BootsnAll Travel Community

I wondered if there was a place on your blog to leave messages, I didn't see one. I am reading thru it when I have a second (five kids at home) but when I saw Mozart throwing the ball in Prague I got teary eyed.

Almost three years to the day we were there with our 18 month old at the time. He played there while we nervously were communicating with Ukrainian facilitators and stateside
helpers hours before leaving to Ukraine in an adventure that we only hoped would add to our family.

My little 18 month played in that same little area at Bohemian Bagel and the emotions of that time just came pouring out of me just looking at the picture of from Bohemian Bagel.

We were so scared...we had no idea who and if anyone would be joining our family. . We actually got emails in that same location saying we might come home empty handed...

Four weeks later we were on a plane coming home with my 18 month old AND my beautiful new 6 year old and 3 year old sons....9 weeks later I delivered a beautiful daughter here at the house...

Thank you for sharing your trip! Please share anything you can for my dream is to take this now family of 5 children RTW and I have done the usual searches etc... But I really am enjoying your stories...and your daughter's enjoyment of the trip...her enthusiasm reminds me of my children.

Also last night I read about your Troy trip, these might have been mentioned in your SOTW (Story of the World) History but we really enjoyed these stories...these stories really sparked a fire in our home and a love of Ancient Greece and the different empires of the time.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Ships-Before-Rosemary-Sutcliff/dp/0385310692

http://www.amazon.com/Wanderings-Odysseus-Rosemary-Sutc...3494821/ref=pd_sim_b

http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Homer-Adventures-Odysse...9868839/ref=pd_sim_b

and incase you needed another layer to the Iliad story we read this one too
http://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Homer/dp/0753451077/ref=pd_...id=1195226442&sr=1-1

My boys were 4,6,8 when we read them and they enjoyed them very much.

Neve
www.insearchofourfamily.blog-city.com

Wow, what a touching story!! We have a close friend ( American married to an Indian,living in Dubai, adopting in one of the "stans") and close relative who recently adopted out of Russia, so I know some of the challenges of adopting outside of the country.

The Ukraine has a special place in my heart because I met two very special young people ( one 17 and one ten) there when I went on an intensive tour of the former USSR in 1988. (Long and interesting story.)

So glad that you like the blog and find it useful! We somehow got a glitch in the comments part of it and have still not been able to correct it, but we are going to keep trying. We just got back to our winter haunt in our little 15th century village in Spain and have good internet connection now, so hopefully we can work on the blog after we unpack.

I have it posted several places on the blog and on this and other sites, but the best way to contact me is at soultravelers3@hotmail.com, until we get that fixed. I answer all mail as soon as I can get to it.

It is too bad that we missed each other as it seems we recently went over some of the same ground. It is not easy connecting with families on the go, but we have managed a few times and it has been wonderful for all parties. I got a chance to look at your pictures and read some of your blog and you seem like an amazing woman with a wonderful family!!

I have more than enough on my hands with homeschooling one child around the world slowly, so really have to give you props on wanting to do it with 5! My best advice if you possibly can, is go slowly.

If you possibly can take more than a year. Perhaps you can set up a way to work on the road as you go via internet as some do. Look to nunomad for ideas about that.

Spending 5 months in a little village in Spain between travels has been the best decision of all. We continue to homeschool in English, but my daughter is immersed in the culture and language by being in school from 9-2. This experience has added immensely to our trip as well as our long stays of a month or more in various places.

A family really needs down time to absorb the culture, take time just being a family, have more time to read, relax and homeschool, allow the touring experiences to sink in deeper.

We LOVE the RV style for families, although that will be more challenging for you with 5 kids. Still, it is wonderful not to have to pack and unpack every time you move and just take your "home" along with you. We like combining many methods of travel, but always coming "home" to our little funky camper.It is amazing how one can adjust to the small space and one has the whole outdoors as a front yard.

Less is more. The less stuff ( clothes etc) that you have to deal with the better.

I will be doing more posts on reviewing what has worked best for us and what did not work so well soon on our blog. ( First I must finish Vienna and our latest Italy & Barcelona travel and our new winter home experience...after we settle a bit).

Thanks for your book recommendations! Mozart is a Homer addict and is always open to read more on that topic.

We had a fantastic ancient civilizations field trip tour this year including Rome,Pompeii,Ephesus, Knossis,Delphi, Troy, Mycenea, Pergaman,Olympia, Aphrodisias,Pumukale,Acropolis, Pathenon,Fez, Alhambra, and more. Most all of these places have museums which add so much and we took private tours often.It is really not that hard to do and what a FANTASTIC educational experience for a child ( and us)!!

It does not cost much either and we got to watch lots of excavations and talk to the scientists and grad students working on the projects. Mozart even got to "escavate" small shells at Troy and wore an olive branch when we toured Olypia...priceless souvenirs. My child loves D'Aulaires book of Greek Myths too and has for a long time, so experiencing these sites meant a lot to her and made an impression that she will never forget.


You sound like you have the energy of ten people, so I think you will have a fantastic world tour. Good luck with your planning!! As you know from your travels thus far, you will be so glad that you did it.

We had high expectations for our journey and it has still blown our mind on how powerful this experience is on so many levels. We may never stop traveling as it sometimes feels as if we have died and gone to heaven and that this is how life is meant to be lived.

Carpe Diem!!

Thank you again for sharing all you can and enjoy your downtime in Spain...what a marvelous trip. I think if we did the RV we'd probably have a tent too and suspect in a few years the kids would enjoy staying in the tent some on their own.

If you all hit Neushwanstein (sp???) castle in Germany Mozart might like having a small taste of "Tristan and Isolde/Iseualt". One of the authors I mentioned earlier wrote a wonderful version of it for children. Rosemary Sutcliff. I love her books for children). We had read it before we left just by chance...it ends up that Ludwig II's bedroom is painted with scenes from the story. Neushwanstein is the castle that Disney modeled Cinderella's castle after.

I have yet to blog about that part of our trip but there was a sweet campsite there on the "Romantic Road" where we could see three of the castles from our tent across the water. It is not the site closest to the castles it is one town over I think. When I pull out my info I will make certain to update the name and website.

Neve

quote:

probably have a tent too and suspect in a few years the kids would enjoy staying in the tent some on their own.

Oh yeah, kids love tents! They would be good helpers in putting it up and down as well.

We have one that my daughter loves and it is her play room when we are in a long stay. Did you ever see those kind that go on top of a car or van? My daughter loves them, might be something to check out or think about, altho I know little about them. I think they were originally for safari's but we see them from time to time.

Thanks for the ideas!

How funny that you mention those tents on top of the cars...honestly had it not been for one stop on the Romantic Road in Germany I would have had no idea what you were talking about.

The campsite we stayed at there had a volvo with one of those tents (more like a pop up box) on top of it with a ladder. I was facinated by it...I snuck around the car and actually took pictures of it, I know the people were in there and it was pouring rain but we were not sticking around long and I just had to get the picture.

Since then I have searched them out...seems there is no US dealership for them which is a shame but they are called James Baroud. I found a neat site where a couple travels and uses one. I emailed the guy and he was nice to respond he said it sleeps 4!!!!

I think I will look like a traveling gypsy...

The next day I spoke with the couple who owned it and they said they got it in Portugal.

Neve