Spring

Spring seems to have finally arrived in Winnipeg; we have had some days above 0°C, the snow is melting slowly, and the first geese have arrived from the south on their way north. Every year, this is an exciting time.

For us, it obviously is an extra exciting time as we are about to embark on our adventure! Four more nights!

John and I both had our last work day last week and the week was filled with farewell dinners. We are now officially unemployed by choice and it feels great! Especially John has to get used to not having a phone any more, he had to hand in his company phone, laptop and car. We are slowly unplugging and it feels good.

Everything we do these days is in light of our impending departure. We have been finalizing insurances and the campervan shipping is planned, and we have packed most of our belongings at home. Last Saturday, we brought our cats to the lovely family who will take of them while we are away. It was great to see our friends, we had a delicious meal together, but saying goodbye to Mies & Ginger was not easy. We know G,P & J will take good care of them, but we wish there was a way to tell the cats we will be back for them in a year!

We get a lot of questions about the route we will travel, but apart from our first stretch, we have no definite plan yet. I think the pandemic has shown us, that we can make lots of plans, but that we don't have everything in our own hands.

Let me give you a rundown of what we hope to do in the next few weeks:

Tonight is our last night in our apartment. As of tomorrow, we will stay with friends so we can finalize the packing at home. Friday, March 25, we will hand in the keys of our apartment and bring my car to the storage.

On Saturday, March 26, we will leave in our campervan for our drive to Halifax, NS.

We have an appointment in Halifax Harbour on April 4, to clear our campervan through customs. It will leave on a cargo ship around April 11.

We will take a plane out of Halifax on April 5, flying via Toronto to Amsterdam.

We then have two weeks in The Netherlands, where most family and friends live. It will be lovely to spend time with them as our last time in The Netherlands was in 2018.

Somewhere around April 19, our campervan will arrive in Hamburg Germany, where we can then reunite with it two days later. And then? We do not know yet!

Spring has arrived and we could not be more excited about it!