Europe is Wonderful After All These Years
In 1982, I quit my Job at the Social Security Administration to travel to Europe. I took out all of my retirement pension money, and together with my meager bank savings account, embarked on a summer long journey to as many countries as my money would carry me to.
I traveled very cheaply. With Europass in hand, I visited over 15 countries during my summer of adventure. It was truly a life changing experience, because it gave me the confidence to continue my travels, most notably my move to Japan in 1984.
Flash forward to 2018. The wife and I are both retired, and splitting time between Oakland and Tokyo. One day one of us, I forget who, proposed that we should travel to Europe one more time before we got too old to do it. The idea snowballed, and soon her brother and wife were on board too.
But, as you know, the coronavirus would have a major impact on all travel plans, and it did indeed put the idea of traveling to Europe on indefinite hold.
And after COVID "went away" for the most part, it was time to plan our trip again! And we did, selecting two countries and three cities to visit. We wanted to do this trip without doing too much travel between cities in Europe mostly to save our energy, as we are all over 65 and not as spry as we were even 4 years ago.
So, these few lessons, or should I call them travel stories, describe our trip to Europe in the spring of 2023. Enjoy!