Europe: A Year in Review 2025

In August 2024, we jumped off a cliff. We hung up the gloves of our careers and retired. Then in March 2025, we jumped off another cliff onto a cruise ship bound for Europe with two carry-ons and two backpacks.

Over the last 10 months we’ve traveled to 12 wonderful countries. Transportation included 2 cruise ships (Norwegian Epic and Cunard Queen Mary 2), 6 ferries, 5 short car rentals, 4 busses, a dozen flights, and several dozen trains, trams and trolleys. Every “quantum leap” on a new transportation system carried us from one fantastic location to another with awe and trepidation.

Our accommodations have mostly been 1 bedroom/1 bath apartments or hotel rooms in a modest budget category within big cities and small towns. We’ve lived near beaches, parks and historical centers. We slept in homes over 200 years old, above lagoons, along cliffs, and in a cave. We played in a rooftop pool, underground spa, and two thermal baths.

We even did things old, retired people often avoid like bicycling 30 kilometers through fields and towns, riding standup E-scooters alongside streets, steering Segways up castle hills, riding motor scooters to neighboring towns, driving jet skis around the ocean, and ziplining from across rivers from one country to another.

While on this trip we enjoyed the theatrics of a Broadway play, a philharmonic orchestra, a 400-year-old violin, street music, Spanish guitars, and friends singing with glasses of Raki. Museums have taught us about modern communism, historical wars, art history, ethnography of civilizations, famous scientists, and educational systems. We enjoyed the exploration of sea caves, castles, military relics, and ancient city walls. Together, we danced in town squares, swam in oceans and lakes, and learned to make pasta in a cooking class.

Not everything shines gold when slow traveling though. We’ve experienced illness, injury, and seasickness. We had confusion with languages, transportation schedules, currency exchanges, and unrealized expectations. We pivoted when faced with train strikes, water taxi strikes, and Spain’s tourist fatigue. We “ran” through an airport to catch a connecting flight and waited patiently when we missed trains. The longest delay (6+ hours) was the last leg of our journey home, but we did indeed make it home.

Looking back over the year we can pat ourselves on the back. Because we packed the precious gift of patience and maintained our delicate problem-solving skills, the year was a gigantic success!! We even came in under our original budget!! Here are our annual numbers for the analytical audience.