Following my post about Koval’s farewell, I wanted to write another post celebrating Koval through the many travels and adventures we shared together.
Koval’s Adventures
Nik and I have so many happy memories with Koval, from both our life in Chicago and abroad. Though we miss Koval dearly and our life isn’t the same without him, it makes us smile to say that he truly retired in the South of France.
Our family of three began in Chicago when I met Koval while volunteering for ALIVE Rescue in late 2017. The rescue named Koval after a local distillery and we kept the name after adopting him in February 2018.
Though Koval was a Chicago dog through and through, he did visit two other states, Michigan a few times and Ohio just once.
And then we moved to Europe – for the first time! What an adventure in April 2022, mostly because Nik was about 2.5 weeks removed from back surgery and we had to juggle pushing two luggage carts at O’Hare Airport. Koval was a trooper and really showed us how resilient dogs are.
Related: Our Blog Post About Flying to Spain
Once we landed in Barcelona, we’d spend the next 13 months there. Koval had a host of new allergies pop up (and so did Nik) but all three of us handled those fairly well. There weren’t a lot of grassy options nearby but thankfully Koval has always been a city dog and was used to sidewalks, pavement and taking care of his business in such places.
We became great friends with a couple, Paola and Carlos, who had moved to Barcelona about a month before us with their two dogs, Cosimo and Artu. It was fun when Paola and I were able to get the dogs together before we headed back to the States.
Overall, in that 13 month stint in Barcelona, Koval visited 5 cities (including two trips to Nice) and had his first two hotel stays. When Koval didn’t come with us on a trip, we had a great local dogsitter.
We returned to Chicago in May 2023 and stayed there for just about a year and a half before returning to Europe in September 2024. This time, we drove to Newark, NJ so Koval could fly in cabin with us on La Compagnie.
Related: Our Experience Flying La Compangnie
Once we landed in Nice, we were mostly home. We spent two weeks in the French Riviera: first in Nice, then we drove to Antibes and then to Aix-en-Provence before having a four month stay in Barcelona.
During these few months in Barcelona, we took an incredible 10-day road trip with Koval to Bilbao and San Sebastián in the Spanish Basque Country and to Biarritz on the French side before spending a few days in Bordeaux, France. When Nik went to pick up the rental car for this trip, the only automatic cars they had were a van or a Mercedes. Nothing but the best for our guy!
While in Bilbao, Nik and I visited a Costco — yes, a Costco. We picked up a few dry goods for home and one of their famous rotisserie chickens to bring back to the hotel. Nik carved it up and set aside a generous portion of white meat for Koval. The little guy ate it off a glass dish in our room like he had ordered room service.
That trip added three more hotel stays for our little prince, including two European Royal palaces. Two nights at the Hotel Maria Cristina, named for Queen María Cristina of Spain, who spent summers in San Sebastián beginning in 1887. And another two nights at Hôtel du Palais in Biarritz, built in 1854 for Napoleon III and his wife, Empress Eugénie, as their summer residence.
After our four months in Barcelona we headed to Nice in late February 2025, where Nik and I still are. We made the most of Koval’s time in Nice doing a couple local adventures before it got too hot. We ventured up to Castle Hill for some of the best views of the city and then hitched a ride home via pedicab.
Koval got some nuggets from one of the most picturesque McDonald’s across from the Promenade des Anglais and ate them looking at the Mediterranean Sea.
During the summer of 2025 we took a family road trip for 10 days through France: to Aix-en-Provence, Lille and Chamonix in the French Alps. Three more hotel stays, and even a paddle boat ride for our little traveler!
It seems that France, and Nice in particular, is extremely dog-friendly. Many of our friends here moved with their dogs (and cats as well), and Koval got to meet a few of them. (Though more times than not, no one wanted to look at the camera.) Along with endless sniffs of other dogs at our local park, Koval definitely mellowed with his leash reactivity in his old age.
In November, we took another family road trip, this time to a new country for Koval – to Tuscany, Italy and it was wonderful. The hotel staff loved him and it was cool to take him into the old medieval village of Barga.
Following our trip to Italy, we enjoyed a family Thanksgiving feast, numerous walks, couch cuddles, took a lot of pictures and enjoyed that last hotel stay in Monaco.
A special shout out to our friends in Chicago who introduced me to the rescue world and who became some of the best Aunties that Koval could have asked for. That bottom picture was from a little going away gathering before moving to Barcelona the first time.
It doesn’t escape me at how fortunate Nik and I are to be able to live abroad and to have had Koval with us for so many travels and adventures. We miss him dearly but know we gave him the best life, while he brought us so much happiness over our almost eight years together. We wouldn’t change a thing.
