Our anniversary of arriving in Spain
is May 11th and so much has happened in this first year - and it passed so fast with almost no blog writing. I'm prepared to make up for that and give you something to read and hope that you are able to visit us in Spain one day.
I have been making a list of what to cover in the next several blog posts, and in this post, I hope to answer clearly the following questions people often ask us:- Why did we choose Astorga?
- What is required to get a residence visa?
- Why did we travel by boat?
"In summary, we look forward to experiencing the well-being benefits that walking, healthy food, good healthcare and learning a new language and culture will provide. We will make lots of new friends, enjoy our current friends visiting us and our hearts will be open to learning new lessons we can’t even imagine today."
Sharing those new lessons are what the blog posts are about, and as always, I encourage you to be aware of the lessons you learn each day and to apply those lessons on your journey.
Likewise the answer to Why Astorga can be found in another previous blog entry. A couple of paragraphs at the end of that post summarize it, but if you haven't read the story lately go get a dish of ice cream and take the time to read it. If not, this will catch you up on Why Astorga?: "Ann and I visited Astorga in April of last year [2018] and she agreed that this was a wonderful place to call home for a season. It offers views to the east of high plains (La Meseta) like her home state of Kansas and snow-capped mountains to the south and west.
So this place is where we will begin our time in Spain. My current plan is to spend a year here to learn culture and language, interacting with the Camino support groups and making friends."
What is required to get a residence Visa is answered in another blog entry that you may read if you are interested. A US Citizen can, under normal circumstances, visit the Schengen Zone, which includes Spain and what you think of as Europe and a few more places, for 90 days in a six month period with no visa application process at all as long as one's passport is good for 6 months or more.
But to live in Spain we had to get what is called a Non-Lucrative Visa - that means we are not working in Spain for a Spanish employer. We are retired and we have income and savings in the US that support us here.
We chose to come by boat for two very logical reasons and one personal one.
After the months of activity required to find the right owners for all the stuff we had accumulated in a lifetime, including tools, motorcycles and technology stuff, sewing materials, art, books, etc. and connecting with the right new owners for our wonderful home, getting it sold and becoming homeless, we were really tired. We needed a break. The other reason is that one can take A LOT of baggage on a ship if one is willing to live with it in their stateroom. We had never been on a cruise, but we felt sure we could make it work. It did, no problem.
The personal reason is that I am uncomfortable with the airport experience and walking up to the boat after handing the car keys and title to our daughter, who had come to see us off, was a real luxury. The 14 days on the ship were full of surprises and time to do nothing. It was a great transition time.
Please send me questions in the comments on these topics and I'll try to respond to them pronto.
In the next blog entry, I plan to cover
- How was the cruise, especially for first-timers?
- Friends we met on the cruise.
- Arrival in Spain and travel to Astorga.
==============================
THE OTHER JEW OF THE DAY is Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides, a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher, and a preeminent astronomer and physician. He was born in Córdoba, Almoravid Empire (present-day Spain) on Passover Eve, 1138. He became a prominent philosopher and polymath in both the Jewish and Islamic worlds.
A momentous year!
ReplyDelete