Happy New Year
Jeez where does the time go. It only seems like yesterday we were putting together last year’s blog wishing you all a Happy New Year. Catching up with family and friends is always going to be top of any highlights list. With that being a given here are our three travel highlights from 2016.
Julie
Living and loving Italian life, four months of eating and drinking like a local in picture perfect hilltop towns surrounded by rolling fields of sunflowers, basking in the summer sun. Bellissimo!
Hiking over 800 kms, tackling the Camino de Santiago was the hardest physical and mental challenge I have set myself. It was rewarding, fun and addictive.
Icelandic adventures, experiencing Iceland’s unique charms – fluffy chunks of snow covering us as we giggled our way across the continental divide, snapping pictures of icy waterfalls and frozen toes staring up at the incredible Northern Lights.
Steve
Capturing the Northern Lights, a freezing evening couldn’t hide the glow of delight when the first photo appeared on the back of the camera.
Completing the Camino de Santiago, the knee hung in there and 37 days after setting out we collapsed in front of the cathedral in Santiago.
Proud moment, watching my eldest daughter, Lauren being awarded with a Fine Arts Degree after 4 years of hard work.
2016 in Numbers
Here we go with some random numbers covering our travels for the last 12 months
- 10 countries visited, USA, Iceland, England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Poland (Julie’s girls weekend) New Zealand, Spain, Croatia
- 3 capital city visited, Rome, Reykjavik, London
- 79 different beds boosted by the fact that we slept in 35 different beds whilst walking the Camino de Santiago. Too many bunk beds and snore filled dorms.
- 672 days since we started this journey
- 8 house sits completed
- 40 hours spent on ferries
- 240 vines cared for
- 42,318 kilometres covered since January 2016
- 600 the number of sculpture at The Sculpture Park, Surrey, England
- 30 the number of cats that have come under our care over the last year
- 0 the number of toes lost to frost bite whilst photography the Northern Lights
- 18 seconds the exposure time needed to capture the Northern Lights
- 800 kilometres the amount (ish) we walked from St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago
- 15 days, the amount of time we have spent apart in the last year
- 1 the times the exhaust fell off the car in Italy
- 38,000 poor souls, including Steve that suffered through a dull Everton v Southampton 1-1 draw
- 114 gelato’s one for each day we were in Italy, the flavours are vast and varied, we had to taste each one.
- 2 the number of times Julie’s luggage went missing (Reykjavik to Los Angeles & Brisbane to Auckland)
Looking forward to 2017
Whist our plans for 2017 are still being developed we do know that Italy will once again be in our plans. Hmmm more gelato
- Thailand
- Vietnam
- Laos
- Italy – (back to San Ginesio and Umbria to house sit)
- Bali
- Indonesia
- Cambodia
- Myanmar
A very Happy New Year to you all and very big thank you for following our adventures.
Julie & Steve