This travel update is a summary of our recent five-month travel adventure through Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, and Morocco. I’ve been procrastinating about writing this, but, have finally gotten around to it.

Maps:

This map shows our journey for the first 3 months starting in Lisbon and ending up in Gibraltar.

Here’s our path around Morocco in September and October.

Costs:

Here’s the cost at each location we visited for the 149 days of the trip.

I used color grading to make it easier to see the highs and lows, but I did not include the two outliers (Mulberry and Desert Experience Tour) in the color grading because they were skewing it. Mulberry was cheap because we were staying with my brother and his wife. The Desert Experience Tour was expensive because it was a guided tour with our own private driver and Toyota Land Cruiser. Other than the outliers you can see that Barcelona, Spain was the most expensive location, and Fes, Morocco was the cheapest. By country, Morocco was the cheapest country, Portugal was next cheapest, Spain was the second most expensive and Gibraltar was the most expensive.

Here’s the costs of just the lodging we stayed in, Airbnbs and Hotels.

I break out the long-distance expenses separately because they get charged to every location.

So, the bottom line is that our travel expenses averaged $167.31 per day for 149 days.

Favorites:

Everyone asks us what our favorite place was but I have trouble answering that question. I can, however, tell you a favorite thing or two about each location.

1. Lisbon
   1. Eating Pasteis de Nata (custard pie)
   2. The Aquarium
   3. The colorful St. Anthony Festival decorations and parade
2. Sintra
   1. The palaces
   2. The cool weather
3. Guia
   1. The beautiful weather, coastline, and hiking trails
4. Fátima
   1. Being impressed with how much money the Catholic church spends on shrines
5. Porto
   1. Cruising up the Douro River
   2. Tasting Port wines on the south bank of the river
6. Santiago de Compostela
   1. Walking a short way on the Camino de Santiago and seeing all the pilgrims
7. Seville
   1. The Archive of the Indies, which contains the original logs of ships captains like Christopher Columbus and Magellan
8. Granada
   1. The Alhambra (of course)
9. Madrid
   1. The Golden Triangle of famous art museums
   2. Parque de El Retiro (large city park) where we jogged and walked
10. Barcelona
    1. La Rambla (tourist street)
    2. The Gaudi architecture
11. Málaga
    1. The walkway along the waterfront
    2. The old castle
12. Gibraltar
    1. The Rock! We really enjoyed the nature park
    2. The British Vibe (fish & chips, spam, etc.)
13. Tangier
    1. The ferry ride
    2. The medina and beaches
14. Chefchaouen
    1. The blue medina
    2. Hiking in the Rif Mountains
15. Fes
    1. Living in a medina house and exploring the huge medina
16. Desert Experience Tour
    1. Seeing the various mountain ranges
    2. Riding camels in the desert
    3. Seeing the lush valleys
17. Marrakesh
    1. Relaxing in our comfortable Airbnb
    2. Eating pizza and Thai food
    3. Exploring the huge medina
    4. The Yves Saint Lauren gardens and museum
18. Casablanca
    1. The tour of the giant mosque
    2. Lunch at Rick’s Café
    3. Walking around the downtown area

Plans for the next month:

• November 1 – December 31: we’re staying in a 1-bedroom, 1-bath manufactured home at a mobile home park in Bradenton, Florida on the Braden River

2023 Plans:

• December 31 – January 14: Airbnb in St. Petersburg, FL
• January 14 – 23: we’ll be house and pet sitting for my brother and his wife as they go on vacation
• Note: I’m scheduling getting a Cochlear Implant at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Florida the first week of February. There will be several follow-up visits to work on the programming of the sound processor so I want to be in that area for a while.
• January 23 – April 1: we’re looking for a place to stay in or near Jacksonville
• April: we’re thinking about getting a place farther from Jacksonville, maybe in Savannah, Georgia
• May: we’re planning to be back in the Sarasota/Bradenton area for medical appointments
• June, July, August: we may do a road trip up the east coast of the US
• September, October, November: we’re talking about doing France
• December: back in the Sarasota/Bradenton area