Uncle Stan's Cap

Ted. When one of my Dad’s brothers died back in the 80’s, his widow, my Aunt Adele, handed me an old grey cap. “This is cashmere, Ted. Your uncle always loved this cap and I thought you would like to have it.”

That cap must be well over 60 years old now. Dubbed my “jaunty cap” by good friends, Sue & Terry, it has served me well in the ensuing decades. Not only does it keep my bald spot warm, it is good camouflage, causing me to be occasionally mistaken for a local (til I open my mouth).

I think my uncle would love Europe today. He was fond of good food and drink, always serving Piper-Heidsieck champagne for celebrations. He only went there twice and both experiences were bad. The first was with his father on a trip back home to Poland and on his second visit he actually got shot! I blame the tour group and the organizer for that bad experience. You see, he was traveling with a group called the US Third Army and his tour leader was George S. Patton.

My parents taught me that travel is important, but not as important as family. Smartphones allow us to stay in touch but an old grey cap serves as a gentle reminder to make frequent use of use that technology. 

On the road to Cadiz

Judy. Back on the road again! When we first arrived in Georgia, the weather was beautiful, and we walked almost everywhere. Then the Polar Vortex made its first appearance, and the cold set in! Snow in December is almost 

Grandsons in the snow

unheard of there, but we had a good bit of it.

After spending quality time with friends and family there, Ted headed to Denver to see his dad while I took off for Springfield, Ohio, to visit one of my dearest friends, Terry.  But while Ted enjoyed 50-degree weather, Terry and I didn’t make it above ten degrees until my last day!

 

Staying warm with Terry

So the only logical thing to do was meet in Orlando and visit Florida friends for a few days. Dang if the cold weather didn’t follow us (sorry guys)! I did get a couple of days on the beach—a true happy place for me. We spent time with dear friends, from ones we’d seen a few months ago, to those we’d not seen in years. Cold weather or not, days with friends are always precious.

A word to the wise:  flights to Europe from Orlando are almost always less expensive—think Disney World. The down side is that they’re usually packed, but the savings are worth it. We flew on frequent flyer miles, so the only cost was the upgrade to Economy Plus (or World Traveler Plus, depending on the airline). We were offered a sale on Business Class—tempting till she said it was an extra $560 each.

We flew into Gatwick, London, arriving at about 7:30 AM. Ted had reserved a room at a hotel by the airport, the Premier Inn, and on an off chance, we asked about checking in early. No problem, but it would cost us ten pounds extra—DONE! Best ten pounds we’ve ever spent, and much cheaper than $1000+ for the Business Class flight!

Premier Inn was clean and QUIET! We crashed for about four hours, then headed across the street to the airport for lunch, which was surprisingly good. The plan had been to take the bus into Crawley, the little town nearby, but it was cold and rainy, so we walked around the terminal for some exercise, before heading back to the room. A little tv watching, and we passed out again for ten hours! So much for our London/Crawley adventure, but we felt well rested.

The next day we flew into Seville, where we were met by our Spanish son, Alex, who spent a year with us as an exchange student back in the ‘90’s. He’s married now to Inmita, who is as kind as she is beautiful, and they have two kids, little Alex and Lucia, who call us “Abu Ted” and “Abu Judy”, a form of “grandparents”. In the past several years, we’ve been fortunate enough to spend time with our Spanish family four or five times, even taking grandson Parker once to leave with them while we walked the Camino.

 

Alex & Inmita

Nos nietos

For three days we were immersed in love as well as the Spanish language, and despite how much Spanish we’d
forgotten, Alex, Inmita, and the kids worked hard to bring us up to speed, until they had to resort to English. A lot.  But we’re

better, and catching on to some of the differences in Mexican Spanish and Andalucian Spanish. And it warmed up!  

Jose' Maria, Alex's mom. 

On Monday we took the train to Cadiz, on the southwest coast of Spain, and we are now somewhat settled in our tiny apartment in the Old Town near Barrio de la Vina (appropriate, huh?) where streets are narrow and the sun can be elusive. In the morning it’s cool, but it warms up during the day. Besides, we’re only a block from the Atlantic with wide sidewalks and benches facing the ocean, and warm sun. We quite like it—and it’s quiet.

We’ve walked to a hypermarket (like a Walmart) to buy necessities and have spent a couple of days exploring the city and the local market. A few more days, and there will be more to tell!

Christmas 2017

Judy. I have to admit, it’s a strange Christmas season. Granted, for the past few years, we’ve celebrated Christmas Day together or with other “orphaned parents,” as our kids—rightfully—celebrate on their own or with in-laws. The day itself has not been as important as the fact that we DO gather at some point to eat and open gifts. But this year the kids’ work schedules are such that we celebrate with one family one day, and the other, the next. Don’t get me wrong—I’ll take what I can get—it’s just one more new experience.

Add to that, with no house of our own, there are no decorations. We left our Airbnb a week ago, and are house sitting for friends who are in Florida. We did get a big (for Atlanta) snow, unheard of in early December, but it’s long gone. For someone to whom Christmas morning has always been magic, the change has been, well, different.

As with so many of our new experiences, though, there are gifts that have come our way. Most notably, I truly have time to enjoy Advent, my favorite church season. Gifts, such as they are (we prefer to give experiences), were bought long ago, and there are no decorations to dig out and hang. We’ve been able to avoid the horrible traffic most of the time. Our days are spent reading, walking, visiting friends, and enjoying our lives. Staying with friends in the mountains, we went to a Christmas pageant at a nearby church. We attended a magnificent Advent Lessons and Carols, and I’m reading Kathleen Norris’s book, Amazing Grace. The period of waiting is aided by the gloomy skies, and I find a strange comfort in that. New life is coming.

I look forward to the separate celebrations with my family, and to a Christmas visit with my brother and sister-in-law for a few days. We used to see each other every Christmas, but life has made that far too difficult in the past few years. Yes, it’s different, and really quite lovely—a gift of new experiences.

What's next?

Ted. As we come to the end of our first year as nomads, a question we are often asked is, “Have you gotten this out of your system and decided to settle down?” Not really. As Rick Steves would say, we plan to “Keep on travelin’!” However, our experiences in 2017 are shaping our plans for 2018.

For instance, I discovered that Face Time is great but, after a while, I really miss hugging my 3 grandsons.  

Parker (15) & Caedmon (5)

Oliver (11 months)

My preference now is to not be away from Atlanta for more than three months at a time. We have also realized that we only need about a month to get caught up with our family and friends here.

When we moved out of our apartment last year, we put a number of items into a 10’x10’ storage unit with the thought that we could quickly furnish an apartment should our new lifestyle prove unsatisfactory. We have decided that this will not happen anytime soon so are working to shrink this pile of "stuff" into a unit about half that size.  

Our experience in Oaxaca taught us the merits of an extended stay. In the future, we will mix long term stays with ramblings.

With all of this in mind, we are beginning to map out our travel plans for 2018. We are planning three 3-month stints separated each time by a month back in Atlanta.

Our first junket begins in early January. We will visit several friends in Florida and then fly to Spain on Jan 17. This is partially due to the fact that flights to Europe are much cheaper from Florida than from Atlanta. We have rented an apartment in the town of Cádiz for two months. Not only is this a beautiful town on the Atlantic coast of Andalusia, it is very near Sevilla where our Spanish "son" Alex lives with his wife and 2 children. Alex lived with us for a year as an exchange student in the 90’s and we have remained very close. We look forward to several visits with our Spanish family during that time. On March 14, we will travel to Aix-en-Provence in southern France where we have booked an apartment for a month. We have always loved France and, after a year studying Spanish, it will be nice to relax back into French. We will also rendezvous with some longtime (not old) friends Don and Catherine who live in France. In late April, we will head for home via Devon in England where we will visit with Bill and Mary, whom we have not seen in quite a while.

After a month in Atlanta, we plan to travel to Atlantic Canada for three months, return to Atlanta for a month and then take three more months in Europe. One constraint on our European travel is something called the Schengen Agreement, which limits our visits on that continent to 90 days out of every 180. High priorities for this trip will be to visit friends in Poland and meet up with our family who lives in Hungary.

Have you noticed a theme here? Some of our favorite memories of 2017 are celebrating our 40^th anniversary with Georgia friends and family in Hungary, snorkeling with Georgia friends in Hawaii and exploring a Kauri forest in New Zealand with a Swedish friend. While we have enjoyed meeting new people during our travels around the world and hope to see many of them again, we also believe that our travels actually strengthen our long time connections to friends and family. I am reminded of a little song my daughter, Leslie learned as a Girl Scout; “Make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.”