Well, it was definitely a year of sunshine and insights. Two months in, just as the kids were settling into their new school, we were thrown a curveball. The free school and kindergarten we had meticulously arranged from Germany were abruptly closed due to a misconduct incident among the children. Cue the scramble to enroll the kids in the local „village school.“ Easy on paper, but in reality, it involved a maze of bureaucratic hoops. But hey, we managed it, and the kids adapted like champs.

Just as we were getting our bearings, our tenant in Stuttgart announced he could no longer pay rent. Perfect timing, as we had a seven-week trip back to Germany planned. That trip quickly turned into a full-scale apartment clear-out. We sold everything we had and returned to Tenerife owning just the stuff that could fit into our caravan and Passat. For a family of four, that’s quite the minimalist achievement.

September brought a brief respite. The kids started their new school, and we enjoyed a rare moment of calm. Actually, we always wanted to offer our children an alternative form of schooling (Montessori or a free school), but the local school here is truly fantastic. The teachers are incredibly warm and genuinely embrace their roles as educators. This level of dedication is something we didn’t see as a standard back in Germany.

Then, another surprise: the university informed us our contracts would end not in August 2024, but at the end of the year – 2023. A bit of a shocker, but we rolled with it. We’d been freelancing since 2017, though it was more of a side hustle. Suddenly, we needed to turn it into our main gig and build our business anew in Spain.

Despite the twists and turns, we decided to stay on this beautiful island. The kids are thriving at their new village school, Annika’s pain has significantly diminished, and I’ve taken up more surfing and started wing foiling—my new favorite pastime. Honestly, you couldn’t drag me away from the waves now.

So here we are, a year later, more settled and content than we ever thought possible. Tenerife has truly become home, not just a year-long experiment. Here’s to more sunshine, waves, and the beautiful unpredictability of life!

It is done and now the whole family can fly together to Tenerife on March the 7th. To make this possible we had to plan everything for quite some time and not to speak of all the farewell parties.

On Saturday the 25th of February I started with Miri, the best co-pilot and caravan driver of all times in the direction of south. First there was a little traffic jam on the A8, but from shortly before Karlsruhe we drove without traffic jams in one go to Cádiz. The time of departure was rather spontaneously chosen, but as it turned out later absolutely perfect. We were able to drive through France and Lyon during the night and were near Barcelona at sunrise. Since it went so well until there, we chose a campsite near Barbate, which is 40 minutes from Cadiz. Arrival about Sunday evening. The ferry would leave on Tuesday and the motivation was at least one day not to sit in the car. We actually arrived around 23:00 o’clock and could enjoy the beach and the surroundings of Barbate.

On Tuesday the ferry left at 14:00 o’clock from Cadiz with stops in Lanzerote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and finally Tenerife. We have stopped virtually at every mailbox of the Canaries ? Since we have booked no cabin and only Pullman Seats, it were two nights with little sleep, where we had built our camps with sleeping mat and rugs.

On Thursday the 2nd of March we arrived relatively punctually around 10:00 o’clock on Tenerife. The last meters to the finca – our new home – were the real adventure of the trip. Partly with squeaking tires and stinking clutch we boarded up the hills. The journey to the finca had unfortunately taken longer than expected and therefore we could only go out to eat in Playa San Juan in the evening.

Now I’m sitting in the plane to Frankfurt, writing this summary and fly in 4.5h the same distance, which was a 6 day road trip for us.

I am so grateful for all the support and kind words we have received in the last weeks and months. We couldn’t have done it all without our families, friends and our supervisors! Thank you for that! And of course thanks to Miri – without her I would not have survived the last meters to the finca and the trip would not have gone so smoothly!

No idea if the kids will still have the opportunity to ski in a few years – maybe it will be too expensive in the future, maybe there will be no more snow. But they could enjoy the fantastic nature to the fullest.

From our base Los Gigantes we have always made trips and of course also to the north of Tenerife. We visited the The Masca Gorge (where we only looked at from above) or the whale skeleton at Los Silos. At Icon we looked at the oldest dragon tree and were in the butterfly house, which was really great for the kids.

In Garachico we looked at the port and the beautiful old town. The port had once been destroyed by a stream of lava and since then the then important port city had to give up its rank to other port cities on Tenerife.

Actually we wanted to make a small tour in the Anaga Mountains, but as already written above, at the end of the trip an illness kept interfering with one of us.

A few impressions from the north:

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Tenerife has several animal parks and the biggest one is Loro Park. Since it has in the Loro Park also Orka whales, we had inquired in advance how animal-friendly the keeping of whales is and became not 100% clear from it. From the Sea Shepherds we then learned details about the keeping of whales and dolphins in prison, which made us – and especially our big one – cross the Loro Park off the list. The whales live in chlorinated water in the parks. To endure the chlorinated water, the animals have to take extra medicine. In order to be able to tolerate the medicine better, the whales need more medicine – a stupid cycle. Another fact I didn’t know before is that dolphins often commit suicide in captivity (probably Flipper did too). Since dolphins have to breathe consciously, they can also consciously stop breathing to take their own lives – pretty sad story.

In any case, the trip with the Sea Shepherds was a great thing and whales as well as dolphins were also there: with due distance and in freedom

Meeting point was first thing in the morning at 8:00 am at the X-Sur near Costa-Adeje and then we took the Fred Ohlson ferry to La Gomera. Although it is only 40 km, it has quite rocked during the crossing. On the way back, the ferry even plunged into a hole after a very high wave. Unfortunately, the weather phenomenon Calima had started the day before and we had no good visibility. However, the guide had also reassured us because it can get worse and sometimes you can’t even see the (famous) chimneys of La Gomera because of fog.

The tour only went to the north-east and once through the Garajonay National Park (fantastic laurel forest), but that was plenty for one day. While resting in a restaurant, we witnessed the local whistling language. San Sebastian is a wonderfully sleepy nest that is certainly even quieter and more relaxed in the evening.

As always, a little more time would have been better, of course, but for a first impression (and the feeling of wanting to go to La Gomera again) it was enough

The Teide we have seen only after more than a week, because he was mostly shrouded in clouds and we had not bothered to go to the national park. On Tuesday we started in the evening at the coast and already thought that there will be no stars to gaze at, but at about 2000 meters we drove through the clouds and had the most beautiful weather. The stars were great and after the kids fell asleep in the car, we could enjoy the stars in peace.

Apart from that, every member of the family had a surf course with Lele or Ismael from the Blackstone Surfing Center by now and the kids also stood on a wave by themselves Besides the surfing course, there was a swimming course for the kids (in a swimming pool), of course a lot of beach and some visits to local markets of Acala and San Juan. But sometimes we are also just „at home“ in the apartment and at the associated pool.

The campsite of Global Tribe had already attracted our attention positively before and they also had a favorable offer for us for AllaHopetossa. The campsite of Global Tribe is also otherwise just great: super nice people who have created a relaxed place with attention to detail and offer super delicious food with vegetables from their own garden. There is an emphasis on sustainability and everything is decorated like a party.

Unfortunately, we had a lot of rain and thunderstorms again one day, but that doesn’t seem to stop some from going for a walk with an umbrella

Funnily enough, it has a festival that starts on the day we will return from the Canaries – let’s see how long we will stay

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