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01/22/06 - Puerto Vallarta, MX Planning a quick trip to Europe this spring |
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With much of our renovation work behind us, we've finally had some time to focus on travel planning again... the whole point of this hiatus. With 2005 being all about driving around the U.S. and Mexico, this year it's time to turn our attentions to Europe. The plan was to spend three months there next fall. Seeing how it's only January, we decided we just couldn't wait that long for our next exciting trip, so we thought we'd better plan on a one-month get-a-way this spring and so we'll be heading to Paris, The Netherlands, Belgium, and possibly Germany from April 14th through May 15th!
Now that we've got two comfortable places in exciting parts of Mexico, we've begun exploring the possibilities of home exchanging. So a few weeks ago, we registered ourselves with HomeExchange.com and Homelink-usa.com, and began emailing just about everyone in Paris and Amsterdam with decent places in good locations. This turns out to be quite a few people, and we must've sent 100 emails or so. Although the vast majority didn't work out for us, we learned a lot from the experience (most importantly - start planning early!) and did make contact with a few good prospects. We think we now have an apartment lined up in Paris, located in Le Marais in the 3rd arrondissement. She couldn't make it to Mexico any time soon, but was willing to rent it to us for a good rate. We also believe we've got a real exchange for Amsterdam for a week or so, but still need to confirm that she can make it to Mexico the same time we're in Europe.
We've also lined up an apartment in Holland, in the town of Gouda (yes, where the cheese comes from) about 45 minutes outside of Amsterdam. We're really looking forward to this exchange. They are a couple in their 30's who have a passion for travel, renovating homes in foreign countries, and they really want to see Latin America. Sound familiar? They live in Holland, but bought and renovated a 700 year old house on the outskirts of Barcelona. We seem to have much in common, and I think all four of us are eager to become acquainted. Our first couple of days in their apartment we'll be their guests before they leave for their Barcelona home, so we'll have a chance to get to know each other a little better... and they can tell us what to see while we're in Holland. This one is a non-simultaneous exchange, meaning they won't be in Mexico while we're in their house, but can come stay at one or both of our places some time in the future.
North America's been fun, but it's starting to feel cramped... we've got to get out of here for a while! Anyone know any Europeans who might want to travel to Mexico? We're starting to plan our exchanges early (well, earlier) for our trip next fall, when we'd like to see Italy, Southern France, Switzerland.... oh, who knows, we'd like to see the U.K., Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Sweden... we'll go just about anywhere. |
Paris Apartment
Canal in Gouda, the Netherlands |
