Europe Week 1: Croatia and London (briefly)

We headed out from Halifax to Landon with our carry on only packs for a new kind of travel challenge as we planned to backpack around Europe for nearly 6 weeks. 

We had a brief layover in London and dragged our jet lagged selves around Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Trafalgar Square along with a few thousand of our closest friends.  Trev was not impressed. Margaret loved seeing sites she had read about in books.

The kids learned about the Underground and Beefeaters and mushy peas. We all learned we don’t like crowds, love a good cafe for people watching, and are grateful for the open spaces in St James Park. 

The next day we flew to Croatia, one of the few places on our itinerary none of us had been. What a beautiful country! We started in Dubrovnik (aka King’s Landing for you Game of Thrones fans) in an apartment with a beautiful view over the walled city. 

We loved the marble lined narrow streets, gelato, the turquoise adriatic sea, walking the walls, and so so so many stairs.

In keeping with the theme our favorite part was escaping the crowds to the nearby island of Lokrum where there has been a monastery since at least 1023. We dipped our toes in the Adriatic and got chased by peacocks. 

Next we drove up the coast, passing briefly and unexpectedly through Bosnia-Herzegovina (another passport stamp!) to the national park Krka and its beautiful waterfalls. In a fun parallel we learned that the worlds second oldest hydroelectric plant opened here in 1895, just 2 days after the first one opened at Niagara Falls, both modelled on designs by Nikola Tesla (most famous Croatian?). 

We ended our week in Croatia in Split which was our favourite. We stayed right by the old town which is built on the ancient Roman Diocletian palace and had even more amazing narrow pathways, more cats and beautiful sea views. 

We enjoyed shopping at the markets and taking a bus out for a day at the beach. It was a bit chilly for swimming but Liz did it anyway.  We loved playing D and D by the sea.

We found that Croatian hot chocolate is incredibly thick and rich and sitting in cafes was going to be our theme for the next five weeks. 

A highlight was Margaret and Johannes giving a spontaneous street performance.

We were sad to say goodbye to the warm sun, turquoise sea, friendly folks, and beautiful buildings but Amsterdam was calling….

Goin' Back to Wolfville

As we faced our final days of driving, we were sad that this portion of the Big Year was coming to an end. Even though we had our longest car day (11 hours!), we savored the audiobooks and movie time. Johannes even got in the back seat to watch his birthday gift movie, (Rogue One - the "best" star wars movie in the canon). We played trivia rounds and had conversations about the state of the world. We ate Timbits, drank lots of coffee, and compared the merits of our favorite road snacks.  

After a lovely night in St John, NB, Johannes drove ever more slowly on the final miles. It was a bittersweet return as we were going back to Wolfville for the first time without our beloved Linda there to welcome us. We were sad to end our wonderful (and challenging) road trip, but good to come full circle: back to the Bay of Fundy. We played this song over and over. Goin' Back to Wolfville: the Wolfville Song.

However, it was wonderful to meet the newest member of the family, little Ellis, and reconnect with our cousins over chocolate bunnies and egg hunts. 

To their delight, the kids got to spend a day with their classes at the Booker School, visiting with friends and enjoying the comfort of being back in a classroom with teachers who are not their parents. Ahem!

It was a busy week. Not only were we unpacking and getting ready for Europe, but we were also getting ready for (drumroll, please...) our move to Nova Scotia in August! As we have traveled and reflected this year, we have recognized the importance of being near family, deep community roots, and the ocean. While we have loved our friends and time in Vermont, we want to be north of the border for the next 10 years or so. After that, who knows?

As a result we spent the week in job interviews, looking at houses, meeting with mortgage brokers, and imagining our future. Not the most relaxing week, but we left with our backpacks and our hearts full. Our passports were ready for some new stamps as we embarked on our 6- week journey across Europe. 

Thank you all for reading these posts. They have been a way to reflect on our journey and stay in touch with family and friends. Experiencing something, writing about it, and then posting a week or more later is difficult, but knowing a few of you are reading our exploits and sharing in our adventures has made the extra effort well worth it.  

Vancouver to Syracuse

Our first stop, heading slightly east was to see Asha, Seth, Luca, and Hali, our lovely family in Vancouver. They made us feel so welcome; we got to meet their dog, Jada, and eat Asha's delicious food, which is increasingly famous in Vancouver and beyond. Check out Kula Kitchen ! Mostly we just hung out and relaxed, always a treat for these road warriors.

We went to the park, the beach, and had a beautiful woods walk. 

One way to measure this year is the number of walks on the woods we have taken. There have been a few.

After a visit to Johannes' PhD alma mater, Simon Fraser University, we had a lovely dinner with Raegan, Jon (Jo's friend from SFU and co-author), and their daughter Kate. The next morning we headed to back to Washington, to begin our eastward trek in earnest.

After a quick stop in Seattle to experience the Pike Place market, we got back on the road to show the kids Othello, WA, where Jo and Liz lived and worked for four years, and where Margaret was born.

We visited with Jon and Ricardo, old colleagues and friends, at the best pizza place in Connell, WA. Next we found our way to Medical Lake to stay with Liz's former boss, Mary Jo. She was part of our Washington family and one of the first people to hold Margaret. She took good care of us and it was special to reconnect after almost ten years away from the west coast. 

Next we saw highway from a variety of elevations, listening to our Big Year playlist and chewing up miles. Medical Lake to Missoula, Missoula to Havre, and then north to Regina, Saskatchewan.  From time to time, spicy Bloody Mary's were consumed. 

In Regina we saw David, Amy and their lovely family. Jo and David studied political science together at Dalhousie, were in each other's weddings, but had never managed to get the kids together. It was great. The five of them were fast friends. We "experienced" the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, played some music, and laughed a ton!

Back on the road, we tracked down the "Biggest ball of twine in Minnesota," and blew our monthly data limit bingeing all the Weird Al music that Liz could stand.

Back on the road, we hit the Windy City for some Deep Dish, a view of the bizarrely blue-green waters of Lake Michigan, and a scenic cruise along Lake Shore Drive.  

Of course, the Big Year is not all seeing the sights and visiting with friends and family. There is still work to do, as the kids splash in the pool. Someone needs to keep searching for the best Bloody Mary in America. Jo was up to the challenge.

This next leg of the trip included some long days and early mornings. And traffic. So much traffic. The closest we got to an accident happened on our way outside of Chicago. The kids learned some new words, and how to string them together.

Our final stop before making it to Syracuse for a long weekend was Niagara Falls. 

This is where Jo and Liz were engaged some 14 years ago. A brief sense of how it started and how it is going....

The weary crew limped into Syracuse to see Jo's Aunt and confidant, Donna. We were definitely ready for some down time!