Whaaah!! Ik heb het gedaan!!

Ik heb er lang over gedacht. Maar uiteindelijk heb ik het dan toch gedaan! Het kriebelde zo erg om er weer eens op uit te gaan! Ik heb voor mezelf en Noah een ticket naar Valencia geboekt!

Tot nu toe ben ik regelmatig alleen op reis gegaan met Noah. Hoewel, we reisden met z’n tweeën, maar tijdens het verblijf waren we bijna nooit alleen. Alleen een paar nachtjes vorig jaar in Griekenland toen we op de familie van Geraint wachtten.

In het voorjaar kriebelde het al heel erg en dubte ik al om een ticket naar Bali te boeken. Maar 16 uur in een vliegtuig met een peuter van twee jaar lijkt me nog iets te veel van het goede. Het chaotische verkeer en de zwerfhonden was ik ook nog niet vergeten.

Valencia in Spanje stond ook al een tijd hoog op mijn verlanglijstje. Bovendien is het een mooie stad waar je met een kind veel kunt doen en ligt Valencia aan zee. De reiskriebels gierden door mijn lichaam en ik ben aan het uitzoeken gegaan. Qua data was ik flexibel dus ik heb nu een week in de meivakantie geboekt! Nu nog een Airbnb!

Ik vind het helemaal spannend! Het reizen is op zich is niet zo eng meer, dat heb ik nu zó vaak gedaan! Alleen met mijn kind, een week lang, in een vreemde stad…. Misschien moet ik die gedachte gewoon loslaten! Ik ben nu ook altijd alleen met mijn kind en dat gaat ook goed, dus zal het in Valencia ook wel goedkomen!

Het mooie plannen maken voor in Valencia kan beginnen!!! Wiehoeh!!

How to get through Dutch customs easier as a solo traveling parent!

When you’re traveling alone with your child there are many things you come across if you want to go through Dutch customs without any trouble.

Every time it’s a question whether they let me go through easy or not. Dutch customs is very afraid for kidnapping children by their own parents. In this blog I give you some advice to travel well prepared.

The first time I traveled with Noah through customs I thought I was prepared well enough. Noah’s got my family name, Geraint, my partner was registered officially as his father but we did not arrange custody officially as a mother obtains legal custody over a minor by default. We thought this would make travel easier….🤣

Arriving at customs it was not as simple as this. They find it very special and suspicious traveling alone with a child. They always ask me where Noah’s father is. A simple answer that we’re traveling to his father or coming from Wales is not enough. I at least have to proof that I am the mother and that is not written in your passport.

A friend who used to work at customs helped me out with some advice.

First I called the civil court to get a legal extract of the custody register. This expires every three months, so you need to request it again and again and….

Only this extract is not enough because it doesn’t prove I’m the mother. The next time I traveled I also brought the acknowledgement of parenthood.

This also confused them because we are both on it as parents. Because Geraint was still not there I needed to bring a completed authorisation form for traveling abroad with a minor.

This form was actually the reason that we did not complete the custody request yet. Because we travel so often we have to complete new form every time and if you travel with this form you also need all kinds of additional proofs.

By now I am thinking to complete the form digitally. Print it out 20 times and fill in date and signature in by hand. So i never have to complete the form over and over again.I ask Geraint to sign all the forms in advance so I’m not in trouble.

Until now they’ve always let us through. It took some time and patience though. The best thing to do is: smile a lot and stay relaxed and calm.

If you travel in between the Schengen counties, you don’t have a problem at all because you don’t have passport control then. If you travel outside of Schengen, for example to the United Kingdom you need to be prepared.

Don’t forget:

⁃ Of course your child needs a valid travel document

⁃ Ask the civil court for a legal extract of the custody register. This is free and will be sent to your home address.

⁃ Bring a legal extract from the personal records database relating to the minor (this can be done at the city hall in every city, The Hague even does it online)

⁃ Complete the authorisation form for traveling abroad with a minor.

⁃ Always carry a copy of your partners passport.

⁃ When you are divorced and you’re traveling with your new partner and your child or your partner passed away you could also get unexpected surprises at customs. On the website against international child abduction you can follow the steps to find out what is necessary for you to bring when traveling abroad with your child.

Hopefully these tips will help you along the way!

Have a good journey!

Camping in Scotland

Camping in Scotland can go many different ways… Weather can be beautiful with blue skies and a lovely sun, it could be raining cats and dogs as well or 4 seasons in a day…

Camping is something I’ve done before with Noah. Most of the times I took the car because with the baby you also bring a lot of stuff. This summer travelling took us to Scotland. The scouts were celebrating their 100th anniversary and that was celebrated with a summer camp in Scotland.

We had to be there ofcourse!

But to be on move twice for 2 days on the bus, boat and bus was not something I looked forward to. Noah and i were travelling by plane!

By now we were used to travelling by plane a lot. Of course getting through customs was trouble again and also our stroller was not ready at the gate, but these are things quite common and we are used to them now. Luckily I had my big friend the wrap with me (although I got a good replacement carrier system now, only 2 clics and we’re ready to go)! Walking from the plane to the carousel was a bit easier now.

Because the scouts group went on a big jubileecamp, and they were renting a big lorry, I handed in my stuff like a car seat, tent and a very handy highchair in advance. Just to make life a bit easier!

Camping and being outside with fun people was just amazing! I drove Noah around the campsite with our cross country stroller! The stroller was holding a very big waterproof sheet containing all Noah’s toys. Where ever we went, I took it out for him to play. As he is not very fond of grass this was easy to keep him on the sheet! In the mornings when the grass was wet or when it was raining, I put him on the sheet in the big tent so he could have a little play. To keep him cosy and warm I put him slippers and a water proof suit on. Just in case he decided to explore on the grass.

Doing his naps was no problem at all! He slept as good as at home!

I carried this special Deryan pop-up tent with me.

It’s a little tent in the shape of a cot with a mosquito net. You can zip it all up so your baby stays in bed nicely and will not go round your tent and explore whatever is in there or gets eaten by mosquitoes. This little tent I put next to my own sleeping bag.

Mosquitoes were a problem in the morning during breakfast. But by putting a mosquito net over the stroller Noah was able to munch his breakfast quite relaxed.

I’ve been thinking quite a while for what to put him on in the night not to be cold. On his first camping trip, when he was eight weeks old, it was warm in the night and therefore pyjamas and baby sleeping bag in his own baby basket with a blanket was fine. At that time he’d lay quiet and calm in the bed. At the moment he’s twisting, turning and crawling everywhere and a normal children sleeping bag would be too big for him and too easy to loose.

I decided to put him on a pyjamas with a special outdoor fleece suit over it.

This suit had mittens on the sleeves to keep his hands warm. I topped it off with the baby sleeping bag with sleeves. He slept very well!

The biggest challenge actually was to go to the toilet in the mornings before feeding Noah. I was just too scared I would wake him up and he wanted to be fed instantly!