On March 22, we left Australia and started what, in my mind, is the last part of our trip. The first part was everything I had planned before we left Germany (from Greece to Vietnam, end of July through early November) to countries we had not visited before and where everything was new and different. I also had planned a very logical path heading east around the world.

The second part was the slower travel through Japan, New Zealand and Australia that was very easy and similar to how we “normally” travel (road trips, familiar infrastructure, grocery stores full of food we know and love). When we left Germany, we knew we wanted to spend time in Australia, but were unsure of how long. We ended up spending nine weeks and decided when we would leave exactly in late February.

So that brought us to this final stage. Originally we had planned on continuing east to South America, but then decided to let each family member throw out one or two places they would really like to see. So we had a list of (seemingly) random places, and I started figuring out what path would make sense and how many places we could go in the 10 weeks we had. We ended up with Bali (2 weeks)-Dubai (1 week)-Italy (3 weeks)-Scotland (3 weeks)-Ireland (1 week). Then the US and Isreal decided to bomb Iran, and the Middle East became off limits. Luisa was very disappointed to miss out on Dubai but also had Seoul high on her list. So we swapped out Dubai and put in Seoul, South Korea, and now our travel path looks crazy. LOL But it works for us!

---

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

We started this last part with a true vacation. We spent one week at Parma Sanur Beach Bali, a resort hotel right on the beach with two pools, a fantastic breakfast buffet, live music most nights and the most relaxing vibe. We had our spring break that week, so the girls I could just relax, swim, read and take an actual break from life. Since things in Bali are quite cheap, we were able to order any food we wanted poolside, get a few massages and facials and take a surf lesson (that was €420 when we looked into it at Bondi Beach and was under €200 in Bali). It was wonderful! We rarely left the hotel grounds, which is not at all how we usually travel but was very nice for a week.

Steffen and the girls went surfing while I relaxed on the beach. A win-win! I’m so glad they got the opportunity to try it!

After our week there, we drove two hours north to Ubud, a jungly town known for its rainforest, terraced rice paddies, temples and shrines. More on that in my next post.