johnandlucie

The long span of history

Throughout its history, the Iberian Peninsula has been a land on a crossroad: between Western Europe and Africa and between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, as far as the New World. Today’s Spain has been shaped by groups of hunter-gatherers, explorers, conquerors, traders and migrants from around the world. It has been ruled, in turn, by Roman emperors, Christian Visigoths, Muslim Moors and Catholic monarchs.

Recently, when we walked through the historic districts of Toledo, Seville, Granada, and Cordoba, we saw Roman ruins, Moorish palaces, evocative monuments, ancient mosques, synagogues and monasteries and several treasure-laden churches. We experienced the richness of Spain’s intricate past but we also felt the weight of its history.

From our perspective, the perfect place to get an appreciation of Spain’s complex history is a walled city called Segovia. This small city is just an hour by bus to the northwest of Madrid, in the region of Castile and León. Segovia is worth the detour.

An Ottawa River treasure

Driving east from Rockcliffe Park, on the Sir George-Étienne Cartier Parkway, you will be surprised by the sudden sight of an outstanding building jutting out on the Ottawa River. The two-storey wood frame construction looks like it was built as a set for a period-piece movie.

The complex is a good example of an early 20th century boathouse, and this is why it was designated a federal heritage building in 2010. The designation also acknowledged its longstanding association with the history of canoeing in Canada.

Although the first canoe club in the region was established in 1883, it was the merging of the Ottawa and New Edinburgh Canoe Clubs in 1914 that made possible the construction of such a magnificent clubhouse between 1914 and 1923. The Ottawa River Boathouse was conceived by the eminent architect C.P. Meredith, who was also associated with the design of many prominent residences and landmark buildings in Ottawa.

In 2019, the National Capital Commission (NCC) began extensive refurbishment and upgrades to the boathouse, which turned it into a year-round and accessible gathering place and leisure destination. The complex reopened in 2023 under a new name: the NCC River House. Given its location, the facility is linked to the network of all-season NCC trails along the river.

When we visited it recently, the NCC River House was lively with people engaged in water sports, swimming or just enjoying the majestic view of the Ottawa River while sipping a drink or eating a gelato on the verandah.

Ottawa in bloom

Every year, the citizens of Ottawa have a good reason to eagerly anticipate the arrival of spring. Soon after the last of the snow has melted, all the streets and parks are cleaned and groomed in preparation for the Tulip Festival in May.

The festival is one of the most popular public events in the country attracting visitors from far and wide. Gardeners responsible for public parks in the national capital region and many homeowners join efforts to plant flower beds containing a large variety of colourful tulips. The tulip is the city’s official flower and the Tulip Festival has been an annual feature since 1953.

This is a time of the year when we really appreciate living in Ottawa. With a population of about one million inhabitants, the city has human proportions, and it never stops to enchant, plus it is beautiful and welcoming.

The festival was the brainchild of a well-known Ottawa-based photographer, Malak Karsh, who immortalized in pictures many of the sites around the capital, including the first Dutch tulips to bloom in the city in 1946. The city’s association with tulips has an interesting background.

Sights and Sounds of Madrid

We roamed around Madrid for four days this March. The city was enjoying an unusually warm Spring season, and the streets were alive with people going about their business, groups of kids walking to and from school, families and friends sitting together at outdoor cafes and, of course, many tourists like us.

Madrid is graced with majestic architecture, elegant streets, expansive parks, large public squares, imposing monuments, and beautiful fountains. The centre of Madrid has several lively pedestrianized areas, and it is incredibly clean. In many key downtown locations, we came across street musicians. We believe that their presence adds significant charm to the city.

O’Keeffe and Moore

There is currently a wonderful touring exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The show is called Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore: Giants of Modern Art. This meticulously curated exhibition is a creation of the San Diego Museum of Art and will not be shown in any other Canadian city.

Far from being a simple parallel display of two well-known artists, the exhibition brings the visitor on a journey, highlighting how, despite having lived on different continents and having worked (mainly) with different media, the artists evolved in similar ways, approached nature with awe and reverence and took their inspiration from it. O’Keeffe (1887-1986) and Moore (1898-1986) both lived in a big city before relocating to a rural setting where they could more easily connect with the natural world.

We came out of the exhibition both enriched and invigorated.

A taste of Costa Rica

As we mused about our travels over recent years, we realized that we have been inclined to gravitate towards North America for nature-focused trips and Europe for culture and history. We have tended to return to a handful of favourite countries to explore them in more depth.

This year, we resolved to visit at least a few new places that are out of our comfort zone while we are still capable of travelling. We weighed concerns about long flights, an unknown language, the hassles associated with making local arrangements, and safety, against the opportunity to discover a new country. The wide variety of organized tours available to any destination in the world was a convincing argument for taking a new approach.

Over the years, we had heard many accounts of the natural beauty of Costa Rica, so we decided to go there. We opted to join a group tour and prepared, as usual, with a good guide book and videos.