We are a Dutch couple who moved to the UK in 2011. We moved initially for Gaby’s academic endeavours, for a year to try it out, and after that decided to stay there for a while, if not indefinitely.
We loved the countryside there, the diversity in landscapes, and there were further academic opportunities to pursue. We’re also not adverse to trying new things, and in all that time we’ve lived in three different places: Hull, Barnsley, and in Thornton, near Bradford. All in ‘God’s own County’ of Yorkshire.
11 years, 3 degrees and a few jobs later, a lot had changed…
Of course, then there was Brexit, which didn’t make for the best of atmospheres for an immigrant couple. We weren’t at risk of being sent back to the Netherlands, but at the same time, it just didn’t feel right anymore. Also, sending and receiving parcels to/from family in the Netherlands had become direly expensive. No more yearly rations of hagelslag and drop!
On top of that, we had also changed as people. We wanted more rest, more outdoor living, and more flexibility in our lives. While we loved our home in the UK, we could never really enjoy our garden, and our hikes and adventures were really bound to the UK weather. That is why all our travels took us to climates where we could BE outside more. We wanted that when we were not on holiday too, not just in the weekends, but a lot more in general.
Initially, we had set ourselves a deadline of 2027 to move, but when we found that much sooner than that we were lucky enough that we could both take our jobs to our new soon-to-be country of residence, we decided that life was too short, and to just go for it.
Destination: Portugal.
So, in September 2022 we put our house up for sale….
…and received an offer early in November. We started packing all our stuff up for another international house move (move number 7 for both of us!).
We arrived at our rental place in February 2023, and next to settling in we have also started learning the language, and started looking for a place to buy. We traveled across the country for quite a few times trying to get a feel for the various regions. Portugal might be rather ‘small’, but it has really distinct regions with micro climates and nature can look very different everywhere. So, armed with our shortlist of potential homes to buy we did quite a few road trips to view homes and take in the regions’ scenery.
In August 2023 we made an offer on a place, and had hoped, after the offer was accepted outright only a few days later, to move in 2023. Unfortunately, as you can read in our blog, there were quite a few issues to resolve with one of the buildings on the land, and it took until November 2024 for us to get to completion date.
2024 has been a year of mostly waiting and hoping to move asap. Because of that, some things went on the back burner, including our language course. This, in hindsight was a mistake. We had anticipated to ‘just move quickly’ and then continue with the next level after. Had we known how long it would take, we’d have continued as we were and would have been a lot more proficient by now. You live, you learn!
2025 will be all about learning and we hope that via this blog/site we can keep our friends/family across the world involved a bit!