Following The Stones

Travel Along

We retired early to save our physical and emotional health. We chose to jump into our Go-Go years with gusto and invite you along our stone pathway. We will bring you authentic information from our lived experiences and hope you find some useful stones for your own life journey.

touching old stones around the world

New this week...

We know you're busy, and we are traveling faster this month, so we'll keep posts simple throughout this busy season for all of us.

• As we spend time in the monumental Austrian capital of Vienna our "Did You Know" Section highlights some facts that could intrigue you about this location.

• Take 8 minutes to read this week's BLOG articles posted below. You might want to read the Doors story before the love story.

• Since we are staying in a hotel in Vienna, all of our meals are in restaurants. THIS COOK IS ON VACATION. See what we are eating and drinking this week on our Lifestyle page.

• Take our Would You Rather Quiz . Did you celebrate New Years Eve in any of these ways?

• Read or picture-walk the last 2 weeks of stories, if you missed them during this busy season:

  • The Games People Play

  • Rental "Chopped" Champion

  • Decisions - Train or Plane?

  • The Quest for Christmas

  • Exquisite Highlights of Prague

• Follow our fast travel through January in real time with Google Maps while we visit an iconic city, a quiet hub city, a fruity city, and a colorful city. Can you guess what these cities will be?

• Do you have questions about our travel or our retirement? Leave A Stone · (comment) down below and we will be sure to answer it. Your email addresses are confidential and internal to only us.

• Stay tuned for the reveal of our 2026 travel plans...

Psst…. We are coming home at the end of January. It’s time to check in with our family and friends. To get home, we are taking another “cruise”. It is so much more relaxing! This time we are traveling on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. Unlike the Norwegian 16-day cruise with port stops, this is a 7-day ocean liner voyage that will take us directly from Southampton, UK to Brooklyn, New York. Because we will be on a boat during the January 15th Thursday BLOG post, we will not be adding any stories. We will email a special newsletter to our subscribers.

So, if you want the inside scoop at times like this, sign up for our newsletter.

A: an antique automobile?

B: a "Happy Bus"?

C: a horse-drawn carriage?

tour a new city using...

A: a bubbly beverage?

B: a sweet beverage?

C: a kiss from your sweetheart?

Last week's Results:
Would you rather ring in the new year with...

Track Our Adventure

Our Live Location

Previously, we outlined a change in our travel plans, and why. We dropped our plan to stay in Alicante, Spain for one month and changed to Malaga, Spain. Then local and national public sentiment in Spain, coupled with a few security incidents in that region caused us to pivot away entirely, for the time being. Further news of large-scale flooding, as has been the case in recent years in that region, also helped confirm our decision as being prudent.

So, our last update stated it was on to Dublin, Ireland after our day layover in Corfu, Greece. We stayed a week in Dublin and will report on that at some point. Hint: Loved It!
We are now in Portugal for a total of 29-days and have over two weeks left here. The Algarve in Autumn is a MUST for any traveler! We have now finalized and solidified the remainder of our trip. It is as follows:

We will depart Portugal November 12th and arrive in Nice, France the same day.
We will stay there until December 10th and then fly to Prague, Czechia for a shorter stay and visits with an old friend.
December 14th we are traveling by train to Budapest, Hungary for a 3 week stay that will take us through Christmas and the New Year.
Jan 4th, we will travel by train once again, to Vienna, Austria for 4 days.
Jan 8th we will fly to England, and will stay a few days in Southampton, a well-known cruise port destination.
On Jan 11th we will embark on the Queen Mary 2, the only remaining Ocean Liner for an 8- day Trans-Atlantic crossing back to the United States.

We decided not to remain abroad for a full year this time for a handful of reasons, not the least of which is checking in with and visiting family. We are 100% going to return to long-term travel once our visits are done and new travel plans are finalized. Destinations? Departure date? Length of travel? Undetermined as of today, and as always, we remain ready to pivot along the way if necessary.

Travel Situation Report -Updated Oct 2025

What is the Schengen?

Leave a Stone

Throughout history stones have been used for housing, streets, cooking, jewelry, art, and weaponry. When you leave a kind comment on our website, you leave behind a stone for all to see and learn from. Feel free to ask questions, make suggestions, or tell us how much you miss us. Once a kind stone is cast, others can roll your stone along the path by replying to your comment.

Although we are enjoying ourselves completely in this new nomadic lifestyle, we miss our friends and family significantly.

Greg