Why Spain? Why Valencia? And Why Did It Take Three Years? Part 1 of 3

Our family of three moved from the United State to Spain last summer, and the most frequently asked question has been “Why did you choose Valencia?” 

John had dreamed of living in Spain for a long time. Even when we moved to Italy for two years in 2001, his first choice had been Spain. We both loved living in Italy and have often wondered what it would have been like to have raised our son (now a teen) abroad.

About three years ago John, an avid cyclist, started casually talking about Valencia and how he would love to ride his bike there. He waxed on about the gorgeous mountains, the European lifestyle, and that Valencia boasts of 300+ days of sunshine a year. When he added, “It’s got beaches” he knew he had my attention. I decided we should go visit to see if it lives up to the hype, and also to see if we could see ourselves living there. If we made the move soon we could still enjoy the living abroad experience with our son before he heads off to college. I rationalized that it would be a great benefit for our son to learn Spanish and far easier as a teenager.

John and I started putting numbers together to see if we could afford to move abroad and simultaneously retire a bit early. We met with our financial advisor, and amazingly, thanks to the power of compounding and some other good decisions, she said we could! I’ll write more about this in future posts, so please feel free to send your questions. 

March 2019 – I booked a trip for the three of us during our son’s spring break. Everyone asked if we would be going to Madrid or Barcelona as if this was a regular family vacation where you need to pack in as many must-see sites and cities. That’s not what this trip was about. It was basically a checklist of a different ilk. How much did we like the city? What was the school like? How’s the food? Could we see ourselves settling in for the long term, three years or more?

Over the week, while the city was preparing for Las Falles, Valencia’s biggest event of the year, we fell in love with the city for more reasons than the mountains and beaches. Valencia is pedestrian and bike friendly with clean, efficient, public transit making owning a car unnecessary. We took in the gorgeous architecture (both ancient and modern), museums, attractions and the most incredible blue sky I’d ever seen! And we literally found the Holy Grail in a church not far from our hotel. If all that wasn’t enough to convince us, living in Valencia would be less expensive than many other European cities including Madrid and Barcelona.

We came home pumped, but as much as we wanted to move that summer it wasn’t to be. We didn’t have all our ducks in a row. We didn’t know all the things we needed to know to get a visa so we could stay longer than 90 days. We weren’t anywhere near prepared by mid-June and it was becoming clear it wasn’t going to happen when John discovered a requirement of having a paid year’s lease as part of the requirements. Yes, you read that right. We didn’t know anyone in Valencia to help us and we didn’t trust the Internet to lead us. That and a few other things made the decision for us. It was a huge disappointment. In retrospect, it probably made us more determined. We continued to save, declutter and get what ducks we could lined up. 

March 2020 – another spring break trip to Valencia. Let me rephrase that, this was the spring break trip from hell. Nothing like having your trip upended by a pandemic. I know what you’re thinking, “Why did you go to Spain when Covid was erupting in Italy and starting to spread across the world?” You’re not alone. I wondered that too and so did many others that looked at me strangely when I told them. But we had plans.

Well, we all know what happened in March 2020. You probably remember exactly where you were when the pandemic was announced. We were in a hotel in Valencia. It was the middle of the night. I wasn’t sleeping anyway when two people texted telling me we needed to get home and fast! 

We had appointments to see apartments and meet with a banker to open an account. We had plans! As did 100% of the other people in the world. We were all shaken, stirred and stuck. For the three of us, we couldn’t get home any sooner than our Saturday flight and believe me we tried. After much panicking, followed by much arguing, followed by some rational thinking –  “let’s make the best of this situation,” we went to see apartments. We set up our bank account, and we hoped things would all work out. And as you can guess, they didn’t — at least not right away. 

Read what happened next! https://marthamillerwrites.com/why-spain-why-valencia-and-why-did-it-take-three-years-part-2-of-3/

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