This is really happening!!

Europe in a campervan!

They did it! A girl who's dolls house collection used to be literally findable on Google maps, and the man who’s CD collection affected the magnetic field of the earth, have got rid of enough stuff to live in a van! We'll only the first part is true, my husband still has his CD’s just in someone's loft! My husband no longer has a tent full of stuff that I put up in my mum's back garden as an act of desperation a month ago when we came to live on the floor still not having sorted it all!

The ferry is booked, the bike rack is fitted, we have grabbed the money stashed for birthdays or in hiding places to buy all the camping gear and storage boxes. This thing is real!

I'm sure it's a good idea, I just keep noticing how much running water we use, or thinking, what if the weather gets really bad on the way down? Well we should go, here is why from one of my hero's:  “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”― Mark Twain

I wrote this list a couple of years ago when I first started planning to live in a van and travel, let's see how reality measures up!!!

Reasons to get rid of our stuff, make our jobs portable, and explore Europe in a camper!

Meet new people.
More ocean in my life.
More mountains.
More time outside.
Draw and paint from life.
Learn new skills.
Learn languages.
Inspiration from new stimulus.
Teach my kids to be self reliant.
Educate my kids with doing and looking, not just listening and writing down.
Spend less than we make.
Less cooking (a little).
Less cleaning.
Less to regret missing when old.
Stay active/ fit.
Be more like my heroes.
Get out of repetitive lifestyle.
Quality time with my family.
The kids spend lots of time away from screens and wifi.
We collect adventures not clutter.
Easier to more fresh fruit and vegetables, salad and fish.
Shed middle class suburban ideas that are holding us back in our comfort zone.

Also from Mark Twain, this sums up what I most want my children to get out of it.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

Love and hugs to all our lovely friends and family. It's just a little trip till April, then...we will see…