Jubilados Savouring the Journey
We (‘Spice’ and ‘Magellan’) are a newly retired couple with a passion for active independent travel. One of our first trips after turning 65 was to Spain, which explains its melodious word for retirees—jubilados—in our tagline.
What will you get by taking vicarious trips with us? Ideas, insight and inspiration.
Consider subscribing to our email Post Alert for stories of our adventures in Spain, Oman, Bhutan, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina…plus destinations closer to home like Osooyos and Pender Island here in beautiful British Columbia.
Have you ever lost your luggage?
“Can you please describe it?”
“It’s black!”
Your valuables are far more vulnerable to theft while travelling abroad than when at home. And if you want to make an insurance claim, you’re going to need a police report. Are you capable of describing in detail what was stolen? [Read more…]
Across the street from us is the Maritime Museum. Thanks to its harbour master, for the first time in the twenty years we’ve lived here the boats moored at its dock have been lit up for the holidays. Sparkling nightly, these lights and the Christmas trees across English Bay inspired Magellan’s photos and my poem.
Grandma, Alice, Oksana
In this season, in the silence of night, who among us doesn’t pause, rewinding time back to childhood on Christmas Day?
Among those memories, there’s often a grandmother.
In my case, Grandma Danchuk. Alice. Born 110 years ago, on Christmas Day in 1908.
Jean-Paul’s favourite part of every day
One of our best experiences this year was on the OceanLight II in the remote Gwaii Haanas (the southern part of what used to be called the Queen Charlotte Islands).
Onboard was a crew of three: Captain Tom; first mate Jennifer; and cook Luise.
And four jubilado couples: Stewart, the eldest, and Denise; George (a storyteller with a killer sense of humour) and Veda with her broken left arm; Jean-Paul (a Frenchman whose first question every morning was “When is fishing?”) and Judy (Jean-Paul’s translator and George’s cousin); and the two of us.
“I’ve found Jean-Paul’s diary,” announced George one night when nightfall curtained the July sky.
Gather round the galley and listen to George read the “fake” diary we’re calling Fish Tales.
Detail of Persephone on a vase
A week ago we wrote about the Valle dei Templi in Sicily’s Agrigento region.
Expecting to be awed by the grandeur of its Classical Greek temples, instead we came away feeling a bit “meh.”
The next day we headed back to the Museo Archeologico, (it had been closed the day before as you may recall from Part 1), known to hold “some of the best preserved pieces of Greek art and architecture that exist outside of Greece.”
“Would our feelings about Akragas change?” we wondered.
