230 days on the Road

Hello again! Wow, time flies... the last time we were still in France, Sarah had just completed 115km on the Camino de Santiago with her mother, and now we've been here in cold Holland for a while and have actually been on the road for 230 days! Of course, there's always plenty to tell.

Let's start with the journey from Spain to Holland. The first thing that comes to mind is: terrible weather. After months in southern Spain and Portugal with mild temperatures between 15 - 20 degrees, we crossed France in sleet and freezing temperatures. We've developed a deep aversion to France for various reasons, based on things we've heard from the French about the French system, as well as various experiences that have caused us a lot of incomprehension. We actually wanted to go into more detail about this, but that would just be complaining on a high level and it's been a while now. So let's skip the complaining for now and instead focus on the beautiful things in life.

We also experienced beautiful things in France, for example, we visited Disneyland Paris! We spent the first night in the parking lot of a huge shopping center and planned to leave early in the morning to secure one of the few free parking spaces in front of Disneyland. Our alarm clock rang at six o'clock in the morning and shortly afterwards we realized that the exits were blocked by barriers. Well, that was pretty stupid, of course. At some point, we saw a truck in the distance that had probably delivered something. We started to chase after it and felt a bit like in a James Bond movie as we swerved the steering wheel around on the empty parking lot and raced after the truck at a high speed. It simply left the parking lot through the open entrance gate - something we could have thought of ourselves.

The early morning wake-up was definitely worth it, because we actually found a free parking space just five minutes away from the park entrance. It was right next to a busy main road, but that didn't matter. If we had parked in the official Disneyland parking lot, we would have paid 40 euros per day. The tickets for both days cost us 136 euros each - not exactly a bargain. But it was the end of February and the weather was extremely bad, so there wouldn't be many people - or so we thought. Wrong. Almost everywhere, we had to wait for an hour. An hour in sleet. And to add to that: a few days ago, we both got injured. Sarah's knee started hurting after the Camino de Santiago and since I got lost while jogging a few days ago and ended up running 12 km instead of the planned 6 km, my left foot was hurting. So the two days at Disneyland were mainly spent hobbling around and waiting. But it was still cool and there were many exciting attractions. And those who know Sarah know that she is a huge Disney fan - sometimes I had the impression of traveling with a child suffering from severe ADHD, rather than with my adult girlfriend... 😊

Filou stayed in the bus the whole time, and at noon we would go back for a short walk. This is probably the only advantage of cold weather: the van doesn't overheat, and we can easily leave the dog inside.

We continued towards the Belgian border. We spent another night somewhere in the French countryside because we didn't take the highway, which would have cost us over 100 euros in toll fees (I told you, France is dumb!). Instead, we took side roads and accepted a few extra hours of driving time.

Once we arrived in Belgium, we made a quick stop at McDonald's, where there were over 10 different flavors of cola (I had vanilla, cinnamon, cherry, etc.). That was pretty much all we remembered from Belgium, and shortly after that, we reached the Dutch border and ended up at Sarah's grandma's place in Duiven, just a few kilometers from the German border. Actually, Sarah's grandpa also lives there, but unfortunately, he has been in a nursing home for a few weeks now, but hopefully he can go home soon. In the meantime, we help Grandma with household chores and keep her company.

It's nice to be living in a real house with real beds again. And the timing was great because - guess what - coronavirus. But I'll get to that in a moment.

So, two weeks ago we arrived in Duiven. A few days later, we went to Amsterdam for 5 days. We rented an Airbnb there, and a few friends from Switzerland and Germany came to visit us. Originally, there were supposed to be six of us in the Airbnb, but only five were allowed. In the end, there were eight of us because our friends Jamie and Wolfgang realized a day before they arrived that they had accidentally booked their hotel in Aachen instead of Amsterdam. Please don't ask me how that happened. Anyway, we ended up with eight people plus Filou in the Airbnb, and it was the perfect mix of characters. We had a wonderful time in Amsterdam and Filou couldn't get enough of all the cuddles. But even at that time, the coronavirus was already keeping us on our toes. Flights for all our friends from Switzerland had been rescheduled, but luckily everyone managed to get home. At that time, events were also being canceled in Switzerland. However, in Holland, especially in Amsterdam, there was no sign of it yet. Even Tones and I concert with over 1,200 people took place last Monday as if nothing was happening. There was no mention of the coronavirus or hygiene measures anywhere in Amsterdam. They didn't even check our bags at the concert, and they served beer in glass bottles - which has nothing to do with the coronavirus, but it made us wonder if Holland ignores any safety measures altogether? Now, a few days later, all concerts and events in Holland have been canceled, and schools may be closed from tomorrow.

So, what does the coronavirus mean for us and our travel plans? That's what we're currently thinking about. So, we'll be staying at Sarah's grandma's place for March anyway. That was already planned from the beginning because Grandpa's birthday is on March 24, and we wanted to visit him at the nursing home and celebrate with him. Unfortunately, a call came a few days ago that now only one person per day is allowed to visit. So what will happen with the birthday party is uncertain. Maybe we'll find another way. And after that?

Originally, we wanted to go to England/Scotland/Ireland for a few months. But because of the coronavirus, there are many unanswered questions. Will the borders remain open? Will the ferries continue to operate? And what would a potential lockdown mean for our camper lifestyle? Spain has already declared a lockdown, and someone told us that violations are heavily fined. Spain would be a tempting alternative to England: warm temperatures, a bit of sunshine, surfing in El Palmar and Tarifa, exploring the interior, affordable prices... I have no idea if it's even possible to enter Spain at the moment. A friend of ours arrived in Spain yesterday and will keep us updated on the situation. But he said that at the moment, it seems it's not even possible to enter Spain at all.

Another option would be for us to temporarily return to Switzerland. We are a little worried about whether we will be able to return in a few weeks. The reason is that for the return journey, we would have to pass through other countries (from Holland, for example, Germany) and more and more countries are now imposing travel restrictions. And what's also inconvenient: we rely to some extent on infrastructure such as swimming pools, restaurants, parking spaces, etc. The simple reason is that we don't have a shower, and the laptop consumes too much power for our auxiliary battery (well, maybe we should have installed a solar system after all). And if all of that closes or is already closed, then it means: goodbye comfort zone! Washing in rivers and drastically reducing power consumption.

For now, we'll stay with Grandma. It's really nice to stay in one place for a while after more than 7 months of traveling and not constantly being on the move. We'll see what happens next when the time comes.

Alright, change of topic. I'm sure you don't want to be constantly confronted with this coronavirus. Maybe some of you are wondering what happened to our "100 Days of Sweat" challenge? The goal was to exercise for 100 consecutive days. So, Sarah made it to day 22 and I made it to day 28 - then the injuries happened and the long weekend in Amsterdam came along, and the whole thing got lost somehow. But: our injuries have healed in the meantime, and we want to start exercising again. Whether we'll start another challenge is still undecided. We certainly have the time for it at the moment. But our laziness has returned and made itself comfortable. However, it was really good for us to exercise every day, it made us feel full of energy and much more balanced (wow, what a realization). We just need to get started...

A few days ago, we also edited another video about the past weeks and months, you can watch it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNKbNF9_gjI&t=188s

And Sarah made a separate video about the Camino de Santiago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwZRSAfBW2g

And one more important piece of information: I lost my phone in Amsterdam. So for now, you can only reach me via email, messenger, Instagram, or Facebook. Or through Sarah's phone.

For the next few predominantly calm weeks, we will be busy doing things that need to be done. Our van needs a deep clean, service, and oil change, my distance learning course needs to be continued, and we have a whole list of Netflix series that we absolutely must watch 😉

We hope you're all doing well, and we always look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time!

Author: Stephanie Köllinger