If you had told me when we first began fulltiming in 2014 that we would still be at it in 2023, and in Europe no less, I would have laughed. But here we are! And this year, in August, we will have spent as much time traveling in Bijou as we did in Scoopy! That blows my mind! Even now it feels like we were in Scoopy forever and that we have just gotten started in Bijou. It’s funny how time gets completely warped when you’re constantly on the move.
As I look forward and try to outline what’s coming up in our travels, I find that 2023, more than any other year, has been difficult to nail down. I think we have done the big trips, the summers in Scandinavia and Ireland, winters in Spain, Morocco, Croatia and Greece, for example. But now we have reached a point where we’ve been to a big chunk of Europe and beyond, so we are looking at returning to places to explore new areas. Weather is the biggest factor so, as is prudent, we will continue to head south in the winter and north in the summer.
Upon returning to France on January 5th we will spend a week or so in Sens at our familiar little aire to recover from jetlag while we unpack, restock and prepare Bijou for travel. The plan is to make our way to the south of France in search of warmer weather and a place to settle for a bit where we can do some hiking and ride our bikes. We haven’t really picked a place yet where we want to go, or even if we want to stay in one place or bounce around a little. I think we will just play this by ear, and we have loads of time before we have to be anywhere.
By March we will make our way to northern Spain near San Sebastian where we will plan a few daily hikes on the route of the Camino del Norte along the northern coast of Spain. We are not walking the entire Norte, just a few day hikes along the route. The Norte is a long, six-week Camino that is among the toughest and one I would like to do, but given his struggles with plantar fasciitis, Steven has decided that he’s not up for any more long-distance walks, though he’s down for shorter hikes of one or two days. I might consider doing it on my own, but not in 2023.
That said, I do have a Camino in my future! At the end of March I will meet up with a group of ladies to walk the Camino Portugues. The two main starting points for the CP are either Lisbon or Porto and they both end in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. We plan to start in Porto and walk about 260 kilometers over a couple of weeks, give or take a day or two. While I am walking, Steven will be holding down the fort in Bijou in an aire near Santiago, waiting patiently for my return (and working on his art).
In May we will make our way north to the U.K. where we will travel through Wales and England for a few weeks as we make our way back to Ireland. We plan to spend the month of July at Moneylands Farm in Arklow, just south of Dublin. We will spend time with family and friends before heading back to the continent, arriving in the Netherlands in August. When we visited there a couple of years ago Steven decided not to visit the art museums due to Covid concerns. In fact, I am not even sure the museums were all open at the time, but in any case he regrets that he missed them, so we are heading back to make sure he can go and see those that interest him.
From Amsterdam we will either slow roll or make a beeline to Budapest, depending on the time of year and how long we have spent in the U.K. and Ireland. Ideally I would like to spend at least a month in Budapest and I think September will be a perfect time of year. You might recall that Steven got quite ill while we were in Budapest last spring and so he missed out on visiting a lot of really wonderful places, not to mention all the food he didn’t get to eat. We plan to return and make up for all that and get to know Budapest a little better.
From Budapest we will head south through Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania to make our way to Greece. What we do in all these places and how long we stay mostly depends on the weather and of course the timing of when we arrive. We have traveled through most of these areas in the winter, so we are not so concerned about that, but our goal is to be in Athens at the end of November.
Our reason to be in Athens is two-fold. One, we want to fly out of Athens to the ranch so we can be home to celebrate my Dad’s 90th birthday on December 5th and two, we want to position ourselves to travel into Turkey when we return in January 2024. But that is for a blog post a year from now!
Last year when I wrote this annual post, I said that at the end of our trip this year through Ireland and Scotland with Bill and Kelly that we would have a big decision to make, whether or not to continue our European travels or sell Bijou and return to the States. As you can see, our decision has been made!
Thank you all so much for traveling around with us via this little blog and for your supportive and encouraging comments. We appreciate you! Happy New Year, everyone!
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You have such great plans for the year! As always, I do love following along as you adventure through life. Thanks, and Happy New Year.
Happy New Year to you, too! I loved your NYE plans of reading in bed and enjoying a split of champagne! That is my kind of celebration!
Great plans!! Happy New Year!
Thank you, Melissa, and Happy New Year to you, too!
Carla said it all & better than I-all the best of 2023!
Thank you so much, same to you! We have our fingers crossed that 2023 will be a good year for all of us. I think we deserve it! 🙂
Great plan. Knowing of course that a lot can change, it looks like we might cross paths in April as we make our way to northern Spain on a route between Morocco and Ireland. Hopefully we’ll see you then!
That would be fab! I was thinking we’d cross paths in Ireland, but not sure when you expect to be there. We will follow your blog posts, of course, and stay in touch!
Lovely to have a general plan, but not be tied down too much. And I sound like a broken record because I tell everyone who says they are going to Croatia to be sure to spend time in Slovenia. It is a wonderful country with lakes and rivers, the Julian Alps for hiking, wine regions, castles, an incredible medieval town on the coast (Piran), monasteries, and so much more. The beautiful capitol city (Ljubljana) is also a university town with a car-free old town divided by a river running through it and a castle overlooking it. It has a fabulous coffee and food reputation and so much more. Steven will find lots of idyllic scenes to paint!
Thank you for the recommendations, Joyce! I don’t mind you spreading the love for Slovenia! We did visit there once before, but only Lake Bled, so clearly there is more for us to see! Happy New Year to you!
Sounds like a great plan!
I am wondering if we will cross paths any time soon given this plan? I’ll give you a shout on FB and see what you guys are planning. You may have told me when we were in Paris, but if so, I’ve forgotten. 🙂 Talk soon!
Looks like another amazing year of European travel. Maybe looking for a stationary home somewhere in there? 🙂 Can’t believe you’ve been “over there” that long already, but also can’t believe we’ve had the desert house three years!! Happy New Year to you both, looking forward to running around with you again 2023
I can’t deny that we have thought about a home “over here”, but settling down anywhere just sounds so weird! We are not ready! I think our momentum is too strong and unless something stops us, we’ll just keep on rolling. :). I cannot believe you have owned your desert home for three years. Time flies, eh? Happy New Year to you guys, we miss you!
I remember how fun and challenging it was to come up with an itinerary for the next years worth of travel. Sometimes the plans worked out, sometimes other things worked out. It’s the joy of traveling. So glad you like sharing your travel experiences!
This is my favorite post to write each year because a month or two before hand I sit down and do a lot of planning, and I love it. We are always amazed when our plans actually work out. If we have made a reservation months in advance it seems like a miracle when we roll into the campground on the very day we are expected to arrive. This year is less firm than others, so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. Happy New Year to you and Odel!
Happy New Year!!!!
Happy New Year to you, too, Barbara!
Looks like another great year! Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Thank you so much, love hearing from you! Happy New Year!
Thank y’all again for not getting too tired of dragging all of us along on your travels. I do so wish I could take a quick trip over to meet up with y’all.
Well, you know where to find us when you want to come over and join us for a visit! We’d love, love, love to see you!! Hope all is well, Happy New Year to you both!
Another year of ‘riding along’ on your Europe adventures…happy new year to you both !!
Good to hear from you, Sue! Happy New Year to you and Doug. Safe and happy travels to you guys!
Hello
Happy |New Year!
Another great blog, looking forward to your 2023 travels!
Please note my new email address.
Please delete my other email address: avrokeys@hotmail.com
Thanks & kindest regards,
Robert
Hi Robert! Thanks so much for following along. I think you deleted your old “follow” and re-followed with your new address. If you get double notices, let us know and we will try to fix it for you. Glad you re-upped! 🙂
For this year, all we want to do is nest, but once we get well and truly settled, we’ll be wanting to visit so many of these places, so I can’t wait to read all your trip reports!
Time really does fly, especially when your environment is always changing, but as long as you’re still enjoying the travel, I say go for it for as long as possible. Once you settle down, it will be that much harder to pick up and go again. So, go, go, go!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, Laura! You nailed it on the head about settling down. If we decided to settle somewhere, I would likely want to “nest”, just like you. The idea of part time travel sounds good, but there is a good chance it might not work out that way. Ergo, I am reluctant to stop while I still love traveling! I hope 2023 will be a fantastic year for you in your new home and that your bouncing around days are soon over. 🙂
A great plan! And happily it looks like we will overlap a few times. Keep the rubber side down and we’ll see you on the road
YAY, I’d better learn some new party tricks if we are to cross paths again, I can’t let Aleja have all the fun! Happy New Year to you guys!
Happy New Year. Looks like a fun filled year ahead and great that you will be sharing it with all your followers. Safe travels.
Happy New Year, Vern! I hope 2023 is a great year for you!
Wishing you a joyful year filled with grand adventures! Looks like you already have a great plan in place. :-)) I’m a big planner, too, and I love seeing our plans come to fruition. I think there’s a bit of magic that happens when we set intentions! (But I will be damned happy when this house sale closes…living in the in-between when other people can throw a wrench in my plans is stressful.)
Happy New Year to you, Eric and Magnolia! I was wondering the status of your house, I know you are keeping things on the DL so as not to jinks the sale. 🙂 I have been there, done that. I know it can be stressful and feel as though everything is out of your control, but when it is over, the feeling of freedom is beyond measure! Good luck to you, 2023 promises to be an exciting year for you guys! We will be following your progress!
Sounds fabulous! I’d love to do that hike in Portugal! Can’t wait for the posts!
I hope it’s a good one! So much shorter than what we’ve done before and lots of options to either walk along the coast or go inland. I’m looking forward to it, as always! Happy New Year to you and Steve! Hope all continues to be well with your family!
I’m so happy we had the opportunity to be a part of your travels this past year! What fun we had! Excited to see how your new year unfolds! Love you guys!
We really did have such a good time! And I am glad we chose to go somewhere we hadn’t been before, it made it all the more exciting and adventurous for it to be new to all of us. What say we do it again soon, hmmmm? You won’t have a dog to hold you back, right? 🙂
Great plan guys, happy travels and happy 2023 from us two. Cheers, Jay and Ju
Happy New Year to you guys! We are hoping that as we make our way north through the UK that we will be able to meet up. Although, you might be off living the dream somewhere wonderful! We’ll stay in touch. Good to hear from you, hugs to you both!
Happy New Year! I’m so excited for your next year of travels. Being with you in spirit helps me manage my overdeveloped sense of wanderlust!! Thank you for sharing all of your adventures…I’m particularly happy you’ll be continuing a camino! It’s still something I hope to be able to do as well so I love reading about your time walking. Sending you both love and good wishes for a very healthy year (those Dutch museums need to be seen!)!!♥️
Thank you for your lovely comment Julia! I hope one day you’ll find the time to walk a Camino. Perhaps as a celebration after completing your education for a whole new career? What a joy that would be! 🙂 Here’s to a wonderful 2023, I think we’re over to a great start!