Family Travel Photo - Spain

Doing around the world family travel, you just never know what you will see or experience next. Today in Spain, I was working on my book about our travel story, typing away on my macbook,  when I looked up and saw this scene. Oxen pulling a car is just not your every day scene in America, but very much part of our exotic lifestyle today.

I love living on the edge of the countryside ( or campo in Spanish) because we constantly hear and see horses and various animals going by with many of the farm folks who still like to do many things the old fashion way. Yes, that is our motor home parked for the winter in the background. We are really going to miss this sweet village as we will start to winter in Asia for a few years so that Mozart can immerse deeply in her 3rd language, Mandarin Chinese. Do you think we will see some oxen and unusual things there too?

Comments

[Jo]

Jeanne, I've really enjoyed following your adventures through your blog. Thanks for taking the time to chronicle your journey for the rest of us to enjoy. I have a few quick questions, if you don't mind.

How much did you pay for your RV? How many miles/km do you put on it each year? What's the average price of gas per gal or liter?

I'm trying to get an idea of how much to budget for. We hope to take a 4-6 month tour of Europe next spring. You've totally inspired me! Thanks again!

Jo

[Christina]

My sister and brother in-law lived for seven years in a fairly large town outside Beijing. Even in a larger populated area, they still would see people walking hogs down the middle of the road. So, I'm sure you're in for some interesting sights and sounds no matter where you winter.

I've realy enjoyed reading about your travels throughout Europe, especially as that is an area we will be visting much more in the near future. Now I'm looking forward to seeing how much you guys like Asia.

[soultravelers3]

Jo- So happy to hear that we have inspired you! We paid almost 20,000 euros for our RV & it is a 98! We have a buy back guarantee or we can sell it ourselves ( as one friend did easily on ebay UK).

Hard to count the miles because it varies each year, but surprisingly not that much as it sits 6 months of the year. The year we went up portugal, across n spain and France, then around Ireland & all of UK, then Scandinavia and down thru Germany...was our most miles & TOOO much.

Usually we do MUCH less, so we are mostly sitting & using bikes, walking, mass transit as Europe is dense for sites. We usually drive 3/4 hrs then sit a week, 2 or month even. Saves tons on mileage & gas.

Gas really varies too. Around 2 euros a liter right now. Guess off top of head maybe 10,000 km a year for mileage? We don't really have those numbers at the top of our head, so just guestimates.

I'd plan your trip with just 3/4 hour drives, then stay put a bit. Maybe do some longer drives if you have to trackback. I'm going to do some RV centric posts soon as `i have time.

Christina- Ha! That is funny! I'm sure we will have some very interesting sights, indeed! ;) It will be fun to compare the two, but we do plan to return to Europe for summers, so much good here. Maybe we will meet eventually! ;)

[Munich Traveler]

Wow, I just discovered your blog and am amazed at all of your travels! How exciting to travel around the world, and your plans for Asia sound like another great adventure!

[Kelly]

Excited to read about your coming adventures in Asia - I live in Singapore.Where do you intend to winter in? Thanks for chronicling your family travels, they are very inspiring and entertaining - they make me miss my backpacking days!

[soultravelers3]

Munich- Welcome & thanks! We will still be coming to Europe for the summer for a while. ;)

Kelly- We appreciate your kind words! The MOST important thing for us is finding a good Mandarin Chinese school for our daughter, which might be easier in China but we want to do a long stay in Malaysia because we think we can find that there & it is a possible place to maybe live some day as it's very accommodating to western Expats.

So, just like Spain, we are looking for a possible home or part time home if we like it. Malaysia seems like a perfect Asian base for us, but we will see. Low cost & safe is important to us & we prefer rural areas to large cities.

We hope to find a similar spot to the one we have in Spain which actually has similarities to our home town in Ca. We prefer small town, but near good city or amenities.

We don't want to be in an area that is filled with all English speaking expats, but prefer more locals & in this case Chinese communities would be valued because we want Mozart to be very fluent in Mandarin.

We are traveling VERY light for our 6 month stay there ( and if all works out well we will do it for several winters in the same town.

I think we are going to be in Penang area from my research. What would you suggest?