Time to go home.

Monday, June 29

Our last day in Paris, and the last day of our vacation.

We visited Napoleons Tomb and the Military Museum.  It's fun just wandering around Paris.  Gus stumbled on an interesting shop; the  owner bought up scrap airplane parts and polished them up as art.  Too bad, but there's definitely no room in our bags for a propeller.

We wandered through Le Bon Marche where a pair of plastic sandals with a bit of bling were €400.

After supper we wandered around and walked through the Louvre – well the grounds.  Then through the Tulerie Gardens which I had wanted to see.  There was a small herd of goats there.
I think we're ready to come home.  I'm dying for a grilled cheese sandwich!

Anniversary Day - June 28

Sunday, June 28

On this day, 35 years ago, I said “I do” and married Gus.  The best decision of my life (after becoming a follower of Jesus of course).  And what a great place to spend the day – in Paris!

We started the day at Eglise Sacre Coeur church in the Montmartre area – which is a little hill overlooking Paris.  A beautiful view and different perspective.  Yes, we climbed all 300 stairs to the top of the dome, but went during Mass, so there were very few people and we had the place almost to ourselves.  It was an interesting climb, as part of it was outside on the roof.

We visited a Parisienne evangelical church where the DeWitts are.  The contrast between all the cathedrals we’ve visited over the past 4 weeks and this earnest group of 45 believers in an un-airconditioned, rented room, with the windows closed because the neighbours complain about the music, was really poignant to me.  It is true ; “the church is the people, not a building”.

Then we finished off the day by visiting the Eiffel Tower, which is always impressive.  This time we walked down from the second level,  so got to see inside the girders.

We witnessed a young man prepossessing to his fiancée underneath the Tower.  Gus - I'd marry you again.  It's been an incredible 35 years.

Paris is unique

Saturday, June 27

There's just something special about Paris.  It's noisy, inconvenient, Café tables blocking the sidewalk,  bicycles everywhere, smelly at times, lots of street people and scammers – but you find yourself so happy just to be here.  Paris is just an exciting place to be!

We started the day off at Sainte Chapelle, the picture in our dining room.  It's just as impressive As the first time I saw it.  I don’t think I remembered it was built in the 1200s.  All that glass!  Hand painted.

It's 26 Celsius, perfect weather for a Bertheillon ice cream.  Small scoops, but the most flavourful ice cream you’ve ever tasted.  We’re happy to have some warm weather; we get to wear our shorts.

We took a sightseeing boat tour on the Seine, which gave a different perspective of the city.  There are so many converted/floating restaurants, cafes and even gardens and parks!  But I don't think that camping area under the Alma bridge was legal.

I’ll add a picture at the bottom of the blog page of Stravinsky park, each item in the pool representing one of his works.  I think I picked out Patroushka and Firebird.

Stockholm and Copenhagen second time

As you can tell, I 'm getting behind in my blog.  This cruise really was exhausting.

Stockholm was nice and we really enjoyed the Vasa museum where a ship built in 1628 and sunk on it's maiden voyage and was preserved in the cold water of the harbour until  few years ago.  Lesson learned?  Don't let the king make alterations to the plans.  He added too many canons and port holes and it became top heavy.

Our day At Sea was well used sleeping in and napping.

We are presently in Copenhagen for the second time.  We had 7 hours before our flight to Paris, so we visited Tivoli Gardens.  This is a very old amusement park (1900) where Walt Disney came for his inspiration.  You can really see the influence and it was a very pretty place.

We're currently in a long line up at the airport because Norweigan Air is having trouble with their check in machines .  There's even a crying baby and yapping dog!

Helsinki

We are pretty exhausted after St. Petersburg and so we kept it pretty low key in Helsinki.  The city is fairly modern and ver clean.  We took the tram into town and found our way to the upscale shopping on the Esplanade and to the waterfront.  The city reminded me of Montreal; some older buildings (2 hundred years), but lots of modern architecture.

We took the Ferris wheel ride which looked like a mini London Eye.  The views were awesome, but the pictures are blue from the window tint.

We watched the movie FOCUS which was all about scamming and pickpockets.  It's a miracle we haven't lost anything yet, guess we'll hold on to our stuff a little tighter.

St. Petersburg! We loved it!

Tuesday, June 23
An amazing city with an amazing history.  The architecture, the canals, the opulence of the castles, the museums so full of art treasures; I don't know where to start to describe it.  What an experience.  One of the highlights was the garden fountains in Peterhopt – I can hardly wait to show you the video.  Words cannot describe it.

We were in port for 36 hours and we were off the boat for about 29 of those hours.  We also got to see the Tchaikovsky Ballet company perform Swan Lake which I thoroughly enjoyed, and even Gus stayed awake.

There has been lots of restoration of their historical buildings and most of the history the guides talk about is pre-revolution.  She did tell us there is a large storage yard for all the Stalin and Lenin statues that used to dominate the city.

Today we are in Helsinki.  We're still recovering from SPB, so I hope we can drag ourselves off the ship to see it.

St. Petersburg

we're presently in the Hermitage museums.  Wow

Tallinn

Saturday, June 20

We are almost at the longest day of the year and there are only 3 hours of darkness each night.  Gus  took my picture last night at ten minutes before midnight and it was still light.

Tallinn is a very pretty and picturesque Mideival town.  Very well maintained and clean.  Apparently there was lots of fighting back in the day between the Swiss and Russian armies (1700s).

We climbed the Town Hall tower which had about 140 steps.  They must have been made for giants as the height of each step varied from 18 to 24 inches!

Unfortunately it rained our whole time here.  The sun just came out as we are using the port of Tallinn Internet.

Berlin

Friday, June 19

We’re at sea today and glad for a relaxing day after our 12 hour excursion to Berlin yesterday.

What struck me about Berlin was all the obvious war damage to that city.  Although in the last 25 years (since the reunification) there has been a massive effort to repair, restore and rebuild, you can still see bullet holes on many (I want to say most) buildings.  Some have been intensionally left as a ruin for  a reminder of the devastation of war.  Hitler’s bunker was purposefully destroyed and is now a parking lot, and is just up the road from a moving, abstract Holocaust Memorial.

I guess the Germans do have a sense of humour.  They have restored and decoratively painted a fleet of Trabi cars (East German infamous invention) and rent them out for a “Safari Sightseeing”.  I believe a toolbox is included since they're almost expected to break down.

Ok, I have to run.  I have a port lecture and an art auction to attend!

Cold and rainy in Aaraus, Denmark

Even I agreed, it wasn't much fun huddled under the umbrella, getting wet feet while we tried to explore Aaraus.  Sorry guys.  No one will be getting a souvenir from here!

Traveling is an education

Tuesday, June 16

One book that had an impact when I was in High School was Scot’s Last Expedition.  The story of a British explorer to the South Pole who was beaten to the South Pole by another exploration team and died on his way home.  In Cambridge we saw the Polar Exploration Centre that was named in his honour.  Today we visited the Fram Museum here in Oslo and realized that it was this Norwegian team that beat Scot to the South Pole.  We saw the ship they took – it was especially designed with a round body to be pushed up out of the ice like a nut between two fingers, and it's propeller could be raised.  On board they had a gramophone and an upright piano, which surprised me since it was a scientific journey, not a pleasure trip.  I guess even explorers need to have some entertainment along the way.  Travelling is such an education.

The Norwegians are quite into sailing and we also visited the Kon Tiki museum ( we had watched a movie on this before coming) about a team sailing across the Pacific on a raft.

In The Oslo harbour I counted over 20 sailboats about the size of Matt and Danielle’s.

We're in Oslo

i updated our travel map, so it's starting to look interesting. Check it out.

Oslo is nice.  Great weather.  We're presently in the Nobel Peace Center.

A little disappointed

Monday, June 15

We are a little disappointed with Copenhagen.  Probably if we’d come here first we might have liked it better, but in comparison with London and especially Cambridge, it doesn't even come close.  We are kind of wishing we'd stayed an extra day with Jason in Cambridge, we miss him already.

There are lots of cyclers here, and we have to watch out more for the bike traffic than for the cars.  We attended an International church yesterday (English) and enjoyed it, some songs as at home.  One Danish Kroner is worth .18 Canadian, so the prices seem outrageous:  Kr149 for coffee, hot chocolate & nachos.

We are getting on our cruise ship in a few hours and one thing I’m looking forward to is unpacking.  Two weeks in, it's hard to find stuff – everything is “somewhere” in a suitcase.

Reservation fail!

We arrived here safely in Copenhagen, found our way by train into downtown and found our hotel at 10:30 pm.  We were tired and sweaty.  Apparently there was a mix-up with our reservations and they had to put us for the night in the conference room.  "But you could help yourselves to as many free soft drinks as you like."  There was no shower in that room, so they gave us the key to a single bed room, just so we could shower.  That room was not only on a different floor, but a different building.


As we got into bed we noticed the ceiling had 4 sky lights.  Which isn't ideal as the sun rises REALLY early here in the summer.  How early you ask?  We know it was bright sunlight at 4:10 am because there was a street musician trying to play his trumpet at that hour.  Yes, for at least 30 minutes.  Let's just say he WAS NO Lakeshore Concert Band material.  Did he expect tips?

But on the bright side - we did get to experience Jason's team win their bump on Saturday before we left Cambridge.  It was very exciting as it happened right where we were sitting.  We'll send the video soon.

More Bumps and the classy side of Cambridge

Friday, June 12

Yes, they did it again!  Jason's team bumped the boat in front and paddled past with laurels on again.

We also punted this morning with Jason's friend and his family.  While this can be relaxing, just slowing being pushed down the river, it can also get a bit hairy as the river fills up with punters, not all of who know what they are doing.

We definitely saw the classy side of Cambridge tonight as we experienced Evensong in King’s Chapel (boy and men’s choir singing Psalms) and attended a formal dinner.

May Bumps

Thursday, June 11

Sometimes you just have to pinch yourself.  Yes, I really am in Cambridge, watching my son rowing on the Cam, and he has a laurel because they bumped!

On Jason’s recommendation we watched the race from The Plough, a point of land with a pub/seats/food.  So first the teams row past as a warm- up.  Each team goes by one at a time.  The coach is on a bicycle on the opposite shore of the river.  He counts down from 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4…..go. (Calling 1 or 2 could be misinterpreted as asking rower 1 or 2 to adjust their position).  So each team passes by with a warm up.  The starting line is out of sight from The Plough, but there is an audible canon, and we heard several people exclaim “they're off”.

Some of the action takes place before they reached our position.  We were watching for Jason’s team.  Does he have greenery?  Yes.  That means they bumped the boat in front and have won their race for the day.  Everyone on the banks cheer for the boats rowing past with greenery.

The Sea, CMI and Cambridge

June 10

Leaving York this morning, we  detoured to the seaside (saw the North Sea and played ”crazy golf”) before heading south to Leicester to visit the staff at the Creation Ministry International office.  They were very pleasant and we were glad we stopped there.

Our accommodations at The Granary is definitely the best we’ve had in England.  It’s huge, has a washing machine, and they gave us food for our first breakfast- homemade bread, eggs from their chickens, bacon, sausages, beans, orange juice, milk.

We met Jason at the gates of his college, and he took us on a walk – make that a jog – around Cambridge.  We got to see his lab and  the Math buildings.  He took us the back way through Trinity college ( we couldn't look like tourists and take pictures or walk on the grass) and we saw the Time Eater clock. Tomorrow we’ll watch one of his races.  The weather is cool, but clear.

To be, or not to be?

June 8 and 9

Neither Of us are Shakespeare fans, but since we were driving right past Stratford Upon Avon, it seemed we should pop in.  The English love Shakespeare, who has always been revered and respected here.  There has been a Shakespeare Society since the 1800s keeping care of his birthplace, grave etc.  The Avon river is full of young lovers in rowboats, although THEY were obviously not on a rowing team like our Jason!

Today we are in York and visited the Knaresborough Petrifying Falls.  This was one place were Gus really wanted to go.  Do fossils take millions of years to form, or can it happen in the space of months?  People have been coming here since the time of Kind Henry VIII.  There are all kinds of artifacts here turned into stone.  We bought a rock teddy which took 3 months to turn to stone.

The town of York has quite a bit of history.  We climbed the York Minster Tower on the cathedral.  It's always such a wonder how people could build these huge edifices without modern technology or power tools.  What was going through their minds when they knew it wouldn't be finished in their life, or that of their children or grandchildren.  

The English Countryside

June 7

We have been driving in the countryside now for two days.  Here's our observations:
• There are no straight roads.  Every street is narrow, bendy, twisty, curvy roads with tall hedges on either side, right up to the roadway and trimmed like a wall.
• No garbage anyway.  Not even in London.  London didn't even smell (like New York City does). Yet there are very few trash  bins. Jason told us that since there terrorist attacks a few years ago, they removed public trash bins.  But still the question: how come every place is so clean and without garbage?
• Very green everywhere.  Everyone trims their hedges.  The roses are everywhere and on big bushes that are like small trees.
• Everywhere are stone fences made of flat stones, topped with vertical flat stones or paved.  Are all the rocks in England the same shape?  Are there no round rocks?
• Next time Bring a GPS!  I set up Google each morning before we leave our accommodation and internet connection and it follows us all day.  Except when we get off track it doesn't up- date or recalculate – a very important feature.

A Castle and a Pod

June 6

We picked up our rental car today and so far Gus is doing a great job driving on the wrong – er –  left side of the road.  The intersections and “roundabouts” are the worst.

We visited Windsor Castle and it is truly amazing.  Sovereigns have been living there for over 900 years.  It is immaculately maintained and many of the rooms are absolutely breathtaking.  I was surprised how close it is to the town – which is right up to the walls.  There was a wedding party having their pictures taken right by the gate.

Gus bought some Royal ice cream – made from the Queen’s own jersey cows.  We didn't see Her  Majesty, although the flag flying told us she was home.

And from the castle we drove to our Glamping Pod.  It is so cute.  Anita would love it here, the flowers and gardens and view is amazing.  I am a little worried about that rooster who waddled past our front door.  What time does he get up in the morning?

Sunburnt in London and supper with Jason

June 4

Yes we had such great weather today that I got a bit sunburnt!

The day's itinerary included climbing the 311 steps of the Monument (London Fire memorial), walking the Millennium Bridge and Thames Footpath, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.  By the way, London Bridge is now the plainest bridge crossing the Thames; the iconic bridge we all see is the Tower Bridge.

Jason took the train from Cambridge to Kings Cross station which is close to our hotel.  So we met him this evening for supper.  We had seen a little place North Sea Fish restaurant, so we went there for delicious but greasy battered and fried fish and “chips”.  It was good, but such a big piece of fish that I don't think I’ll go for fish again for a while.

Jason looks good.  He's extremely busy these days (on the phone dealing with a situation when we first met up)  as he’s the captain of the rowing team and their big race is next week.  Lots of political situations for him to deal with training to oversee.  We're all looking forward to seeing him race and spend time with him next week in Cambridge.

My I-pad doesn’t like Picasa, so my slideshow app doesn't work.  Check the bottom of my blog for new pictures

Star Wars at Buckingham Palace?

Yes, I was surprised, as were the Japanese and German tourists on either side of me, when the marching band at the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace expertly played the theme from Star Wars as well as some Mozart and Aaron Copland.  And not many marching bands have bassoons either.


Any World War II buffs should definitely check out Churchill’s War Rooms when in London.  You got to tour the actual rooms from which the war was planned and lead.  Even the operator’s sugar cubes where left on the table when they left at the end of the war.

Westminster Abby really is amazing both outside and inside.  Over 700 years of history.  It was a pleasant surprise when one of the priests got everyone’s attention and had a moment of silence and a prayer.  We’ve toured many churches in our travels, but never been interrupted for prayer.  I guess that's very sad.

30 Days. 9 Countries. 4 Currencies.

And 2 People still  in love and celebrating 35 years of marriage.  Yes our adventure has begun.  We are safely here in London.

We’ve already bought our Oyster Card for the Underground and found our Hotel.  Understandably we can’t check in until 2pm, but we could leave our bags there.

We are presently sitting in the British Library trying not to look conspicuous as we nod off.  But before finding this comfortable bench, we did look around and this place is awesome!  Original manuscripts from Handel, Beethoven, Purcell, Debussy, Chopin.  There are a number of Bibles including the Gothenburg (one of the original 180 copies that he printed).  Almost all of the old manuscripts are beautifully decorated, and with gold accents.

We will return soon to see if our room is ready, and finally take a horizontal nap - instead of in the sitting position.

We have some serious reservations for our upcoming vacation.

I’m not talking about worries.  We have actually booked a serious number of reservations.  7 hotels, a car rental and 4 separate flights.

I have been using the internet to make on-line bookings since 2001 when I booked several campsites across Canada.  It was rather novel then, and we were amazed to arrive in Washington State and fine our names posted on our assigned campground site.  Since then I’ve booked hotels in Israel, Egypt, Italy, Spain, France and of course the US.  So far we’ve never had a total fail.  

Well -  there was that room in Paris in 2005 that had paint peeling off the wall, and the “Queen” bed was two twin beds – OF DIFFERENT HEIGHTS – pushed together.  But they had our reservation.

And another near miss was in Elat Israel in 2010.  This was before car GPS was common and I had printed out Google map directions for each hotel.  Unfortunately Google let us down and directed us to the wrong address.  It was after sundown on Friday night (Sabbath), and everything was closed.  We didn’t have a detailed local map and we had to drive around until we found the hotel with the correct name.  We arrived late, but they also had our reservation.

I guess the more we travel, the odds are higher that we might run into a snag.  Hopefully all our bookings for this trip are made correctly.  Think I’ll go recheck them for the 10^th time....

Actually, this is a practice post on my travel blog.  Leave a comment so I know if you received it.  

Travel map

We've added an interactive map, so you can now follow us on our travels.

Getting ready

Well our flights and cruise are booked.  And I have all hotels/ B & B's booked.  Now I'm trying to set up my blog.