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.
A generous gift certificate from George and my income tax refund were burning a hole in my pocket. And I had been lusting for a drone to take panoramas of the Mackenzie Delta and pingos near Tuktoyaktuk this June and images of us hiking this fall along ridges and cliffs above the fjords of Norway.
More than three decades ago when we lived in Calgary, Magellan and I thought we’d go to Japan in the spring for the sakura (桜), the Japanese word for cherry blossoms derived from saku 咲, which means to bloom. I even studied Japanese in anticipation. For some reason that I don’t recall, we didn’t go. How foolish we were to even think we had to travel that far for hanami—viewing cherry blossoms—you only need to go as far west as Vancouver, which now has its own Sakura Festival every April. Since April is also National Poetry Month, we’ve curated a collection of our favourite sakura haikus, adding Spice’s own attempt as well.
Are you a pasta fanatic or rice aficionado?
Either way, here’s a story for you from Valencia, Spain.
The clucking bride dressed in her finest feathery
Were I four decades younger and had the means to live in any city in the world, the white cobblestones of Lisbon would be a strong contender for my wandering feet. Magellan agrees. Lisbon is in his triumvirate of top cities. But a decade from now, the seven hills of Lisbon could be too much of a challenge.
If we were living there, we’d have an annual membership at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo, now that we know it’s so intriguing.
The sun and the movement of the earth—the oldest phenomena our naked eyes can see.
Imagine an artist whose life’s quest is to show us that phenomena.
An artist who wants us to be “a little more aware than you were the day before of how beautiful the world is.”
That artist is Robert Irwin.
