We took our first trip to Europe for our honeymoon in 2007, and went a second time two years later. I was hooked! I was dying to go again but we were busy finishing our basement, building a deck, and landscaping our back yard so we had to wait another 4 years before we could afford to go again. After our trip in 2013, we decided we were going to make travel a priority and we’ve been to Europe every year since then. We divide our time between revisiting places we love, and checking out places we’ve never been. Now that I’m retired and we’ve discovered housesitting, we look forward to many more months of travel!
Recently, someone asked us how many times we’d been to Europe and we actually had to sit down and figure it out. How lucky we are, to not remember how many times we’ve been to Paris! I have keep a handwritten diary of all our of travels but I decided to make a list of them here, just like I used to list all of my races.
Here are the highlights of places we’ve visited so far.
2007
- July 1-22 – Europe – London, Denmark, Paris, Avignon, biking in Provence
2009
- July 9-25 – France & Italy – Paris, biking in Provence, Florence, Tuscany, Rome
2013
- Jul 3-22 – France, Germany, Austria, Italy – Paris, Munich, Dachau, Salzburg, Vienna, Venice, Cinque Terre, L’Isle sur la Sorgue, Paris
2014
- Jul 4-25 – Scotland, England – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkland, Cotswolds, Essex, Bournemouth (London)
2015
- Mar 13-28 – New Zealand – Auckland, Russell, Tutukaka, Waitomo, Rotorua, Napier
- Aug 12-Sep 1 – Toronto, Rome, Orvieto, Castellina, Pienza, Pompeii, Sorrento, Maiori
2016
- Apr 9- July 5 – France, Spain, Italy – (Paris), Avignon, Carcassonne, Albi, Beynac, Biarritz, St Jean Pied de Port, Camino de Santiago (39 days across northern Spain), Santiago, Orvieto, Rome
- Sep 8-Oct 6 – Atlantic Canada – Nova Scotia, PEI, New Brunswick, Quebec City, Ottawa
2017
- Jan 20-27 – Varadero, Cuba – a resort in Varadero and a day trip to Havana
- April 29- June 17 – Portugal, Spain, Scotland, Ireland
- Aug 18 – Oct 12 – UK / Greece – Cornwall, housesit 1 wk Cotswolds, 1 wk Dorset, 2 wks Lincolnshire, and 1 week all inclusive in Crete
2018
- February 24 – March 21, 2018 – New Zealand
- May 4 – June 6 – A week in the Cotswolds, and 3 1/2 weeks housesitting near Canterbury
- Aug 21 – Oct 4 – Three housesits – Cotswolds, Cambridge, and Somerset, plus one week in all-inclusive in Crete.
2019
- Jan 19-26, 2019 Cabo san Lucas, Mexico (all inclusive)
- Aug 13 – Sep 27, 2019 Three housesits and a few days of R&R in the UK and France – one near Stroud, in the Cotswolds, one sit on the edge of the village of Champagne-Mouton in the Poitou-Charente region of France, 5 days hanging out in the Dordogne, and a final sit near the small village of Simorre, in the Gers region of southern France.
2020
- Feb-March, 2020 We had a lovely 2 1/2 week housesit near Phoenix, Arizona and we were able to visit Erik’s brother while we were there. We also had three nice days in Sedona as well. We arrived home March 13, the day things were locked down, and had to cancel our May/June trip to the UK which had already been booked. We didn’t travel any more that year and are not sure when we will be able to travel internationally again. Fingers crossed for 2022, if not sooner?
Kelownagurl's Adventures 