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. We loved the countryside here, the diversity in landscapes, and there were further academic opportunities to pursue. We’re also not adverse to trying new things, and since then we’ve lived in three different places: Hull, Barnsley, and now (near) Bradford. All in ‘God’s own County’ of Yorkshire.
11 years, 3 degrees and a few jobs later, a lot has changed.
The country has changed (Brexit), we have changed, our life and priorities have changed, and even though we have a lovely home (and an annoying but very lovely white cat called Lily), we have decided that the UK no longer feels like the best place to be for us.
We have decided that we want to move back into the EU, and while we do that, we also want to live in a warmer climate where we can grow some of our own things, live outside more, and, really, try to live as comfortable as possible while using up as little resources as possible. We want to invest in and live on as much sustainable energy as we can, not use gas -at all-, all the while spending more time doing the things we love with the people we love.
Initially our plans were to move in around 5-8 years, but when things aligned a lot quicker, and both our employers allow us to work from Portugal, we decided waiting for later would be useless; you only live once, and we don’t know how long for.
So, we’ve put our house up for sale in September 2022….
…and accepted an offer in November… Our next steps are…
1) Find a place to rent in Portugal. Probably around Porto.
2) Get the actual move sorted and move our stuff and cat over to Portugal
3) Learn Portuguese as soon as possible!
4) Settle in a bit.
5) Find a place to buy!