Picking up where we left off

Stop, fast forward, play…

The time has finally come to not only leave covid19 behind us (fingers crossed) but also all the surgery and hospital stays (fingers double crossed). It’s time to pick things back up where we left off.

The whole point of sharing my story with the world was to inspire others to go out there and experience life to the fullest, regardless of any disability you might have. But in order to do that, I first need to have experiences to share with you all of course.

Enter “the plan” (dramatic music)!

Before the pandemic hit, my parents had already started looking into our next adventure. They bought various travel books, surfed the internet, spoke to numerous people and then, all of a sudden, the whole world came to a grinding halt. The pandemic hit and traveling was no longer an option. But surely enough, 4 or 5 lockdowns and vaccinations later (I lost count), things started looking a bit brighter. Countries around the world started opening up their borders again and my parents blew the dust of the travel books and little by little, the plan started to have some meat to the bone.

As of December 2021, almost every Sunday afternoon, for weeks in a row, the whole family gathered around the livingroom table with books, laptops and smartphones in hand. The first thing we quicky agreed on was the destination, after all, we had bought those books so we might as well use them. This year’s adventure is taking us all north… way up north. Sweden and Norway… hold on to your pants, here we come!

Since our roadtrip in the US was such a success three years ago, our means of transportation was a no-brainer. We started looking for a motorhome as that would not only be easiest for us to travel with, we can leave straight from our doorstep (no trains, planes or automobiles) but also having a kitchen, a bathroom and bed nearby for me is always a good idea! However, we soon found out things were not going to be as easy as in the US. In Europe you need a truck driver’s license for the larger motorhome models. Neither my dad nor my mom possess such a license. As we are planning to have an extra passenger (my brother is bringing his girlfriend – she’s truly amazing, but that’s for some other time) we did need something quite spacious. After several weeks of looking for a suitable motorhome my dad managed to find a private person willing to rent us his Roller team Kronos motorhome. With it’s 7,45m and built on a Ford Transit chassis, it is large enough to house 5 people but small enough to be able to drive with a regular driver’s license.

The first milestone had been taken so now came the next challenge, how on earth can we plan a trip that gives us more than just merely an brief impression of these two beautiful countries? For such a trip you need the one thing everyone lacks… time! So we are going for a whole month during the summer holiday in July, no compromise! So with the “how” and the “when” out of the way, it was time for the “what”… and for the “what”… and for the… “what else”…  

There are so many wonderful things to do in Sweden and Norway and I don’t want to spoil the story for you, but let’s just say I’m looking forward to doing something amazing things and seeing some incredible places! Two of the things I look forward to most of all (grandma, you might want to stop reading here) – is first spending a night in a cabin in the middle of the woods to spot bears in Lofsdalen, located in an area that has Sweden’s most dense population of bears. And secondly going ice-climbing on the Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier in Norway and in continental Europe (if the weather permits).

So that’s “the plan”… or at least, lifting a small tip of the veil of the plan. So stay tuned here and on my Facebook page, as in a couple of weeks we’ll be embarking on our next adventure – finally!

Sverige, Norge, här/her kommer vi!