Texel, Netherlands: Sand, Shells and (more) Sheep

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After an on-the-go trip through the natural wonderland of Iceland we flew to Amsterdam.  Based on the recommendation of several European friends we headed up north to the beach island of Texel.  First, we picked up our brand new Peugeot 2008—a “European urban SUV” that we were afraid would be the size of a smart car but is actually pretty roomy.  In his months of preparation, Jim discovered a deal where for less than a price of a car rental you can lease a car straight from the maker so that the real buyer can pay reduced VAT tax (which is 20%).  Ah, the French.  Anyway, we have a great car for our 7 weeks in Europe. 

Texel is an island in the Wadden Sea (a UNESCO world heritage site) characterized by a really long beach, sheep (that are taller than those in Iceland), sand dunes, farmlands, and mudflats.  When the tide goes out you can walk to the next island if you know what you’re doing, which we don’t.  We spent our time trying to catch crabs, biking across the island (no one wears helmets, much to the kids’ amazement), walking through the dunes and playing in the sand.  Switching to unscripted days where we weren’t rushing to the next thing is a surprisingly hard change from our typical non-stop life at home; it's also pretty wonderful.

Our most memorable “senses” from Texel include:

Carolyn: The squishy slipperiness of mud oozing around my shoes walking through the mud flats

Liam: The sting of getting pelted by millions and millions of sand grains and shells in the 24mph wind on the beach

Jim: The taste of Texel in the meats, cheeses, bread, eggs and beer all made from the farms around the island.

Xander: The thunder of the retreating waves as the grainy sand in my hands piles up to make another wall

Lessons learned:

• Texel is the only place where a navy was defeated on horseback.  The Dutch navy froze into the ice around Texel in 1795, so 128 French army men rode up to it and demanded surrender. No shots were fired.
• Our new Peugeot car engine turns off at stoplights, and that's ok.
• Have enough cash to cover whatever you're buying (credit cards don't seem to be accepted everywhere in the Netherlands). If you don’t, you must rely on the kindness of restaurant owners who let you come back later to pay (without having to leave a kid for collateral) and grocery store workers who let you in to use the ATM after they are closed.
• Cool trick to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit: double the number, subtract the 10s number from the result, and add 32 (e.g., 23C = 23*2 = 46 - 4= 42 +32 = 74).  It is easier than F = 9/5*C +32.

If Liam looks at you like he loves you and gives you a hug, he wants some M&Ms Baby crabs live in seaweed

If you try to jump over a river, commit or you will end up with wet shoes

Crabs turn into balls when they fight

Tides have approximately 6 hour cycle (each way)

Build sand castles when the tide is going out-- the castles can be much more elaborate People in the Netherlands put sprinkles on bread and butter.  Dark chocolate sprinkles are the best (milk chocolate is too sweet) Tweenager boys are gassy, and don't care who knows it

We just spent a few days in Amsterdam, are in Belgium, and are heading to Germany tomorrow (more details later).  Central Europe here we come!

p.s. we’ve been updating the facebook group “CoWanderers” with pictures more often than the blog. Please join if you’re interested!

Iceland: Waterfalls, Sheep & Whales

Click to view the Iceland Highlights photo album

Xander chose Iceland as his country to visit during the trip because of the cool weather and small population- traveling around this stunning country was a great way to initiate our journey.  We drove around the country on the ring road in a roomy RV that was an exciting ride along narrow roads, in high winds and avoiding sheep (that we learned run if you honk).  We loved the flexibility to camp and eat whenever and wherever we wanted and didn’t drive each other (too) crazy in the close quarters. Highlights included:

• Enjoying the silica mud and warm waters of the blue lagoon, mytvan nature baths and other pools along the way.  Every town in Iceland has a fantastic pool and we were happy to take advantage of both the opportunity to swim and take a hot shower
• Waterfalls!  Almost everywhere you look in Iceland is an incredible waterfall leading to a meandering river.  There’s an abundance of fresh (hot and cold) water, which precludes the need for much fossil energy and water treatment… a switch from dry and coal-fueled Colorado. 
• 1.5 times as many sheep as people.  They are hilarious when they’re running (unless it’s in front of the RV).  We learned that farmers cut specific patterns in lamb’s ears with scissors to identify them.  Also, the dairy products (and hot dogs) in Iceland are amazing
• The people.  Icelandic people, along with all looking like Norse gods/fashion models, are very friendly and all seem to speak perfect English.  We were thrilled to meet up with our grad school friend Jona Finndis and her family in Akureyri. Their newest addition, the little sister, will get her name in a few months- Not that we will be able to pronounce it.  Xander and Liam had fun jumping on the trampoline with the kids, and Xander even tried to read them a book in Icelandic. He said he started to understand some of the language playing with the kids (Come here!  Hug!)

It still hasn’t hit us that we’re on this trip for the long haul- but we’re developing routines and figuring out how to manage travel, each other, and our stuff.  Liam and Xander are psyched because they wore the same outfits the entire week.  Hey, it makes laundry a lot easier, and yes, we did make them change their socks and underwear.  The only casualties so far have been a lost hat and Liam getting stuck in the bathroom on the whale watching ship.

Every day we write down some lessons learned and a memorable “sense” from the day before.  Some favorite senses from Iceland were:

Liam:  My cold dead hand after seeing how long I could stand the freezing glacier stream water (23 seconds); seeing the blue cast of the lights at the whale museum while it seems like you're swimming with the whales

Carolyn: Listening to the thunderous waterfall gazing at the double rainbow; watching a puffin flap its heart out trying to take off awkwardly from the waves

Xander: Liam getting bombarded by waves as I stay afloat on an iceberg on the black sand beach; majestic bluish grey back of a blue whale as it appears above the surface preparing for a deeper dive

Jim: Warm embrace of the sulfur spring; warm feeling of being welcomed by friends with sweet apple chocolate cake and buttered dried fish

And some lessons learned:

• Have a plan if you’re going to separate
• Traveling around Iceland in an RV is a great way to see the country 
• If there is a nice shower, take it, even if you're not that dirty (yet)
• Don’t stand on icebergs with holes in them in the waves
• Know the exchange rate before you buy something
• The Iceland ring road was finished in 1974
• When ice freezes it expands by 9% and can shatter rock and make scree
• Stoplights in Akureyri are shaped like hearts
• If a bathroom door is hard to open don’t go in it
• Check on Liam if he doesn’t come back from the bathroom after 5 minutes 
• To kill flies, use your coat
• Blue whales are the largest animal on earth, ever.  Their heart is the size of a small car.
• There is always more to see and more time you want to spend at each place
• Together is a wonderful place to be

On to Europe!

Pre trip thoughts from Xander and Liam

In the whirlwind week before we left, Xander and Liam wrote the following descriptions about their feelings about the trip:

Xander:

   Everybody asks the same questions about the trip; where are you going first and are you excited and/or nervous about going on the trip. I can easily answer where we are going first since it has been drilled into my memory like a screw into a board. I may be able to answer that question correctly but I can't answer the question about my feelings. Usually I answer the question, a little bit of both in some form. I know people would think that this trip would have no downsides but it truly is a splash of this a splash of that. There are more upsides to this trip and those come to you quickly but when you let the thought develop there are a similar amount of downsides to it.

    Since the exciting news usually appears first in your thoughts, I'll start with those. I'm excited to see the world through a different lens than a piece of paper and a glowing screen with words and pictures. On our trip I will be able to go to those places and see the real deal and smell the stench of that area. You may learn about landmarks in a book, you may learn what happened there, but you will never learn what it feels like until you go there and experience it for yourself.       

    I am most excited to go to Iceland, our first destination. The reason I am so excited about Iceland is because of the geography and the amount of people. I've always been amazed that Iceland has ice on its beaches. I'm also amazed at places that have beaches that border high mountains. Iceland is similar to these places. In Iceland there aren't a lot of people and there are no huge polluted cities. Both of these things I prefer - not being in big cities and not being around a lot of people.

    Now when I think about the trip a little deeper, I come up with negative aspects. One of these negative aspects is that eventually my family will begin to get sick of being around each other and will need to spend some time apart. You may not realize that this is a problem when you have a good balance of time spent with your family and without. On an extended trip, the only time you're away from your family is in the bathroom and that's it. Spending so much time with your family may result in easily getting annoyed by each other. This will probably happen on our trip but we will push through it.

    Another negative feeling I have is how I'm going to handle missing things. I'm a picky eater and my food-trying limit is about as small as a pin head. The world has all sorts of varieties of foods and I don't like many of those options. When I go to a place I can't survive on one type of food. Along with missing fattening food from America, I will miss my friends and family. A year is a long time to be away from home. When I got back from a trip to Thailand I didn't realize how homesick I was and that trip was only 2 weeks. Missing home and the things back home will probably be the hardest aspect of the trip for me to get used to.

    There are many more feelings I have about the trip; big and small. Though learning through a different lens, going to Iceland, family annoyance, and being homesick are the four most present feelings. Over all, I predict that these negative aspects will turn out to be positive. This is not just a regular trip and not everyone has the chance to take a year-long adventure. I am very fortunate to have this experience of a life time.   

Liam

Going on the trip will probably be the best experience of my life with its pure value of adventure. I think that the trip will be fun but darn scary.

I will miss my friends and family the most.  I think this because I am a very social person and I will eventually get sick of just having Xander and my parents to play with.  Along with missing my friends and family I will miss playing with my toys and being in my own room with my own  bed.  I will probably find having my own room as a luxury when I get back home.

Even though I will miss home dramatically, I am looking very much forward to going to all the places and getting  the best experience of my life.  I am especially looking forward to Madagascar because of the lemurs that you can't see anywhere else.

This trip will be awesome even if I'm away from home. I will remember this trip for many years. I hope I can have this great of a chance again when I'm older.

Home Stretch

It's incredible to believe we've reached the final few weeks before we leave, July 7th. We (and in "we" we mean Jim, as Carolyn is working until July 1st.) are making it through the pre-departure list.  Items have included:

Around the World hub stops

• Figuring out where to go and how we will get around.  We bought our around the world plane tickets awhile back, so know the main places we're going, but we're continuing to work out the in between details.  It's a yet-to-be determined balance between flexibility and certainty.  It's good to know where you're going but then we want the ability to go where we don't know we want to go yet.  We also need to shift our typical type of travel of action packed 2-3 week adventures to a more relaxed sustainable pace.  We're starting out strong with a RV trip around the Iceland ring road in a week, but are slowing things down a bit with a multi-day stay in Texel, and island off the North coast of the Netherlands.  The next 4-6 are more of the "winging it" variety. We will be traveling in the luxury of a new from the factory Peugeot- Jim found this amazing deal where for much less than a car rental you can short term lease a brand new car as long as you are not from the EU and keep it over 21 days-- they'll fully insure it and buy it back and the next owner can avoid the 20% VAT tax.  Let's hear it for French tax loopholes.  Overall, we continue to get great advice and contacts from everyone we know and appreciate the advice and suggestions; keep it coming! 

• Working through our list.  In planning for a trip this long there countless small details to figure out and complete.  For example, since we are renting our house we've undergone a crash course in real estate management and maintenance (e.g., figuring out rental contracts, postings, how to receive electronic payment, etc) and Jim has made amazing progress completing a huge list of (mostly self-imposed) "honey do" list  maintenance items.   We also have figured out some essentials such as health insurance, visa requirements, cell phone plans, the best ATM and credit cards, and at least another 100 items.    

• Getting stuff.  It's quite a shift to go from saving all your money to spending your money, but Jim has embraced his new role as personally boosting the Amazon and REI stock prices. Exciting purchases have included Microsoft Surface tablets (turns out they really can replace your tablet and laptop), a mirror-less camera with a surprisingly smaller footprint than a DLSR, warm poofy jackets that squish down into pockets, and performance underwear.  Hey, when you can only bring 4 changes of clothes for a year, you can justify fancy fabric technology purchases.

Liam accessorizes his new rain coat

Xander tests out his new pack camping in the Colorado Sand Dunes

• Getting rid of stuff.  We're renting our house and putting most of our stuff, with the exception of things with heartbeats and desirable loan outs (like the pinball machine and foot massager) in the storage room in the basement.  This has necessitated the Great Purge.  We have had about 8 car loads of stuff for Goodwill and found treasures including Carolyn's trip to DC photobook from 8th grade (which was shockingly similar to Xander's trip to DC photos from this June...) and finally transferring old VHS movies to DVD.  Oh, the 80s.
• Figuring out school.  To home school in Colorado you have the onerous tasks of 1) writing a note to the district saying that you're homeschooling, and 2) turning in the note, at which point Jefferson County says "good luck with that" and washes their hands of you and your children. Luckily, Xander's new middle school principal (who, in an incredible act of making our life easier when we get back, said we could defer the lottery admission from 7th to 8th grade) and Liam's 5th grade teacher were extremely helpful in providing us with the curriculum documents.  We're in the process of scanning math textbooks and developing themes to discuss throughout the trip, but mostly relying on the advice of a great friend and awesome homeschooler of 3 kids:  Just go. 
• Getting vaccinations.  This has been way more extensive (and expensive) than we originally anticipated.  Vaccines we need include:  Hep A/B, Polio booster, Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis, Meningitis, TDAP, and Rabies.  We also had to get 60+ days worth of malaria pills and a boat load of antibiotics. Good times.

It is refreshing to streamline our lives and to prepare for such a fabulous adventure.  Thanks for checking in!