorite memory:  Swimming in the local river.  The spot was beautiful and it was just so relaxing especially since the kids could swim around more or less independently (that was not the case at any of the beaches we’d been to) and it felt so refreshing in the hot weather. 

Other things to note:

1. There is a lot of history here and I wish we had taken the time with the kids to understand a bit more about the history.  We also know very little about the politics except understanding that Catalonia is a semi-autonomous region that voted overwhelmingly to separate from Spain last year.  This was not received well by the Spanish government and a number of the Catalan leaders at the time have either fled or have been imprisoned and are on trial in Madrid, accused of rebellion.  There is graffiti, posters, flags, and signs everywhere here that show the level of unrest with the current situation. 
2. I realize I’ve mentioned this 400 times but if you’re coming here in the summer, it is HOT!  Be prepared for heat AND humidity.   Unless you’re somewhat acclimatized, it’s really hard to do much during the day in this heat.
3. Mosquitos – There are lots and they loved our kids.  Iain seemed to react much worse than the others to the bites – his legs swelled up a lot with each bite.