Groving older – into retirement

ANDORRA 2001-06

(RETIREMENT IS THE BEST JOB I EVER HAD!)

 

 

Puk and I resided in Arinsal in the small country of Andorra from 2001-06. Arinsal is at an altitude of 1450 m and has a population of less than 1000. The summers are warm at daytime and cool at night. The winters are full of snow and sunshine. The large picture below shows our view from our living room.
 
        

 

 

 

 

 

In the summers I did long walks in the mountains, occasionally climbing to the highest peaks of Andorra. Otherwise I tended to check how nature is doing and pick mushrooms (if the wild boars had not been there before me!). I did the Hash Harriers runners every Saturday!
 
 


 

                My yearly climb of Coma Pedrosa (2962m/9926’)

 

 

In the winters the Andorra pastime is SKIING. I only did cross-country skiing as I find the ambiance at the downhill skiing slopes crowded, noisy and too popular. I like the stillness of the snow, the winter forests and mountains. The best sound I know when I skied was the sound of the water drops falling  from the branches of the trees hitting the snow below with thundering noise. I have also took to walk on snowshoes – a very satisfying experience.
 
  

 

The mountains of Andorra have ample supplies of  wild Raspberries, Blueberries, Strawberries and Herbs and this combined with the bitter extract of the Yellow Ensian root makes a worthwhile bitter snaps. I THINK it prevents hangovers – an important characteristic here in Andorra, where wine is plentiful and reasonable in price.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


What else DID one do in Andorra?

 

     

 -was together with your wife (every day)

-Painted (the nature as I see it)

-Wrote books (about aviation and novels)

-was social

-went to activities in the International Club

-Sat and watched the world go by on my computer!

 

           

 

and when we got tired of it we travelled a bit (actually a lot)!

 

      

 

PS-POST SCRIPT

I guess my active AVIATION CAREER ended on September 14th 2003. I was given for my 60th birthday, by my caring children and their families, something I always wanted to try- A PARACHUTE JUMP.

At the Mantooka Airfield in Minnesota Mike (my son in law) and I both made a twin-jump. Unfortunately I made a wrong landing and crushed my right ankle. After an operation it has taken a year to get on with normal walking (in the mountains). I HAVE PROMISED MY WIFE NOT TO DO FOOLISH THINGS AGAIN!

  

 

  

 

 

SURPRISE – SURPRISE

In 2006 we got enough of construction cranes, trucks and noise. In the end we had to sleep with earplugs every night due to noise from “hooligan” turists in Arinsal. After a few minutes surfing on the internet we found our “dream house” at Cahors in France. That was at the end of March and on June 28th we could follow the moving truck to our new home. Our apartment in Andorra was quickly sold so an exchange to the new property was almost a 1:1.

So now we till our fields and keep our garden instead of walking in the mountains. The small “slurps” of the river Lot has substituted for the roar of the trucks and the earplugs are in the rubbish can.

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