Holidays!

Interestingly; Espadrille used 'man maths' or should that be 'woman maths' to argue the opposite case. She doesn't like change, so the idea of a different Airbnb every other weekend fills her with dread whereas I would love it. So the compromise was to buy a holiday apartment and visit it more often than we would go to an Airbnb. As it happens we are very happy with our choice and capital value appreciation is a bonus although the running costs do eat into the Airbnb budget.

Each to their own. I can't imagine staying in a hotel for weeks on end but a few days to me is perfect. As much as I like an Airbnb over the weekend, it has to be somewhere where there is no decent hotel alternative.

Our plans was the spend most time in Greece. To do that now requires either a golden visa or the right visa D but then you have to become tax resident and be there more than 6 months of the year. Otherwise apart from Al we're all having to do the 90 days every 180 day rule which meant if you were in the EU/Schengen area for April, May and June you can't go back until October.

Watching the impact on climate change we're thinking having a place in Greece would have been a mistake and we dodged that one (just). Could be that we could not stand the heat over the summer, winters are getting wetter in parts and so the stay for over 6 months a year becomes difficult. To fund it we'd have probably rented out the UK home to live off that rather than eat into more savings/pensions because a chunk would have gone on a property.

Talking to someone who lives on Lesvos in April and he was saying it is so wonderful. Then mentioned the mid 40 degree C temperatures last summer. And the really bad winter a while back that ripped off part of the roof of his neighbours property. We mentioned that to the hotel owner and he said that typhoon had ripped off most of the roof of the hotel accommodation blocks too!

I've experienced quite hot weather on Corfu (went later than usual after lockdown). And then that October we went back and experienced the heaviest rain for the most prolonged period ever. It was biblical and some parts of Corfu town were under a few feet of water when we went the next afternoon. Flights that night diverted or turned around because of the thunder storms. One Rynair flight eventually turned around after trying to land and headed back to the UK.

…Svalbard?

Yes I think Portugal would be a good option, I'm looking forward to exploring it myself one day, having only been the once so far. Lisbon is a lovely city and not too expensive either.

Wow. Hooray for Brexit, eh.

I keep seeing adverts for Golden Visas.  I can probably afford one if I sold something else, but the residency requirements put me off; I don't need or want to spend several months each year in a country I have no real connection to.  

Maybe we should all migrate to Africa in a reverse wave to that coming to Europe?  Oh wait...  we tried that 200 years ago and that went well.

…incidentally, she drove Ford Corsair, about as fast as it would go in any given situation, usually while on the wrong side of a lot of lunchtime gin and with a seemingly permanent fag on in a black cigarette holder.
Her son was a Church of Scotland minister and seemed to disapprove of most of it.