Spain

Spanish Adventure

Russ and I were continuously in the process of researching what moving overseas meant to us and the next step seemed logical: visit. We set up a savings account aptly named Travel Fund and started planning our Spanish adventure. Our itinerary would start in Barcelona, then travel by high-speed train down the Mediterranean coast, hitting Valencia, Alicante, Malaga and even Gibraltar.

Russ had never been to Europe, and we hadn’t had a real honeymoon, so this two and half weeks was magical for us. Although we attempted to evaluate each city through the eyes of what it would be like to actually live there, truth be told we played tourist as well. It was great fun!

Barcelona

First up, Barcelona. Russ is still absolutely dazzled by Barcelona and if the political climate was a tad more pro-Spanish, this blog might be about settling in Spain. Gaudi’s city is fabulous, from Sagrada Familia to the monastery of Montserrat nearby. I loved the monastery so much that one of the fonts I picked for this website is Montserrat.

September 11 is not only a sacred day for Americans, but also Catalan National Day. In 2018 during our visit, this meant peaceful spirited protests and on the actual day lots of drinking. People spilling out of bars at 10 in the morning already pretty fired up already.

Valencia

Continuing our Spanish adventure, we traveled by high-speed train to Valencia, which is the home of Spain’s famous dish, paella. Paella, which I still can’t pronounce! Here we made sure to visit Spain’s largest indoor market, a glorious building that also gave us insight into what food stuffs were readily available and prices. However, on the whole, Valencia didn’t speak to us as a retirement destination nor did Alicante on our day trip visit.

Malaga

Malaga was a different story. Small, but charming. Our taxi from the train station hit a major snag; a blocks long fashion runway was set up in the street in front of our hotel. Our Spanish adventure was in full force as we dragged our suitcases behind us, admiring the “blue” carpet. Malaga Fashion Week was underway.

Our room was fabulous, actually an apartment complete with kitchenette and view of a hopping square.

The Rock

We day tripped to Gibraltar for pure fun. Russ threatened to kidnap a Macaques which he affectionately renamed “la monk monk” as a companion for Zoey. For reference, Coco didn’t enter the picture until 2020 so Russ thought Zozo could use some company.

Back to Barcelona – Future Retirement Destination?

And then ride back to Barcelona, long even on the high speed Spanish AVE, and the serious contemplation began. As much as we enjoyed Malaga, it seemed a bit out of the way for popping over to other European hot spots for quick trips. But Barcelona still intrigued and the plan for the next Euro adventure began.