We're Travelers...NOT tourists

After a 2-week cruise from Lisbon to Florida, we are back in the USA after 5 months of travel to, from and throughout Europe! 

Our home for two weeks across "the pond"

We spent a total of five months on this journey, something we have wanted to do for a long time. This was more than being a “tourist” as we tried to learn more about the areas we visited and immerse ourselves in the culture and communities where we stayed. 

We had a great summer of car driving, language adventures, learning about cultures we didn’t know, and meeting new friends!  While all of the areas were wonderful, Karen really like the Alps in Switzerland

hiking in the Alps with view of Jungfrau Mt

we stayed in Gimmelwald that can only be reached by cablecar

cow bells everywhere!

and Jack especially like the Dordogne region in France.

view from our room of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle

prehistoric cave art at Lascaux

Bordeaux wine, cheese & duck confit

Our very special experiences of “housesitting” in England and Switzerland allowed us to feel like we were more than “travelers”.  Housesitting gave us opportunities to live in areas we only dreamed about, pushed us beyond our “comfort zones” and saved money all at the same time.  We can’t wait to do this again! 

our home in Montmagny, Vully-les-Lacs  in the French-speaking region of Switzerland

our home "Eagle House" 300 years old in Sulgrave, Banbury, Northamptonshire, England

Back stateside, we are spending some time with our sons & their families in Oregon and Idaho.  Plus we are making some changes in our “home” as we are searching for a little bigger trailer & truck, hopefully an iconic Airstream trailer. 

We rode electric bikes in England and Switzerland and were convinced it is the ride for us!

We bought two new ebikes in Portland, Oregon and will retire our tandem bicycle....

Our next journey is back to South America in November to Machu Picchu & the Amazon Rain Forest in Peru and to the Galapagos in Equador.  More to come…..

Last couple of weeks in Europe

 This is a quick blog as we are currently on a cruise heading back to America and we grab Internet wherever we can. 

 We spent several days in Cornwall, England had of course to go to Lands End. We were fortunate to have a beautiful sunny day which is not always the case in Cornwall.  

Beach huts along the sea front in a small resort in Devon

One of the many tiny roads we drove- Jack perfected his backing up in order to let an oncoming car go by

Old sea side hotel we stayed at in Torbay, Devon

Land's End, Cornwall, England

We toured  the Geevor Tin Mine. The used to have shafts and tunnels that went miles under the ocean 

We flew into Bristol England and then spent a week in Devon and Cornwall. This is a fabulous place for a holiday as there are so many little road to take one off to a village or unique site. One of the best was Port Isaac the location of the Doc Martin series.  We took a walking tour led by a man who is an extra in a lot of the shows so he would point out a building and talk about a specific scene that was shot there. Of course all of us would nod our heads and laugh as we remembered our favorite Doc Martin comments, such as "Stop talking!" 

Port Isaac(or on the show it's Portwenn)

We spent the last couple weeks of our travels in Bordeaux France enjoying the wine and food of the area.  We took a walking tour of the city and a wine tour of the Chateau the Medoc wine area. These were both offered through the visitors center so they are reasonably priced and very good information

The Chateaus are awesome 

Soil for grapes is rocky!

Bordeaux, France

Very popular to have wedding photos in the reflection pool!

Bordeaux is famous for the metal balconies-they are all so different 

Basque Country

"thank you"

We have traveled for a couple of weeks in the Basque Country of Spain, an area we have wanted to visit but seemed to be so remote!  We stayed in several small Basque villages enjoying the local Basque cuisine such as pintxos (tapas), seafood like hake and salt cod, Txakoli (local white wine), gateau basque, and generally taking back roads to explore the countryside. In this part of Spain, the Basque language, Euskera, is the oldest living lanuage in Europe and so it often made it a challenge to read signs & menus. 

National sport called Peloa- court sport against a wall or two teams face to face

flag on the left is the local flag of Hondarribia and on the  right is the official flag of the Basque Country Autonomous Community of Spain.

old town of Hondarribia

Pamplona was a "must visit" and it certainly lived up to its name. While the bulls weren't running-that happens in July-we did walk the route and the bullring. When the bulls run through the streets they put up heavy wooden barricades to keep the bulls in the center of the street and the spectators on the side, but of course both of the bulls and the people get excited and get together!  The bull ring had a great multimedia display of the run, its history, and of coarse how well the bulls are treated once they arrive in the bullring. There are only about six or eight bulls that are chosen for the bullfight and that only happens once a year during the bull run. I think the best part that we appreciated was that all of the money that is raised from the bull run and the bullfights are used to support a senior housing program for about 600 people in Pamplona!!

 Running of the Bulls

this is all there is between the bulls and spectators!

did Jack find a new hobby?

We enjoyed learning about the wines of the region.  The bright white wine is Txakoli and the red is Rioja which is made from the temprenello grape.  We toured the Carlos San Pedro Bodega underground ancient cave that is 8 metres under the ground and has been used for making wine for hundreds and hundreds of years.  They put the entire grape cluster into huge concrete tanks that sit in perfect temperature, humidity, silence and darkness all year around. 

Had to climb the ladder to look into the cement tank that is fermenting the wine

bottles in the caves

We were mesmerized by the town and Peace Museum of Gernika (Basque name for Guernica) which was bombed by Nazi planes to "test" their terror bombing type of warfare. It was expecially horrible because it involved the bombing of civilians by a military air force.  Almost the entire city was decimated!  Interestingly,  Gernika is twinned with Boise, Idaho.

The original Oaktree where for hundreds of years the Assembly leaders met and it symbolizes traditional freedoms for the Biscayan people and all Basque peoples

Picasso's famous Gernika painting (original is in Madrid)

Sister City is Boise!! Agreements of co-operation in the field of culture, education and industry

We really enjoyed the Basque Country and found the people uniquely friendly and the culture intriguing.