Kommentar:

English:

Since 1983, we have enjoyed two or three home exchanges a year with HomeLink all over the world. In well over 50 exchanges, we were disappointed by an exchange partner only once—and that was many years ago.

We spent wonderful weeks abroad, and even two full months in Australia, living not as tourists but as guests in our “second home”. Through contact with our exchange partners’ neighbours, friends and families, we learned a great deal about the countries and their people—often discovering that reality was quite different from the usual stereotypes.

Four weeks in Hawaii, three weeks in New York City, four weeks on Fripp Island, a private island in the United States, three weeks in Paris, and three or four weeks at a time in Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Rome, Vienna, Ireland, Scotland, England, southern and northern France—the list goes on. All these journeys became unforgettable experiences because we were able to meet local people and live almost as they did.

As ordinary tourists, we would never have discovered many of these places and regions. Home exchange enabled us to avoid mass tourism and experience places from a completely different perspective.

I recorded some of these experiences in writing and later published them in a book. In it, I describe deserted beaches, walks without meeting another person and towns where the only people we encountered were locals. This way of travelling is also distinguished by extraordinary hospitality and the tremendous trust shared between exchange partners.

Our heartfelt thanks go to Manfred Lypold and Daniela Gocker for the outstanding support they have given us throughout all these years!