Parting is such sweet sorrow

May 30, 2012 by 3 Comments
Christmas trees on Defender roof

For the past couple of weeks, we have been doing a bit of flip flopping about whether or not to sell the Land Rover Defender before we move to Berlin. Selling the Porsche is a no brainer. It's way too expensive and not worth the trouble. But when we thought we had a firm offer on the farmhouse, we began to think that perhaps keeping it wasn't such a bad idea. (I'm not sure yet whether I am going to go into details about the contract that fell through 20 hours before closing because we're just … [Read more...]

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The Great SUV Debate

June 17, 2011 by 6 Comments
Not our Cayenne but it looks just the same ;)

Not too long ago, I celebrated my fifth anniversary with my beloved Defender -- a truck which I absolutely adore because it's slow, fun to look at, and could probably hold a medium-sized elephant in the back! But after Stefan's BMW was stolen at the end February, he replaced it with a Porsche Cayenne. Again, a really nice SUV. But the BMW was faster, had more space inside (750iL) and was pure luxury to drive and ride in. The BMW had all the bells and whistles while the Porsche is more or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Family Life, Featured Tagged With: ,

Happy 5 year anniversary, Prince Edward

October 11, 2010 by 7 Comments
tomb-raider-defender

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010, marked my 5 year anniversary with my Land Rover Defender. My Defender (unlike most cars) is a dude...and his name is Prince Edward. Why, you ask? I have no idea...but I just called it that one day and it seemed right. So it stuck. You may have never heard of these beastly vehicles but if you've seen Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie, you have at least seen the baby version of my truck, a Defender 90. Of course the Defender in Tomb Raider has very little to do with a … [Read more...]

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We finally got in some climbing

April 17, 2007 by 2 Comments
climbing-locarno

As you might have guessed, we're already home and have been for over a week now. But we didn't get around to writing anything on Sunday or Monday because we were busy doing some climbing and then driving home. Sunday morning we got up and went to have breakfast and then try once again to find somewhere we could climb. When we approached the parking lot where the Defender was, we came across this car. We thought it was kind that they at least propped the car up on a few rocks so it wasn't … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Expat Life & Travel, Rock Climbing, Switzerland Tagged With: , , ,

Getting ready to go

April 5, 2007 by Leave a Comment

We've packed up our climbing gear and most of the stuff for the dog. I've also started packing my travel and overnight bags but hubby is waiting until we go to bed....which will be very shortly. We're planning to get up at about 5 am and hope to be on the road by 6. We've got about 7 hours of driving ahead of us tomorrow so we're thankful that the Defender has very comfortable seats. We need to get to Locarno before 6 pm or we may not be able to check in...but it should be a nice beautiful … [Read more...]

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Is spring here yet?

February 15, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Today the weather here is absolutely wonderful. It could be a bit warmer I guess but the sun is shining, there aren't too many clouds in the sky and it makes you really feel that spring is just around the corner. I know it's much too soon to begin thinking that the winter could indeed be over already here in Germany...but a girl can dream, right? I took advantage of the weather and decided to go run some errands and while I was driving, I actually realized it was so warm in the truck that I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Expat Life & Travel, Italy, Rock Climbing Tagged With: , , ,

Fall has arrived and my Newf looks like my Defender?

October 23, 2006 by

We spent a majority of the weekend working at the new farmhouse, cleaning out all the trash we made when we more or less destroyed our bathroom last weekend and starting to throw away some of the scrap wood which was piled up in the barn. Ayla always seems to sleep for hours straight when we come back from there. I don't know if she simply can't sleep while we're working or if it's just the excitement of being there - or perhaps just the happiness of the amount of freedom she has since at home … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Homesteading Life, House & Home Tagged With: , ,

Our last day

September 20, 2006 by 1 Comment

As has more or less been the usual routine, Ayla woke us up at about 6:45 this morning. We fed her and then took her for a walk at around 8 and our friends were awake by then also since the auto repair guy was supposed to come at 9 am. Since they have a small market at the campground also, we picked up some fresh paninis for breakfast with prosciutto and pecorino (sheep's cheese) on them. Still warm and quite tasty, they really hit the spot for breakfast. It was quite cold and foggy this … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Expat Life & Travel, Italy Tagged With: , ,

Our new camping haven

June 25, 2006 by Leave a Comment

We went camping again this weekend to prepare, train and just ready ourselves for our 3 week trip through Spain and Portugal. Since we intend to camp pretty much every night we're traveling, we know that we need to get everything down to an exact science so set-up, take down and everything in between goes as smoothly as possible. This time around we intended to be much better prepared. We packed the grill, plenty of food and drinks and were leaving nothing to chance. Of course we did forget … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Animal House, Expat Life & Travel, Germany, The puppy years (1-2) Tagged With:

But how will it all fit?

May 17, 2006 by 1 Comment

So now that we have a third body in the car with us - Ayla, who will be almost fully grown by the time we leave - it was time to start thinking about what we would bring on our trip and how it will all fit in and on the Defender. While we have no doubt the truck will be able to hold everything we need we are also trying to think practical. We will be on the road for 21 days, pitching out tent at a different campground each day and with so many things to see and do we want to spend minimal … [Read more...]

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