Thursday, August 8, 2013

When a trip becomes a blog becomes an Ebook


WGT founder Sigrun Buckley checks in at the mid-point of her sabbatical.

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



1 comment:

  1. Call me Siggy, friends! Statistics are staggering! Amazed how we're growing. You must be doing something right, Scott!

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