NORWAY - fly Vancouver to Oslo on June 7, 2017

in Norway

And so we begin in Norway where Paul’s maternal grandparents (Olsen’s) set sail from and ended up in Saskatchewan.  By virtue of his mom’s older sister’s marriage into the Wahl family, the Olsen family also ended up in Dodge Cove near Prince Rupert in British Columbia.  The Wahl brothers became famous for their design and production of wooden fishing boats up and down the west coast of Canada.

Example of a Wahl-built boat

Europe on the Go - Written April 24, 2017

Because our travels are over five months, our itinerary is affected by the Schengen Agreement which came into effect in 1995 and involves 26 countries, some of which are in the EU and some are not.

We can only be in Schengen signatory countries for a total of 90 days.  Our plan is to be in the Schengen countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany for about 45 days – then to travel to countries that are not currently in the Schengen Agreement (Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina & Montenegro) for about 50 days – then back into the Schengen countries of Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

As usual itineraries are subject to the whims of the day and conversation with fellow travellers and ‘locals’.

PROLOGUE - April 24, 2017

since Linda’s retirement in February 2016 from 42 years of nursing, we have been on the move.  First a 9-week backpacking trip to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos; followed by a trip across Canada in our 5^th. wheel, then as the cold weather approached we headed to the sun of the southern USA.

We’ve been back home in Grand Forks for a month, selling off our household ‘stuff’ in the storage unit so that we can full-time RV.  At the end of May, we head to Vancouver for the wedding of good friends Anne and Jeff, and a fund-raiser to off-set the expenses of Anne’s daughter Jessi and her open-water swim of the English Channel this summer.

In June we head to Europe for five months.  While we have no relatives that we know of there, the plan is to visit some places where family lived.  Paul’s ancestors hail from Norway, Denmark and Sweden.  Linda’s father was born in Italy and he mother’s third-generation ancestors were from Ireland and Scotland. 

Linda’s only sibling (brother Mark) retired in March 2017.  Mark and his wife Carol will drag themselves away from their infant grandson (daughter Maria & son-in-law Matt) to join us in Italy for September.

This blog is intended for friends and family to track our travels and for us so that we can stay in touch with you.  Put your e-mail in the blog to receive new posts.  We look forward to having ‘conversation’ with you via the comments section.