Who ever knew that it would require this much stress, energy, patience, organization, determination and luck to just go traveling for a few months. Yes, Covid-19 has certainly changed our world and increased the complexity of “tripping-out” for fun. And, as if Covid alone was not enough to worry about, the recent and reckless behaviour of Mr. Putin is not making travel easier or less stressful, especially when considering travel in Eastern Europe. But… we’ve decided we’ve waited long enough for the world to fix itself and its now time to get on with doing the things that make us happiest, including motorhome travel in Europe. With no desire to live recklessly, putting ourselves or others at risk, we plan to follow all the latest national guidelines for safe and healthy travel. Hopefully things will improve daily and we’ll not have the feeling that we have wasted another precious year or two in frustration. We now consider the absolute risk of aging too quickly and waiting too long, greater than the risk of not loving and living our lives to the fullest possible extent. We really hope to generate a few more good memories on this trip that can be added to our list of adventures and retirement scrap book.

So… with fingers crossed and N95’s at the ready, we are once again flying off to Europe on the 7th of March and renting another motorhome from our good friends at Dumo Reismobile in Dulmen, Germany for three exciting months. Our plan is to “bee-line” for Turkey and complete a Western circle tour of this amazing country. If for some unfortunate reason we are unable to make the trip to Turkey, (touching wood as I say this) we will head towards Portugal through France, then Italy and possibly Croatia again. All considering, not a bad alternative to have as a back-up.

My plan is to once again rely on this blog to keep our friends and family informed as to our whereabouts and activities as we go along. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the new (limited) updates and possibly become inspired to visit some new places yourself.

Ukrainian Situation Update:

A few days have passed since I wrote the above introduction to our Europe 2022 trip and in that short period of time Vladimir Putin has done the unthinkable and has recklessly created an unnecessary international military crisis. Our first thoughts turn to the millions of innocent Ukraine citizens, young and old, that have had their lives turned completely upside-down overnight and now find themselves in extreme danger of not only loosing their homeland but their lives, and the lives of family members as well. What was Putin thinking and what is his ultimate goal? What impact will all this have on the rest of the world? Will the Russian people stand ideally by and let this bully behave like an out-of-control Czar? How, and how long, will this situation take to settle back down? Way more questions than answers. Hopefully some calmer and cooler political minds will surface soon.

As for our own upcoming travel plans… we are following government travel advisories on a daily bases and we’ll base our final decisions on the information provided by them. We have a great deal of time, effort and money invested in this trip including a few dreams as well. Hopefully things will return to a “new normal” and we can get on with our peaceful lives. As the British would say… “Keep Calm and Carry On”. However, not wanting to make light of the situation, I have planned a couple of alternative drives south towards Turkey staying further to the West. If any of these plans become questionable, we can quickly alter our course towards France, Portugal and Italy. Hopefully we’ll be able to stick to the original plan but understand that we’re not taking any of this situation lightly. Let’s keep the words of John Lennon in mind and… “Give Peace a Chance”.