Journal

My wife Karen has dreamed of celebrating a milestone birthday in Tuscany since her 20’s.  We hoped to go to chef Umberto Menghi’s cooking school in Tuscany for her 40th, but family and finances did not allow for it.  So we were determined to get to Italy for her 50th.

Our 2015 Netherlands house exchange ended with a stay in the historic city of Utrecht. Several Dutch people recommended it, telling us that it was just as historic and beautiful as Amsterdam, but cleaner! It is also very compact, so once we arrived we didn’t use our car until we left.

Our 10th summer house exchange, to La Rochelle, France, was unlike any exchange we have ever done., but probably one of our best.

We knew from the pictures that our exchange family sent to us, and from the Google Earth and Street views that we looked up, that this was going to be special.