…Last Stop Cadiar, Spain

A recap of our first 4 months traveling abroad, visiting 7 countries and a much needed “stop” in Spain.

On May 6, 2023, Johnna and I drove our rental car to the airport and boarded a plane to Dublin, Ireland. We had one checked backpack, two carry on sized roller bags and two small backpacks. We had sold our home/van, sleepy turtle, our trailer that fit our bikes, camping gear, inflatables, and our UTV.

We weren’t really planning to ditch the van yet since we still traveled with our best friend and companion, Gandaulf, our Corgi. We got Gandaulf as a puppy and he traveled with us everywhere. He loved the van but he was getting old and having some health issues and in mid April we lost him. We had always planned to travel abroad and Gandaulf was good at planes and trains but he was suffering with dementia and also had a tumor in his eye we were watching so we stayed local. With Gandaulf’s passing, we decided it was a good time to change up our travel plans and move abroad.

We spent 2 weeks in Ireland touring with a rented camper van.

Then we flew to Edinburgh, Scotland and rented another camper van for 2 weeks traveling the NC500. We were good at camping..having spent the last 3 years traveling in our camper van.

Then we flew to Lisbon, Portugal for a few days. We met some friends from back home there and got to spend the day with them and we also sent home our extra backpack…lightening our load quite a bit.

Then we flew to Madeira Island off Portugal for a week! Insanely beautiful.

Then we flew to the Azores Islands about 600 miles off the southern Portugal shore for another week. Also very unique and beautiful.

After the Azores we flew back to mainland Portugal to the southern Algarve Coast for a few weeks.

Johnna had a little surgery there. (I will follow up with that story later. You will want to hear more on that.)

The Algarve coast was some of the most beautiful waters and beaches we had ever seen.

It was stifling hot and we needed some exercise so we flew to Munich, Germany and took the train to Passau, Austria, boarded a river boat called the Swiss Crown for a journey down the Danube River.

For a week we would exit the boat and ride e-bikes along the river often winding through the countryside and through little villages then we would board the boat again in the evening for dinner and an overnight. We rode approximately 147 kilometers. Amazing fun!

That brings us to Cadiar, Spain where we decided to take on a pet/house sit for the month of August. We both needed some time off from crazy traveling, moving, planes, trains, busses, and lugging bags. Plus I missed cooking my own food.

It takes a ton of research and time to plan our trips so this downtime has been quite productive.

Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, here we come!