Greetings from Amsterdam from what I
vaingloriously call our European Tour. As many of you are aware,
hubby and I embark on multi-home swaps, exchanging homes with
likewise adventurous travelers who have more dash than cash. How else
could you afford to stay in Europe for a month or two?
Maybe you are even following my blog:
www.Intrepidhomeswapping.blogspot.com. It’s worth a look just for
the number of beautiful snapshots of each area. Then, of course,
there are little stories and info.
I started recording our trips on
this travel blog and the first eBook was born. We’re now into
Season 3.
Otherwise we would be traveling in
style and reside in a Grand Hotel on nice côte or on
padded loungers of a fashionable resort. Maybe even a cruise around
the world.
We’re halfway through this year’s
summer trip, having stayed in the former West German capital Bonn
first, currently looking at sunsets or rainy night skies in Amsterdam
and are almost getting ready for our last stop of three weeks in
Swabenia, near the Black Forest.
The weather gods meant it very well
with us this year, but too much of a good thing — without
air-conditioning — can become tedious after a while, too. With the
temperature at 33 degrees Celsius today, I hate to leave the house. A
jump into the lake doesn’t have as much appeal to us as it does to
the natives. How healthy can this murky brown liquid really be with
ducks and swans around, the odd pile of flotsam that serves as nests
for feathery friends, and spiders. We even spotted water rats, which
probably have to be expected when you live on the water.
We enjoyed the experience of a
different life and space — mostly the lack thereof, however — on
a houseboat, even though we could have done without the mould in the
fridge, some rotten floorboards that send off too much of an
unpleasant whiff to our nostrils. Definitely the fleas were de
trop! Yes, fleas. Three big flea spray cans later, the critters
were alive and still hungrily biting.
I hear you say “Well, I would never
entertain the thought of having strangers in my house.” But
honestly, it’s not so different whether you have strangers sleep in
your bedroom or you’re sleeping in a hotel.
And until now, we never encountered
stuff this bad. This is our first swap among five that turned out
undesirable. We’re very hopeful about our next prospect.
In a week’s time, all of this will
remain a funny incident in our travel chest, a mere episode that
might make it into a story. By then I will describe the situation in
more detail, because by then our exchange partners will have vacated
our precious flea-free home in Florida.
Thanks to you, readers and contributors
whose loyalty keeps us going. And a very big thank you, of course, to
the current man in charge, our dear friend Scott Bury.
Sigrun Buckley
On Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Intrepid-Swapping--Successful-Homeswapping-ebook/dp/B005N0N3CO/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375458727&sr=1-4
Call me Siggy, friends! Statistics are staggering! Amazed how we're growing. You must be doing something right, Scott!
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