After we left Greenland, we had a mixture of at-sea days and port days. We had two days in Atlantic Canada: St. John’s, Newfoundland and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Between these two ports, we made our way briefly back to France when we visited St. Pierre. It felt surreal to step [...]
Read MoreAfter our early departure from Iceland, we spent a day sailing straight for the fjords of Greenland. We took shelter in the calm waters of the fjords for two days instead of doing the two extra days in Iceland. We saw tons of icebergs, glaciers, mountains, and waterfalls as we [...]
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Hello, we’re Micheka and Jon and we live in London, Ontario where we are pursuing our respective careers in the fields of forensic engineering and transportation engineering.
Since 2009, we’ve travelled to Europe seven times – for backpacking, for lounging, to get married / honeymoon, to cruise, and to have family time! In 2023-2024, we return for our family sabbatical year!
Follow along as we continue our journey!
Read MoreWe have managed to start up a weekly tradition here on Sundays. The girls look forward to Sundays the most, and say it’s the “best day ever!”. We get up and head up the big, steep hill up towards the cathedral. When we get to the top of the hill, there’s a little café. We stop there so Jon and […]
Here in Oria, there is a little shop for everything. Sometimes for multiple somethings. We go to the grocers to buy most things, including wine and beer. But you aren’t going to find fresh baked bread. For that, you go to the local bakery. You aren’t going to find much for fresh or frozen meat at the grocers. For that, […]
Daily hikes have been more of a challenge in Oria due to the heat, but on Monday, Katia and I woke up bright and early (if you consider 07:30 early) to tackle the mountain up to Castillo De Oria (Castle of Oria). It was also a good reason to have a daddy-daughter day while Micheka and Emmeline spent some time […]
We have been adjusting to a much different lifestyle here in Oria, Spain compared to our lifestyle in Tabuado, Portugal. Both locations are great, but for different reasons and in different ways. While we were spending time alone, just the four of us in Portugal, here we are in a very social worldschooling community. We wanted a place for the […]
Already arrived in Destination #2: Oria, Spain. After our fun, exploratory day in the Douro Region, we stopped in Bragança, Portugal on August 1 for a few hours to check out the old castle/citadel and the walls that surrounded the original small town. The castle is now a military museum, and all four of us learned a lot about medieval […]
None of us had been to Portugal until this trip. I know many friends who have been there before but did not honestly give a lot of attention to visiting Portugal until we were planning this trip. Coming off a more typical working lifestyle leaving Canada, arriving in Portugal first feels like you are just coming into “vacation mode” at […]
It’s already the end of July, which means it is time to say goodbye to Tabuado, Portugal, and continue on to our next destination: Oria, Spain. We are taking our time to get there over a few days since we aren’t due to arrive there until August 2. After a morning spent packing up and saying our goodbyes, we stopped into […]
We have spent five weeks in this glorious little town. It’s been such a perfect place to begin our journey, decompress, and spend time together. Our home is so spacious; we can be together or have space to ourselves. Our home has three levels so we get our own level for our bedroom, ensuite, and balcony. The girls get to […]
In preparation for our transition to Spain, Jon spent a 14-hour “planes, trains, and automobiles” day to Madrid and back on July 28 to get a vehicle for the next leg of our family journey through Spain. Having a vehicle for the past week was a nice change from all of the walking and gave us the ability to explore […]
We did another long, full-day trip to Porto yesterday. We were up at 7 and out the door as fast as we could get two 7-year-olds to move, and we didn’t get home until 11:30 p.m. We wanted to make the most of Porto, and did we ever! We started off at the main 12th-century cathedral, which was gorgeous. There […]