This journey started way back in February,
when I was causally looking at home exchange websites. I had recently watched the movie The Holiday which is a story about two women who exchange houses, and I suppose that it was a bit of an inspiration for me. I had been thinking of taking my two teenagers to England, but it seemed like it would be very expensive. Our last big trip together was five years ago - a month in Europe, but we were able to stay with my cousin in Germany and managed to keep the costs low. It seemed to me the only way we would be able to afford a trip to England was to try a "house swap".
I happened upon one of the bigger home exchange sites: HomeExchange.com and while playing around with their search features I found a listing (from Wales) that actually mentioned my city as their preferred destination. Somehow seeing that made everything crystal clear; this was a very real possibility.
In retrospect I was pretty naive, thinking that the people on the other side of the listing would definitely want to exchange with us. There are plenty of steps between seeing a listing and doing a home exchange, I wasn't even a member the site. Nevertheless, I ran in to my son's bedroom and asked what he thought. Not surprisingly, he had no objections. My very next action was to grab my cell phone and send a text my daughter who was at a party. "How would you like to go to Wales?". When she received my text she was baffled. Going to Wales? What was her crazy mother up to?
Fast forward six months, and here we are. In exactly two weeks we will be on a plane to England. There is still lots to do; prepping the house, organizing pet care, shopping for decent shoes. We will, in fact, be visiting Wales, but not the same little house I saw on the website half a year ago. In fact the Wales part of the trip will not be a home exchange at all, we have ended up renting a cottage for a week in order to join up two separate house exchanges.
In total we will be in England (and Wales!) for six weeks.
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