Europe Trip 2022

Europe in 2022.

Ever since dad passed away in 2020, I had no reason to travel to india like I was doing for the past eleven years. Eighteen trips in eleven years with a whole year in Bangalore with family to attend to parents has come to an end. I have been thinking about living in another part of the world, preferably Europe, has been in my thoughts for the last few years. I did not like the 3 day and 4 day trips to a country in Europe during our trips to India. I wanted to stay longer and not having to rush through and do trips that cover only the top attractions. I wanted to soak into the local culture without having to rush through the places we visit. 

As always, when a new year dawns,  I think about the what went well, what didnt and what I would like to change. During the middle of January, I asked Selvi if I should look for a job in Europe that would allow us to live in the place for a couple of years and explore the continent. The reality of leaving the home in Cary, the proximity to the kids and friends must have hit her, she suggested to explore the place first and then decide to move. Sounded like a good idea, I said lets plan a trip for 3 months, since we were working from home anyway. Negotiations went on, from 4 weeks to 6 weeks of not working and taking time off and to finalize on 8 weeks traveling and working 3 or 4 days a week. We started putting together an itinerary on where to go. We settled on Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Czechia, Austria and Hungary. 

The execution phase started on February 23rd with booking the air tickets that set the start and the end dates. We started formulating the plan for each country and cities and started booking the AirBnbs and hotels. With many weekends of intense planning and accommodating the children for little over two weeks in Spain, things started to fall in place. 

We used this website/app visitacity.com/visitacity that allows us to create a day by day plan and the places to visit. 

May 8th - Off to Lisbon, please see the other posts for more details,