In about 2020 we subscribed to International Living magazine, reading it to each other and dreaming about places to retire all around the world. After a while we settled on Europe, and began zeroing in a little closer.
We researched and learned about our options, filling our hard disks with many pages of notes, reading many blogs and books, and watching many videos. We looked at lists of "best places to retire" and how well they fit us. We did careful comparisons of eleven candidate countries which were at about the right latitude. We considered and ranked:
- Democracy index (ranging from authoritarian regimes to full democracies)
- Cost of living
- Quality of life
- Religiosity
- Innovation index (a measurement of modernity)
- Net migration
We compared cultural characteristics from Hofstede Insights:
- Power Distance Index
- Individualism vs Collectivism
- Masculinity vs Femininity
- Uncertainty Avoidance Index
- Long Term Orientation
- Indulgence vs Restraint
We looked at rainfall, climatic regions, and the possible effects of climate change. The internet is an incredible tool for all this, and we got way more out of this research than we would have by thumbing through a few books in the library like in the olden days.
We began looking more closely at the leading contenders: Portugal, Spain, and France, in that order. We explored specific places and read about the experiences of expats there. We finally decided on Spain, mainly because the language would be easier to learn and more generally useful, and began seriously digging in.
Which is when we ran into the Okupas movement. A misguided Spanish law to help the homeless has resulted in squatters legally breaking into homes after 48 hours of their being unoccupied and having more legal right to the home than the owners. It can take years to evict them. 40 houses a day are broken into in Spain like this. After we got up off the floor, we made a quick course correction back to Portugal.
We researched the year-around climate of various places in Portugal and mapped out a zone in the northern region which we liked.
We have relied on research up to now instead of visiting and exploring, mainly because of visa and time restrictions. With a US passport you are allowed 90 days in the Schengen zone (that is, most of Europe) within any given 180 day period. So we could have flown back and forth, 90 days at a time, but we thought this would take too much time and be too unfocused. We wanted to be in Europe earlier than this would take. We are confident enough that we will be able to find a place to love in Portugal, so we opted to go directly for a D7 visa which gives us a total of 5 years in the country if we choose.
Downsizing and Selling the Home
In the autumn of 2021 we began preparing to downsize and sell. We auctioned off, donated, and gave away most of our belongings. We packed up the remaining things we wanted to keep, suitable for overseas shipment, and stored it all in a 10' x 10' climate-controlled storage unit. We hired an interior decorator, a handyman, and landscapers and got the place all spruced up. We sold the house in the spring of 2022 and moved into our 19' travel trailer in a trailer park in SeaTac. We'd made a killing in the Seattle real estate market and invested the proceeds from the sale. Interest from that is supplementing our monthly income, and some of the principal will go toward our new home in Portugal.
Medical Struggles
Around the time we were packing up the home, Pat was having more and more pain and difficulty with mobility. We saw two hip surgeons who took X-rays and said there was arthritis but nothing to worry about. A back surgeon then found some damaged disks and further arthritis, which could have explained the problems, so in July 2022 she went in for vertebra fusion surgery. We were living in our trailer at that time.
We moved into an ADA motel in Des Moines for a couple weeks after this, for her initial recuperation, since the trailer with its stairs would have been impossible. She continued rehab in the trailer when she was able to move back in. She continued to make some progress, things were a little better, but it was not the cure we were hoping for.
As time went on and winter approached, we dreaded the idea of spending all winter in the trailer park. At the end of September 2022, we started on our grand US trailer trip, even though Pat was not fully functional. We figured we would research and continue with rehab exercises while we traveled.
Despite all her rehab efforts and all the options we explored, there was really no significant progress. Pat was in a lot of pain, and our mobility was restricted the whole trip. Things slowly got worse, and finally in March 2023 we decided we had to return to Washington state where we had medical insurance coverage to get to the bottom of this.
In short order on our return, we found that both of Pat's hips were completely shot. Why wasn't this seen in her first X-rays? We don't have a good answer for that. It's possible that her hips degenerated very quickly after the first X-rays. It's possible that both doctors missed it earlier. Or something else. Regardless, we were able to schedule her first hip replacement quickly, for May 2023.
Her second hip replacement was three months later, in August 2023, and she continues to rehabilitate from both. It has been slow, again not the dramatic improvement we were hoping for, but she is steadily improving and will be able to walk okay when we leave for Portugal next month.
The Gulf Trip
We departed in September 2022, when Pat was still recovering from back surgery and not able to walk very well, but we wanted to finish our travels before early 2024 so we could concentrate on moving. We couldn't sacrifice the whole upcoming winter. We also couldn't face the prospect of a winter in the trailer park.
We headed toward the Gulf of Mexico, planning to spend the winter in the warmer climes and then migrate through the Northeast in the spring. We traveled at a leisurely pace through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. We saw firsthand how big this country is, some of the culture and beauty we had never experienced before, and how warm and friendly everyone we met was. The big thing we learned was that people are not that different, but political and journalistic forces seem to drive them apart. The internet is also a force for polarization. When you meet someone face to face, there is much greater empathy and desire to understand.
And along with the generally warmer climate, we found that they have winter tornadoes and hurricanes down there. We had two encounters with tornadoes which were a little closer than comfortable, and we saw the unbelievable damage they can do.
We really had a great trip under the circumstances, but in Florida, in March 2023, we threw in the towel and headed home. We had hoped to make a tour of the entire US, but that was just not to be.
And Now
In mid-April 2023 we returned to the Seattle area, and we moved into an Extended Stay place in May. Since then we have been taking care of the death of Gerrit's stepmom and relocating his dad, Pat's hip replacements and recovery, selling the trailer, traveling to San Francisco for our visa application and waiting for the results, and working through our Portugal move checklist. We have a beautiful new furnished apartment in Porto waiting for us (see this post). We have also been studying the Portuguese language about an hour a day and continuing to learn about the country. We are now about a month away from the actual move, on track, and pretty excited.