Today I got up at the crack of noon. It's not something I do every day, but it's a luxury I relish after those late nights out with friends in my new home of Altea—a stress-free, seaside village on Spain's Costa Blanca.
After walking the famous pilgrim route Camino de Santiago (St. James’ Way) in northern Spain and visiting the coastal village of Altea on the Mediterranean, Texan Ted Williams, 46, decided to move there. “The walk was a complete life-changing experience in many ways,” he says. “I planned to stay on for a week, but lingered for three weeks after falling in love with Altea.”
It's past midnight on yet another balmy evening and Barry Ogden and Karen Taylor are strolling home along the beach after a spontaneous gathering of friends at a café. When they first moved to Altea, Spain, last March, they were usually home in the early evening but they've now adapted to the Spanish way of life...often staying out late unintentionally.
It’s Wednesday, so it must be Zumba today, followed by lunch or drinks with a friend, and then salsa classes. This is a taster of my new, highly affordable, fun, stress-free retirement in the seaside town of Altea, Spain. A stark contrast to the money-driven and stressful life I led back in the U.S.