How it all began…

Quite simply we love to travel. We have always travelled as much as we could but had always been limited by time. A week or two, or sometimes even three, at a time was always lovely and enjoyed, but ultimately never enough.

Way back in the winter of 2015 we threw around the ideas of taking a leave from our workplaces to travel. The genie was out of the bottle. Once we spoke the idea aloud, we knew it was going to happen. Luckily we were able to take advantage of a pre-paid leave system at our places of work. Essentially, a small percentage of each of our pay cheques would be held back over a period of two and a half years. This money was set aside to allow us to continue to receive an income as we took our leave. We have always been quite frugal and so missing that small amount was not that difficult thankfully. It also meant we did not save for the trip ahead of time.

It was all very easy in the end and we had the plans for our leaves from work set up by the Spring of that year. Our adventure was to begin October 1, 2017. Obviously that date shifted as we were able to add accumulated vacation time so we officially began our travel September 1st.

Planning was always a passion, especially for Gilles. We went through spurts of planning over the time leading up to our start date. Originally the idea was hatched that we would spend all of our time between Spain and southern France. We would be seeking a place we liked, in a climate that was enjoyable, to retire to eventually. Talk about thinking ahead! That plan quickly morphed, as with the global political scene, to where we are today- going wherever we want, with little to no real planning for where we go next. The research and planning did not go to waste as we found many places we would like to go. Some places came and went, like France, Turkey and maybe Spain, but many were added to the list of possibilities.

The other piece of planning entailed deciding what to bring. It was not an easy decision at all. Let’s just say that one of us thought to pack very light and one of us thought this was simply crazy. Crazy won out. In the end, we packed very little for our trip, with a small backpack each (size of a carry on) and a personal sized satchel. These ended up being jammed and weighing a ton- not easy to run around town with. We will very likely lighten our load as we go. It is amazing how much stuff we were able to fit into this small amount of luggage. This is the clothing and end result for just one of us!

And now our adventure has begun!

After two and a half years of planning, then planning again, and then completely changing plans approximately 20 more times, we landed in our first stop of Vienna, Austria.