How the Idea Started

Each summer we make the trek from the Santa Cruz mountains in California to Cape Cod, Massachusetts to visit my husband’s family. Despite the disappointment from our daughter, who would miss the time with her cousins, we opted to bite the bullet and go on a big trip this year. It was going to be our 20th wedding anniversary after-all, and we hadn’t done an international trip since before my daughter was born. 8 years without traveling abroad was long enough. 

So I began to plan our trip. Ireland, Scotland and Wales at the end of July & beginning of August. We were looking through all the books of the places we would want to visit. I wanted castles. Castles, castles and more castles. Plus I wanted to be able to travel by train as much as possible to get from city to city. Once I realized that we would need to fly from Ireland to the UK, I cut Ireland out  of the trip. Finally, one day my husband came to me and said, "I'd really prefer to go somewhere that has nice weather, beaches and good food.” Whelp, that's not Scotland or Wales so back to the drawing board to plan a trip. Time was counting down. 

So after thinking about it and looking to see which other countries are still welcoming to Americans (due to our lovely political status). I decided on Portugal and Spain. They had the history with castles and palaces and all the amazing architecture for me. They had beaches, good food and sangria for my husband. In my planning I thought going from Barcelona to Madrid to Lisbon and out would be a great way to do it. While doing research my husband showed me a picture of a 3 arched bridge that looked like the entrance to Rivendell from the Hobbit. I immediately said “we’re going there!” That bridge  was nowhere on my itinerary. In fact, it was nowhere near where I was planning for us to go. My husband informed me that it was in the Andalucia region and that's where he wanted to go. The southern part of Spain. That turned out for the better anyways because flying into Barcelona and out of Lisbon was an extra $5000, no thank you. So for the third time, we began planning our trip from scratch. 

Our final plan and the one we actually did was to spend 5 days in Lisbon, then by either bus or train we went to Spain via Seville> Granada> Ronda (that big arched Bridge)> Cadiz> Lisbon and home. We stayed several days in each city and in each of these places we saw every castle, palace, garden, etc. You ask my daughter what she remembers the most about our trip, she’ll say all the walking.  

From our hotel room in Lisbon we could look directly at the São Jorge Castle. We took a couple of day trips to visit Sintra where there is the Moorish castle, Pena palace, Biester Palace (where the movie the Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp was filmed), The Monserrate Palace, The National Palace and the Quinta da Regaleira also known as the Initiation Well.  We took a day trip to Cascais so we could do a beach day and walked to Boca do Inferno (the Devil’s mouth, a hole on the sea cliff). Of course we saw bits and pieces of Lisbon but they were not like these other monuments. 

Next we took a bus to Seville, Spain to start our tour of the beautiful Andalucia region. I don’t think I could have booked a better spot for our hotel. Seville was the only place that we were only staying for one night and we were only 75 feet from the entrance to the Cathedral, where Christopher Columbus’ tomb lies. We also saw Real Alcázar palace and gardens, which were just around the corner from the cathedral on the other side. Then we were off again on another bus ride to Granada.

In Granada we went to the Alhambra, Generalife, the Nasrid Palaces. If you want amazing architecture, look no further. This place has it all!! Fountains, painted ceilings, plaster work like I've never seen. From Granada we took the most expensive taxi ride down to the city of Motril so my husband and daughter could have another beach day, this time they could say they swam in the Mediterranean Sea. 

Next a train ride to Ronda to finally see the 3 arched bridge, We could actually see it from our bathroom window. Hiking down towards the bottom of the bridge to walk through ruins of an old flour mill. We had beautiful sunsets overlooking the mountains while sipping wine and listening to the herders bringing the goats back in for the night. Then one last bus ride to Cadiz, where we enjoyed the beach everyday, witnessed a small town singing together to celebrate a local elder, right there in the streets as well as a puppet street performer. All along with an Andalucian Horse Show, and horse drawn carriage ride, which the driver allowed my daughter to sit up front and hold the reins. 

Even with all the town hopping and sight-seeing, my husband was able to finally get a restful night's sleep. It had been months since before that happened. Work usually has him coming home late and then thoughts of systems and processes keep him up throughout the night. He realized that something needed to change. Clearly, it was the work, with it removed he was feeling better. But we need his income to keep our house, pay our bills, etc. So with our morning coffee in Cadiz, we began to discuss, what could we do differently? What could we be able to add into or take away from our daily lives? How do we add that European feel into our home life? 

We got to brain-storming and we were able to come up with a couple of things. Since he works from home most Mondays and Fridays, get him to stop mid morning and have a 5 minute coffee break with me. For days that he is working in the office, make dinners more of a winedown time vs a catch up from the day time. Have a mini appetizer, then a small meal followed by our port. Unfortunately when we returned home, my husband had to turn around the very next day & get on another plane to head to the east coast for work. Our plan didn’t even get to be put in place. 

Once we were back together again, we tried to implement our original plan. Simple 5 minute breaks for him, while I was doing lessons with our daughter. This too seemed to be too much for his schedule. He tends to have meeting after, meeting, after meeting with no breaks. I would remind him but it was on himself to make the conscious decision to cut out of a meeting 5 minutes early. Again, we needed a new plan.

One evening while sitting and having our wine, he brought up the idea of traveling for a year, since I already home school our daughter. I informed him that that was already a thing called ‘world schooling’ and that there are actually communities all over that do this. That was it, he was hooked! He wanted to go sailing. But how? We have our house, our vehicles, bills, etc so we need his income. While I do work as well, I feel my income just covers our Amazon expenses. I was already thinking after our trip, that we really need to cut out the frugal cost that we already accrue. 

So here is where we begin, at the “But how?”. Come join us on our journey to figure out how we can make this world schooling adventure happen, for all of us. 

Our Daughter standing in front of The Alhambra in Granada, Spain, July 2025

As you embark on this adventure, keep in mind that the everything has something to be taught. Each new puzzle, thought, conversation will add to your own personal experience that you are trying to create for your family. Only YOU know what is right for them as well as yourself.