RONNIE & Michelle
Careering OffAfter over 30 years working, Ronnie & Michelle have decided to take the gap year (or two!) that we missed out on at the usual time. We have had stressful careers in Technology and Finance until now including start-ups and self-employment.
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The kids – Cameron & Daniel – have fled the nest to pursue their own adventures in life, leaving only the cats Tiger and Lexey to tie us down.
Following a health shock and seeing what has happened to many people we know around our age, we decided not to wait until we are in our 60’s and retired before resuming our love of travel and seeing the world. We are in the fortunate position of being able to pause working for a while.
It’s now time to career-off.
THE BLOG
Pamplona and the Basque region
We had a great excuse to visit Pamplona, famous for the annual "running of the bulls" festival, as our friends Gary and Sarah from New Zealand were there at the same time. We couldn't resist the staged photo session. After Pamplona, we reached the North coast of Spain...
Back into Spain and Rioja
From Chaves, we crossed back over the border into Spain. First stop was Carrión de los Condes. Next was the beautiful city of Palencia. From Palencia, we drove through the Rioja wine region. Lots of vines laden with grapes. The harvest here is a bit later than the...
The North of Portugal
From Porto, we headed towards the north of Portugal. The first stop was the lovely city of Braga. Next, we visited Viano do Castelo. This was highly recommended to us by a number of people that we had met. We briefly visited Belinho. We took an overnight transit stop...
Aveiro and Porto
After the lovely Duoro valley, we headed towards Porto on the coast. First of all we visited Aveiro, which is just south of Porto, and was the furthest south that we went on the trip. The Atlantic coast here (Costa Nova) had beautiful beaches - which made Michelle...
Into Portugal and the Duoro Valley
The first stop in Portugal was Bragança. The highlight is the Castel at the top of the hill. We walked up to the Castel which had a whole town within the walls. Then we went to Dune for a hike. We had prepared a picnic in our backpacks, and were all set for a decent...
The North of Spain – Part One
After two nights on board, the sunrise welcomed our ferry into the port at Santander. The North coast of Spain is quite green. I wonder why? It appears that the rain in Spain doesn't actually fall mainly on the plain. For the first three nights, we had a campsite...
Van-der-lust in Spain & Portugal
For this year's big adventure, we are taking the caravan to Spain and Portugal for about six weeks. We have a return ferry trip from Portsmouth to Santander, and the only other thing we have booked is the first three nights in a campsite just west of Santander. We had...
Aqaba and Amman
We drove to Aqaba, the Jordanian Red Sea city. As Israel is just across the water, and the border extends in a line through the sea, it is a very sensitive area, and photos are banned until you are a certain distance out to sea. We passed one of the Jordanian Royal...
Wadi Rum
We headed off for a desert experience at Wadi Rum. In Arabic, a Wadi is a valley, ravine, or channel that is dry except in the rainy season. The group jumped into a few 4x4 trucks to head into the desert. We then went for a drive in the desert to visit a few sites. ...
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