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 58 - Castles, Creepy Laundry Rooms, and an Airbnb Disaster
Our journey continues as we embrace "Plan B" - establishing a home base in Tennessee while still spending six to nine months a year abroad. This episode picks up our 10-week European adventure as we complete our circuit around Ireland, revealing both the magic and mishaps of extended travel.
From our stay in a rustic farmhouse near New Ross (complete with a creepy dirt-floor laundry shed) to exploring magnificent Kilkenny Castle with its vaulted long hall, every stop brought new discoveries. We wandered through charming pedestrian "slips" that resembled something from Harry Potter, witnessed dramatic coastlines at Hook Head Lighthouse, and encountered more swans than we could count in the seaside town of Bray.
The journey wasn't without its challenges, particularly when our carefully selected Dublin Airbnb turned out to be an unauthorized rental, leaving us stranded on the front steps with our luggage. This forced us to pivot to a hotel at twice the price - just one example of how travel requires flexibility and a sense of humor.
Dublin itself rewarded us with treasures like Trinity College's magnificent campus, the ancient Book of Kells (though seeing just a single page was somewhat anticlimactic), and the historic Dublin Castle. We even found time to enjoy a proper Irish meal of bacon and cabbage while avoiding the tourist-trap prices of Temple Bar.
As we reflect on our entire journey through Portugal, Spain, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Wales, we're reminded why we choose this lifestyle: "We travel not to escape life, but so that life does not escape us." Join us as we regroup at home base before planning our next adventure!
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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. Hello everybody and welcome back to our podcast, travels with Jim and Rita.
Speaker 1:Today, rita and I will be picking up where we left off, talking about our 10-week overseas trip, and I think we might finally be able to finish it up today. This might be the last episode. That catches us up, completely finishing up our tour around Ireland. Now we left off. We had just visited the amazing town of Cove, saw the St Coleman's Cathedral there, and we're on our way to another Airbnb, this time in a little town called New Ross. Now, that was probably the most rural place we stayed in, don't you think? That little farmhouse?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was down actual farm roads. We saw a tractor one day, fortunately going the same direction as us.
Speaker 2:Right, right, but it was really picturesque.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there were horse farms there. It was really nice, and the place itself. You know the little hard work and some imagination you could turn it into a barn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it might have been some kind of storage shed at one time it was cozy. It was roomy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they gave us a space heater. A wee space heater, yeah, a wee space heater, so we were comfortable while we were there. The only flaw was it did have a washing machine, as advertised. It was in a nearby shed building that had a dirt floor and was a bit creepy.
Speaker 2:A little creepy yeah.
Speaker 1:So after one load we decided instead to do our clothes at a rather nice laundromat that was at the Tesco in town.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we finished this tour in this Airbnb, we did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've really become fans of Tesco.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we love the Tesco Definitely.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I did set off the smoke alarm there once.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:We took advantage of that Tesco to make several dinners at home and the first time I used the oven I didn't check to see if anything was in it. When I turned it on to warm up and there was a pan that had some grease residue or something and it started smoking. And just as I was trying to open the doors and windows, the alarm started going off. Right, yeah, that was a little excitement. The little boy came running, the mother and the father yeah, they all came running, just a little smoke, no problem.
Speaker 1:Now, we had booked four nights there because we thought we'd be a whole day in Waterford, a whole day in Wexford and maybe a day back in Waterford to meet some of the people from International Living. But, as it turned out, the IL staff mostly work remote and there'd only be a couple people in the office. We only would have seen one or two people. The office wasn't actually in Waterford, it was about another half hour further from Waterford. And then we got to Waterford and I have to say we're not very impressed at all, were we?
Speaker 2:No, but part of it. It was raining, it was raining. It was a little dark and gray, we weren't really interested in going through the Waterford Crystal tour. I mean, at this stage in our life we have more gorm crystal than you can shake a stick at. We don't need more crystal in our life.
Speaker 1:And we weren't going to try to get any back with us. No, with still several days to spend in Ireland before getting on a plane. So actually we just we parked, we walked not even out of the parking lot, I think, before we decided you know what? Let's drive around a little bit and check out Wexford.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that was a little more interesting. We did spend some time walking around the shops downtown and had lunch at a little Texas-themed restaurant.
Speaker 2:Right, it had like a little walking district with shops. That was interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it was starting to rain again then, so we decided to just head back to the farm and have a Tesco meal.
Speaker 2:Well, we had a good lunch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a good lunch downtown, but the next day the weather was a little better. We headed out to the Hook Peninsula and visited the Hook Head Lighthouse Really impressive stony coast of waves crashing and tide pools.
Speaker 2:Enough wind to blow you off the peninsula. It was very windy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was kind of a cool breeze. As I recall, you set that one out.
Speaker 2:I did yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the drive was nice, though, and the scenery was back to rolling hills and farms, so it wasn't as difficult.
Speaker 2:No, it was a good day for the drive. It was.
Speaker 1:So we took a different road back so that we could go by the Dunbrodie Abbey in Ballyhack, and once again the rains came back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got to tour around a little. There was an eatery there and a gift shop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, still it was a nice day, but I think our favorite thing in New Ross was probably the next day when we set out to Kilkenny.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was more or less random, just from something you saw online right Right. Yeah, Kilkenny is a town and it's famous for the Kilkenny Castle.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:As we found out, Just a large, beautiful reconstructed rooms. There's a nice hedge-encircled garden, 13th century castle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was raining there too, but it was so well worth it.
Speaker 1:And we were in the castle for most of the time. Yeah, we were in the castle most of the time. And it was a large castle. It was a very nice tour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:It was well worth it. That's where we saw the Butler Gallery. You're walking through these rooms and you see all this stuff that looks really impressive and you turn a corner and suddenly you're looking down this huge vaulted ceiling. It looks like a large hallway or something.
Speaker 2:Well, they called it the long hall. It was beautiful yeah.
Speaker 1:It was really beautiful, but town itself was also very nice, so that was interesting. Yeah, cute little alleyways with shores, stores and shops. One of them was called butter slip.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they had those little closest, like they had in Edinburgh. Yeah, that was interesting and here they're calling them slips and stuff. They are Closes yeah.
Speaker 1:There were pedestrian walkways there that looked like something like Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.
Speaker 2:Right, and they took you down to the area that had all the restaurants and you couldn't drive a car through there. It was all walkways, yeah.
Speaker 1:And yet another St Mary's Church Right. And another funeral, oh yes, but this time we slipped in a side door while everyone was filing out front.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Following the casket.
Speaker 2:Right and the janitor almost locked us in or out.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure what he was doing. They were locking the doors. Oh, he did. We did manage to slip in. Most of the walls were painted with geometric patterns and Christian iconography. It was really unusual.
Speaker 2:It was a different arrangement, yeah.
Speaker 1:But that was a great day and after one more night in our farmhouse, we hit the Tesco laundromat. A nice laundromat. Took another look at the New Ross Riverwalk to get some pictures of Dunbrodie, which is the replica of one of the coffin ships.
Speaker 2:Yes, that we'd heard about when we were in Strokes Town and they had the flame there too, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have a globe with a flame in the middle of it. That's a memorial to the people who lost their lives during the transit. But we're on the road again Now. We're heading up the eastern coast, almost completing our circuit. Here. We're going to our next-to-last home in Ireland, and it's a mouthful Newtown, Mount Kennedy.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:This time we were in a hotel. It was really pretty comfortable. It had a very nice pub attached and breakfast was included and we had heat. Oh yes, we could control our own temperature. That was great.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This was a convenient spot for our last few day trips, the first one being the coastal town of Wicklow. Now, since returning, we've started watching a British TV show set in Wicklow and the nearby beach resort of Bray, which we'll get to in a minute. So it's really been fun seeing places that we recognize.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really kind of liked Wicklow, didn't you?
Speaker 2:Yes, I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Leitrim River goes down there and it's an outlet to the Irish Sea. St Patrick's Church up on the hill Downtown area is really pleasant. We stopped for coffee and scones.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:One of them had a nice walk along the seaside and saw some beaches there.
Speaker 2:And the famous Black Castle, the famous Black Castle which.
Speaker 1:I'm glad we didn't plan the trip just to see the Black Castle, right, because it was basically two stone pillars, right.
Speaker 2:And that's it.
Speaker 1:And that's it, sitting on the cliff, and a drawing of what the castle once looked at. It's kind of a weird story about Wicklow. Their Gaelic name and I'm sure I'm saying this wrong is Kilh-Mataen, and St Patrick is supposed to have tried to land on the beach by that black castle back in 432, but the local chieftains stopped them by throwing rocks at the landing party.
Speaker 2:Stoning them.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So one monk had his front teeth knocked out, so they started calling him Matain, which in Gaelic means toothless one or gubby. I don't know how you get gubby out of that.
Speaker 2:Gummy maybe, but gubby, it was gubby.
Speaker 1:And he later returned to Wicklow and built the church dedicated to St Patrick. That we saw and people started calling it Kilmatthain or Gubby's Church, so the Gaelic Wicklow is actually called Gubby's Church. So now you know All right. Next day we're off to visit the Kilruttery Estate. Now this is on about 800 acres. It includes a house, a working farm, reflecting pools and gardens. But it's really pretty clear their main purpose is getting tourist dollars to keep the estate and the family.
Speaker 2:Right, it's a struggle.
Speaker 1:Yeah Now, the original house was built in 1645. Like many places around there, it would be built six years later, after a fire, from 1820 to 1830, it was renovated and expanded into something quite large and beautiful, even with a clock tower powered by jets of water that the Earl designed himself and built from scraps. But the house doesn't look like that now.
Speaker 2:No, it doesn't.
Speaker 1:Now I forget the exact dates, but sometime around World War II the owners decided to shutter the house to save money and left it for more than a decade.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Naturally, in 1952, when the new Earl decided to reopen, it was a dry, rotted mess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, water had seeped in through the roof and destroyed it had to be torn down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, most of the house was torn away and replaced with a courtyard for the next 10 years of renovations, and why they left it untouched. So long is beyond me, me too it seems like having a team check and maintain every six months or so.
Speaker 2:Just plug the holes.
Speaker 1:So would have helped a lot. But anyway, we enjoyed the grounds and the gardens and it's all chicken and petting zoo area for kids. They had a tree walk and zipline area as well, which we passed up. The house tour itself was a little disappointing, don't you think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there wasn't much there, and they still lived in this property.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you couldn't see all of it.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:A couple of stairwells, two or three rooms.
Speaker 2:That was it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they rent the house out for weddings. I mean really anything they can do for a buck they're trying to do here. And because it's a private residence, we weren't allowed to take pictures either.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Until we got to the conservatory which is being set up for a wedding.
Speaker 2:And it looked like it was beginning to have water damage too, it was a beautiful room but it was deteriorating.
Speaker 1:Now one last stop the next day before returning our car and finishing up our trip in Dublin and again, this was another stop that we hadn't planned on in advance. Just noticed on the map there was a seaside town called Bray that also had a swan sanctuary.
Speaker 2:Right, what a sweet place.
Speaker 1:It was only a short drive from Newtown, so off we went, and Bray was really a pretty pleasant surprise.
Speaker 2:It was.
Speaker 1:It had a very nice boardwalk. People were actually swimming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was amazing. Well, it was a little warm. We didn't have on sweaters, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I've never seen so many swans.
Speaker 2:I know that was a wildlife refuge, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a swan refuge around there somewhere, and there must have been 30, 35 swans At least Just in the harbor there. There was a trail that led up the cliff on the south side of the beach.
Speaker 1:Carnival rides, colorful waterfront homes colorful waterfront homes Well taken care of, beautiful, really well taken care of A grassy play area for kids, and we noticed there was train service going by there, so it probably brings Dubliners down for vacation breaks there. I had become quite comfortable with driving on the left-hand side of the road. In fact, once we came back to the US I had a period of adjustment where I wasn't sure which side I should be on. But it was finally time to return to Dublin Airport, drop off our rental car and get a bolt to our final Airbnb in downtown Dublin. Now we had no trouble getting a ride. In fact, the guy who checked in on our return phoned someone to come get us. He chatted with us about the area and cursed a few of the Egypts on the way out of the airport, told us about the city, pointed out highlights and couldn't get over what a nice neighborhood our Airbnb was in.
Speaker 2:And it was beautiful.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of embassies there, tree-lined streets, it's very posh. It's definitely a Murray area, not.
Speaker 2:Murray, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:But we're about to get our final shock in Dublin, almost as bad as the insurance surprise. When we arrived, we followed the instructions and key code to get into the lobby of a gorgeous building and there was supposed to be an envelope with our name on it sitting on a shelf in the lobby. But nothing was there and we looked all around the area, including the floor Nothing. I called the host on WhatsApp, got no answer, so I texted a message. A few minutes later a guy started a video chat on WhatsApp. He had me show him the area where the key was supposed to be, in case we were blind or something, and after a little back and forth said he'd send over the building supervisor who'd let us in and give us a key. So we told him that was great if we could get in, but we were a little concerned that someone may have the missing key and be able to enter the apartment at any time. He said not to worry about that, which of course is easier for him to say.
Speaker 1:Yeah but the soup arrives and he tells us to take the elevator up to the apartment and it'll meet us there. So great. But once we get up there with all our bags, he drops the bomb. He says that he called the person renting the apartment, who was currently in Spain, who told him that he had a friend living there while he was out to keep an eye on things. And of course that wasn't true, right. So we were then informed by the soup that the house lease did not allow subletting or short-term rentals, so he could not let us into the apartment. And he actually went on to say Airbnb was illegal in Dublin, which may or may not be true.
Speaker 2:Right, I think it sounded like in certain parts of Dublin they're not allowed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know you kind of wanted to argue with him about it, but I thought it was pretty clear he wasn't going to change his mind.
Speaker 2:No, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:So a few minutes later, there we are sitting on the front steps with our luggage around us, on our phones and Bookingcom, looking for a place to stay our last four nights. We didn't want to risk another Airbnb, and now without a car. We didn't want to be too far from the city center.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So we ended up at a place called the Marlin Hotel, which cost a little more than twice what we'd pay for the Airbnb and we figured that was going to happen. Yeah, however, it did include a big breakfast buffet.
Speaker 2:It was nice.
Speaker 1:It was closer to the things we wanted to see as well, so we wouldn't need to pay for ride-sharing or public transport.
Speaker 2:We walked everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got a bonus from booking as well. They gave us a free ride to the airport from our departure. Nice pub and laundromat around the corner and we did get reimbursed With a bed that took up half the room, touching three walls, no closet, just a couple of hanging pegs, but it did have some drawers under the bed.
Speaker 2:That saved us. That was it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So despite the rocky start, we did have a good, although expensive, stay in Dublin, don't you think?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was fine. We always know you just pivot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like say, the hotel had a great breakfast.
Speaker 2:It did.
Speaker 1:We found the John O'Dwyer Pub, which became our local.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:We got to stop at the Fuzzy Lemon.
Speaker 2:We ate there twice. That was good.
Speaker 1:Fuzzy Lemon twice and the Old Storehouse Bar in the Temple Bar District, and I finally got to try bacon and cabbage there.
Speaker 2:Right, you were very happy about that.
Speaker 1:It's not exactly bacon. It's not exactly bacon, it's more like just huge ham pieces Right With cooked cabbage. It was really very good. So we were in the St Stephen's Green neighborhood, which is kind of a big shopping and restaurant area, beautiful park, yeah, really nice. We spent part of one day just enjoying that park yes, kind of ducking undercover whenever it started raining.
Speaker 2:Right, right.
Speaker 1:But it was nice. There were ducks and swans there Again we saw a mother duck with a bunch of little chicks. Yep and, of course, another famine memorial.
Speaker 2:Can't get away from those, no.
Speaker 1:So we saw all the major sites. For us in Dublin, st Patrick's Cathedral, it wasn't horribly crowded, but it was still pretty busy. We're getting closer to the tourist season now at the end of May, Right After St Patrick's. It's just a short walk to Dublin Castle. Very nice self-guided tour inside the castle, although some of the buildings were closed for renovation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know I had read on some touring travel sites that Dublin Castle was something to miss, and I liked it. I thought it was very, very well done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we definitely enjoyed it there and they had a nice walled garden outside that we walked around.
Speaker 2:Yep, they did.
Speaker 1:And one day we spent some time on the riverfront and checked out the famous temple bar, took the advice of other travelers and just took pictures of the outside, didn't bother paying higher prices inside, and their music was really loud.
Speaker 2:Right, we were half a mile away and you could hear it. It was loud.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's when we ended up at the storehouse in my bacon and cabbage, which was very busy too, but the service was great.
Speaker 2:Right, it was good.
Speaker 1:That was also the only day I think the whole trip that we went out without our raincoats, Right, Since it was so nice when we started and we ended up getting rained on all the way back to the hotel.
Speaker 2:Right, but it wasn't cold, so it was all right. No, it wasn't cold, it was nice.
Speaker 1:But last big attraction that we visited in Dublin was Trinity College and the Book of Kells. So what did you think of the college?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that was gorgeous. I wanted our grandkids to go there. It was Magnificent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the campus is really beautiful and, of course, the huge library, the Long Hall, has a rotating globe suspended from the ceiling. That is really stunning. There's some great displays about the history of the college and so on.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But of course, the big draw is the Book of Kells. Now, in case you're unaware, as unaware as I was, the Book of Kells is a 9th century illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels of the New Testament, renowned for its intricate and vibrant artwork. It's a national treasure of Ireland and it's a masterpiece of medieval art and calligraphy. But what did you think of the Book of Kells exhibit itself?
Speaker 2:It was one page.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was one page. Well, the information leading up to it was fascinating. It was, the history was yeah there's an area where you can see the history, some of the details about curing the animal skin and scraping it to make pages. Close-ups of some of the fancy details. That was really interesting. But after all that build-up, when you go in to see the book itself, it's just a dark room inside a glass case open to a single page.
Speaker 2:Right, but it probably is to preserve.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm sure it is but it was just kind of a letdown.
Speaker 2:It was.
Speaker 1:It would have been nice if they had some high-res scans of several of the pages displayed on the walls something like that.
Speaker 2:It was amazing, though, if you think I mean how they had to do to make that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course I say that with my deep background in the care, preservation and presentation of 9th century.
Speaker 2:Celtic manuscripts yeah.
Speaker 1:So perhaps I'm not the best one to decide how to do that.
Speaker 2:I was impressed with it, With the whole setup that they had, especially the moving statues the speaking statues.
Speaker 1:That was really sweet. Yeah, and that long hall where you got to see the oldest harp in Ireland. Oh my God, that was amazing, that was amazing Makes you want to Guinness when you see that harp.
Speaker 2:It does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the rest, as they say, was denouement. Our free ride to the airport was ready and waiting on time. No big drama getting to the airport, getting checked in or time. No big drama getting to the airport, getting checked in or boarding our Aer Lingus flight to Delvis airport. Just the usual long, boring time in a metal tube with an uncomfortable seat.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Although you did get a playful little scamp sitting behind you.
Speaker 2:I did, he was. He's a little active.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd say Aer Lingus. That's the third flight we had with them. They're not the greatest, but it's okay.
Speaker 2:Well, I can't complain, because when we flew from Prague and we were both not feeling really well, I got to sleep across five seats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was almost empty the whole flight so I was happy but kind of the Kmart of flying.
Speaker 2:I guess yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But we made it back to Dulles. We had plenty of time for one last expensive airport meal before boarding the little hopper plane to get us back to Knoxville.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:The only piece of excitement when we got back was I left my backpack with my computer and iPad in the Uber. I didn't realize it for about an hour or so, I think I'd gone to the grocery store and got milk already Right and come back before I realized I didn't have my backpack. But fortunately we could get a message to the driver and for a generous, generous tip, he brought it back to us around 11 o'clock that night he did yeah, so there you go.
Speaker 1:It took us what? Five episodes and almost as long as the trip itself to catch everybody up, but that was the conclusion of our 10-week early spring trip covering portugal, spain, england, scotland, northern ireland, ireland and a wee bit of wales. So, rita, what's your takeaway from the whole trip?
Speaker 2:Oh, it was fabulous. I mean, I've always wanted to go to Ireland. That's where my family's from. I wanted to see where they lived and learn some history about it. It was a wonderful trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when you look back at the pictures now and, by the way, all the pictures from everywhere on the trip are on the website now, jimsantosbookscom. You can check those out we look back and see the pictures from Portugal and Spain, it's hard to remember that that was the same trip.
Speaker 2:I know Well, but we were in the British Isles and Ireland for two months.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Portugal and Spain are just so completely different.
Speaker 2:They're totally different. I love Seville. That was wonderful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all in all the entire trip was very nice and although you did get a little sick for part of England, for once we didn't have to cut the trip short for COVID or surgery or anything like that. So that was good.
Speaker 2:That was very good.
Speaker 1:So as for what's next, well, we're not really sure. We're finishing up some work on our home base. We already had the Portland Conference for International Living, so we've got that behind us. We've got some friends and family to visit, 80th birthday party to attend the end of October and a big family visit over Thanksgiving. We'll be hosting quite a few here, I think.
Speaker 1:And you're writing a new book. I'm working on a new book about slow travel, so it may be winter before we get on the road again, but whatever it is, whatever we do, we'll try to keep you in the loop here. On Travels with Jim and Rita. 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 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, 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. Thank you.
