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We sweep through the Fulda Gap in central Germany, just east of Frankfurt, as we travel from lively Heidelberg to Berlin. The famed German railways have hit hard times, as a (familiar) lack of infrastructural investment over the years has left the tracks and logistical systems unable to keep up with post-pandemic travel, particularly after the introduction of a €50 all-you-can-ride regional train subscription deal introduced recently in Germany. Getting gas and diesel BMWs off the autobahn is a great goal, but maybe a bit more rail investment first would have been a good idea!

Fortunately, our train is not running more than 5 minutes late so far and, even better, we have not been annihilated by battlefield nukes!

Time Machine: thirty two years ago, this spot was the most likely touchpoint for World War III. During the Cold War (1945-1991), this landscape of valleys and hills and pleasant farmland was essentially the border between NATO (the US and its allies) and the “Warsaw Pact” (the Soviets under Russia). In Santa Monica, war planners under RAND, along with their counterparts throughout the military industrial establishment, painted a terrifying scenario of Soviet tanks flooding west toward Frankfurt and then France. Given the imposing numbers of Soviet tanks (T-72s and their ilk, which vastly outnumbered NATO tanks), the West would have to stop that blitzkrieg through some desperate means. That led to the development of nuclear artillery shells (not an ordinance that gets fired twice), not to mention Apache helicopters and A-10 attack aircraft (both designed to try to slow that Soviet tank onslaught). Almost inevitably, at that point escalation to full-blown nuclear war would end the world (except for the cockroaches, which don’t mind hard radiation so much).

There should be a big museum to commemorate the horrible history that never happened here.

Instead, those same T-72s flooded across the plains of Ukraine, aimed not through the Fulda Gap, but toward Kiev. Shockingly, many of them were then successfully blown apart by Ukraine’s vastly outnumbered defensive forces. World’s still not over, at least for the moment, thank goodness!

I should note that this landscape is also where Napoleon’s French armies swept through when attempting to take over Europe in the 1810s… And where they retreated again after they lost.

It is also where Grandpa Bernie and his US Army compatriots advanced through Germany as they liberated the very few survivors of the Nazi death camps in 1945. (Buchenwald, for example, is about an hour ahead of us on our route to Berlin.)

As we roll on through the former East Germany (German “Democratic” “Republic”), Lil points out the concrete Soviet Brutalist architecture emerging here and there amongst the villages we pass.

History has left its marks in faded, but still legible layers, like a palimpsest.

So far, I (Lil) have been narrating our adventures. I have a few more thoughts about New Zealand coming, but in the meantime, the kids have taken a turn at writing blog posts. Not necessarily recounting our adventures, but just taking a stab at whatever inspires them. Stay tuned.

Because one of the kids has been wanting for years to experience a motorhome adventure, we decided to do this for their 12th birthday.

The campervan experience seemed like something everyone does in New Zealand, and a new adventure to us, so we decided to go for it. The infrastructure is very developed in NZ for campervan rentals and they make things smooth and easy. Because it’s winter in NZ, renting the RV was no issue at all, plenty of availability. I can see in their summer it must get very busy, the infrastructure is definitely set up to handle a heck of a lot more people than what we ran into in the middle of winter.

I was daunted by being in such an enormous vehicle. On the wrong side of the road. But I didn’t have to drive, luckily, Jem enjoys driving and likes driving new types of vehicles.

Because it was winter, it was cold-ish and rainy-ish, in so far as we stuck to Northland (north part of north island). Thankfully most of New Zealand is temperate. The North Island rarely gets below 40. Most days it was 50s for the high, with one or two days reaching 60! Nice enough with a sweater. The South Island has some ski/snow destinations. We stayed way away from those.

By the time we got to the Bay of Islands, it was almost warm. Certainly beautiful.

Travel tip: buy full “stress free plus” insurance coverage. Normally we decline all the insurance offered by car rentals but with such limited experience with RVs, I thought, I did not want to worry about accidentally hitting the roof, or something in a blind spot, so I decided to just pay it. And thank goodness. We had a rock hit the windshield, and chip it, and it was all covered.

Super easy. Credit card rental car insurance doesn’t cover RV rentals and a million things can go wrong with such an enormous car; having the coverage was worth every dime.

So, besides the enormity of the vehicle, and driving on the wrong side, and the wind storms, and the chipped windshield, and the unexpected road that becomes unpaved midway through the curvy mountains on the way to the campground, was the fact that I never knew what to call this vehicle. Campervan is the main term, but they also refer to them as RVs (more common in the US) but motorhome is used too. One thing we did learn — it is not a caravan. A caravan means a trailer camper/fifth wheel being pulled by a car. We had seen one campground saying “not suitable for caravans.” But then said perfect for campervans. So, I figured, those had to be different. I finally learned the difference at one of the campgrounds when a New Zealander asked me at the campground if we were in a caravan. Thinking he meant campervan, I said yes. Then he said, “oh that is nice. You have a car you can detach and drive around.” Ah. No, it’s not a caravan.

Overall, we really liked the van life and now are considering doing this back home too!

We launched our first leg of WorldSchooling by going somewhere we have never been before. The beautiful, amazing islands of Tahiti and Moorea. Technically, our first leg of WorldSchooling was New Zealand, but most flights stopped in either Hawaii, Fiji or Tahiti, so we felt like we should stay for a few days in one of the places if we had to stop anyway. So we flew to Tahiti and stayed in French Polynesia for 8 days on our way to New Zealand.

We left out of SFO. That means we upped our departure day to spend 3 days in San Francisco before heading to Papeete. The girls’ cousin joined us for the Tahiti part of our trip.

Girls had their 6th grade graduation/awards ceremony on a Friday and we left Saturday. Of course. (Itching to depart at the first opportunity!) While waiting for our flight at SFO, we caught a glimpse of Airforce One.

We then arrived to Tahiti, where we were greeted at the airport by a serenade!

We stayed at a lovely villa with a pool and the most gorgeous views, of our second destination, Moorea.

The vistas were stunning, everywhere.

We called it the beginning of Worldschool launch but it wasn’t, not really. It was a glorious break. It was the much needed relaxation, downtime before we being the school year. Summer break. Except Winter in Tahiti. Confusing. Tahiti is lovely. French Polynesia and it’s people were amazingly friendly. So many experiences — the security guard who comes over when we double parked and instead of yelling at us to move, offers to walk with us and help with all our luggage to show us where the elevator is around the corner. The person who runs over and makes sure we aren’t lost. The person who escorted us to our rental house to make sure we found it and knew how everything worked. All speaking French. Which is honestly the disconnect because that famous French aloofness is absolutely lacking in Tahiti. (And not lacking in another French island, Guadeloupe, where we vacationed in 2022, so the contrast was stark. And a pleasant surprise.)

The French Polynesian waters, well, the waters are indescribably beautiful and pictures do not do it justice. We loved swimming and snorkeling, and though we generally dislike hot humid weather, we were fortunate to be there on the “coldest” day of the year, what we call the summer solstice, but I guess is actually their winter solstice, June 21. Late June is a very nice time to be in French Polynesia.

That said, while we love warm water beaches, but dislike heat and humidity, we were beginning to look forward to actual winter in New Zealand. It was hard to say goodby to Tahiti, and of course we are already seeing how to plug a few days into Tahiti during our Down Under Module (2024).

This evening, Amalia shared some sad news from school by making a heart with her hands and then turning it sideways, split in twain. She then pointed to imaginary tears running from one eye.

Translation:

🫶🏽 💔 😿

Hi. We moved. I have been here only one night now. And I think that it is cool ? it feels like camping ⛺️. I love the house ? I will tell you 5 things that I love about the house ok . First we have a pool. i get wet but it is still fun. Second my bedroom is much bigger. Thrid we have great neighbors they are fun. Fourth, we have an art and craft room so I can do my experiments ?. And Fifth there is a big open area so we can do our plays if you want to see the play. I will ask my mom to post it ok now bye? .

What a year 2020 has been for all of us. No one could have predicted 2020 would go the way it has for the world.

Before March 2020, we had planned to return to Japan for the summer. I had been studying Japanese all year. My こにちわ s and my わたしわ’s were all coming along nicely, and I had achieved some basic aka Kindergarten level literacy. Now, of course, we don’t have any idea when our next international adventure will be. We are just so very grateful that we Carpe Diemed and went last year!!!

But we wouldn’t be Axelrod-Delcampo’s without a summer adventure. So, as if quarantining, working from home semi-permanently, not to mention 3rd grade school Zooming (which did not work for us at all), during a pandemic were not enough — we bought a new house, moved and are now trying to sell our old house as well.

Jem and I have always had a Mediterranean style love for homes, so when we found this home, the week before the Pandemic shutdowns started, we knew it was as close to a dream house that we would find. We are glad we made the change, the new house works much better for us as a family, but it sure has become the “adventure” as we have tried to learn how to move during a pandemic…plus all the normal headaches that come with moving. Like figuring out the plumbing, electrical and quirks of a new house was built for someone else’s taste. Then there are the more minor issues — for example, today, Sophie said to me “Mom, Complaint. The mirror in our bathroom is too high, so I can’t see myself brushing my hair.” Indeed, we are going to have to lower the mirror about 3 inches. Add that to the to-do list with 100+ items on it.

I have told Jem for years that there are two things that are never long enough for me — cruises and massages. I always wish the cruise were more days, and I always wish the massage were more minutes.

Now, I have one more thing to add to my list — visits to Japan. We were in Japan two months. We covered a lot of Japan, and crossed off several items that we wanted to do, but left with a list of things we didn’t get to that we needed to do “next time.” Here is a short list

1. Spend more weeks in an apartment in Sapporo, visiting more parks, and more museums

2. Take language classes/send kids to a school in Sapporo

3. See more of Hokkaido (this time we just saw Otaru)

4. See more of the Kerama islands

5. Spend more time in Nagano

So, of course, we are already planning our visit to Sapporo next summer. Because the hardest, most difficult part of being in Japan this summer, was saying good bye. Both Jem and I were very sad at Kansai airport, as we watched the airline staff all bow to us, and say good bye. (Try and hold that image in your mind. You are at a busy international airport. Dozens queuing at the airline counter, waiting for the counters to open. Instead of surly and frazzled, the airline staff, as they prepare to open the ticket counters, walk out in a row, in front of their counters, in their very nice uniforms, turn to all of us, smile, bow in unison. Then move behind their counter and still with a big smile, greet the first six groups in line. So patient, orderly and friendly. Have we mentioned, we love Japan? And miss it terribly?)

Now that we are home, I have started Japanese language classes. Next year, I will use our trip to perfect my Japanese. And I leave you with my two favorite Japanese words so far: すすきの and すし

(Two classes down and I know a lot of hiragana now. At least I know them for an hour or so, my long term retention is really bad.)

I probably wont be posting as much since my adventures will ease for a while…though we are planning a fall trip to Paris…so check back every few weeks there may be more adventures to follow.

So, until next year さよなら