As we are a traveling family living in Spain, space is of great importance to us. We try very hard not to collect too many material “things” as we want to keep our belongings to a minimum. We have decided to share a Creative Gifts Guide. These are great gift ideas for the person who has everything and we even provide you fun and creative ways to give a gift!
As you know, we have been living in Spain for a few years, and during that time we have done our fair share of driving. I remember when we first arrived and trying to figure out the rules of the road. Coming from the United States, there were plenty of things that were familiar, but many others that just made us wonder, or look up the answer on the internet. We have welcomed several visitors to Spain and it has been fun driving around with them. It is fun hearing their thoughts on driving in Spain as well the meaning of road signs or street markings. Did you know we have a Zebra, Giraffe and Jellyfish crossing? What about the Poo Stop or Ninja’s on the loose?
Alan and I have been married for nearly 17 years and we love to one up each other on creative ways to give a gift. These ideas are perfect for the “little to no footprint gifts“. We know it may seem a bit boring to just hand someone an envelope with a gift card or money inside. That’s not quite an elaborate presentation to build up excitement. Not to worry, we have some creative ways to give money gifts or any gift for that matter.
The unexpected gift which turned into a magical treasure for Anya, a scratch off map of the world. Two years ago, on Anya’s 9th birthday, we were invited over to our neighbors for a special homemade dessert to celebrate her birthday. These are friends we’ve made since living in Spain and we have just connected with them on so many levels. They are a young couple and had a newborn baby, but we all just connected.
Over 17 years ago Alan and I fell in love with Amsterdam. We were living in London at the time and Alan needed to come over for business a few times. Of course, I would often come with him and roam the city, while he was working and then we would explore together in the evenings. Those were the days prior to kids, so we ventured to all parts of the city and tried to experience as much as possible. Now here we are returning years later with our kids, ages 9 and 12. The city is just as we remembered. So, we thought we would share some things to do in Amsterdam with kids. 
Continue reading
Many North Americans (US Citizens or Canadians) who are thinking of applying for the Spanish non-lucrative visa, have been asking about the private health insurance in Spain costs as well as the medical insurance coverage requirements for the non lucrative visa. If you are looking for practical information on health insurance in Spain, this is the perfect place for you to start! It has been a hot topic for us lately and keeping our email inbox buzzing away.
Planning on driving in Portugal? Well, we have a few tips to help you out. First we will thrill you with our story and you will find some resourceful information at the end.
Yes, I did say Free Things To Do in Porto, with kids! We had a wonderful time visiting Porto, Portugal (aka Oporto). We will have to tell you all about our adventures in another post. We were so thrilled to find so many free activities for the kids, we thought we would dedicate an entire post just to that. I am sure there are more free activities out there, but we didn’t have time to enjoy them all.
The road to obtaining a Spanish drivers license has been a rough, frustrating process. It worked out for us in the end, but now that we have our license, I figured it was worthwhile to explain what we did, the process we went through, and my general frustrations with the whole process.
