Scotland: How to Spend Two Days in Stirling. Truth be told we’d never heard of Stirling, or for that matter most of the places we visited before or after. When it came to Scotland, we were complete newbies. It was our 20th country, Scotland, and while we’ve seen spectacular places around the world, the landscape of Scotland defied imagination.

Scotland. Paint a picture in your mind’s eye of everything you can imagine about Scotland and most likely you’d be spot on. We spent three weeks exploring Scotland and the Lake District in northern England, and we were in constant awe. The list of adjectives we used was endless when trying to describe the splendor that is Scotland. This post is the first in our Scotland series.

Travel Hacks In Retirement

You certainly do not have to be retired, or even be thinking about retirement, to take advantage of good travel and life hacks. We’ve done a lot of “hacks” research over the years; some of which work for us, some not so much. As we transitioned into retirement we knew we’d need to find a way to make travel (and life) affordable. In this post we’re going to talk about some of our well-used travel and life hacks in retirement, and how we make it all work for us.

Evora, Portugal. After spending four lovely days in Setubal, we boarded the train bound for Evora. We had to backtrack to Lisbon and change trains at Oriente Station. It was an easy transition and a fairly short ride to Evora. It was our first foray into central Portugal, which is known for the region’s high temps. We had no idea just how high those temps could soar.

Setubal, Evora and Santarem. All three cities were new destinations for us while spending a month in Portugal. Each offered its own historic charm and hospitality. Our first stop was Setubal. We rented an apartment and spent four easy carefree days relaxing before adventuring further.

Google memories reminded me that five years ago, April 2015, we were just finding our stride as we started walking what would be 350 miles on the Camino de Santiago across Spain. One year ago, April 2019, we set out to walk 145 miles of the Camino Portuguese. Taking on a long walk is a journey in which one can easily lose track of time and days. It becomes your life, all consuming. Now, here we are, April 2020, living by far the most surreal existence to date. I call it, life in a pandemic bubble. I can’t define it any other way. It too, is all consuming.

Coronavirus outbreak, it’s the headline being heard around the world. Wherever you are in this vast world of ours, you’ve surely read the headlines, or listened to a broadcast, about the spread of the virus. The news is inescapable.

When the calendar page turns to the first official day of summer, I begin counting the days until the first official day of fall, as if I can hurry along the seasonal changes.  I can appreciate the beauty of summer with green grass, flower blossoms and wearing flip flops, but I am not a fan of heat and humidity.  Humidity tends to suck the life out of me so when the air cools in the fall, I feel as if I can breathe again.  There are those who profess they love the fall season but worry that winter is just around the corner.  I’ll take winter too.  One can layer on the clothing to stay warm, but only so much can be taken off to stay cool in the summer heat. You know what I mean?

I’m just about to turn the calendar page and celebrate another birthday.  For the record, having a birthday in January is not exactly ideal. If you think about it, the calendar pages are pretty full in October, November, December and right in to the first day of January.  By the time my birthday rolls around in mid January, people are burned out.

Have you ever thought about which is the lesser of two evils… the red-eye flight on which you spend 7 – 8 hours painfully exhausted but unable to sleep, or is it less evil to be wide awake and giving up an entire day to fly across the Atlantic Ocean or to some other long-distance destination?