I've been neglecting this blog and the 112 people that subscribed for updates 🙁 But life took over and just couldn't bring myself to sit down and write. A lot has happened though:

• Decided we're going to stay after the 1 year trial
• Sold our house in Belgium
• We're getting married
• Many of you have visited us (22 visits so far)

We have now been in Spain for 16 months and it has been good for us. We've grown closer as a family and enjoyed a more calm and easy life in the mountain village. I've been hiking the mountains, taking cold showers in the village waterfall and taking the kids to swim/paddle/kanoo in the lake.

But as it goes in life, it's not only happiness and sunshine... We too have our ups and downs: Three kids, our jobs and living apart from family and friends can take it's toll. But overall I can say that I'm happier, calmer and feel mentally and physically healthier being here.

How are the kids?

I know many of you have subscribed to the blog to get an update about the kids so here we go:

• Marcel signed up for basketball and is obsessed. Sinterklaas brought him a basketball ring so he can practice in front of the house. He's also going to guitar classes but doesn't enjoy practicing so it became somewhat of a chore. He loves going to school, made quite some friends and is still his happy self. His strong character is a challenge but we couldn't imagine our lives without our happy clown.
• Lucie is in between being a child without worries and being a small adolescent. After the trauma with the sheep (she found out the hard way how the farm works) she does not visit the farm as often. Small relational struggles (with her friends) at school but all in all she's doing great. On Friday she is going to Teles classes (translates to 'arial fabrics aerobathics') which is basically acrobatics on a long curtain. ​
• Robbert is now officially in puberty with all the behavior that comes with it. Still likes to read books, is playing piano daily (yousician) and is doing great at school where he is learning Spanish/Castilliano. I am slowly introducing him to my type of humor (Hans Teeuwen, Het Eiland, In de Gloria) and he's loving it :-)

After a year we can say that they have adapted the best to the new conditions. They enjoy going to school, laugh/make fun a lot and are learning how to help around the house (as we don't have a washing machine or dryer).

The house

Whenever we can we try to improve the house. I like the Catalan expression 'poc a poc' which is my new motto when it comes to the house renovations

Last summer it was mostly the garden that received most of our attention and we were able to harvest a ton of tomatoes, salad, ​ a truckload of cherries (best I've ever had) and a large variety of herbs and medicinal plants 🌱.

In the kitchen a wood oven made room for a large countertop I tiled myself that now is a multi-functional table for cooking, homework or breakfast. We broke out a small wall to the kitchen to better connect the living room with the kitchen.

The next project is the office area on the top floor. We're waiting for the furniture to arrive so Annelies and I can work from the large office on the top floor with beautiful views. I did speak with her about the rules around interruptions and having calls in a shared office.

(sold) the house in Belgium

After a lot of thinking and rethinking we finally decided to sell our house in Belgium.

When we decided to move we wanted to keep our options open. Also, because the house still had half of our stuff, we decided not to rent it in the first year.

But after using the house over the summer we figured it was time to make a decision. After long conversations we finally decided it was time to let it go. I guess the main reason was that we didn't see ourselves return to that house (it was too small) but a lot of different factors contributed to the decision. And sometimes we still don't know it was the right choice. Time will tell.

After that decision things happened fast...We managed to find some help to fix the place up (repaint some rooms, fix water damage) and each took turns in travelling to Belgium and packing what was left in the house in over 70 cardboard boxes and made plan how to move the piano to Spain.

At the same time we signed up for an Immoweb account and uploaded our best 15 pictures together with a short summary. The first visitors fell in love with the house and decided to buy it. It felt great handing off the torch to a nice couple who reminded us of our spirit when we first moved to that house.

Few pictures just for my own memories:

Getting married

I always said I never wanted to get married. Looking back I'm not sure about the exact reasons but I convinced myself, and everyone around me, that it would never happen. Since we moved to Spain I noticed I've been thinking about it more often.

So I secretly got a ring and waited for the perfect moment to pop the question. Granted, finding the perfect moment took longer than expected as I had told myself that I wanted the kids to be there when I asked Annelies.

But on a sunny day beginning of August, on our way back to Belgium, I went on my knees and asked her. Being nervous and all I forgot to open the box and show the ring. She said yes. And I believe it's the first time in a long time that the kids were speechless for more than a few minutes.

What's next?

We're visiting Belgium for 10 days during Christmas to catch up with family and do the official part of the marriage. As we now don't have a house we're staying in a rental home ​ ​ close to Brussels (Meise) which is great as we're now closer to her side of the family.

When we're back in Spain I'd like to take it easier for a few weeks and clean the schedule. That time will be spent well on skiing, playing guitar and making bread.

Onwards!

It's been almost three months since we moved to Spain and I figured it was time for an update as the last one is dated from the beginning of September.

We've been busy fixing the house, getting back to our jobs and entertaining guests. In September and October, we had a lot of guests/family over which is awesome but sometimes a little exhausting to try and make sure they have a good time.

Kids & School

We never expected this to be smooth...Going to school in a new country with another culture and language takes some time. On most days the kids are happy and eager to go to school. From time to time, one of them claims they want to go back to Belgium or stay home…but I am not reading too much into it at this point...

After school and during the weekends they are really starting to appreciate the town and the super friendly neighbours. Regular visits to the sheep farm, playing with the dogs outside or taking a cold bath in the small pond in front of the house. Almost always accompanied by Spanish sunshine.

The kids are rapidly learning Catalan and when I asked them yesterday about how much % of what the teacher is saying they understand they all seemed to agree with 50%. Fifty!

Step by step Annelies (but mostly Robbert) is convincing the school that he should be enrolled in the 3rd year and not the 1st. It's been quite a frustrating experience as the school (but mostly the district) did not want to accept the numerous (official) Belgian documentation (letter from the school, exams tests, grades, ...) that Robbert was 2 years ahead of his age group. They finally agreed to test him from which they learned what we were trying to tell them all this time. Starting last week Robbert is now enrolled in part of the 1st and the 3rd year of what they call 'Institut'.
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​Both Marcel and Lucie have signed up for Climbing classes at the local sports centre. The first lesson was a great success!

House Renovation

I have to admit I underestimated the work required to make this an awesome place. In Catalan, they would say 'Poc a Poc' but since winter is coming and it's getting colder we found ourselves becoming impatient and slightly frustrated.

With that, we also decided to tile the living room ourselves and to make it worse we chose a small tile where every floor takes forever. We ended up tiling the floor with over 3000 small 5x15cm ceramic tiles. Annelies helped me out a lot, especially with the 2nd part that I didn't catch on the timelapse. Also, notice how in the beginning the kids are excited to help out but they get bored after the first few hours :-)

At the same time, I moved the central heating system to another room in the basement and therefore I had to extend and reconnect all the old copper tubes which ended up taking much longer than expected. Recycling and fitting copper pipes is a time-consuming task!

Now I am learning and reading about how to install an underfloor heating system to an existing (gasoline-based) heating system. Temperature sensors, pumps, manifolds, and three-way zone valves...

Visits to Belgium

This week I'm going back to Belgium for the first time as I need to fix some things in the (old) house and get some time with colleagues and Jesse.

Annelies had to get back to Belgium for her job 2 weeks ago and it looks like she'll be doing more regular visits as for me I'm planning to go once every 3/4 months.

Mushrooms & Pizza

I've started to get into collecting mushrooms in the forest but wasn't able to free up enough time to really get into it. The first trips were very nervous as I didn't really understand which ones were eatable and which ones were toxic. So I learned about the 5 most common types of Catalonia and learned where they grow and how to recognise them. Here is what I found so far:

I always fantasised about building my own wood based pizza oven. In Belgium the garden didn't really allow for it plus maybe busy life and the climate didn't allow us to enjoy that oven to it's fullest. Excuses, excuses. I know.

So coming to Spain I took it to heart to build the perfect pizza oven. I've done my fair share of research (watching youtube videos 😬) about building the perfect pizza oven. But because there is so much work in the house I couldn't prioritise this right now. That is untill I bumped on this video of a guy making a quick pizza oven with a few bricks and a heat resistant plate.

A few hours later, and 30 euros lighter after buying some fire-resistant bricks I put together an even faster/crappier version of this concept.

And after one test run in the very messy garden (left picture) we moved the oven to the small town square. Since then we've had more than 5 open pizza parties with visitors and neighbours. Great stuff!

Another 3 weeks passed by in a heartbeat

Took some time to write a quick update. If you haven't read the previous updates yet you can find them linked below:

• July 2022 Moving to Spain
• August 2022 First week in Spain
• August 2022 Settling In

​So it's been 3 weeks since the last update which I updated to point out that we did find Robbert in the end.

Back to school

On the 5th of September, the day had arrived for Lucie and Marcel to go to their school. Now normally there would be a bus coming to the town to pick up the kids, but obviously (this is Spain) it turned out that that wasn't fully arranged yet.

So Annelies and I drove the kids to school where they'd meet their teacher and this years classmates.

They had a wonderful day although they barely speak any Catalan. They have been enjoying school so far although the teacher has raised some integration/language/behaviour issues with the youngest. He'll come around!

Robbert had a slightly longer summer break but on Wednesday it was his turn to go back to school. Sadly he was forced to go back two years 😞 as the school system here did not accept all the (official) documentation we provided that Robbert finished his 2nd year in Belgium.

Although the school provided an out where they could upgrade him 2 years after they ran some tests we do not have any guarantees that they'll come around. We keep pushing and lobbying to get this fixed...

Every day when I pick up Robbert from school I ask him to score his day. We went from 5/10 to a 7/10 in the course of almost two weeks. As the schools both finish with a 45- minute difference, we have some quality time. It's great to find him in a good mood, and I can see him making new friends. I'm sure he'll be super fast at learning the language having to listen to the teacher talk all day.

I'm so proud of them

Sheep everywhere

The ride up and down from our village is awesome. The sun is out almost every day and today we hit almost 30 degrees.

One day I was late to pick them up as I was caught up behind 300 sheep waiting for them to clear the road.

We spent some more time with the farmer who uses dogs to guard the cuddle and move them around. The kids are enjoying the time with the kids. Marcel told us he might not become a DJ when he grows up but is trading that for becoming a sheep farmer.

Today we watched a lamb being born.

Home Progress

On the home front, there is nothing spectacular to report on. We're trying to make small progress every day which is getting a bit easier with the kids going back to school.

Some stuff we did:

• pumped gasoline tanks to a new location
• turned the gasoline storage room into a chicken coup
• cleaned up the garden and installed a chicken fence. They still escape though
• reinstalled most of the electricity
• cleaned up the basement as a working shed
• restored an old table to use in the living room
• bought and installed a washing machine
• more firewood
• took out more trash (10+ drives to the waste facility)

The next step is to prepare for winter as our heating system isn't functional yet. We're trying to figure out what the best and most realistic way is to heat the house during the winter. This will the most important project for the weeks to come.

It's been three weeks since we moved to Spain and here is a quick update on how it's going.

Second Visit

This week we welcomed Peter and Ann who were visiting us from the other side of the Pyrenees (Around Toulouse). Although they made a short stop on their way to Tarragona we enjoyed their stay.

I helped Peter find a calm/wild camping spot to spend the night after we had a joyful evening with steaks, wine and lots of laughter (and serious conversation).

The next day we showed them the Village and took them to the lake at the bottom of the mountain.

The first hike - Lost Robbert 😳 

In addition to getting back to work, now that the internet is finally working, we wanted to make it feel like a holiday spending time by doing fun activities and spending family time with the kids.

The first thing we want to do is get familiar with the mountain we're on and its surrounding area. On one of those walks, Marcel convinced the neighbour's dog 'Rudy' to join us on our walk taking us to the local peak of our maintain enjoying a nice pick-nick with a beautiful view.

I promised Robbert we'd be on time for an important online tournament he was following which turned out not to be the best idea. Because of the heat, we were going much slower than anticipated and time was running out for Robbert to make it to his game.

As the walk was following a single path, and Robbert (12 years old) guaranteed me he knew the way back, we allowed him to take a (2km?) hike back ensuring he'd be home on time. After we finished pick-nicking and took our time to get back to the house, we discovered Robbert wasn't home yet. 😟

People in the village came to help us find him (they must think we're dumb city people) and I took the chance to test out how well my off-road pick-up driving skills were. I drove up to the top of the mountain we hiked and found Robbert in a slight panic but not eaten by bears yet :)

On the car ride back he did tell me that he was worried because I told him:

If you get lost on that side of the Pyrennees you can walk for days and not find a single house. People have died getting lost.

I was just trying to make them cautious when they explore the woods. Remember your way back to the house!

Catalan Lessons

So we've been getting family Catalan lessons every second day. We found a great teacher from the village that has an awesome way of teaching us starting with the essential basics for small talk/beginner conversation. It must be hard teaching such a diverse (age-wise) group of students but she's nailing it.

Progress is slow but steady. Annelies and Robbert are the best students in the class and making impressive progress while Marcel is having a hard time being focused for anything more than 15 minutes.

Swimming

The nice thing about this side of the Pyrennees is the availability of water. Lakes, rivers and small ponds. So many places to spend a day in nature while the kids are playing in the water. Someone from the village gave us some tips on the most beautiful spots and on the first attempt, we hit a home run.

We found this awesome place next to the river. It was surrounded by high cliffs, the water temperature was amazing and all throughout the river there were big rocks the kids could play with.

Later that week we found two closeby swimming pools that are awesome: not too many tourists, a nice bar/friendly people and not too expensive. Sadly those swimming pools are closing up at the beginning of September.

Robbert and Lucie wanted to learn how to dive. I tried to explain them my own way but that came with a lot of frustration hitting the water time after time. Youtube to the rescue.

After watching the video in the swimming pool bar the kids were eager to get this over within 6 minutes. Turned out it wasn't as straightforward as advertised where the biggest challenge was getting over the fear of going head-first.

Within 30 minutes Robbert had evolved to diving standing up while both Marcel and Lucie were trying to catch up. I think if we practice for a few more days they'll all get it :-)

Fire-wood 🔥

As we took out two floors from the old house we had so many old wood beams that were previously supporting the floor. It was time to take out the chainsaw and turn them into firewood for the next winter.

Enjoy the timelapse.

Notice how the chickens are not afraid of a running chainsaw and are fighting to eat the first worms/insects when picking up the last beams of wood.

Last Thursday the day had come to pack up our stuff and take the 1250km drive to our new home.

A new car

Because the village is impossible to access with a normal car (max width 180cm) and there was a lot work in the house (getting rid of stuff left by the previous owner, building new floors, ...) I ended up buying a new car in Belgium.

The requirements for the car were for it to fit and be able to tow heavy loads (+1500kg) and 4x4 drive. Bonus points for a car with scratches as I knew it was going to take a beating with the planned usage.

After quite some digging I discovered that there was an SX (small trim) version of the Fiat Fullback that met all criteria. Did you know there are sites to compare the dimensions of different cars?

Now I know what I wanted I needed to find a 2nd hand Fiat Fullback for sale. Because I needed this specific trim (SX) I had to look hard and discovered that throughout Europe there are only about 10 of those cars available on the major 2nd hand car websites.

I got lucky with a black version being readily available and went for a visit and bought the car on the spot. The only downside: no automatically foldable mirrors which I figured I could fix using after-market components.

The Move

As we now had 2 cars it was easier to plan the final move. We had to move 3 of our children and 7 chickens. Preferably alive.

I spent all Wednesday loading the cars. Figured that chances for the chickens to survive would be higher inside the car 😱 . My brother and I constructed a compartment on the backseat of the Pickup.

After about 800km, which went very smooth, we decided to spend the night in a hotel. We needed to find a place with a garden so we could de-stress the chickens. Talked to the owner and agreed to give them some room at the back of the hotel with the portable fence I took with us.

The night in the hotel turned out to be terrible. Both Annelies and I only slept for a few hours as it was crazy hot (somewhere around Limoges) and our room did not have AC and the window was situated next to a busy road. ​ 😴 The only good news is that I was fully caffeinated and ready to go at around 6:30.

On Friday we had the most beautiful part of the trip in front of us passing through the Pyrenees to end up on the Spanish side.

We arrived in the Village around 14:00 where I was getting increasingly nervous about the final 300 meters. Will it fit?

As I was loaded with so much stuff I was destined to drive the car to the front of the house. Some of the villagers discouraged me as they thought the car would not fit but it did. Just one minor scratch :-)

The first days - Basics

The plan for the first days was to make sure the basics work (warm water, electricity), clean the house, make sure the children have a nice room and create the space able to unpack all of the boxes.

Because no one has lived in the house for almost 7 years it needed a deep clean which took much longer than we anticipated. My Mom decided that she wanted to come by and help us out during her Holiday. This helped a lot and allowed me and Annelies to spend time on other essentials.

After a trip to Ikea (a 3-hour drive to Barcelona) and using some of the things we brought from Belgium (beds, bedframes) we managed to give the children a room they are all quite happy with.

The rest of the time was spent cleaning up the garden, taking out trash left by the previous owner and removing old/outdated cabling and satellites or antennas mounted on the outside of the home.

A timelapse of cleaning up the garden:

Additionally, we made sure to create enough time to enjoy the surroundings. With the kids we took the SUP to the lake three times, enjoyed a Wim Hof-style cold bath under the village waterfall (11 degrees) and spent some time around local restaurants. ❤️

The good and bad

As everything still feels like a holiday it's too early to draw any conclusions. There has been quite a bit of emotions around the idea that this is permanent. For now, I was able to turn around the mood by doing something fun.

Although the temperature is around 35 degrees it doesn't feel that hot. There is a constant breeze and the cold lake in front of the house acts like a huge airconditioner. It cools down quite a lot at night and there are not that many mosquitos. A lot of flies though!

Anyway, too early to evaluate. What I can say is that life slows down a lot here. As I'm writing this the kids are playing in the lake in front of the house and everything is so quiet. Everyone you talk to in the village looks like they have all the time in the world and are genuinely interested in understanding how we're experiencing the move.

That's it for this update. Another one next Friday?

We bought a house in Catalonia and we're moving this summer

We've been contemplating a move abroad for a few years now and we finally did it. In August 2022 we'll be moving to the Spanish Pyrenees where we bought a house.

But, why?

I've been trying to answer this question for hundreds of times now and I've learned that the best answer is

Why not?

It switches the conversation from a defensive (why would you be so crazy to do this?) mindset to a more balanced conversation where people try to convince me that Belgium isn't that bad. And it's not.

The truth is that we don't really know how good it is to live and work in Belgium because we never compared. Every time we take a long holiday we realise how small our part of the world really is and dream about how things would be somewhere else.

Additionally I would like to be closer to nature and my kids to spend more time outside.

The House

The house is an old 2 story building in the center of a small mountain village. While the house has 7 bedrooms it doesn't feel spacious. That's because it's two different houses merged together which results in different floor levels and a lot of small rooms. We're looking to fix that over time.

The house is located in a mountain town (Pyrenees) at an altitude of 900m. The village ​ has about 30 permanent residents so we are increasing the population by 15%.

The Plan & Moving

We figured the summer is the best time to move. This gives us enough time to prepare before the kids go back to school (in Catalan) in September.

We don't want to take too much stuff so we're going to move our belongings in two batches using the MobileHome and car+trailer. I also promised the kids I could bring the chickens which I'm starting to regret.

Will try to update this blog with our adventure. Onwards!

This holiday we spent a month with the family in Sweden 🇸🇪. It was awesome. This is a quick write-up of note-worthy tips, the route of our trip and the experience travelling with a family of 5.

Camper/Mobile Home

We were in a big mobile home (7.5 meters) that has a sleeping capacity of 6. With everyone sleeping inside it tends to get really crowded and it takes a while to transform the living area into the sleeping area. ​
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​The biggest disadvantage of sleeping inside is that the living room can not be used as soon as the kids go to bed (between 8 and 9). Considering that in some areas there are a lot of mosquitos once the sun goes down we figured we'd bring two 10-second tents to have 4 more sleeping places outside.

Other stuff I took to make the trip more noteworthy:

• Inflate-able canoe
• Sup board
• Four bikes
• Table + Chairs
• Skateboard (son)
• Step (daughter)
• Too many pumps

The trip

We started the trip in Trelleborg and did a tour from the South to the East coast of Sweden all the way up to Stockholm (which is only about 1/3th of the country). Sweden is Huge!

Week 1 - South Coast

We arrived on the ferry (from Rostock Germany) in Trelleborg. Since it was late, 22:30 when we got through border control, we drove to the closest camping which in hindsight was the most commercial and expensive camping we did in the entire holiday.

On the map, it looked great (South West corner of Sweden) but it was pretty much a full campsite with over 100 campers nicely parked between 4 lines. Icecreams and mini-golf at the reception 😱

In the morning I could not wait to get out of there and discover 'real' Sweden. Based on weather forecasts we decided to do the East coast and drive our way up to Stockholm.

Leaving the camping site our first stop Falsterbo beach. On our way there we passed Mikes pizza restaurant with a huge 'Pizza World Champion' banner which did it for the kids. Bribed the kids with some variation of

We'll go to the pizza place after you all play on the beach/in the water to make sure you're all hungry enough

It worked 🍕

It was later afternoon when we left the Pizza place with destination Ystad. The sun was out a curly road that was right next to the ocean and trees/forest on the other side. A few km's later our kids saw someone diving from a small jetty and asked me to pull over.

On the parking, we met a super nice German couple who were wrapping up their 3 week holiday and decided to stay.

It was a super nice spot next to a small sand beach! The road was close (30 meters) but it didn't bother us that much. First chance to take out the SUP-board and Canoo so decided to go all the way 💪🏻. Kids wanted to sleep in the tent, and after they were all down we spent a super nice evening with the neighbour couple that was travelling with a 6-month baby.

After saying goodbye we were on our way to Ystad where we took off the bikes for a short tour and our first chance to do a Swedish Fika (tea/pastry) after which we took a long drive. With the evening approaching most of the spots on Park4night were taken and we had to keep driving to end up in Gislövhammar where there was a small green campsite with a great view over the sea.

The kids made friends, we met a lovely Belgian couple and their dog and decided to stay another day. The second day we went for a Belgian BBQ and invited another Dutch couple to join us (to finish the wine).

In the 2 days on this campsite we also did:

• A 12km run with Michel (fellow Belgian) who was training for a marathon
• Visited Ales Stenar
• First Swedish supermarket (no masks 😃)
• Played our first game of 'Set' which we ended up buying a week later in Stockholm

The next day we stayed in a small harbour in Hörviks Hamn. When we arrived all the paying/good spots were taken but I managed to find a spot that was not intended for camping. The spot turned out to be great. It was 5 meters from a small beach.

In the harbour, there was this small restaurant where we had our first restaurant visit so far. It was great (although the restaurant was understaffed and everything took so long). The kids were playing near the docks, we had the best riesling, the good was great and we could watch the sunset from our table. ♥️

The next morning I took Annelies on the SUP-board before we resumed the journey. Next stop: Karlskrona (or somewhere close).

I got a tip from the German couple (day 2) that the islands near Carlkrona are super calm and worth a visit.

On our way to the bookmarked spot, we passed some small camping sites one of which was Kustgården Senoren which turned out to be an awesome camping site. Only 4-5 campers, a small private beach, trees all the way to the coastline and evening sun. That's our spot!

We stayed there for 3 days. The kids were enjoying themselves swimming to the island on the other side or spending time on the playing ground. On the 2nd day, we spent time in Karlskrona. I took off the bikes and we biked across the city visiting the submarine museum, the marina and the park. Beautiful day!

Week 2 - East Coast + Öland and Stockholm

We initially wanted to visit Gotland but the ferries were all booked. Some of the people we met warned us that Öland is super touristic and some of them were advising us to skip it. As it was raining that day and we wanted to drive over the bridge we decided to give it a go driving all the way up to the North of Oland.

I didn't like the harbour that much as there were too many campers, it was very windy and pretty much concrete everywhere you could see. Had some time to dry some of our laundry (the previous place had a washing machine) but didn't trust the kids to just hang in the harbour because of the wind and the water.

We found a great restaurant in the harbour and enjoyed some seafood where I encouraged the kids to all try an Oyster (which they did. Didn't like it).

After the kids went to sleep I met a group of travelling swedes that invited me to have a few drinks. I brought Belgian beers. Stayed there until about 2 in the morning where they convinced me to try a few of their typical Swedish drinks: Rum/Coke, Sprite/Rum and Whiskey 🤕

The next day was rainy and we decided to drive to Vimmersby to visit the Astrid Lindgren (wikipedia) museum. The inside of the museum was not that impressive (I get bored really fast) but the gardens were great!

I wanted to find a super isolated spot and try 'real' free camping (preferably next to a lake). We drove around for a bit and were looking at google maps to find a small road that led to the water. Took about 45 minutes to find a great spot with no one around.

Stayed there for 1 night only and drove up to a super nice farm in Ydre. We were welcomed by a couple that, together with their 3 kids, moved to Sweden 1 year ago to start a small farm. There were able to buy a piece of land for in his words 'less than a new Volkswagen transporter' 🤩

Every night (stayed for 2 nights) we sat around the campfire and met other guests staying there or had some time to get to know the hosts and their stories. Awesome memories, hope I can be there someday and see what they did with the farm.

In the morning it was pouring rain which made the host happy as it hadn't really rained in about 3 months. Joked about Belgians taking the bad weather with us and left for Stockholm.

Because of the weather forecast, we decided to book a short stay somewhere close to Stockholm to visit the city. We found a great spot on Airbnb next to a river with our own private jetty. The house had a separate lake house with 2 extra beds, a Sauna (which turned out was not working) and a great kitchen. A nice feeling after spending 10 days in a 2x6 camper van 😀

Enjoyed spending some time in Stockholm and were able to meet Frederik's family (and baby). My kids were so happy to see Frederik again (we worked together quite intensively a few years ago starting Prezly). We made some great memories!

The day after we spent a day in the city Center of Stockholm, gave the mobile home a good clean and started planning the rest of the trip as it was time to see the rest of Sweden.

Week 3 - The lakes

We wanted to spend more time around the big lakes and drove to Västerås (pronounced Westeros like GoT).

We found a nice spot on an almost empty grass field next to a bar/restaurant which was built over a small river. There was a mini-golf terrain, almost no tourists and a nice pizza place which made us stay for a day longer.

The kids wanted to swim and I promised them to do a big tour on the river with the sup board. Inflating the board is a real workout as it needs 1.5 bar to work well but it was totally worth it! We spent a few hours on the water making sure the kids were tired enough for a smooth bed routine 😴

The next day we drove to Örebro to visit the Stadspark which was advertised as one of the most beautiful parks in Sweden. While the kids were playing in the playing ground had some time to walk through the park and found this beautiful walnut tree.

After the kids were tired of the playing ground I told them they'd get ice cream if they could guess which tree in the park is on my top-5 of the most beautiful trees I've ever seen. They guessed it quite easily 🍦

We left the city park and drove all the way up to Värern which is the biggest lake in Sweden and one of the largest lakes in Europe. It's beautiful.

Found a camping spot right on the east side of the lake. Sun was out, no clouds at all so time to set everything up and take a swim. The water was super clean and we stayed in much longer than planned. After dinner, I told the kids to go and find some wood to make a campfire. We had bought marshmallows a little earlier and allowed the kids to get sugared up right before they went to sleep 😫

Annelies wanted to go more North to see real Sweden so we left early the next day driving ​ North and closer to the border of Norway. Most of the campsites were full and there were noticeable fewer spots on park4night. We landed in Årjängs Hembygdsgård, a small camping site next to a lake.

The best thing about this spot was a nearby coffee bar/restaurant/hotel that had an awesome backside terrace with a view over the lake. We went in for a quick coffee and spent almost 3 hours. We started talking to the staff, met a fellow Belgian couple while the kids were playing inside. The place was so awesome that we had to get a table for dinner the same evening. One of the best meals/experiences we have had in Sweden so far! Even with the limited menu choice (we did not have a choice) the food was great, the staff super helpful and the view was stunning.

We wanted to get back to the lakes so drove all the way down to Upperud where we found a horse farm that rented out Canoes. Because it was raining all evening we went to bed early and kept everyone inside (no tents). In the morning we prepared lunch, double-coated the kids with sunscreen and put on the lifejackets. Canoe trip!

This turned out to be awesome! From the farm, we had to follow a small creek for about 1 kilometre to get to a side lake of Värern. Choices for Canoes were limited so we got two single Canoes and a double one. I took Marcel and Lucie in the double one where our youngest sat on my lap. This was quite a workout and outside of the kids complaining (I'm tired! I'm hungry! My arms!) it was by far the most exciting thing we did so far.

We spent about 4 hours on the water and got back to the camper about 30 minutes before a big thunderstorm. Packed up the tents and decided to drive through the bad weather on our way to the bottom of the lakes. We arrived in Kedumstorp later that evening. Everyone was tired after the boat ride and road trip so we took out a pizza and stayed over in what in retrospect was the worst spot of the holiday (which was still a 6/10). We left at 9:30 to drive to Hjo.

In Hjo I did not want to camp in the commercial campsites or harbour so looked for a spot close by so we could visit the city by bike. Found an awesome spot close to a small lake west of Hjo.

Outside of the flies (there was a public toilet that desperately needed taking care off), it was a great spot!

We ended up staying for 2 days with mini bike trips to Hjo city centre where we had the best ice cream. The sunsets on this spot were awesome and the water was only 50cm deep for the first part of the lake. This allowed the kids to play in the water until it was time to sleep or food.

Because the water in the lake was a little smelly we needed to wash ourselves every time we came out. We figured out we could do outside showers opening the camper side window and pulling out the showerhead.

Week 4 - West Coast

All the books about Sweden talked about the west coast being so beautiful. The Swedish people we met during the holiday told us that it's the side of Sweden the Norwegians took over

They like to come over with their big boats, expensive cards and you know, they just take over...

So we had mixed feelings about exploring the west coast. We drove up all the way to the Norwegian border where we stayed on a small farm (with 2 horses). Upon arrival, we were hesitant to stay the night but the owner convinced us

Yesterday a moose came down that hill and were grazing the field here. The German couple that stayed here saw it around 6 in the morning. We also have the white moose here.

When we left for Sweden we said it would be great to see a wild moose and now we had the opportunity to do so. We set up the camper and tents and called it a night early. I had set my alarm clock to get up around 5 in the morning to start spotting. Nothing :-(

As we were close to the Norwegian border we decided to drive up there to see the Älgafallet waterfall and the old border bridge (the old Svinesund Bridge). After that, we drove up to Strömstad where we had some time to go swimming and found a nice small tapas restaurant. The perfect day ❤️

I did tell Robbert about my morning activity and the white moose and he wanted to double down.

Dad, if you wake me up I will do the deer watch with you. Maybe Mom can help too...

To maximise our chances we started to search for tips 🤓such as at what time of the day are Moose most active? Do they come in groups or by themselves? I decided to talk to the owner once more to get some more pointers.

Although I was tired of last time, and not too confident we'd have a chance spotting some we agreed to a new schedule for the next morning.

• Gijs: I took 3:30 -> 5:00
• Robbert: 5:00 -> 6:00
• Annelies: 6:00 -> 7:00

Crickets 🦗🦗🦗...We were all pretty disappointed not spotting anything significant (2 Crain birds and a small deer) we figured it was time to move on and also prepare the way back to Belgium (ferry vs bridge, driving at night or not...).

I found a great sheep farm in Ostroo that had some room to park up to 8 campers. As it was a beautiful day we drove down and decided not to visit Goteburg. I don't know what it was but after our Stockholm visit, we didn't feel like getting back to a city.

Right about when we arrived and set up the tents it started raining while the sun was shining so we had to go hide inside.

We put the kids to bed on time (a long day) and I found a small window to take a short run. I got lost and didn't want to take my phone so the run took way longer than expected. I think I ran around 15km and arrived around 11:00 where everything was pitch dark.

Annelies and I thought it was a good moment to start preparing for the way back to Belgium and spent a nice evening with candles to finalise the plan for the remainder of the holiday. It was a great opportunity to open a good bottle of Whisky I brought from Belgium which we ended up drinking a little too much off 🤕

The plan:

• Go back by car (no ferry)
• Two more days in Sweden
• Visit Helsingborg and Malmo
• Book a hotel for the final night(s). That way everyone could have a good night of sleep, an extensive breakfast before driving all the way back
• Try the drive back in one day (Corona rules for people transitting Germany)

In the morning the Sheep farm turned out to be much more awesome than we'd imagined. There was a small breakfast/lunch shop, a mini-beach to swim, you could take a tour around the farm (over 1000 sheep) and they allowed the kids to touch some of the sheep.

As we had a dinner date with my colleague in Helsingborg we had to leave for about a 1-hour drive. Annelies did all the driving where I had a chance to look for Corona rules with regards to passing through Denmark and Germany and had to find a place to stay.

The West coast of Sweden has much fewer spots to spend the night with a camper. I discovered that some of the regions also have a no-free parking rule (in contradiction with the rest of Sweden). As we agreed to go for dinner in the city centre, and we wanted to put the kids asleep at somewhat of a decent hour (Marcel is 6 yrs old), I was looking for something we could walk/taxi to from the restaurant. No success :-(

Looking at the different options I found an affordable hotel with one family room available right outside of Helsingborg and the taxi ride to the restaurant was about 25 euros. Turned out the room was really just 4 beds but luckily we had a mattress and sleeping bar in the camper. After taking a quick shower (showering 3 kids is never quick) we said hello to this great taxi driver and went to the hotel.

It was my first time meeting Brenna (my colleague) and turned out to be a wonderful night! The kids enjoyed the company of Brenna and her partner, we had great food, good laughs and some time left to explore the city centre and harbour. Robbert and Brenna had a great (Pokemon) connection. Great success!

As a cherry on the cake (and according to the plan we made 2 days earlier) we wanted to surprise the kids with a hotel with a swimming pool or sauna and Annelies and I were secretly hoping we could have a rooftop/skybar experience after the kids went to bed.

So I booked two rooms in the Clarion Malmo Hotel which turned out to be great. We had two adjacent rooms on the 16th floor with an awesome view. Because the sun was out we figured out would be best to explore the city while finding something to eat for the kids (we were planning to have a tete-a-tete in the hotel skybar).

Exploring the city we had cocktails on a terras, took a ride in the ferry wheel, found a great restaurant for the kids, practised our Voi scooter skills and danced to a DJ in the hotel that was wrapping up the LGBTQ+ conference in the lobby of the hotel.

We managed to get the kids to sleep at 20:30 for the long ride tomorrow, and after I made sure they were really sleeping, shared instructions with Robbert on how to reach us and the reception I went up to the Skybar where Annelies was waiting for me.

It was the perfect wrap-up of a one month stay in Sweden. Perfect (and frigging expensive) cocktails, good food and a wonderful view over Malmo from the 25th floor.

Sweden, we will be back!