Why Oviedo?

 Campo de San Francisco

The new regional hospital outside of Oviedo

As with many things, there is not a straightforward answer to this question. Since the late 1990s, we have made a few trips to Spain, both for my husband's archaeological projects (in Catalonia and Andalucia) and also just for exploratory visits. We are very fond of both the Mediterranean coast and green, northern Spain.

For the residency visa application, we had to choose a town. Our first inclination was Barcelona -- but it is pricey, and even back in the spring we were aware of the rumbles of the independence movement and wondered if that would have an effect on our application. Then we looked hard at Valencia, but while one reason to move to Spain was for better weather, we got cold feet (hah!) about how hot it gets in the summer.

In 1999 we had traveled the length of northern Spain, from Bilboa to Santiago, but didn't stop in Oviedo. We eventually visited Oviedo (for less than 24 hours!) in April 2008 -- it's funny, but it was pretty much love at first sight. It is almost a Goldilocks city -- a good size (220,000); a great combination of old and new (a quite small old town, all pedestrianized -- where we are -- and a bustling new zone, also with several pedestrian areas); and it has several lovely parks (main one is Campo de San Francisco).

Also there is a big, venerable university (27,000 students, founded 1574); an orchestra and several theaters; and a brand new regional hospital (HUCA).

Not that this figured into our plans, but Woody Allen loves the town, too, and set part of his film Vicky Cristina Barcelona here. He has said it's a "delicious, exotic, beautiful, clean, lovely, tranquil and pedestrianized city. It's like it doesn't belong to this world... Oviedo is like a fairytale."

But, of course, it is real, and not perfect, but we like it a lot so far.

The bigger picture of retiring to Spain is a complex matter, too! We have said we would for several years now, and after the worrisome events of 2016, the time seemed ripe.