Retirement & Our Nomadic Lifestyle
Retiring and traveling the world seemed like a dream to Annette and I. We never thought it possible to retire and travel to see this wonderful world that God has created. Yet here we are, retired at 57 and traveling through Italy, Croatia and the Balkans.
We started this journey, as a question, “Are we really doing this?” And now we are not asking, but rather confirming. We are doing this! How did we get here some may ask, well that requires a little back story and I will keep it brief, as brief as possible anyway.
Our passion for travel started in 2018 when we planned a Baltic cruise to celebrate our 30 year wedding anniversary. I remember vividly sitting in our living room in Orlando looking at trips to Europe, the normal Paris, London, Barcelona and other major tourist destinations. We came across a cruise starting in Amsterdam that went around the Baltic Sea with stops in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Russia. Our interest was peaked as well as our imagination. The thought of visiting a county that I never thought I would ever set foot in let alone be a tourist, was fascinating to both of us. So of course we booked it and our smoldering passion for travel, especially to Europe was ignited.
With this new found passion of European travel after what we thought was a “Trip of a lifetime” we reevaluated our priorities financially and began saving as much as possible for future vacations to Europe. We did have another wonderful trip in 2019 with friends on a river cruise from Prague all the way to Amsterdam. The Grand European Tour by Viking River cruises. This was a magical cruise during a beautiful time of year in Europe. October on the Danube River is spectacular I recommend it very highly.
Our plans were to continue to save money for future cruises and see the world as much as possible with Florida being our home base for all this travel. We had plans for a Mediterranean cruise in 2020, well a little Pandemic got in the way of those plans and then a major health issue for me, I had an Aortic dissection which almost ended my time here on earth, before I got a chance to travel more. While these events were very difficult to go though, it did give us both the resolve and determination to we needed for where we are now.
I had a passion to get better and stronger for more travel, and we did with a trip from Zurich to Paris in March of 2022. We also went to Brussels in December of 2022 to see Christmas markets. Two trips to Europe in one year, I never thought I would be able to do this after what happened to me.
My near death experience as well as the fact that dementia does run in my family fueled my desire to retire as early as possible to enjoy the fruits of our labor. So we did a pivot and looked at the possibility of saving even more and selling everything to be able to travel full time.
Well it is obvious that we were able to fulfill the dream of travel. How we got here will be a story for another day. We could not be happier that we were able to retire at 57 and have the ability to travel and see as much of this world as possible and for as long as I am able to keep up with Annette.
I truly am thankful that God has granted me more time with Annette and that I am able to travel.
We are truly blessed and happy to have you all follow along on our adventures.