Travel the Home Exchange Way blog

Home swap cottage makes a good base for an 'over the anvil' wedding in Gretna Green

“We all use ‘Home Exchange’ for a variety of reasons, not just for a holiday or weekend break but to visit relatives, attend family events, enable a family gathering and so on. This year to our surprise our exchange partners decided to use our home as their base to get married ‘over the anvil’ at Gretna Green! The first we knew of this was when we received an email photograph of the happy couple during our stay in their London home and must admit we thought at first it was a joke, but no - they persuaded two unsuspecting tourists to witness their marriage and then take photographs to prove it. We were delighted to be the first to congratulate them and to think we had had a very small part to play in their happy day.

Any other unusual reasons for swapping homes I wonder?” - Marilyn & John Martin, Appleby, Cumbria, UK

Marilyn and John must surely be amongst Home Base Holidays' most prolific home swappers, now having had over 90 exchanges!  The couple's home is a lovely 17th century sandstone cottage with exposed stonework, oak beams and many original features, located in a tiny village (great pub!) near Appleby. They plan their many swaps well ahead so do check out their home swap offer for 2015.

Do you have a story of an out of the ordinary reason for a home swap? We'd love to hear your story too (contact Home Base Holidays).

Penfriends first, then home swap partners! London to Switzerland

"I have made friends in all the usual ways, school, work and via hobbies, and most unusually my dear friend and neighbour Lyndsay, whom I met at 'lower limb replacement exercise class'. That's not as weird as it sounds. It's for people who've had hip or knee replacements and it's hard not to bond with people when you're exercising with walking sticks!

But my  fifties seemed a bit late to gain a penfriend, it being a pursuit of childhood, but that's exactly what happened to Bea and me via the Home Base Holidays website. We began in the usual way by trying to arrange an exchange but, unable to find a mutually agreeable time, we continued to correspond anyway, enjoying swapping news about all sorts of things, friends, family, travel, outings, with a shared love of history, museums and reading.

Last year we finally met. While Bea and Kas were on another exchange in London, they came to Tooting for lunch at our house and we had a happy day chatting. There and then we vowed to make a firm date for a swap and planned a whole year ahead. Which is why, a few evenings ago, Paul and I were sitting on one of Kas and Bea's beautiful flower filled terraces  here in Switzerland (in photo) enjoying the meal they had prepared for us knowing that they were in our garden eating the one we'd left for them.

And I haven't told Bea this yet, but I reckon that the Swiss are the friendliest people I've ever met." - Sandra Newnham, London

Note: It is delightful to hear when Home Base Holidays members become good friends as Sandra and Bea have done, finding many common interests and meeting each other before swapping homes this summer. They also have something else in common - a love of writing, especially about their home swapping trips! See Bea's report on her home swap to Sandra's home, 'Touting Tooting' and tips from a wonderful summer home swap in London.

View Sandra's home exchange offer in London and Bea's offer in Niederuzwil, Switzerland.

The taxi driver - and a free ride in London

"Everyone knows London's black cabs, those nostalgically shaped icons of the city. As one of the terrifying examiners of the stringent Knowledge exam put it, they've earned their reputation for honesty and reliability and They Know Where They're Going. And they're ubiquitous, until you actually need one.

When we arrived in South London recently we hoped to spot a taxi when we left the tube station, but of course there were none. Hasn't every visitor to London left a tube station they thought they knew by a different exit and found themselves thoroughly lost? So there we were, wondering if we could spot something familiar. We finally started walking along a street with our suitcases, hoping it was the right direction, and after a few minutes there was the longed for sight - a black taxi. No driver it's true, but as the car was parked outside a Sainsbury's Local we decided not to let him get away. After a few minutes the driver appeared, his lunch in a bag. Could he possibly take us...?

'Sorry, I'm not working - just having lunch.'

'Maybe you could just point us in the right direction, we're a bit lost?'

'Sure...'

'We're looking for Lucien Road.'

'But that's where I'm going, I live there! Hop in and I'll give you a free ride!'

'Really? We need number 66.'

'You're joking! Are you the people from Switzerland my neighbour told me about?' -

Sometimes lost turns to very much found! What a lovely start to our holiday. If we ever need a taxi in London again we'll try to get hold of a certain Neville from Lucien Road, we owe him one!"

View Bea's home swap offer in Niederuzwil, Switzerland and Sandra's home in London where Bea stayed with husband, Kas, on a home exchange this summer (see the post, 'Touting Tooting' and tips from a wonderful summer home swap in London).

An extra special home swap in London - meeting a home exchange pen friend!

'London is always worth a visit. We've been there often and never tire of it - the thrill of seeing historic buildings and streets, fabulous galleries, incredible shows, the black taxis and red buses and the whole mad hustle is a guarantee for amazing memories. Since we started home swapping it's got even better - we now get to experience actually living there, in areas we would never see any other way, shopping in the local shops for food, topping up our Oyster cards where the locals do, buying newspapers and working out the transport. In July 2013 we did our second home exchange (in the meantime we've completed our third and are planning the fourth) and spent a pleasant two weeks in Mortlake, Richmond, within walking distance of Kew Gardens and near the Thames. Travelling into London by train was quite an experience, we soon learnt to wait until after 9am! London commuters are incredibly good at reading while standing propped in a tightly packed crowd and even while walking along the platform and through the ticket barrier!

We can be much more spontaneous now we don't have to pay hotel bills. On this particular trip we walked past a theatre where the musical Top Hat was being advertised with gorgeous photographs. We bought tickets there and then for the evening show. And another thing - we arranged to meet up with Sandra, who became a pen friend when we first signed up to Home Base Holidays. We quickly discovered interests in common but an exchange just hadn't worked out for us up to this point. When I mentioned that we were coming to London, Sandra immediately suggested we meet for lunch and told us how to find her house in Tooting. Another new area for us and - we think - a first. How many home swappers meet when they're not exchanging homes at all?

Sandra gave us a lovely lunch and we had the chance to see her and Paul's comfortable home and garden. We have now managed to arrange a swap too, for summer 2014. We hope Sandra and Paul will enjoy our mountains and lakes. Our own plans are well under way for visits to the British Museum's latest exhibition (the Vikings will be there this summer), Greenwich and the renovated Cutty Sark, the Queen's House, the National Maritime Museum and the new ecology park. Maybe we'll make it to the Thames Barrier this time, and come to think of it we haven't straddled the 0° meridian yet either. No doubt we'll find a few more interesting restaurants and return to favourite haunts such as the Courtauld Gallery for the Impressionists, the National Gallery because it's so impressive, the V&A because it's sublime and the Natural History Museum because the building is as fascinating as its contents. I don't think two weeks will do it, we'll have to start considering the next swap.

Our biggest problem these days is finding enough time to agree to all the exchanges we're offered. This is definitely the best thing imaginable for people who enjoy new experiences! ' - Bea Fitze 

View Bea's home swap offer in Niederuzwil, Switzerland and Sandra's exchange offer in London.

Home Swappers, the Home Exchange Newsletter, August 2014

The August issue of Home Swappers Newsletter is now available. Topics:

• Featured listing: chateau set in the gorgeous rolling hills of France's Lake district
• Member report: travel books - a lovely way to record a home swap
• Home Base Holidays 25% discount offer: see newsletter for code (ends 15th August)
• Media request: article on home exchanges in France
• Volunteers needed: research project on home swapping
• Exclusive promotion to members: join second site for free

Read articles in this issue in full and previous issues of Home Swappers Newsletter, in the Newsletter Archive. Subscribe to receive the newsletter as published.

 

On exchange now or had a home swap recently? Volunteers needed for a research project on 'Privacy and Living'

Fiona Anna Groha, a sociology student at the Technical University of Berlin, is working on a research project, 'Privacy and Living', for her M.A. degree studies. The aim is to find out how privacy is established, and if and how a connection between privacy and home can be made. Fiona writes:

'I am interested in the experience home swappers gained during their stay at the exchange house or apartment. 

To cover as much of the exchange ambience and individual perception as possible, it would be great to get the chance to interview some home exchangers, preferably during or soon after an exchange. Interviews will be incorporated into the research anonymously and the results presented in a concluding report.'

If you are willing to help Fiona with her research (she would interview you personally via skype or phone at a time convenient for you), please contact Home Base Holidays and we'll forward your message to her.