30 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 723 hours 43414 minutes 2604897 seconds

The House is getting empty, walls are bare, closets and drawers are empty and suitcases cover the floor.

I decided to ship one box with winter gear by mail. None of it is really heavy, but it’s bulky and will take up a lot of space in the suitcases.

The house has not been sold as of yet. We had only a few nibbles, but no bites. Either way, we are leaving. The good thing is, we can sleep in our beds until the very last night. Meanwhile one of our daughters with her family will move in and maintain our home. Another daughter will be equipped with a power of attorney to conduct business on our behalf.

Last Saturday the weather was beautiful. It was warm and sunny. For the first time this year and we decided to open the garage sale. We had traffic all day! It was fantastic!

I found some moving boxes on www.freecycle.org to pack and transport more to the storage unit.

This morning, 04/16/14, I woke up and we had a solid cover of ice outside. It had rained last night and it all froze over. Not funny at all.  

AN EERIE FEELING

Yesterday we went shopping for Toms suits. We found some really nice ones and he surprisingly found and fell in love with 2 pairs of shoes. That is rare for him because he has a rather unusual size. Let me tell you, he looks really handsome all dressed up.

I won’t tell you too much – you’ll see it soon J. My gowns are in transit from the People’s Republic of East China! They have some very fast seamstresses there. I did not expect this shipment so fast.  

The house is getting very empty. Today the dining table was picked up and is now replaced with a 6’ folding table. Before you know it we will be sitting on borrowed folding chairs.  

I have one suitcase already packed and I continue sorting through/out more “stuff”. Today we did inventory of Toms closet. We have another huge pile of clothes for donation. 

I wanted to reheat some leftover spaghetti for dinner when I realized that I don’t have a frying pan anymore…. Oh well, it’s all manageable.

APPROACHING A NEW PHASE IN LIFE

With great excitement and anticipation, the date of our retirement is inching closer. Yes, there is a bit of worry and uncertainty mixed in, but generally we are looking forward to go wherever the nose points. 

To start the journey we are planning to take a 10 day Trans Atlantic cruise from New York City, NY to Hamburg, Germany.

We believe that a cruise is the perfect way to ring in retirement.  

We know nothing about cruises at all. Everything is hear-say from friends that took cruises in the past. The other reason we decided in favor of the cruise is the fact that we will establish our headquarter residence in Germany. It will be somewhat of a little international move and we will need more luggage than for two weeks of vacation. The airlines would heavily charge us for extra luggage while there is no limitation on board the ship as long as each piece doesn’t exceed 50 lbs. and fits comfortably in your stateroom for no extra charge. 

From Germany, many destinations all over Europe are in driving distance. We plan on utilizing the wonderful network of public transportation via bullet trains,

planes,

busses,

City trains,

ships

 

as well as bicycles (this one is perfect! Tom will do all the work and I snap pictures)

and our feet.

For now, it is crunch time! We still need to sell our home here in the US and tie up all lose ends before we leave. For any remaining responsibilities we will put our adult children in charge.

One very helpful and money saving change is already in place. We started using the “Service Credit Union”

https://www.servicecu.org/index.asp . This Credit Union is available for anybody that has some sort of connection to service members in all branches. The benefit for us is that they maintain branches in many countries where the United States has military installations. With this US account we can perform transactions in Euro and other currencies without incurring additional charges from foreign banks involved in the transaction. That can become rather expensive in addition to the possible currency exchange loss.

We plan on frugal living and traveling without sacrificing the quality of life. To start with, we've already set up camp on a 4 season campground on the island of Fehmarn, Germany, in the Baltic Sea.

At this point, the plan is to explore the north-eastern areas of Germany and further north located countries in short trips of one day to a week. We are not sure yet what the upcoming cold months will have in store for us. Camping might not be the most desirable option.

We would like to invite you to follow us on our blog and see where we are and how we are doing. We also appreciate your input and experience you've gained in your travels.