Travels With Jim and Rita
Discussing the challenges, rewards, and drawbacks of living overseas. Follow our decision to sell our home and live abroad until the housing market adjusts. Information for the would-be expat, digital nomad, roving retiree, or just plain traveler. Host Jim Santos is a published travel writer with over 200 articles and seven books (jimsantos.net). He and his wife Rita lived in Ecuador for 6 years, and are currently test-driving the roving retirement lifestyle. Jim is also the host of the popular "International Living Podcast".
Travels With Jim and Rita
Episode 50 - Portugal and Spain: The First Leg of Our European Adventure
Fifty episodes in, and we're still discovering what retirement travel truly means to us. After a health challenge forced us to pivot from our original three-year international adventure, we've established a new rhythm – a home base in Tennessee with 6-9 months of global exploration annually. Our latest journey began with a two-week exploration of Portugal and Spain that revealed surprising preferences and unexpected gems.
The adventure started somewhat roughly – an overnight transatlantic flight with a screaming baby, condensation-soaked windows in our Lagos Airbnb, and a missed bus in Portugal. Yet these small hiccups faded against the backdrop of magnificent experiences. While the Algarve coast offered postcard-perfect beauty, we discovered something profound: after years living on Ecuador's Pacific shores, we've evolved beyond beach resort destinations.
Spain delivered the most delightful surprise of this leg. Seville captivated us with its walkable streets, vibrant culture, and extraordinary depth of history. We wandered ancient Jewish quarters where streets barely accommodate a single person, dined in a restaurant operating since 1386, and experienced authentic flamenco paired with mouthwatering tapas. The grandeur of the Cathedral housing Columbus' remains contrasted wonderfully with the world's largest wooden structure, the Parasol, offering 360-degree city views.
Lisbon challenged us with hills that would make San Francisco blush, yet rewarded our efforts with hidden treasures like the unassuming Santa Catarina Cathedral – modest outside, breathtaking within. At the communal tables of Time Out Market, we shared meals with honeymooners and, remarkably, fellow Tennesseans from just miles away from our home. A ferry ride to Trafaria revealed a glimpse of what local Portuguese life could offer away from tourist centers.
Our journey continues next episode as we venture to the British Isles, but this first segment taught us valuable lessons about what we truly seek in our traveling retirement. Sometimes the most memorable experiences come not from famous landmarks but from wrong turns, local connections, and places that weren't even on our original itinerary.
What secret corners of Portugal and Spain have you discovered? What unexpected destinations have captured your heart? We'd love to hear your stories at jim@jimsantosbooks.com as we continue redefining retirement through meaningful exploration.
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Welcome to Travels with Jim and Rita. I'm your host, jim Santos, along with my wife, rita, and welcome to the second season of our podcast. In the first season, we set in motion our crazy plan to outfox the real estate market in the US and actually increase our retirement nest egg by selling our home and car and spending the next three years or so living abroad and exploring the world. While we did manage to increase our net worth while we traveled, a bout of pancreatitis in Latvia caused us to return to the States for surgery and recovery and to rethink our plans in light of our ages and other factors. Enter Plan B. We now have a home base set up in eastern Tennessee and are ready to hit the road once again. Our plans are now to spend anywhere from six to nine months a year abroad, returning to the US to visit friends, family and to recharge. Join us now as the adventure continues on Travels with Jim and Rita.
Speaker 1:Hello everybody and welcome back to our podcast, travels with Jim and Rita. It's been a while since we recorded a show, so we've been pretty busy with our travels, but we're welcoming you back with a special episode, as this is our 50th show. Can you believe that Rita 50 shows no, can't Now. Since we've been back in the States now after 10 weeks on the road, we thought we'd catch up with the various parts of our trip. Some of it already feels like it happened ages ago, so let's get started. We started off our journey with an afternoon flight from Knoxville to Dulles, a moderate layover, and then an overnight flight to Lisbon, portugal. We were able to book the two flights through United using some points on one of our credit cards, so we were pleased to get across the Atlantic for free. Now, while the flight to DC was routine, the overnighter was less than ideal, right?
Speaker 2:Oh, totally less than ideal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I made the tactical mistake of getting up very early the day of our departure, thinking if I was really tired I'd be able to sleep on the long trip across the Atlantic. Nope, Now, what I didn't count on was a baby across the aisle in one row up that screamed and wailed the entire trip. So we were tired when we got to Lisbon, but we still had one more leg of our journey. We caught a bolt at the airport to take us to a bus station where we boarded our Flixbus to take us down the coast to our final destination, Nagos in the Algarve. Another short bolt ride and our host met us with the keys to our Airbnb, where we got a bit of a surprise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we normally really scrutinize our Airbnbs, but this one got the best of us a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, somehow we missed the fact that the bedroom was on the second floor and the only bath was on the first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, complicado.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but otherwise the place was comfortable enough. We'd only be there a few days and we decided to just leave our suitcases downstairs for the duration.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're always particular about it being in a strategic location, and this one was perfect. We could walk to everything we needed to see and yeah, but so just one glitch.
Speaker 1:There was also another glitch kind of a weird condensation problem.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:If you remember, you'd get up in the morning and the inside of the windows were dripping wet.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:We had a washing machine there and a drying rack and there was a small space heater, yeah, so we were able to get by, but it was a rocky start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everybody thinks of Portugal as being really hot, but that time of year it was pleasant, it was more spring-like. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now, that first night we had just enough energy to walk a few blocks to find dinner and some breakfast supplies, and we actually ended up at a pretty good Mexican restaurant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was really good food.
Speaker 1:We did make the mistake, though, of ordering one of their house brews, one of their IPAs, and I have to say it was the worst tasting beer I've ever had.
Speaker 2:We were still tasting it the next morning.
Speaker 1:And I've drank Rolling Rock and Schlitz yeah, so I know.
Speaker 2:Blue Ribbon. We know bad. Yeah, we've lived through the 70s.
Speaker 1:This just left a horrible aftertaste. I ended up ordering a mango and jalapeno margarita. Tried to get the taste out of my mouth after that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the real reason.
Speaker 1:But in general though, lagos was a nice town great food, beautiful seacoast. We got to spend a couple of days admiring the sandstone cliff formations.
Speaker 2:It's the first time we'd seen something like that. Yeah, we had never seen that, that was nice.
Speaker 1:In general, though, I think after living on the Pacific coast in Ecuador, you know six years there it was a little bit of. You know. We've been there, done that, right yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think you know. Every place we go we think could we live here, could we do this, Could we do that, and actually I think we're over the beach.
Speaker 1:Tourist destinations in general.
Speaker 2:Yeah, resorts, yeah, resort areas which Salinas was the biggest resort in Ecuador.
Speaker 1:Even when we were looking for a home in Tennessee.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:We kind of rejected the Nashville and what's the other one, gatlinburg.
Speaker 2:Yeah, any of those areas, pigeon Forge Pigeon Forge Because they just have literally millions of people going to the Smokies every summer. No, we didn't want to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what was your favorite part of LaGoshe?
Speaker 2:Actually, it was very walkable. The food was delicious. Every every restaurant we were in it was just absolutely fabulous. They had a beautiful marina. I could see why people would love to live there or go there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I enjoyed it yeah, it did have kind of a small town feel it had a nice Mercado.
Speaker 2:Like a village. Yeah, it did.
Speaker 1:And I really enjoyed the park down at the end of the coast there. Right With all the walkways through the cliffs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, looking at that was really attractive.
Speaker 1:Well, from there, we were off to Seville, spain, and this was a late addition to our plans, once we found out that we could get a bus there for just $18 each.
Speaker 2:That's the thing about Europe it's so close and you can just pivot and be somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, once you get there, moving around is really very easy and very affordable. Now I did screw up and made us miss our bus, and you can read all the gory details in our blog at jimsantosbookscom. But we did get the next bus out of town and made it out to our Airbnb in Seville, just in time to miss the grocery store next door to our building Right.
Speaker 2:Actually, we did get to see another city by missing the bus. We did get to see some Spargos.
Speaker 1:We did find breakfast supplies that night just a few blocks away, and the next day we got our first good look at Seville and Rita. I think it's safe to say that we generally enjoyed our time in Seville it was a very pleasant surprise.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, we just love that culture anyway, that easygoing Spanish culture, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was a very flat and walkable city.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Very easy to get around. Again. Our Airbnb was in a great location.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we didn't use one taxi or Uber on any of our sightseeing.
Speaker 1:Just getting to and from the bus station. Yeah, I think, it was the only time we had to get a car.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:We were just a couple of streets away from the San Jacinto area, where they have tapa bars.
Speaker 2:Right, excellent food. Yeah, we found our little local tapa bar there. Yeah, we really enjoyed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's a fun place because we were there the first time. It was the weekend and it was like controlled chaos oh, it was hilarious three or four lines of people up at the bar and the staff are yelling back and forth everything and but still we got our food very quickly and it was excellent it was excellent. It was surprisingly inexpensive. I was amazed at that.
Speaker 2:It was really nice to see all the families. That's what I miss, I think, when we travel. Not all the countries include the babies and the grandmas and etc. Etc. So it's always nice to see that culture again.
Speaker 1:Now that first day, we also walked out to the Spanish Square, and I wasn't expecting that to be just such an attractive area as well.
Speaker 2:It was enormous.
Speaker 1:We also saw the Cathedral of Seville.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where Columbus is supposedly buried. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we saw his coffin there. They said it was either him or his brother, right close enough, I guess, buried. Yeah, yeah, we saw his coffin there.
Speaker 2:They said it was either him or his brother Right Close enough, depending on who you ask.
Speaker 1:But I think I had read recently that some DNA testing confirmed it was most likely him. But I don't see how that could confirm anything unless they had a known DNA to compare it to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But whatever.
Speaker 2:We saw it, he and his brother. That's close, yeah.
Speaker 1:The important thing was we found out something. When you're traveling, you know we tend to look up online and see how much tickets are Right For various places, and the places online were telling us the tickets for the cathedral were like 45 euros, 50 euros.
Speaker 2:A piece and sold out.
Speaker 1:And that they were sold out. But we saw a line and we asked somebody one of the guards there and they said, no, there's plenty of tickets, you can just get in line and buy one, and then when we got there with our senior discount, it was just seven euros each.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it is the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe, supposedly, so we didn't want to miss it. It was an unusual cathedral in the fact that it had two kind of central main altars.
Speaker 1:It was broken into two churches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, two churches, yeah it was kind of strange, but for 14 euros we were very pleased with it. We were happy with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now we were staying just across the river, uh, from most of the tourist attractions there just across the river, from the white tower, for instance, a beautiful little walkway along the river there, uh, there were all these people out. There was a guy playing the trumpet. Everywhere we went, it was the same guy yeah, I think just moving around a lot. Yeah, he migrated and also while we were there, we had to, of course, see a flamenco show.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that was excellent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the show was great and I really think the meal was even better.
Speaker 2:It was. You know, I really didn't think I would think flamingo was all that special, but it was quite a show.
Speaker 1:You had a lot of fun there and you could get just a show. Uh, you could get a just a show. You get a show with a drink. You get the show with a drink and tapas. You could get the show with the drink, and right menu. It was very accommodating and we went with the tapas and it was a great choice. They brought us out some cold tapas and some hot tapas and a dessert, and the each meal was just really wonderful.
Speaker 2:It was.
Speaker 1:We also, as we walked around, we found the old Jewish section.
Speaker 2:Oh, that was very interesting Very narrow cobblestone streets.
Speaker 1:And one interesting thing there we stopped at a restaurant that had been open since 1386.
Speaker 2:Right and it was excellent food.
Speaker 1:Again good food.
Speaker 2:It's like a maze really. You couldn't drive a car down these streets. It was made, I guess, for carts, basically ox carts or something.
Speaker 1:Again something I've brought up here before. I think most Americans in particular don't realize how old Europe is.
Speaker 2:Right. So these streets were built when they just need to be wide enough for a horse and actually that was one of the places where we walked eight miles one day, because you can just stop and have a little bite to eat, have a little drink, get going again. So it was. So it was very level, very walk.
Speaker 1:And great weather.
Speaker 2:And absolutely perfect weather.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we also found a small mercado there on our last day, of course, too late to take advantage of it Right. The Mercado de Triana that had great looking produce and fruits and seafood and we got to sample some orange wine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was different, that was good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had, I think it was in Budapest. We had cherry wine. Yeah, that was different, that was good. Yeah, we had, I think it was in Budapest. We had cherry wine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did.
Speaker 1:That was kind of disappointing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't that great. It was real hyped up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the orange wine was really good.
Speaker 2:It was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, One of the last things we did in Seville. I went by myself. Rita sat and enjoyed, I think, a drink and a dessert.
Speaker 2:I did, I did yes.
Speaker 1:They have a large wooden structure. I can't remember the name of it. Oh yeah, the parasol.
Speaker 2:That's it. I couldn't think of the name of it either.
Speaker 1:They have a large wooden structure called the parasol. It's kind of a sweeping parasol-like construction. It's the largest all-wood construction in the world and you take an elevator up to the top of it and walk around walkways there where you get a 360-degree view of Seville. There was a little wraparound movie presentation about life in Seville too.
Speaker 2:It's enormous really.
Speaker 1:It's really really interesting. It was really, really interesting. It was very. All of this stuff. I should mention, if you go to our website, jimsantosbookscom, there are pictures from all of these places as well and a couple of videos.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Now again, we had great weather. It did rain one night, but it didn't start until we had just got back to our apartment for the night. So it missed us and it was just starting to drizzle when we left to catch our bus to our next stop, heading back to Portugal, this time, the coastal town of Albufeira, now again the Flixbus. I think it was like $17 each and we're back in Portugal. We did get to see some of the town, which I have to say was extremely touristy, oh yeah, even more so than La Gauche.
Speaker 2:A lot of, I would say 18 to 35-year-olds.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was definitely a party town.
Speaker 2:Oh, definitely.
Speaker 1:The main reason we were there was for the International Living European Boot Camp. We had a table in the exhibition hall and I had to give a 15-minute talk on roaming retirement, so it was great to get that part of the trip over with.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So I could relax then.
Speaker 2:Right Right, it's always fun. We see that we see a lot of the same presenters every conference. It's always fun to be there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had good accommodations, good food. We found a nice Indian restaurant.
Speaker 2:We always find a great Indian restaurant. Yeah, we found a nice Indian restaurant.
Speaker 1:We always find a great Indian restaurant yeah, we always look for them, and then a great went down to the old town, to the restaurant district.
Speaker 2:Right and had a great meal. Yeah, down there as well. Yeah, we did.
Speaker 1:But overall Abu Fuera again. I think it's just not for us.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Just too much of a party town, too much right, too much going on right. I think our kids would love it probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it wasn't even the season. No, that was a surprising and it was still very busy.
Speaker 1:In fact, the first night we were there, it was very, very cool and windy it was yeah, yeah yeah, so again for us, I think abu fuero's that, been there, done that, don't want to do the touristy thing again. Right, so far. In general, spain was a big hit, but we weren't too impressed with Portugal yet.
Speaker 2:Actually, the plaza in Spain was probably one of the. It was absolutely gorgeous, all the tile work that was done and kind of interesting. When we came back I read some history about it. It was actually built in 1929. But it's now used as a museum and government offices and, of course, the tourist industry as well. So it's an absolute must-see because it is so different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really beautiful area. Spain is definitely a country I'd like to go back and see more of, because it's so big.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, and we only saw that town. Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, so we're ready to give Portugal one more chance, as we left Albufeira and headed to Lisbon once again by Flixbus. Now I'd read that there are a lot of hills in Lisbon, and you've seen pictures of the funicular and the trams, but I don't think I was prepared for the reality of it.
Speaker 2:We thought, maybe San Francisco-like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but parts of it really put San Francisco to shame.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, San Francisco without the building codes?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but parts of it really put San Francisco to shame. Oh yeah, san Francisco without the building codes, right.
Speaker 2:And it's not a walkable city really, if you have any. I mean, we did, we did walk it. We didn't use Ubers or but it was challenging, it was challenging.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Every day was leg day I guess yeah, every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now, every day, yeah.
Speaker 1:Now, although it didn't strike us as a destination that we'd like to live in, we did see a lot of beautiful things there. Oh yes, the very first day walking up our street, uphill up our street, we saw a church front, and the only reason we were sure it was a church front was because you could hear music coming from inside of it.
Speaker 1:It was fairly plain on the outside, so we went inside and discovered the Santa Catarina Cathedral and again you should check out the website, the pictures inside. This building is just incredibly ornate inside.
Speaker 2:It really probably is one of the most beautiful not huge, medium-sized churches we've probably been in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, there's just a small Santa Catarina sign outside.
Speaker 2:That's it. There's no big indication, that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was really a wonderful find there.
Speaker 2:And it was very peaceful. They had organ music going. It was nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we also enjoyed a place called the Time Out Market. It's an area that's got a mercado.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Vegetables, fruits, seafood and that kind of thing. But the main thing that people go there for, I think, is for the ring of restaurants around a big hall.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Where everybody just sits kind of at big tables.
Speaker 2:And the food source, of course, is all this fresh fruit, meat and vegetables. So, yeah, it was absolutely an amazing find and no matter where you sit, you become part of that family or group.
Speaker 1:that's sitting there, you start talking with the people around you and, as a matter of fact, one of the days there we met a couple who we sat down next to, a couple that live just a few miles from us here in Knoxville.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was amazing. We met, yeah, and across from us was a couple that were there for their honeymoon, so it was really. It's nice that you're never eating alone when you go in there. If you think you're going in there to get a table by yourself, it's not happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a very loud communal place A lot of fun. Walk up and order your food, then walk up and get a beer.
Speaker 2:It was just nice.
Speaker 1:We went there a couple of times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was real pleasant.
Speaker 1:We also saw the Paca de Comercio, a big waterfront square.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that was interesting.
Speaker 1:The Santa Maria Church on our way to look at the St George's Castle, which, after the little one we found this, was kind of a disappointment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the one that is so advertised, the cathedral that's so advertised that you can't miss it. And we did walk uphill and we saw it. But after seeing the smaller church I thought, well, you should be. Maybe they don't advertise the smaller church because there's absolutely no place to park.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Buses could not get in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true in a lot of the city. Right, that there's just yeah. So, yeah, I remember waiting for an Uber to um to the ferry station. Right, we could see on the map that he was like a block away, but he had to drive six or seven blocks in a big circle to be able to get on the one-way street. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, that's saint george's castle or san jorge that was very interesting yeah, that was a nice surprise, uh.
Speaker 1:A big area, a lot of courtyards, a lot of trees, a lot of peacocks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, clear on top of the mountain.
Speaker 1:A lot of very noisy peacocks, I should say, and you had a great view of the city and the river looking from up there on the castle grounds.
Speaker 2:But the plan is it's a long walk. So you know you can plan to have your lunch, have a couple drinks, then regroup and go again, because it is a big space and quite an arduous walk it was yeah, it was a long, long uphill walk. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:Now we had another one of those small world moments. We got a message in Facebook before we left Abujera that a neighbor of ours from when we lived in Cambridge, maryland I don't know what like 15 years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really.
Speaker 1:Had just moved to Lisbon and was in fact right across the Tagus River in the town of Trafaria.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, naturally, we decided to take a ferry across the river to visit there. Yeah, ferry across the river to visit there? Yeah, and we had planned on going down to where the ferries were anyway, because that's where the uh belim tower right and the famous monument to the discoveries right are located there, so we were able to go down and see both of those and then catch the ferry, which was really affordable I think it's like 75 cents or something like that.
Speaker 2:That tower is where they uh a chain across the river. You had a block trade coming in that they didn't want.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this small town that our friend is living in now, trafaria, was really very different from Lisbon. The area we were in, at least, was fairly flat.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:There were a couple of beaches there, it seemed like. Rather than a touristy spot, it seemed like it's the place where the locals go.
Speaker 2:Go to the beach?
Speaker 1:yeah, To go to the beach or to get a little break from the city of Lisbon, right? So I'd be interested in checking back with her in a few months and see how she's acclimating.
Speaker 2:I could see us living in a place like that. It's more livable. Yeah, it had a mercado.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what overall impressions did you have of Portugal?
Speaker 2:from what we saw, Well, I really think we need to get back there and look at Porto and some of the northern areas. I think we probably didn't give it a fair shake. We were only there a couple weeks. Yeah, we'll do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were basically there waiting out the weather.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were, so that we could count.
Speaker 1:Waiting for it to get warmer in the British Isles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that about covers our first two weeks or so of our 10-week odyssey and, remember, you can see some pictures of our time in Portugal and Spain at jimsantosbookscom and see some videos and reels on the Instagram site and on YouTube. But now it was time for us to move on to the UK and on a future episode we'll pick up the journey, starting with our arrival in London. You've been listening to Travels with Jim and Rita. If you'd like to read more about where we've been, see some photos of the places you've been listening to travels with jim and rita.
Speaker 1:If you'd like to read more about where we've been, see some photos of the places you've been hearing about, check out our blog at jimsantosbookscom and our youtube channel and instagram for videos. Meanwhile, you can access my books, audiobooks and short stories at jimsantosnet and there are links to those sites instagram, youtube and so on in the show notes. We'd love to hear from our listeners as well. So if you have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover or you want to tell your own travel story, email us at jim at jimsantosbookscom. Until next time, remember, we travel not to escape life, but so that life does not escape us.
