Numbers
Posted on by Debbie

Travel by Numbers

Travel Tuesday – it’s all about the numbers…and a quote

Are numbers a big part of your life?  How does 108 days away from home sound to you?  Could you do it?

Photo by Black ice on Pexels.com

Well I can tell you that numbers play a big part in the life of a Mathematician, and when said Mathematician also happens to be one’s husband and travelling companion, they can take on a life of their own.

So here are a few numbers we crunched while on the last leg of our amazing odyssey, in which we bravely set out to travel for over 3 months from Australia to Europe and home again. I hope you enjoy reading 🙂

Travel by Numbers

108 days away from home

3 months 16 days

15 weeks 3 days

10 countries visited

22 different rooms

21 beds

13 flights

4 trains

9 Trams

18 buses

2 boats

3 hire cars

1 zip wire adventure

30+ bloggers met including the Annual Bloggers Bash Awards: I was also very lucky to meet Lucile and Suzanne during our travels

Bike rides in almost every country we visited

2 suitcases and 2 carry on bags

Countless car trips

30+ families/friends enjoyed hospitality since we left home 

Family events: 1 funeral, 2 daughters’ birthdays, 1 house warming, 1 baby shower

Missed events:

Youngest daughter’s 30th

Mother’s 80th birthday

Daughter and son in law moving house 

Happiest moments for me included (in no particular order):

  • Being at Stage 15 of the Tour de France in Mazamet with my Tumba-bloody-Rumba banner.  A chance conversation led to an amazing few days with good friends in France.
    My happy face at the Tour de France 2018
    Part of the crowd
  • Catching up with so many friends and family all over Europe – I actually dubbed it the People’s Tour as we managed to see so many old friends and we met new ones – I wrote this post about one such encounter Never let a chance go by
  • Travelling to Iceland with our eldest daughter for a week – what an awesome adventure and so much fun!
    Waterfall in Iceland
    Vikings in Iceland
    Viking masks in Iceland
  • Bike tour on a barge to the Top of Amsterdam   
  • Enjoying the summer heat wave across UK and Europe while not missing winter at home

I’m sure I’ll have more observations to make in coming weeks as we settle into being at home and I remember our adventures in more detail. 

Home

I’m not one to miss my own bed or my own shower, but I must admit it is nice to be in our own space again after so long on the road.  It’s also good to have a greater variety of clothes to choose from, although being limited to one suitcase of clothes does have its advantages too 🙂

Do you think you could travel indefinitely?  I’d like to think I could but I’m not sure. I haven’t even started to unpack yet!

I always love a good quote!

This quote rings very true for me.  It was one of 50 inspirational travel quotes in this post from Sue and Dave at Travel Tales of Life – 50 Ultimate Travel Quotations to Inspire your Journey

Why do you go away? So that you can come back.  So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours.  And the the people there see you differently, too.  Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

Terry Pratchett

Does this quote work for you too? Feel free to leave me a comment below. I always love hearing from you and try to respond to all your comments 🙂

Home to sunshine, blue sky and daffodils
Home to sunshine, blue sky and daffodils

Deb xx

Travel by Numbers pin

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49 Replies to “Travel by Numbers”

  1. Pingback: SENIOR SALON ROUNDUP: AUGUST 20-24, 2018 ~ Esme Salon

  7. Such an interesting blog thanks for sharing. Terry’s quote is intriguing and has me thinking. Why do we go away? It certainly isn’t to go back as we are full time travellers. We go away to feel free of the matrix that ties us and makes us conform and to expand our mind and souls with the experiences and cultures we live amongst.

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    1. Yes you’re exactly right Karen. I’m struggling wit being back and getting caught up in all the pettiness that wasn’t around when i was travelling and ‘free’. Thanks for your insightful comment and joining in the conversation.

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    1. Hi Susie – two months is a good amount of time I’d say! It’s been hard for me coming home and getting back into things after such a long break away. I’d much rather be travelling forever.

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  9. Wow. Those are a lot of numbers. I imagine the Mathematician started tracking them as soon as you left? I’m the kind of person who cleans my house before I go on vacation so that I will enjoy coming home. But future plans do include having that home be a camper that we take across the US. So we’ll see what kind of traveler I really am. The kind that can really travel or the kind that needs an actual home base to come back to.

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    1. That sounds like a good plan Jennifer, hope it all works out for you! Funny story – I made up the bed with winter sheets ready for our return but forgot that I’d actually done it until I got home! I also couldn’t find my winter clothes because of the clean up I’d had before the house sitter came in – many stories to tell 🙂

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  11. The quote is perfect: I’ve not heard it before and it’s so absolutely true.

    I’m so pleased you had such a great adventure, and I’m sorry about your very sad news towards the end. I hope you are keeping well x

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    1. Thanks Em, it was a new quote to me too but so relevant in many ways. We had an amazing time away and have so many stories to tell. Still trying to settle into being at home and back in winter after all that heat. Always appreciate you stopping by and for the opportunity to share on your Facebook page. #pickledblogs 😊❤️

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  13. We’ve been away from home now for 7 years and I could not even begin to crunch numbers without getting homesick. We are pretty certain now that we won’t be returning to the starting point. We are going to just keep on moving around Canada until we have lived a good while in each province 🙂 Living out of a suitcase, I agree, definitely has benefits!

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    1. Wow that’s a great story. Good on you all for being so adventurous. Thanks so much for your sharing and interaction with my post. I don’t tend to get homesick much but 7 years is a fair amount of time to be away. 😊

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  14. You made me think twice about my trips, Deb. I’ve never counted my travels in numbers, but it looks like a warming thing when you can read just numbers and remember the moments you saved them. I loved it! Thank you.

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  15. Deb I loved reading this wrap up of your Odyssey, especially the numbers. I remember feeling envious when you were on the Tour de France route. I even looked for you in the crowd with your banner. When I walked the Camino I was away from home for 44 days. This was my longest time away. Shared on SM #MLSTL

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    1. Thanks for you thoughts Jennifer, it certainly was a great time away. We enjoyed compiling the list of numbers while driving the last three hours home from Canberra. We will go back to walk some of the Camino, it seems like a great walk. You did well being away for 44 days, it’s not always easy.

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  16. I’m so sorry to hear about the funeral, Deb. Your post includes so many interesting facts and figures. 13 flights in 108 days with only two suitcases and 2 carry-ons is something that struck me. I hope the only jet lag was between Australia and Europe. What a great adventure, and captured so brilliantly in your photography.
    I’m not one for travel anymore. I used to be, but I’ve become more of a ‘home bird’ since retiring. It sounds silly, doesn’t?, given that I now have all this spare time to travel. However, “what spare time?” is a question I often ask myself.
    Here’s to the next adventure.

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    1. Thanks for your comment Hugh, it’s been a sad end to our amazing odyssey but the fact remains we did a lot of fun things beforehand. I’m glad you enjoyed the facts and figures, it was a fun way of collating our adventures.
      Your retirement is for you and how you want to spend it. Adventures come in all shapes and sizes. We’re lucky to have our daughter and many friends to use as a base for our travelling otherwise it would be impossible for us to do what we did. I agree ‘what spare time’ is the catchphrase of most retirees these days 😊. Lovely to have you visit and leave such an interesting response to my post. Thanks again.

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  19. Loved your post Deb, awesome and fun breakdown of numbers and experiences. You sure had an amazing adventure. Travel always opens our eyes and makes us appreciate what we have, both while we’re away and back at home. Loved the quote. Summed it all up beautifully. xx 🙂

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  21. I get the idea of change from travel and how enriching as well as unsettling that can be. I learnt early when travelling for work to take it slow when I got back to the family and limit the detail of my recollections while biggging up their stories of what happened in my absence. It was too easy to suggest my life was more exciting than theirs. But gradually we both absorbed each other’s experiences to the benefit of both.

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    1. Funny you should question that!! We stayed in the same bed twice but the bed had moved to a new house so we only counted it as one bed but a different room! The Mathematician is a stickler for keeping it real 🙂

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    1. Thanks Donna, it was fun to compile as we drove the last 3 hours home. We certainly packed a lot into our time away. Notice I didn’t include $$$$$ – that would be just too scary. Glad you like the final quote too, I love finding new quotes that I can relate to. Love having you back in the blogging world 😊❤️

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