ARRIVAL We spent two months in the U.S. taking care of medical and dental plus visiting friends and family.. After a few challenges (impossible airport transfers, rebooking, and lost luggage) we finally arrived in Florence and picked up our rental car. We drove...
Santa Cruz Island Ninety-Seven percent of the Galapagos Islands are part of the national park system and a certified naturalist tour guide (park Ranger)} must be with you to explore and at specific times granted for your party to be at any designated park area. ...
Getting There To reach Galapagos you need to fly from Guayaquil or Quito, Ecuador. on LATAM or Avianca airlines. Flights may soon start on Copa Airlines including one from Manta. At the airport, you will purchase tourist cards for each person in your party...
A long Trip Our flight from Lisbon to Madrid was significantly delayed and we missed our flight to Quito. As a result, we also lost our balcony hotel where we were going to watch the New Year's Eve Fireworks in Quito. In fact, the...
On this tour we went many of the same places we saw on the catamaran trip with caves and the cliffs. What a difference it makes seeing the sites from the opposite perspective. First stop, the Porch Pottery which actually gets their fired...
Our next destination was Porto for Bill's Birthday on November 20. Porto is the birthplace of port wine and only wine made in this region can be sold as port. The wine is made in the Douro Valley and historically transferred by boat...
The first trip we went on after settling down in Portimao was to the Algarve Coast and Caves. The trip that we arranged was on a small hard bottom boat, Bill was sick that day and the trip had to be rescheduled. The...
Arrival We arrived in Portimao, Portugal on October 8 and were extremely pleased with our accommodations (another successful Air BNB find). We have a side balcony with a view of the Atlantic Ocean and the extremely large Praia da Rocha (Rock Beach). We immediately...
Our faithful guide, Jack drove us four hours to Southernch Albania to see the sites. On the way we noticed numerous scallop and fish farms. Across the water to the west was the Greek island of Crete with a ferry that runs...
Our next trip with Jack, our tour guide and driver, was to Gjirokaster which is another UNESCO site. The castle was built in the 15th century on the top of the mountain above the city and has a long history full of tragedy, facts,...
Our favorite tour company, Albanian Tour Guides picked us up early on a weekday for an hour and forty-minute drive to Berat, UNESCO Heritage Site. Our driver was Jack and we could not have asked for a more considerate guide and safe driver. ...
After nearly two months in the City of Durres, we have developed some knowledge of the people and experienced the beauty of the area. Durres-The City The city itself can be divided into three sections. First, the northern section (where we live) includes the downtown area, a...
We arrived in Durres, Albania just in time for our 24th Anniversary on July 2nd. We planned a three-day getaway to Tirana. Since it was a celebration, we stayed at the Xheko Imperial Hotel in their Luigi XIV room. In researching Albania on-line, I got...
Gibraltar is part of the United Kingdom and guards the entrance to the Mediterranean. During my time in the U.S. Navy, my ships passed through the entrance and the Rock of Gibraltar was a welcome site indicating we had successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean. The...
Spain has a marvelous high speed train system which is very reasonably priced. For a small increase in cost, you can sit in the first-class section, but to be honest the main difference is three seats per row versus four. We took the...
Staying in place like Sitio de Calahonda in Mijas, Spain validated our entire concept of living overseas. Where the El Campello rental was purely a beach house, the Mijas location was a beautiful home. Although only a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment we were extremely...
Our daughter was having her 50th birthday and selected Marrakesh, Morocco for the location. Since we were in Spain it was very easy for us to fly down and join her and her husband. She arranged for a 4 bedroom apartment (called a Riad in...
When our son got married the ceremony and reception were at Daniels, a Michelin Two Star Restaurant, so I cannot say we have never been to one. A wedding is different though, as your thoughts are on the newly married couple and visiting with the...
We decided to combine two trips taking the train to Barcelona for three days and another train to Valencia for three days before the train back home. We found Barcelona to be a beautiful city full of friendly people with a unique history tied to the...
After Madrid we took the train to Alicante where we had rented a beach apartment for two months. El Campello is a beach town, and we were on the waterfront. The boardwalk was only about a mile long, but with restaurant after restaurant. The apartment...
Four days in Cartegena was not enough. We thoroughly enjoyed walking the marble pedestrian streets of the city which were full of places to shop and eat. We did a boat tour of the harbor - the home of the Spanish Navy, went up to...
We arrived in Madrid Spain on April 1st to start our adventure. We used Tripadvisor to find a restaurant near our hotel. The restaurant had $$$$ for price so we were surprised when we got a plate of food (paella for me and bean/sausage stew...
There are numerous companies that can receive your mail via a legal mailing address (good for tax purposes) and then provide mail to you electronically. They scan the outside of the letter and then you advise them if you want them to open it...
The idea to live all over the world started years ago. We got serious about it in January 2021 knowing Bill would retire this year. We subscribed to International Living, which provided a monthly magazine in digital and hard copy. The January...