ADVENTURES, CHALLENGES, AND INSIGHTS OF A COUPLE IN EARLY RETIREMENT
We had been skiing on our Epic Local passes for a few years, but somehow, Switzerland had never made the itinerary. This past winter, that changed. We added Andermatt to our roving retirement ski tour, and it turned out to be an education in more ways than one.
The way to skiing this year took us from Playa del Carmen to Cancun and through to Zurich and Lucerne. We actually planned a four-day break between when we arrived in Switzerland and when our rental in the ski town started. We try to leave extra time in case some of our bags don’t arrive, or we have very bad jet lag.
Our (almost) last stop in Europe for 2024 was in Bilbao, Spain. This might seem a little odd to you, but that is where the cheapest airfare back to the States originated from, and there is the Guggenheim Museum.
Following our extensive stay in Bordeaux, we planned to fly back to the Bay Area from Bilbao Spain. On the way to Bilbao, we decided to stop in San Sebastian, Spain, one of the great food cities of the world. Although we were only in town for a couple of nights, we managed to get our fill of fabulous pintxos, some of our favorite local dishes.
One of the lesser-known regions in Bordeaux is an area called Blaye, on the other side of the Gironde River from Bordeaux. Our Bordeaux apartment hosts live in Blaye during the summer. She and her husband invited us over for lunch and sightseeing, an opportunity too good to pass up.
