Showing posts with label trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trip. Show all posts
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Washington DC.. for a day
Mary, my sister, came east for a meeting and had a four day window to visit me.
We took the opportunity to hop on a bus down to Washington DC to attend Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
The bus trip, organized by the good people at the Torontoist and sponsored by Bud Lite, was a 36 hour whirlwind trip. The coverage by the Torontoist is here.
The rally was crazy.. so many people.. so many stars (I saw Cat Stevens perform Peace Train!)
But the best part, oddly enough, was visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of the Native American. That weekend they had Día de los Muertos celebrations, exhibits and activities. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Trails, Tales and Tunes - Newfoundland
Norris Point and the nearby (slightly larger) town of Rocky Harbour were amazing. t was like being home but with a different forrest.
We decided to go there for 2 reasons. The first was because Mary's friend from the conference was going to be there, and the second was because of the park. What sealed the deal though was the trails tales and tunes festival that was going on that weekend.
The festival is mostly for the locals - kind of a kick off to the tourist season. Almost all of the activities we participated in were outdoors. There were guided hikes every day - almost all of them ending in homemade pie and treats. So nice!
There were also live performances that we took in and listened to on the radio. It was really fun and we had a fantastic time.
We ended up renting a cabin and were amazed at how big it was (a bedroom each!).. We also discovered there wasn't really a proper grocery store in town. What we did find though was hard tack (which we attempted to cook), salted cod (that stunk up our cabin), and local jams (which we started a collection of).
Our time in Norris Point was really a highlight of our stay in Newfoundland and I would encourage anyone to go.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Travel - Newfoundland
After the conference was complete Mary and I rented a car and headed across the island.
Our original plan was to go over to St. Pierre and Miquelon but that proved to be too difficult due to the time we were traveling (May is not high season).
So when I said we headed across the island I really do mean that literally. From St. John's it took two days of almost solid driving (by Mary - bless her) to get to Gros Morne National Park and the little cabin we rented in Norris Point.
View Larger Map
I seem to be missing a few pictures so I'll update this later if I can find a good shot of the highway - I remember taking a few :)
Our original plan was to go over to St. Pierre and Miquelon but that proved to be too difficult due to the time we were traveling (May is not high season).
So when I said we headed across the island I really do mean that literally. From St. John's it took two days of almost solid driving (by Mary - bless her) to get to Gros Morne National Park and the little cabin we rented in Norris Point.
View Larger Map
I seem to be missing a few pictures so I'll update this later if I can find a good shot of the highway - I remember taking a few :)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Around St. John's - Newfoundland
The first few days we were in St. John's Mary was at her conference and I got to explore a little bit of the city.
I walked up and around signal hill - a little dangerous.
And Mary and I went on a few trips - to Ferryland an active archeological site which was very cool and whale watching in a huge windy storm (which resulted in the boat turning around and no wildlife being seen.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Iceland and Denmark - that's all folks!
man! it took me forever to get all these posts up! but here they are. YA! man looking at all this stuff makes me wish I was back there right now.
Friday, July 10, 2009
April 10 - In and Outside of Copenhagen: Castle, Museum and Tivoli
Just outside of Copenhagen stands one of the best known castles in Europe. Kronborg Slot in Helsingor otherwise known as Hamlet's Castle. We spent the morning exploring the castles many rooms and, while I can't speak for Mary, I was reciting bits of Hamlet the whole time (Ah! Yorik! I knew him well Horatio...). After a traditional lunch of Smørrebrød(open faced sandwiches) we headed back towards Copenhagen with a stop at Louisiana. Louisiana is the Danish MoMA - but bigger. It is set on a lovely sea side property donated to the modern art museum and named after the donors three wives all named Louise ... yes he married three different women with the same name.
Our last stop was Tivoli, the amusement park near the centre of Copenhagen. It is amazing. It is no wonder that Walt Disney based Disneyland on it and the Michael Jackson offered to buy it. We went back twice, once for dinner and the second time to see all the lights on. Tivoli is the perfect mix of rides and carnival games and food. There really was things for all ages.. fine dining next to candyfloss stands, carni games and rollercoasters.. and lots and lots of flowers in bloom! Mary and I got wonderful fresh brewed Chai tea and if we go again I will insist on gelato..mmmmn.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
April 8 - Copenhagen Shopping and Boat Tour
Being Easter it is opening weekend for Tivoli! We were greeted in the morning by the boys auxiliary (?) band playing outside the entrance to the amusement park.We carried on .. there was a lot of shopping to do and the shops would be closed thursday and friday for easter holidays. We did manage to sneak in a canal tour in between hunting for wool and the latest Danish trend.. crazy scarves. We ran into the band again while shopping, this time in a little parade down the main pedestrian street.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Easter in Copenhagen
Europe knows how to celebrate Easter. Not only is every shop decorated with bunnies and eggs and chickens but they get Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Monday as stat holidays.
April 7 - Copenhagen and Spring
Mary and I were pretty excited to arrive in Copenhagen. Iceland was wonderful and the weather despite the gloomy forecasts was lovely. But Denmark is full of spring, we arrived to a flower market in the square beside our hotel, bikes everywhere and warm glorious sunshine.
We even ate dinner outside (with blankets wrapped around our legs) at the terrific RizRaz.
Friday, June 5, 2009
April 7 - Skyr!
we thought it was yoghurt.. it's actually cheese. It's really tasty- all the flavours of yoghurt but not too sweet. delicious!
oh and watch this : It could be worse: Iceland
Monday, June 1, 2009
April 6 - The Golden Circle
Today was our big "tourist day"; we rented a car and started out on a tour of the major geographic sites of the Reykjavik area. Before we hit those we made a very important stop at the Alafoss Outlet Store and bought unspun wool, something you can't buy in Canada. Then we were off. The countryside is a lot like northern Canada.. low tundra and snow capped mountains; except these mountains are volcanic.
We stopped at Thingvalier for lunch and a walk around. It's the sight of the first Icelandic Parliament (the oldest in the world) and also marks the boundary of the North American and European plates. The split between the plates has created a rather dramatic looking rift beside a swiftly moving river. The plates are slowly moving apart and cause Iceland to grow by about 2 cm per year!
Oh, I mentioned lunch. It was here we decided to try some Icelandic "delicacies"
Haroifiskur: dried fish with butter
Our verdict: a bit chewy, but good
Hakari: fermented (rotten) shark..
our verdict: I thought it was chewy and tolerable..like a very strong cheese. I could grow to like it.
Mary couldn't even swallow it.
We continued up the road to Geyser... yes the one that named all other geysers.. well actually we were more interested in Strokkur which is active - Geyser stopped being active many years ago. Further up the road the sleet started .. but being good Canadian girls, we still managed to run out and look at Gullfoss the waterfall nearby. The sleet and snow was pretty miserable so we didn't stay long. We drove home via Sulfoss in the south which is near where we went horse riding before. It seems Sulfoss has the worst weather (but does have pizza with bananas!).
Saturday, April 25, 2009
April 5 - Reykjavik and the Blue Lagoon
Sunday and we made it to church. Well... not an english service, that's actually really hard to find. but we made it an Icelandic service in the beautiful Hallgrimur church. After that we cruised around to some museums. We saw the original Sagas written in Viking times chronically the exploits of Erik the Red and Leif Errikson. Many of them are still in Copenhagen, claimed by the Danish when they ruled over Iceland but a few have been returned. The Culture house had a good display of them as well as exhibits on Icelandic film and housing some of the Natural History Museum specimens.
We wandered back to the Flea Market to get me an Icelandic sweater (ya!) and ate dinner at the famous Baedarius Beztu hot-dog stand. I don't really know what was on our hot-dogs what we guessed was: raw onions, cooked (crunchy) onions, ketchup, mayonnaise with pickles??? and gravy??? Despite the unknown condiments they were quite good! We had to eat early becasue we were off to the blue lagoon.
The water really is blue, but amazingly it didn't smell terribly of sulphur (like the surrounding area did). we slathered the white silt on our faces (sorry no pictures!) and lounged around in the warm waters. when it started to get dark we hopped on the bus and headed back into Reykjavik.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
April 3 - Reykjavik and Around
I was shocked when my sister didn't put up a fight when I suggested this activity. Mary is not a fan or horses but Saying the magic word PONIES! many many times somehow convinced her. We couldn't have picked a worse day for it.. blowing sleet for half the ride. Thankfully the riding company we went with had snow suits and rain gear for us. The rain stopped as we crossed over some low mountains and it was a pleasant ride from there on but both mary and my butts are sore an I think I will be trying to make up for this excursion for a little while.
Back in town we decided to go for a walk around town and found our way up to the Perlan. The Perlan is the storehouse for a lot of the geothermically heated water supplied to reykjavik. Actually almost 90% of houses in the capital are heated geothermically. The Perlan is also a museum and a cafe that sits on the top of a mountain overlooking all of Reykjavik. There was some lovely views and some bunnies spotted. The bunnies apparently survive the winter by snuggling up the the hot water pipes. After all the riding and walking we opted for a relaxing swim at one of the 7 swimming pools in the city. All the pools are minimally chlorinated (so you have to shower before you enter) and geothermcally heated.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
April 2: Reykjavik
What do you do after not sleeping on a red eye from Toronto to Reykjavik? I mean besides wondering what the smell is (sulphur) and stopping in the duty free to impulse buy vodka and salted licorice (and then put the super salty thing in your mouth and reel back).. no, after all that you eat breakfast. yummy yummy breakfast at the Grei Kotturinn (Grey Cat) my new favorite little cafe. it was a big breakfast in the oddest little relaxed shop.
So we have arrived. and have the pictures to prove it. We did a little walking tour that ended at the suncraft sculpture down near the harbour.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Lunenburg
Lunenburg is where the battery in my camera died.. I managed to get these shots done and then "borrowed" my sisters camera for the rest of the trip.
Lunenburg was a Germanic settlement and all the churches around town attest to it. We did a fair bit of walking and exploring around this UNESCO world heritage site.. making the necessary stops at the Bluenose II and the Maritime Museum. More pictures and posts from the trip will happen in March when my sister comes to town with her pictures.
so I'll leave you with these.
Mary and I got really excited about staying in this Inn - the oldest continuously operating Inn in Canada and the most original eighteenth century Inn in North America. Our parents were not as impressed with the lack of central heating.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Peggy's Cove
We rented a car in Halifax and drove down the coast to Peggy's Cove. If we paid any attention to the guide books we would have gotten there earlier. This small, very small town, bursts with tourists! It's like a tiny Tofino with the same amount of tourists.The lighthouse is totally accessible which is cool and it's also a post office!
I wish I had gotten a shot on the bog of all the erratics (perched boulders) that were left by the glaciers retreat and melt. The whole area was like a moon-scape.
and finally... Tofino need some of these
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Halifax (round 1)
Our trip through the maritimes began and ended with Halifax.
We spent a few days when we first arrived going to the Maritime museum, pier 21 and to the citadel.
I had my first proper lobster dinner in Halifax.. and I must say fresh lobster is really very good. Almost as good as crab.
In the harbour we ran into this guy... do you remember Theodore Tugboat? I do, what I didn't know was that it was set and made in halifax! This was a harbor cruise boat but we also saw the original set and characters in the Maritime Museum
Up by the citadel... we had to walk a little ways to find it.. but there it was.. a very important street
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