Portugal (and Spain)... Here We Come

Alluring Alentejo: Day 1

Sunday, 6 October 2034

Back in May, when I accepted a full-time job after being semi-retired since 2021, Frieda and I decided that in exchange for putting in long hours again, we would up our travel game. Regular readers will recall that in early July, we delivered on that goal by making our first trip to Europe since moving from Germany back in 2000.

Well, it’s time to return to Europe for the second time this year, but this time for a rare pleasure and sightseeing trip as our only agenda. In fact, as we thought through it, we calculated that in 38 years of marriage, this is most likely only the fourth or fifth trip to a far away destination that has the sole purpose of getting away from it all and just spending time with each other.

Off to McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville. Destination Lisbon, Portugal.

That’s not a complaint. It’s just been our reality as a career Navy family with two active duty sons now with their own careers. Parents, grandparents, children and siblings — rarely have any of us lived anywhere close to each other, so rare vacation time is spent just trying to see family members at least twice a year.

This reality has not changed for us, and it’s just as challenging to get together with family as it always has been. What has changed is that being an independent task-based contractor, I have whatever time off I need. If I work, I get paid. If I don’t work, I do not.

In the “Recomposure” area at TYS after passing through airport security. Gotta love the humor in naming the area like that.

So as I write this from the Turkish Airlines lounge on Concourse B of the Washington Dulles International Airport, we are Lisbon-bound for a week of wining and dining in Portugal and Spain. We have an action-packed itinerary so be sure to check out the posts that I’ll try to get up daily.

We’re not flying Turkish Airlines but we are enjoying their lounge as part of our American Express benefits.

Speaking of Dulles, this of you who have flown through there will recall they use these crazy “Mobile Lounges” to move you between the terminals. Apparently they were quite the futuristic thing back in the early ‘60s.

I recently started using my Twitter/X account again and decided to call it Oliver’s Travels. On this trip, my intent is to make several posts at day at https://x.com/ScottGureck I hope you will considering following me on X as well as here as the content may be a bit different.

Hope to see you again soon here — and on X at https://x.com/ScottGureck