Old White Couples
While we were in Barcelona or riding our motorcycles through the Pyrenees and then across the northern coast of Spain, we were very pleased to find that there were not scads of people everywhere. It was especially nice that the roads, which were truly exceptional in condition, were largely wide open with only occasional other vehicles, very often other motorcycles doing some version of the same tour that we were engaged in. That made the riding even more fun than normal, feeling like we had everything all to ourselves. Our tour organizer Kaz, who was responsible for selecting the hotels, booked us in nice, but typical Spanish hotels. Three of them were part of the Parador chain, which seemed to specialize in using retrofitted old estates that had the local charm, but were updated with all the modern conveniences. We also stayed in an always-wonderful Relais & Chateaux hotel and a few Luxury Collection hotels. The common aspect of all of the lodgings was that they seemed less American and more European in demeanor and amenities. The same was more or less true for the clientele. None of them was overly crowded, which probably spoke more to the time of year, which seemed a bit past the high season. But those fellow lodgers we did encounter were a broad and diverse mix that simply did not look uniform or homogenized in any cultural way..
That was Spain and we were all duly impressed with everything about the country as a visitor destination. Then we rode into Portugal. Portugal seems to have become a top destination for Americans of late. To begin with, it’s only five hours (as in time zones) from the East Coast of the U.S., like the U.K. and unlike the rest of the EU. It is a small country of only 10 million, but as an original EU member, it enjoys the power and backing of the European Community. It has decent universal healthcare, and seems to have all the modern technological conveniences we prize in the U.S.. One of the things that is convenient is that there seem to be many Portuguese who speak English. This isn’t an accident as it is mandatory in school for kids in Portugal to take English. After they have mastered English, they can chose to take Spanish or French. Like many Europeans, the Portuguese are mostly multi-lingual and given that 70% of the population lives in the Lisbon or Porto urban areas, they seem quite cosmopolitan. The nightlife in both Lisbon and Porto is quite lively and upscale, both in its look and feel, but also in the number of restaurants and clubs.
For all those reasons and more, Portugal has become a major retirement location for Americans who either want the European lifestyle, or just want to live better on what they have than they feel they can in the U.S.. As we wandered around both Porto and Lisbon in the evening, one thing became apparent, almost all of the people were one of two types, either young people of all sorts, or old white couples from the United States. Maybe I’m only seeing what I want to see, but it seems that in both of the hotels we’ve stayed in both Porto and Lisbon, the only clients, at least at this time of year, are white couples that look to be about our age (give or take a few years). And since I believe I have to start defining myself as “old”, that would make them all old white couples. These are the retirees that have saved their money to be able to travel in their golden years. The Baby Boom generation is now aged 58 to 76, which means the midpoint of the cohort is 68, or exactly my age. Using Social Security Administration guidelines, I am two years into being retired, which means that is where my generational cohort sits as well.
I don’t seem to be able to do anything these days without pondering it in the context of the wider world. When I see old white couples all gathering in a place to seek something that their home lives don’t give them, it makes me wonder, What does travel give us that we cannot get at home? I don’t want to generalize, but for me its not really about seeing things I haven’t seen before or experiencing foreign cultures, those are both things I’ve done in abundance during my life since I’ve lived outside the U.S. for 11 of my 68 years (16%) on three different continents and have traveled extensively for business mostly, but also leisure to all six continents (just not Antarctica). About the only region I haven’t traveled to yet is the area of Asia Minor and Central Asia where one finds the “Stans” around the Black and Caspian Seas and then Mongolia. I suppose if I had a Bucket List, those places should be on it at the top, but I’ve been to so many places, I really don’t keep a bucket list.
We are going to Egypt and Jordan in February and I have been to both before but Egypt was a long time ago (more than 50 years) and my visit to Jordan and Petra was thirty years ago. Nevertheless, we will be going places like down the Nile that I have not been to, just as there were areas of Spain I hadn’t seen before this trip we just finished. I don’t find the passage of time is really the issue for me as much as not having focused my attention on some particular area like the Pyrenees until we just reveled there.
I enjoyed this trip for several reasons; the first is that it was a motorcycle adventure and that always keeps it extra interesting for me since I like the challenge and want to do it for as long as the flesh is willing to submit to the rigors on a safe basis. I like doing these trips with friends, as much as Kim and I truly enjoy one another’s company, its always better to travel with others for us. The other reason I am finding I enjoy it these days is that I am inordinately concerned about the state of the world and I find it enlightening and informative to see the state of the liberal democracy v. Autocracy state of play as well as the economic well-being of the places we travel to. It is rare to feel that our higher education is so relevant to what we are seeing real-time in the world and yet I have always found that macroeconomics is not a theoretical discipline any more, but rather a very real and active part of life. I see how Spain functions versus Portugal. I expect I will see the same again in Egypt versus Jordan. It so happens I was making those same observations thirty or more years ago in my business work and now it is more a matter of personal edification. I find the changes interesting and I tend to link them directly to the political cycles in the countries.
Because I ran a large retirement services business and wrote my first published book on the global pension crisis, I am always interested to see first hand the demographic trends of retirement. Whether in Costa Rica, Portugal or some other new retirement haven, being half of an old white couple that is in the midst of retirement, is another professional and personal area of interest. It’s why I enjoyed The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, exploring retired life for old white British couples in India. I imagine that before I am done I will be learning about old white couples boarding an Elon Musk Space-X transport to Mars. Let’s hope that something only my children will have to contemplate.