It all started with our 25th wedding anniversary.

We wanted to celebrate with a memorable trip to Europe. We picked Spain as the country to visit. We speak a little Spanish, thanks to childhoods spent in Texas. We chose Madrid because we could get there on available frequent flyer miles without the upcharge of other destinations like Barcelona.

So off we went for your typical 8-day, cram-it-all-in, type trip.

Plan A was to spend all of our time in Spain. We’d do a few days in Madrid then head to Barcelona on the bullet train. But we found it was cheaper to fly to Lisbon than take the train to Barcelona, so we adjusted our itinerary. We’d go to Portugal and add a second country to the list.

We loved both cities. In Madrid we enjoyed visiting the famous Prado, drinking Spanish wine, and taking day trips to Segovia and Toledo. In Lisbon we visited St. George’s Castle—where we happened to see an international yacht race taking place below us on the Tagus River—and took a day trip to Sintra. I was amazed at the ticket seller’s fluency in English at the entrance to Pena Castle and told her so. “I’m from New Jersey,” she responded flatly. From there we went to the ruins of a Moorish castle. Not for the faint of heart … a strong wind could topple you over the side—or that’s how I felt that day.

It was this vacation, and especially on a lovely day trip to Segovia to view an ancient Roman aqueduct and a castle said to be the inspiration of Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty’s home, that the words were uttered, “I could live here.” One or both of us said it in that dreamy fashion we all are known to utter.

Neither of us thought much more about it. But the seed was planted … we could do it. The original idea later evolved to “let’s live in Spain, and use that as a hub to travel the rest of Europe.” This idea morphed into, “let’s live in a different country for a month, for a year!”

And now, there seems to be no turning back from the challenge we’ve gleefully thrown before ourselves.

I should tell you, we are not rich; we are somewhere in the middle of the middle class. We have had good, but modest paying jobs. And at least one of us (OK, me) is very tight-fisted with money, and prefers to buy “new” things from thrift stores.

But, we are empty nesters, ready to do a REALLY new thing. So the plan is in motion. We are ready to leave dogs and (adult) kids behind and try the live-in-Europe-for-a-year thing. One month in 12 countries, with day/weekend trips to add a few more nations. Along the way we’ll be blogging and—hopefully—getting some travel stories published.

All aboard!