Our first full year spent living out of suitcases with no fixed address proved, in Seneca’s words, that “voyage, travel and change of place impart vigor” – or, at the very least, help keep one mentally and physically limber.
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, otherwise known as “summer camp for baby boomers,’ captured most of our time and affection in 2015. But we also loved our transAtlantic repositioning cruises from Ft. Lauderdale to Barcelona and Glasgow to New York (terrific bargains for fellow retirees with more time than money) and summer sojourns in Spain, Portugal, Russia and the Scottish Highlands.
We didn’t achieve last year’s goal of competence en español, though it wasn’t for lack of trying. But with more time in Mexico and Spain on the horizon for 2016, la esperanza es eterna…

In San Miguel, Three Kings Day, or Reyes Magos, is celebrated on Jan. 6 with a kids’ gift giveaway in the Jardin

The 18th century Sanctuary of Atontonilco, a few miles from San Miguel, is another Unesco World Heritage site

An angelic little girl prepares for a Semana Santa (Holy
Week) parade at San Miguel’s San Juan de Dios church

A Semana Santa procession of women dressed in black lace winds through central San Miguel de Allende

Our annual visit to Washington, D.C. coincided with a riot of forsythia blooms at Dumbarton Oaks park

First stop on our transAtlantic repositioning cruise was the lovely port of Ponta Delgada in the Azores, a Portuguese island chain

We spent seven weeks studying Spanish in Salamanca, viewed from a Roman bridge dating from the first century
Salamanca’s gorgeous Plaza Mayor, one of the largest squares in Europe. Every night just after sunset, the lights came on to a chorus of oohs and ahhs

The center of Porto is a Unesco World Heritage site – wish we’d gotten a chance to explore it by bike

Tour boats wind through the canals of St. Petersburg, first stop on our Viking Waterways of the Tsars cruise to Moscow

I loved this souvenir seller in Uglich, Russia, a stop on our Viking cruise between St. Petersburg and Moscow

Our Waterways of the Tsars cruise took us to Kizhi Island, where the Transfiguration Church was straight out of a fairytale

Our three-week stay in the Scottish Highland started at Dunnotar, on the North Sea coast near Aberdeen
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