Hola!
Well, it’s travel time again!
Actually, travel time is past due for my wife and I, as we haven’t been out of the country since September 2017! This was a long stretch for us. We normally try to do at least two foreign adventures per year, intermingled with one or more domestic trips. We’d like to do more, but further extensive travel will have to wait until our both our geriatric cats are gone (sniff). Our travel really stresses them out, so we hate to be gone too long. We always worry that one of them is going to die while we’re gone. However, after our little darlings are gone we hope to do a lot more travel, including renting an apartment or a house in various great foreign locations and really get a feel for (and inviting friends to take advantage of it and come visit us!).
For now we’re both excited about returning to Europe. Our visit to Switzerland and Italy in 2017 was wonderful and now we’re going to two different European countries, one we first visited in 1991 – Spain! The other country we’re visiting is its neighbor, Portugal. Let me tell you that Portugal has been on our bucket list for a very long time! It will be nice to check it off our list!
When we travelled to Switzerland and Italy last year, we did it old school style – planned it all ourselves (with our friends), although there is little question Lisa did most of the heavy lifting for it!
Traveling on our own is a truly great experience and has been our way of doing it for many years, at least until 2012 when we took our first guided tour through China. In 2013 we discovered Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) and have taken a number of small-group tours with them since to some amazing places. So, after proving to ourselves that we still have what it takes to plan and execute foreign adventures, we’re ready to kick back a while and leave the travel-planning headaches to OAT. Believe me, there is something to be said about just having to “show up” for a foreign trip and let someone else worry about logistics!
Only six days to go!
Lisa’s already busy getting her stuff ready to be packed. I’m getting our electronics ready, including dealing once and for all with the irritating Verizon issues we ran into during our trip to Switzerland and Italy. Verizon’s international phone plan sucks! So, I’m switching to T-Mobile with unlimited data and free international talk and text. At least one of us will have easy access for uploading photos, texts, etc. Lisa is going to switch when her contract is up in September. T-Mobile’s senior plan will give us two lines for only $75, which is a sweet deal compared to Verizon! I plan on bringing my laptop and blogging along the way.
Adios!
I hope I have finally signed up correctly.