Magellan’s sail 500 years. And we will sail 500 more. Yes, it’s half a millennium since Ferdinand Magellan became the first man to sail around the world.
And set in motion the ultimate bucket list, the round-the-world cruise.
Which 450 years later my future Mrs M replicated, albeit another route, and through a now built Panama Canal.
As her family came home on a working ship from her father’s commission in Australia.
Ferdie’s bucket list
Ferdi, steady go: Magellan
For Ferdi, in truth, he didn’t fulfil his bucket list.
He kicked the bucket in the Battle of Mactan in the modern-day Philippines so never did make it back to Seville.
And it was left to Juan Sebastian Elcano to complete the journey.
And isn’t it always the way, you complete the boss’s work and they still get all the credit.
Magellan, we obviously know from school geography and history.
And the last word is from Donald, a bit of a scoop from your favourite Travel blog.
While the rest of the world has been trying to talk to the Big Mouth we got him… well, we are old pals.
And Donald has a message for the world: ‘I love you all and I want you all to come and see me again soon in America.’
The Happiest Place on Earth is now also the Safest on Earth with reservations, social distancing, alternate rollercoast carts and new hospitality measures.
While Mickey, Minnie, Donald and the Gang aren’t about to let the virus turn their smile into a smell.
And are dancing, waving and welcoming us all in their own inimitable way.
Watch this space for new Disney features coming along soon.
I had all planned to take a whizz around the Florida Keys before the other Donald closed America off in March but hope to put that right when I get the chance.
And it’s those areas with natural distancing like the Keys and island nations (and yes a lesson here to the UK and Ireland too) who have an advantage.
Sail away in Croatia
Water wonderland
And when you’ve got 1200 islands then there’s ‘one for everyone in the audience.’
As they like to say in the world’s longest-running TV chat show, Ireland’s The Late Late Show, or whatever the Croatian equivalent is.
But here is a country which, as a Balkans state, dealt better than the rest of Europe with the virus.
And which is perfectly placed to host the tourist’s new requirements during and post-Covid.
One area is in small boat holidays and yachting around the islands, another adventure in the Great Outdoors.
Kayak attack: In Croatia
My go-to people in Ireland for Croatia are Croatia Tours, and I went on pilgrimage with them to neighbouring Bosnia & Herzegovina where I started out on the road to Dubrovnik.
They have a seven-days Rivers by the Sea package, making the most of where the area where the Krka River enters the Adriatic, on June 26 £1255pp.
Where you’ll get to sea kayak, cycle, canoe, rock climb, hike and raft.
The Tuscan Islands
And Firenze too
We’ll also be spreading our wings more next year even when we do visit our favourite cities.
And that’ll help hotspots like Firenze breathe as we explore greater Tuscany, its adventure trails, cycling opportunities and thermal waters.
And its seven islands, chief among them Elba, the first island of exile for Napoleon, and Montecristo, it of Alexandre Dumas’ Count.
Able was I ere I saw Elba.
As every schoolchild, well, at least those of certain age and lexical bent, will tell you.
And Tuscany was, and is, ere able to thrive in ‘il novo normal’.
And, of course, the Caribbean
Daddy’s Little Girl, as all our little girls do these days, is wont to show me amusing things she finds on the internetty thing.
And one we both find funny is a Jamaican tour guide who extols the benefits of inhaling the island’s plants.
I grab every chance to hook up with my Caribbean friends, Barbados,Tobago, Anguilla (heck, all of them) albeit these days over Zoom, if only to hope that I can draw some sun out from the screen.
And as usual their warmth came flowing us out as they reminded us that in their island their neighbourliness has helped them through this crisis and referred in passing to London where ‘people don’t know their neighbours but had been getting to know each other this year.’
Los Filipinos
For those of us too who in the second half of the century of years some of us are blessed to live, our cultural touchpoint for the Phillipines is the Thrilla in Manila, the nation’s capital which hosted Ali-Frazier III.
And of course the Philippines are knockout and our old friends at G Adventures are all over it.
Manila is on the island of Luzon, one of 7,641 in the archipelago.
And you’ll not be surprised to learn then that out of 7,641 islands that it should have boasted the world’s most beautiful island, courtesy of Conde Nast Traveler in 2016.
The exotically-named Atty. Maria Anthonette C.Velasco-Allones, the Tourism Promotions Board’s COO has an equally lyrical way about her.
As she described her islands and what they have to offer.
‘When the dark night is over and the sun rises, wake up in the Philippines.
