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Hi Fellow Travel Enthusiasts,
Welcome to the 2nd installment of our newsletter with updates from our year abroad.
Where We've Been & Where We Are:
(An overview of the countries and cities we've been since the last newsletter and an update on where we are currently)
London, United Kingdom
We spent a lovely 2 day layover in London where we lucked out on the weather - it was forecast to be overcast and rainy, but we got brilliant blue skies. London gets a bad rap for having bad weather because, well, it has bad weather...a lot, but it doesn't get enough credit for how amazing a city it is when it is nice out.
We walked A LOT in those 2 days. From our hotel, through Hyde Park - the kids loved the random playgrounds found scattered about - past The Elizabeth Tower (a.k.a. Big Ben) and the London Eye which we rode up in for spectacular views. We also took a short river boat cruise on the Thames which was full of interesting historical tidbits like what everyone calls London Bridge is actually the Tower Bridge (the London Bridge is a nondescript bridge next to it - that used to fall down a lot, hence the song).
We also were able to connect with some London based friends - one of my favorite parts of traveling is meeting old friends and making new ones. My good friends Ciaran and Kana (a couple) whom I met in Tokyo in 1991 met us out for dinner at a pub near Kings Cross tube station and my business school friends Ian and Marta (not a couple) met us for an early breakfast on the morning we headed out to Greece.
Chania (Crete), Greece
We spent two days in the Venetian port town of Chania (pronounced Hanya). There was a heat wave going on so we ate a lot of gelato, but we all agreed that Chania was a spectacular destination having good food, beautiful clear blue water and a fun vibe. We stayed at the Hotel Nostos in the Venetian Quarter of the Old Town that let out right into the restaurants and shops of the winding cobblestone streets.
It was a very short stay - we just didn't want to have to drive 4 hours to Myrtos at 10pm when we arrived from London - and we had jet lag so we didn't do a ton, but we were able to do some window shopping, eating (I had my first street gyros - so good!) and swimming. We'll have one more afternoon in Chania when we return to Chania airport in early July to fly to Bosnia.
Travel Story:
(Hopefully humorous stories about real events that happened to us on our trip)
The Sugar Spoon Caper
I nonchalantly glanced over to the small breakfast area of the Hotel Nostos as I shuffled past the front desk. The Hotel Nostos is a small bed & breakfast tucked up a side alley in the Venetian Quarter of Chania on the isle of Crete. The interior is quintessential for the Venetian Quarter with sand colored stone masonry and royal blue painted tables and chairs.
However, it wasn't the tables I was looking at, but rather the shining silver pots resting on each of those five tables. Inside those pots were pristine mounds of white sugar. Each of the metal lids had a semi circle carved out for a tiny silver spoon to be used for scooping out the sugar into tea or coffee (or directly into the hands of children eager for a sugar fix).
Except, in this case, there were no tiny silver spoons resting in those semi circle holes. Instead I could feel them clanging in the pocket of my shorts......
Homeschool Update:
(Many of you may not care about the home schooling portion of this, but since it's ostensibly the reason we are doing this, I will provide a brief update during these Newsletters.)
Pathways, the home school our kids are enrolled in, doesn't officially start until September, but we wanted them to keep their minds sharp over the summer so we have each of them starting with a summer "bridge" book that will review the grade they recently finished and preview their upcoming grade. They do 1 hour per day in those books of Spelling, Reading Comprehension and Math. Then they do 30 mins of independent reading. 3 days per week they also have to write a journal article on a specific theme that Francesca or I will give them.
Speaking of journals, I wanted them to be excited about keeping a journal so, before we left, I asked them to help me create custom journals in Canva that we would then print out and put in a binder. I put the structure together and they chose the color scheme and adorned the pages with custom stickers. Each country has a Profile page with facts and basic info that they need to research and fill in, a Language page with basic greetings and useful expressions that they need to research and fill in and a Culture page where they can make notes on interesting cultural characteristics of each place they live in.
Since London wasn't an official stop on our slow travel world school itinerary (but rather an extended layover) I had not intended for them to write a country profile for England, but I wanted them to get warmed up for writing in their journals and test it out so I assigned them this task. I thought they would be chomping at the bit to start the journals they co-created with me, but I had overestimated their ability to be enthusiastic about anything resembling school work so soon after the start of summer vacation. That was a little disappointing after all the work I / we had put into it, but we have adopted the motto "Roll With It" for this trip so that's what I am doing. :)
Truth Serum:
(A does of truth about some of the things that did not go according to plan or worries that we've had about the trip)
Now that the bon voyage buzz has worn off Francesca and I both admitted to a teeny tiny fear in the back of our minds that wonders what the heck are we doing. So far the trip (London and Chania) feels like a typical vacation, but we worry that once we settle into one place for a month and the vacation aspect wears off it might lose some of its appeal. We are hopeful that this will not be the case, but there is that ounce of doubt and uncertainty. We'll see.
We also worry a bit about the home schooling aspect of this trip. We did that during the first two years of COVID and it was not fun (for us or the kids). Francesca and I have several strengths, but patience in teaching our young ones is not one of them. Stay tuned to see how that plays out.
Trip Stats:
(I'm a little reluctant about this section because this trip is supposed to be more about quality and experience than sheer quantity, but I find stats like this interesting nonetheless)
Here is a link to the latest updated Trip Stats.
Okay Team, until next time.
Best,
Dan, Francesca, Ryan, Austen & Finley (aka "The Roamers"). One of our friends from our kids school community said that in a message and I think I like it. I'll use it. :)
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