You might have noticed that it has been a while since I have posted blogs about the retirement adventure. It isn’t that there aren’t any new tales to tell, it is that Sarah and I have been so active making plans and living the life that we are just now beginning to get caught up. Oh, and we moved to Portugal (along with our grumpy cat Biscuit and Angel, the slightly neurotic Thai street dog)!
Our New Home by the Sea in Portugal
Last year, while Sarah and I were walking the Camino de Santiago, we got to discussing where we wanted to continue the retirement adventure after we left our home Vientiane, Laos. We considered other locations in Asia. We weighed the pros and cons of going to South America. Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific were all under consideration as we explored the possibilities. Then it occurred to us; we were loving walking in Europe, why not consider something here?
See also:
- Life is Either a Daring Adventure or Nothing
- Essentials Required for Retiring Overseas
- Portugal Travel Blog
Neither Sarah or I can articulate precisely why we choose Portugal. It had been a few decades since either of us had been here. We didn’t know anyone living in Portugal when we made the decision to move here. We had read the numerous articles in various travel magazines and newspaper travel sections about the charms of Portugal, but when the idea came up, we almost immediately made plans to visit so we could explore different areas of the country and, if the stars all aligned, rent a place to return to.
After checking airfares, we found that we could fly into Paris from SE Asia for about half of what it would cost us to fly into Lisbon or Porto. We also found some astonishingly good car rental deals out of Charles DeGaulle airport, so we decided to expand our house hunting trip into a mini-adventure road trip and explore a bit of France and Spain before we arrived into Portugal.
Celebrating Sarah’s Birthday with our first Beach Picnic at out new home.
I will get to some more detail about the journey soon, but there is too much information to cover in this blog post. I also created many photographs on the explore, and I even purchased a new drone to capture this new phase of our travels from above. In future blog posts, I will also share the tale about how we found our place to rent on the Portuguese coast not far from Lisbon, how we moved our stuff from continent to continent without movers, and Sarah is writing a diary on how she imported our dog and cat to Portugal from Asia.
But, for now, I just wanted everyone to know that we will be continuing, and growing, the retirement travel adventure from Portugal!
Wow! That is really exciting! Congratulations! I’m headed to Portugal in two weeks to find out for myself what draws so many people to live there. Can’t wait to find out!
We had high expectations but, so far, everything has exceeded them.
Love this post and look forward to seeing more of the road trip and your adventures from your new home base! I’m in the middle of selling up and hitting the road for my ‘around the world’ trip starting in September. First stop? Portugal 🙂 My plan is to stay for the three month (Schengen visa) limit so posts like this one make my heart sing!
Hi Sherry! Thank you. Portugal has exceeded our expectations so far. Looking forward to getting in a lot more exploring. I am still going to be all over the world, but this will be home for a while.
Can’t wait to hear about the adventure! I’ve been a bit worried about you, so it’s good to know you you’re simply (I realize that it wasn’t simple to you!) relocating. Hurry up and tell all!
Portugal sounds like a wonderful place to lay your hat for a while! Glad to hear you are all well. Looking forward to hearing more of your adventures.
Hello Jonathan,
Great to hear from you again.
Your philosophy on life is very similar to ours.
We sold up everything in Australia over 2 years ago and have been on the road ever since.
Only real differences are we have not settled for more than a few months in any country and we are much older(70 and 72 years old)
Currently in Bitola Macedonia.
Have never been happier not to own a house or be burdened by possessions and plan to keep roaming the world until we drop!
It is a fun way to live life. I hope to get to Macedonia in the next year or so. Recommendations and suggestions highly appreciated.
We are currently living in Ecuador, and moving to Portugal in 3 weeks. We hope to bump into you two sometime.
That would be fun! Let us know when you get here.
Will do!