Nomads by the Numbers

After a year and a half on the road, Michael took some time today, to recap our journey by the numbers. The results surprised us!

 It's been 550 days since we left Seattle in July 2013. We’ve visited 28 countries, and 55 cities. We've stayed in 40 different Airbnb apartments for a total of 360 nights. The other 190 nights we stayed with family and friends (thank you all), including 10 nights in hotels and 2 forgettable nights in hostels.

When you put it all together, we have slept in 60 different beds. A few were soft. A few were hard. 90% of them were just right. To keep our sanity wherever we lay our heads we have our own 2 pillows! And not to be forgotten, I have managed to cook some great meals in 52 different kitchens.

To get from place to place we've boarded 24 flights on 13 different airlines. Some better than others. We’ve traveled by train or bus in 11 countries and taken so many Underground and Metro journeys that it’s impossible to count them all. Between walking tours, shopping, errands and sight seeing and endless airport terminals, we've walked at least 1,520 miles. For many of those miles we hauled our 2 large rolling duffle bags (thank you REI), and our 2 day packs. In those day packs are 2 laptops, 2 cell phones, 2 Kindles and 1 iPad.

We have used the Euro in 16 countries. We've calculated the exchange for 12 other currencies including the Bosnian Mark, British Pound Sterling, Canadian Dollar, Croatian Kuna, Danish Krone, Irish Pound, Lithuania Litas, Moroccan Dirham, Norwegian Krone, Swedish Krona and the Turkish Lira.

In most every country we’ve purchased a new SIM card for our iPhones which means each of us has had 22 different phone numbers. 

Wherever possible, Michael has attended football matches - and they have been a highlight! He's made it to 12 matches from the Netherlands to Bosnia and from Barcelona to Copenhagen. Personally, I go out for a lovely dinner.

One final number that’s worth sharing has given us as much pleasure as anything we have done. The number is 75. That’s the number of books we've read between us!

We have too many blessings to count, but the numbers all add up to 2 very happy Nomads. 

Debbie and Michael Campbell (46th blog)
Senior Nomads

Joyeux Noël!

Flying into Paris from Madrid we saw the sunshine slipping ever further away and prepared for re-entry into winter weather! However, no dreary skies would spoil our fun, because we had Christmas with our youngest grandchildren to celebrate!  

The ever growing family!

We spent a few days in in the City of Christmas Lights taking in the elaborate department store window displays, ogling the offerings at the Christmas markets and doing some last minute shopping. As perpetual travelers we are often at the mercy of weight limits so we rarely buy things that we can't eat, drink, or toss unless they are an absolutely need. I felt the tight knots in my shopping muscles loosen a bit because I could thoroughly enjoy buying presents - especially for the kids. 

Captivating monsters in the windows of Galleries Lafayette

Enjoying a Christmas concert at The American Cathedral

We gathered for a week in Compienge, a pastoral city in a farming community about an hour north of Paris. We had use of our friends The Brownings lovely home who were away for the winter. Compiegne is best known as the city where Joan of Arc was captured, Napoleon's royal residence, the site of the signing of the 1918 Armistice with Germany and acres of truffle-filled forest. 

Just the right size tree!

The transformation

All ready for the presents in the morning!

It was nice for the kids to get outside in the fresh air and use their new scooters (excellent gifts from the Greg's parents), walk in the woods and just relax in front of the fire.  

Baby Jacques says "I'll take this one!"

What was Grandma thinking?

If it was pink or shiny it was for Coco!

On New Years Eve Mary and Colette joined us for a great three day get-away in Luxembourg City while Gregoire bravely took Marcel and Jacques, ages 2 ½  and 7 months home to Paris for some “Guy time”. There was snow on the ground when we arrived and it continued to be bone-chillingly cold. Here's the link to one of our favorite apartments so far:  https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4328595 

Luxembourg in the snow

 Highlights included puttering in a great kitchen with Mary, teaching Colette to play Go Fish and cheering her first ice-skating experience. Michael enjoyed perusing the CIA's World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ to learn all about The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg - the third richest country in on the planet. 

Winter fun for Mary and Colette

With the holidays behind us it was time for the Nomads to move on. We said farewell to the Mary's family and prepared for our exciting next adventure - three weeks in Morocco! See you there.

Debbie and Michael

Senior Nomads

Feliz Navidad from Spain

We spent the two weeks leading up to Christmas in southern Spain in the cities of Seville and Granada. The Spanish take the meaning of Christmas seriously. It was refreshing to be in cities where the streets were lit with ornate banners of colored lights, but Santa and Frosty the Snowman were a rare sight. Many shops still closed for two or three hours in the afternoon and on Sundays. 

Linus sums it up best in A Charlie Brown Christmas:

In this deeply catholic country, holiday outings include visiting multiple elaborate Nativity scenes in churches and store windows. There were "living Nativities" with livestock (camels, cows and sheep!) and actors to be found as well. The star of the show, baby Jesus, does not appear until Christmas morning - and then it’s time to make the rounds again. 

Families also created elaborate nativity scenes at home. The outdoor Christmas markets were filled with stall after stall selling every miniature you could imagine. There were humans, angels, animals, food, tools, mangers, and buildings and even blazing electric stars. In some cases, price was no object - we saw a $900 elephant! 

Here's one style of Nativity you could create at home...

And here's another. I take my hat off to Playmobil for this one

In Seville I ate my fill of tapas including tiny fried fish and steamed clams at a little hole in the wall restaurant. Michael caught a football match (read his fun blog post) - to each his own! 

This might have been my ugliest lunch - but it was delicious!

Michael making new friends at a football match in Seville

We marveled at the cathedral and took in the Alcazar Royal Palace. And almost by accident we discovered what the locals call "The Mushroom". It was a certainly a visual jolt after exiting long stretch of twisting narrow streets. http://inhabitat.com/metropol-parasol-the-worlds-largest-wooden-structure-opens-in-seville/metropolparasol1/

"The mushroom!" There is an observation deck along the top.

It would appear that no surface in Spain should go untiled

Our apartment was near the old town and allowed for exploring the flea markets, narrow alleys and dozens of food stalls. But most of our time in the lovely city of Seville was spent walking and basking in the mild weather on the plaza. Here's the link to our airbnb https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3857892

Then it was on to Granada - the perfect ending place for our Spanish explorations. What a proud city with a deep and colorful history. The ousted Moors and the conquering Crusaders formed much of what remains surprisingly well preserved in this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other occupiers and immigrants across the centuries added to the exuberant art, music, and Flamenco dance scene. The massive Alhambra Palace was a kaleidoscope of color and texture – a massive labyrinth of rooms each more ornate than the next!

A bleak winter garden at the palace gets a pop of Persimmon

Our home in Granada was perched on a hill in the old town and offered a panoramic view of the Alhambra. Here’s the link: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1754593. 

The dramatic view from our balcony in Granada

Once again - we tackled what seemed like hundreds of ancient, irregular stone steps going either up or down the hill to reach the building. But the labored breathing is worth it when we finally find our front door (not always easy) and discover the charm and often-great views that come from going up!

Our trusty all-terrain REI bags have done heavy-duty on stairs and stones

We finished our stay in Granada with an impressive holiday performance of Handel’s Messiah in a concert hall overlooking the sparkling city below. A fitting finale.

Our experiences continue to motivate us to live like locals in each city we visit. Once we have settled into each new home, we take our host's recommendation list, grab a map and explore our neighborhood. 

It is a pleasure to shop everyday

We always take a walking tour – and many times those are free with a tip for the guide at the end. We shop at the nearest grocery store, cook most meals in (especially trying regional recipes), read book after book, stay current with the news, play Scrabble and backgammon pinch each other often to make sure this dream is real. 

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

 Next up is Paris for a week and then a stay at our friends home in Compiegne to celebrate the holidays with our daughter Mary, her husband Gregoire and our youngest grandchildren, Colette, Marcel and Jacques.

Blessings of the Season to all!

Debbie and Michael

Senior Nomads

MC Sports Report: UEFA Cup Match in Seville

Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Capacity 45,000

After attending two football matches in Madrid, I was hoping I might find one more match to attend before we left Spain. As always, I went to my "go-to" app - ESPN FC to check the schedules for our two remaining cities - Seville and Granada.

Good news! Seville was playing at home on our last night. It was a must-win match in the 2014 UEFA Europa League against a team from Croatia. As it turns out, Seville was the defending UEFA Champion after defeating Benfica (Lisbon) last year for the title. When we got to Seville I went out to the stadium a couple of days before the match and bought the cheapest ticket available - 30 Euros (or about$38 at today's exchange rate). FYI, the US Dollars has increased in value by 10% over the last 6 months which is making everything more affordable for us.

Three nights later I jumped on the C2 city bus ($1.75 one way) to the stadium for the match which started at 21:05 which converts to 9:05 pm. Seville was hosting HNK Rijeka which is one of the reasons I decided to go to this match. Back story....

In the Spring of 1999, my final year at the Northwest Marine Trade Association I got a call from someone from the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce who asked if I wanted to join a trade mission to Croatia. It was a great experience with a dozen business and civic leaders from Seattle/Tacoma under the direction of the USAID. We spent most of our time in Rijeka which sits on the Adriatic near the Italian border. It was a fascinating trip and now five years later I would have the chance to see their football team in action.

As usual, I got to the match about an hour before kick-off. I took a few pictures of fans congregating outside nearby bars (no alcohol in Spanish La Liga stadiums) so fans get their fill ahead of time. While I was wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere, I saw a half-dozen police officers having deep in conversation. I had my iPhone on camera-mode and was ready to snap a photo of them when one of the officers looked up gave me a cold stare. I could tell by his look that I had better not take that picture. I didn't and moved-on. I continued wondering for a block or  before I felt someone tapping me sharply on the shoulder. I turned around to find it was that same officer. Now he was firing questions  at me in Spanish. fOops. I only speak English.

Pre-match tailgating without a car

Good news, he spoke English, too and wanted to know if I had taken a picture of him and his colleagues. To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure if I snapped a photo or not, so he asked to see the my camera. I obviously complied and flicked through the dozen photos I had taken so far. Indeed, I had not taken a photo of the officers and the cop sent me on my way with a more friendly pat on the back. At that point, I was more that ready to find my seat.


Inside the stadium the sign says "keep going up"

Stairs, stairs and more stairs to my seat

Okay. I found Gate 18. Easily got through security and headed up the stairs. And then up a few more stairs, until a nice attendant saw me staring at my ticket with that sort of 'I hope there aren't any mores stairs' look on my face. He quickly offered to help and ushered me to my seat in section F40.

Even though I was just 20 rows from the top, the stadium was smaller that others I have been in, and my seat was virtually on the half-way line. Wow! It was the best seat I've ever had since attending my first European match in Holland 16 months ago.

View from my seat. Best ever!

People started filling in around me and by the time the match started almost every seat in my section was full. There was a very loud woman on my right who I was pretty sure did not speak English so I took the big leap of faith and turned to the young man on my left. "Do you speak English?The answer was yes! I knew then I was in for a great evening.

His name was Pablo and he was in his final year of Medical School at age 22. Great guy. Good English  so we delved into Seville's football history, La Liga, Spanish history, politics, tuition fees for college, medical school and a dozen other topics - and that was before the match got underway!

Soon to be pediatrician Dr. Pablo

I adopted FC Seville for the night and was happy to see them go ahead in the 19th minute with a goal from young 20 year-old Denis Suarez. At the half it was still 1-0 to Seville

Super Star of the future - Denis Suarez on loan from Barcelona

After the break, the match was fairly even until late in the 2nd half when Rijeka realized that they would soon be out of the tournament if they didn't score. Instead, they got three yellow cards in the last 15 minutes  - so instead of a goal, the match went to Seville who advances to the next round.

Over the years, Seville has had a great run in the 1st Division

Afterwards, I learned that Pablo's home was in the same area where we were staying so we headed to the bus stop with thousands of other fans. I was home in one piece by mid-night.

Another great sports outing for the logbook!  And as always, sitting next to someone who speaks English adds so much enjoyment to the experience. Of course it is completely random and in this case I was particularly surprised since we found fewer English speakers in Spain than we have in any of the  other twenty-six countries we have visited.

Happy New Year football fans! I'll be back with a report next time we are in a city where I can catch another match.

Michael