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Would you like to retire to a place with a great combination of food and history? How about Valencia, a comfortable city on Spain’s Mediterranean Coast? Valencia is, after all, the birthplace of paella. While it was politics, in part, which caused Janet Christian and Eric Marsh to leave the United States, it was food and opera which drew them to Valencia. Find out more about what led this Texas couple to Valencia, on Episode 56 of Retire There with Gil & Gene.
Janet Christian is a contributing writer to Medium.com. She writes about moving to, and living in, Spain. Check out her articles here.
Janet also published three novels, two private investigator mysteries and one magical realism:
1. Double Trouble: The Case of a Cold Trail and a Hot Musket (Marianna Morgan, Private Investigator Book1);
2. Udder Confusion: The Case of Choreographed Cows and Alien Abductions (Marianna Morgan, Private Investigator Book 2); and
3. Virgilante.
Janet Christian was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She attended Thomas Edison High School, San Antonio College, and Texas State University. She worked in multiple high tech companies in San Antonio, Silicon Valley, and Austin — including many small startups as well as Apple, Motorola, and IBM. After one major tech bust, she spent a few years designing and building high-end koi ponds.
Her interests include handbuilding ceramic art and functional pieces, gardening, and travel.
Janet shares that she’s “happily childfree.” She also has three published novels: two private investigator mysteries and one magical realism.
She notes the two biggest reasons for leaving the US and moving to Spain were the American political climate in 2017 and her health.
Eric Marsh was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. Attended Foothill College in Los Altos California.
He worked as a machinist until the early 80s and then went back to school, got a degree and started a career as a computer programmer. He’s done a lot of contract programming work. The couple have also owned a music venue and of course Janet's pond building company.
He’s done with working, though but might be open to some volunteer work if it seems worthwhile and interesting.
These days he’s learning physics and astrophysics, rides his motorcycle in the Spanish mountains, does some Internet of Things electronics development and travels. He’s done some motorcycle racing in the past and still enjoys motorsports. He’s taken up skiing again after a fifty year break but because of Covid he’s only been able to make it to the slopes a few times.
Eric has a private pilot's license but hasn't done any flying since they arrived in Spain in part, he says, ‘because aviation is expensive and as retirees it's important to watch our budget.”
The couple has spent hundreds of hours scuba diving, mostly around the US and the Caribbean but as far away as the Red Sea. They owned property on the Island of Roatan in Honduras where they had planned to retire but Honduras became dangerous and they decided to live in Europe rather than on an island.
