During our first months in Spain, we struggled just to find certain products. Our language skills weren’t very good, so some days even the grocery store seemed mysterious. Our primary …
How to Get Your Spanish Non-Lucrative Visa – Updated February 2019
Susan and I got our non-lucrative Spanish visas back in June of 2017. Our blog post about How We Got Our Non-Lucrative Visa Application Right has proven to be our …
Our Friends at Moving to Valencia: A Business Review
You’ve decided that you are moving to Valencia. And you want to understand just what is going to make that move successful. Easy and successful will be even better. So, …
Our Lesson in the Orchard: Paella Verduras
We’ve been living in Valencia, the home of paella, for more than a year now. During that time we have enjoyed a couple of excellent, some good but not great, …
Renewing Our Non-lucrative Visas in Valencia
Our first year of retirement living in Valencia, Spain passed so quickly, we might not have remembered to renew our non-lucrative visas if it hadn’t popped up on our calendars. …
Our Whirlwind Month of Intensive Spanish
After a young friend of ours reported she’d had a positive experience with an intensive Spanish class, we each signed up for our own month long class at the Centro …
Questions to Ask Yourself as You Contemplate Retiring in a Foreign Country
Picking up and moving is not easy work. Picking up and moving to a new country with unfamiliar cultures is even more difficult. As we approached retirement, we knew exactly …
Valencia is Good for Our Active Lifestyle
I’ve always known that I’m not particularly good at urban living. I’ve never once imagined a visit to New York, London, or Tokyo would be fun. Truth is, I shudder …
Adventures in Applied Spanish – El Ciné
I was watching the movie, Don’t Worry. He Won’t Get Far on Foot at Babel, a charming local Ciné just a few blocks from my house. They show movies in …
We Pause a Moment When Old Pets Die
We were a family of seven when we made our move to Spain just a few short months ago. One of our furry friends passed on, and we were six. …
Sell It, Store It, or Send It to Spain?
When Susan and I decided to move to Spain, we were living in a 2400+ square foot home that we‘d managed to comfortably fill during the 15 years we’d spent …
My Downsize Push Back… Can I Be Helped?
The culling that happens with any downsizing effort should kick the twin beasts of want and really want right in the butt. But not always. You would think that after …
Adventures in Applied Spanish – Buying Cat Grass
After adding a pot of Mexican Feather Grass to our Valencia terrace (at a very dear price), we struggled to keep our cats from eating it down to the nubs. …
Me Taxi, Go Airport
When living abroad minor obstacles can loom larger than they should. That’s how I felt trying to help my friend and first U.S. guest get a taxi in the middle …
Our Simple Approach to Banking in Spain
We were still living in the United States when we had our first experience transferring funds across international borders. We had to cover the fees and deposits for the flat …