We have moved on and are right now in Bangkok after a short flight from Phuket. Well... we've already been in Bangkok for three days and if everything had gone to plan, we would be in Vietnam right now. However, due to a smaller mishap we are still in Thailand...

Not that Bangkok is a bad place to be; especially not when we have the luxury of staying at one of Robert's friend's house which is not a small little house but more like a mini palace. Large pool (Victoria was even tempted trying to do some more serious swimming in it, it must be at least 15 meters), fountain, nice garden and very spacious.

The pool

Robert practising his synchronised swimming routine

Both of us with the house in the background

During the three days we've been here we have done a little bit of sightseeing including a tuk tuk ride on the streets of Bangkok. Only for the brave!!!!! No shock absorbers and going down the streets in at least 60-70 km/h!!!! The tour also included the 'mandatory' stops at the silk tailors and being strong and firm about not buying anything we didn't want from the merchants that the tuk tuk driver got paid to stop at.

We visited a couple of night markets too but didn't really buy anything. We also went to the more exclusive shopping centre and explored a little.

Exclusive shopping is possible anywhere in the world!

Robert found a bench in the middle of a fountain

Victoria opted for the bench outside the fountain

Food of all kinds at the food court

A dinner cruise on the river was one of the highlights. It was arranged by the hotel Shangri-la, so it was very fancy but an excellent way to see some of the city at night when it was cooler.

Dinner cruise down the river

Happy Robert with two less lucky prawns...

Unfortunately, we didn't really see everything we wanted as it is too hot to walk around and the taxi and tuk tuk drivers are really trying to scam the tourists, so after trying to find a taxi to take us around (at a price that was about 10 higher than it should have been), we decided to cut the seightseeing a little short. Perhaps that was wise anyways, as many of the major buildings and government sites were heavily guarded with armed police and riot squads in anticipation of unrest once the court ruling against the former prime minister was going to be announced. Not the most relaxed atmosphere to linger around in....

So after almost ten days in Thailand we decided that it was time to see something else. Victoria has been to Vietnam a few years ago and really liked it so we decided to go to Ho Chi Minh City. We got cheap tickets with Air France and prepared for departure today Saturday.

Everything went well until we came to the check-in desk at the airport. It turned out that British nationals need to obtain a tourist visa before going to Vietnam and Air France therefore denied Robert boarding unless he could show a letter that he was pre-approved for a visa on arrival. It didn't occur to us to check that as Victoria knew that as a Swedish citizen she didn't need a visa and we couldn't imagine that it would be different for other Western EU countries..... After some arguing with the staff at the desk, there was nothing else to do but to cancel the flight and head back to Bangkok.

As it was Saturday, the visa would take at least a few days to get so after a bit of flapping around, we decided to cancel our trip to Ho Chi Minh city for now. Yes, we did lose a little bit of money by cancelling the flight tickets and the hotel, but unfortunately we didn't have much of a choice. Victoria could have gone by herself to Vietnam, but that wasn't a very appealing option either....

We went back at Robert's friend's house, trying to recuperate and re-assess what to do next. Since we do have those tourist visas for China that we worked so hard for (see blog entry for Hong-Kong about that story) we were thinking going to China instead. To think our situation over we decided to go for some food first. As if a bad day couldn't get any worse, we are terribly ashamed to admit that we ended up at Pizza Hut and McDonald's. In the state of mind we were we just wanted something quick to eat and thought pizza would be ok. Unfortunately, we regretted our choice as soon as the food came. You would think Pizza Hut tastes the same anywhere in the world...well... WRONG! Somehow even the pizza has a distinct 'Thai flavour' to it. While thai food in itself is delicious, Meat Lover's pizza with a thai flare to it is not! To top it all off, the waitress tipped a whole milkshake over Robert's trousers. Accidentally of course, but still.....

So after a bad day that turned even worse, the best thing we could do was to go to bed and sleep it off. Hopefully some rest and a fresh start on the next day would give us a new prospective. Story to be continued...

written by  Victoria & Robert on February 27, 2010 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: The rest of the world
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View over the beach

Record levels of snow in Sweden and crummy weather in England feel VERY distant as we are writing this blog entry from our private villa in Thailand with palm trees and sunshine. Not that we are trying to make our friends and family in colder climate jealous.... it's just so difficult to imagine right now.....

Yes, we are in Thai paradise at a very nice resort just outside the airport in Phuket. We had originally planned on staying for three nights just to catch some sun and beach life, but after seeing how nice our hotel is and that the resort is located in one of the less busy and touristy areas of Phuket, we decided to stay another three nights.

beautiful beach

Knowing that this is the peak season for sun thirsty Northern Europeans and that some areas will feel just like home with white pasty Swedes and Brits fighting for space on the beach, we were positively surprised that the resort is quiet and the beach is quite empty. No need to get up at 6am to sprint down to the beach and marking your territory by occupying a sun chair!

Crazy Germans posing for pics

The nice thing is also that the hotel gave us a better room than we had booked. We got a private 'villa' with its own plunge pool and outdoor bathroom. It feels very nice to be able to walk straight out of bed and go for a quick dip in the morning. The food at the hotel is also excellent and even though we've been eating most of our meals at the local food merchants and restaurant, the breakfast is really good.

The outdoor bathroom with shower and pool

Our own private plunge pool!

We did attend a BBQ buffet that the hotel organized one evening. It was very nice with lots of good food; shellfish and fish grilled to order and lots of different kinds of meats. The posters for this BBQ night had promised 'live violin and guitar music'. Not to disappoint, a little Thai man showed up with his violin. Unfortunately, it sounded suspiciously similar to a tortured cat so when he finished all the guests sighed out of relief and applauded him but were quite happy to see him leave. But surprise! Five minutes later he was back, this time with a guitar in his hand. A man of many talents! To his defense, the guitar playing was much better than his violin skills, but then he started singing. Not too bad, but it was quite cute to hear him sing 'Mrs Lobinson' on top of his lungs instead of 'Mrs Robinson'.

BBQ dinner at the hotel

The chef at the BBQ

We both wanted to relax for a few days and try to do the 'beach thing'. Which essentially means 'to do nothing'. While the whole trip is vacation, we are often on the move and at most destinations it feels like we should go and see and do things. So here in Thailand we decided that complete laziness is ok. Which is easier said than done! None of us is really a big fan of sun bathing. Robert is of the whiter skin type and has to be careful in the sun. Victoria's skin can tolerate sun a bit better but still gets impatient and antsy from just laying flat on her back for more than an hour.

Looking cool on the beach

Victoria and the sunset

Robert playing

We tried several times to just lay in the sun and we did quite well! However, the sun is very strong so we stay in the shade of the parasols as much as possible. The sun still gets you in the shade though, which is something Robert learned the painful way! After a couple of hours on the beach with max five minutes exposure in the actual sun, he developed a very characteristic British pink hue all over his body. Ouch!!!!

We also wanted to try some Thai massages, so we found a nice, clean place in the little town next to the beach. Victoria went for the 'neck-back' option and was after 30 minutes more sore than from the 8,000 meter of swimming she's been doing over the past three days!!! Amazing how much power is in a little Thai lady! Robert went for the royal massage which included hot steaming cloths full of aromatic spices dabbed all over the body. When the massage was finished and we stepped out of the spa into the bright sunlight we discovered that Robert was...bright orange/yellow! So he was like a chameleon; going from white, to pink, to yellow. All in one day!

Robert went from white pasty to bright yellow!!

Robert's yellow leg after a Royal Thai massage.

Tomorrow morning we are off to the airport to catch a flight to Bangkok where we will spend a few days. It was been a really nice six days here in Phuket and we think we are getting quite good at 'doing nothing'.

A little coffee place on the beach

Large modern buildings

Our next stop in the Far East is Singapore. After all that stress with getting our Chinese visas we still decided to hold off on the China part of our travels. We had talked about possibly taking a train from Hong-Kong through southern China and then down in Vietnam, but after careful consideration and advice from better knowing people who told us the trains and hygiene standards in southern China and rural Vietnam are a little bit different from the western world, we decided to take the less adventurous and more comfortable route of travelling. We booked a flight to Singapore with Tiger Airways; south east Asia's version of Ryanair to a very reasonable price. We might still fly to Beijing on our way back to Europe when the weather is better, so hopefully we'll still get to use our visas and see a little bit of the big country.

The flight from Hong-Kong to Singapore was about three and a half hours and went smoothly. Once we landed we were greeting by hot and humid weather and about 33C. A taxi ride in to the center took us to the Fairmont hotel where we would spend the next three nights.

LARGE hotels

Singapore is very clean, well organized and there seems to be lots of enforcement in place in terms of regulations, laws and police. Taxis are strictly forbidden to stop on the main roads or they might have to pay a fairly heavy fine, and illegally parked vechicles are quickly fined and towed away. Victoria accidentally dropped her ice cream on the road one evening and feared she would be caught by the 'ice-cream police'.... :)

The first day we explored the city centre by foot and walked down to Chinatown. Large modern building are mixed with older, colonial ones and along the river a portion of the older houses have been kept. Along the river was a sculpture of a bird (?) which Robert promptly wanted to climb up on top of. Unfortunately, the bird was to big...

Robert trying to climb the bird.

Older buildings mixed with newer

Old colonial style

We explored the market in Chinatown and eventually got hungry and found the food stalls where you can get a delicious meal for almost nothing! $10-12 Singapore dollars (approx. 5-6 pounds or 50-60 SEK) would for sure leave you full and satisfied. At first the thought of eating food off these little stalls on the road felt a little uncertain but after seeing that they all seemed to properly prepare the food and they all had business licenses we decided to dig in. The food was great and if it wasn't for the size of our tummies we would still be there sampling the different kinds of dishes! We had noodle soup and satay skewers followed by beef stirfry, veggies and rice. Mmmmmmm!

Chinatown in Singapore

Lots of yummy food

Food preparations at the market

Robert enjoying a good meal!

With our happy full tummies we decided that walking would be too much work, so we went down to the Fullerton Hotel right by the harbour from which we took a little river cruise. It was quite nice to see the city from the river at night time with lots of lights.

The following day, we went on a day trip out to the zoo. Well worth a visit. It was hot and humid so we had to keep drinking lots and lots of water. Robert even found another plastic cow to climb!

Robert is riding a plastic cow.

The zoo is the home to a large range of animals; everything from exotic species such as monkeys (our favourite!) lions, tigers, zebras and elephants to animals a little less expected in such warm climate: penguins and polar bears! The polar bears looked a little hot even though they had a cool pool to swim in, and an enclosure with misty cooling steam, and you can't blame them!

Monkeys roaming around

Must be bad if he gets a sore throat....

We saw a polar bear... but not in Canada... in Singapore!

Rhinos in the zoo

That evening we stayed close to our hotel for dinner which unfortunately was over priced for what we got, and both of us missed the delicious inexpensive food we had eaten the night before. Sometimes it really is worth going out of the most touristy areas to eat more local and often better food.

Victoria reading the map.... not one of her strengths....

As we were leaving Singapore the next day, but our flight didn't leave until early evening, we got a late check out and explored a little more around the hotel. There was a shopping centre right next to the Fairmont, and like Hong-Kong, there is no lack of shopping opportunities. On our map, the list of shopping areas was longer than the list of 'attractions to see', which confirms that! As our luggage allowance is somewhat restricted (by the airline cut offs AND Robert's dislike for shopping...), we (Victoria) didn't buy anything.

In the afternoon we were off to the airport for another Tiger Airways flight that would take us to Phuket, Thailand. We think we 'deserve' a beachy holiday.... Oh, the stress of travelling....... Life is hard! :)

written by  Victoria & Robert on February 18, 2010 from Singapore, Singapore
from the travel blog: The rest of the world
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View over Hong Kong from the Peak

Yes, we are still alive after an almost two months break in blogging!

Lots of stuff have happened since we wrote last time which was right before we left Canada to go to Europe. This will give you a short synopsis of where we went after we departured Halifax:

Our first flight went to Iceland and Reykjavik. We stayed a week there and had a great time that included seeing the elusive northern lights, ride on Icelandic horses and getting slightly lost in the wilderness. We hope to be able to write a little more about our experiences on Iceland, so please check back soon as the entry will be added to the blog.

We left Iceland and flew straight to Sweden and Stockholm. Real winter weather greeted us and the two weeks we spent visiting Victoria's friends and relatives were quite cold and snowy. Christmas eve was celebrated Swedish style (complete with pickled herring, meatballs and Christmas ham) at Victoria's parents and the next morning we left for England just in time to make it to Christmas dinner at Robert's parents' house.

England was also quite chilly with some snow, so after a few weeks of travelling around the country to visit some of Robert's friends, we decided to spend a week in a warmer place. A week in Portugal in the Algarve region was warmer but a little rainy.

Back in England we soon left for another couple of weeks in Sweden before finalizing our travel plans for the Far East and Oceania. On Wednesday last week we left cold Europe for Asia as we boarded the plane destined for Asia. That takes us up to current time so here we go; blog is revived and we are in Hong Kong!

The thought of a 12 hour flight from London Heathrow is not really that exciting but we were off to a great start as we checked in and were told that Economy Plus, the class we had booked was full so they had to put us in Upper Class. Nice! White table cloths, three course dinner, and the best of all: comfy chairs that converted into flat beds! It is easy to understand why it's so hard to go back to economy after such a nice experience.

We landed in Hong Kong early evening and it was warm and humid. Around 25C which was a stark contrast to the -18C in Sweden. We made it safely to our hotel in Kowloon which is very nice. The whole city is decorated for Chinese New Year so lots of red lantens, flowers and red envelopes everywhere. Very pretty!

After a first sleepless night thanks to severe jetlag, we staggered out to explore the surroundings. There is a large flower market right outside the hotel and everybody is buying flowers for the New Year celebrations. It was a little of a clastrophobic experience to try to get through on the street. Robert was afraid he would lose Victoria in the sea of people. "Has anybody seen an Asian girl?" "She has black hair, brown eyes?" "No?"

Flower market. A little nuts!

Victoria checking out the local market. Feather bra anyone????

We spent the day somewhat aimlessly wandering around. We had this idea of getting tourist visas for China since we thought we might want to pop over to the mainland. With New Year coming up the visa office would be close for almost a week so today was the only day we could get them in order to pick them up before the weekend. After realizing that getting the visas through a travel agency is a complete rip off, we headed to the actual visa office itself. We made it there with five minutes to spare and were told that the visas could be picked up the next day. Instead of paying over $4000 HKD at the travel agency, going straight to the source 'only' cost us $1100.

The next day was also a bit of a daze since we still had severe jetlag and woke up at 3am unable to sleep any longer. We went back to the visa office to pick up our visas and that was an adventure in itself. We had to be there by 5pm in order to get them before the office closed for the long weekend. If we didn't make it we would be without passports until Wednesday next week so it was crucial to get there in time. Of course everything that could go wrong went wrong..... We took the train and thought we had set off with plenty of time to spare but when we arrived at the right station we only had 25 minutes left. Fifteen minutes to five we got to the visa office where they told us that we could only pay for the visas with cash. So off in a hurry to an ATM only to realize that Robert's credit card had been blocked since we have travelled in so many different countries. We used Victoria's cell phone (cost a fortune) to phone Robert's bank in the U.K who didn't really see the seriousness in our demand to have the block lifted right away. After almost having a heart attack we were able to get the cash and sprinted back to the visa office. Two minutes to five we got there to find that the staff had started to lock up the place. Thank goodness they were kind enough to let us in. But we were told that if we had been one minute later we would have had to come back next week! Phew!!!!!!

In the evening we met up with a friend of Robert who was very kind and took us to a really nice dinner. A few hours later and completely stuffed on delicious duck, fish, shrimp and dumplings, we headed to the Peak to have a nice panoramic look of Hong Kong. The weather had overnight changed from a warm and balmy 25C to about 13C so it was felt freezing when the night was falling.

Robert and our evening host David!

Both of us!

We spent the next day doing some more wandering around, visiting the zoo and a park in central Hong-Kong. The weather was still a bit chilly with a light misty rain.

Robert in the park

Our last full day in Hong-Kong we slept in and then went to see all the fancy hotels such as the Peninsula, the Conrad, Sheraton etc. Hong-Kong is definitely a place for anybody with lots of money!!!! We splurged with afternoon tea at the Conrad and Victoria went for a record in eating the most. Two plates of food, one bowl of congee, two plates of dessert later and in complete food coma, we took a cab back to the hotel for a nap and digestion.

Since it was Chinese New Year we definitely didn't want to miss the New Year parade so we headed out later in the evening. The parade was spectacular. Very well organized and lots of fun! We took lots of pictures and since they haven't been downloaded from the camera yet, please check back later as they will be added.

Red lanterns

Victoria and the fisherman

As this entry is being written, we are sitting in an ocean front beach cottage overlooking the Atlantic sea. We have now reached Halifax and for the past week, we have been renting this little place close to Peggy's Cove outside Halifax. It is absolutely beautiful, even during winter storms in November/December (!) and a perfect way to end our journey across this continent. Three months ago we were looking out over the Pacific ocean, and now we are looking at the Atlantic sea.

Waves!

When we arrived in Halifax we stayed a couple of nights downtown to get ourselves sorted out. Since we will be leaving for Europe from here, there are a few things we needed to arrange before we get on that plane. The most important thing was the car. The 18 year old Toyota Landcruiser has been our home and our transportation for the past three months. It has taken us up north and across the country so we both had a special attachment to this veichle. We had discussed different options which included storing it in Halifax, shipping it back to Vancouver, shipping it to Europe etc. etc. In the end, and after all, we did decide to sell it to spare ourselves the headache of arranging for shipping and/or storage so we spent a few days advertising it online and in the news paper. It turned out to be a very popular car and we ended up selling it to the first guy who came to take a look. A huge relief but it was with certain sadness we saw the Landcruiser go...

The next administrative task on hand was to decide what to do with everything we had brought with us but couldn't take with us across to Europe. We had brought our camping gear also on this part of the trip but ended up not camping a single night, so somehow we needed to ship that gear back to Vancouver. A friend in Vancouver was kind enough to agree to recieving and storing our stuff until we come back, so a trip to the post office and three boxes later we are now down to the things that we will be bringing with us on the plane tomorrow!

The oceanside cottage we found is perfect for the last few days here. We have our own kitchen and the windows overlook St. Margret's Bay and famous Peggy's cove is only 3 kilometers up the road. We found the local fish market and have been feasting on lobster a couple of times! We've also bought some smoked mackerel which was delicious!

The little house we rented outside Peggy's Cove

Lighthouse in Peggy's Cove

Harbour in Peggy's Cove

A couple of day trips have taken us back into Halifax where we visited the Citadel and the Historic Properties. The day we went to the Citadel was the Christmas market with child friendly activities so we ended up in a crowd of families with kids and even saw Santa!!! Robert got told off by an employee for leaning too far over the side of the citadel. We thought that was quite funny; 44 year old gets yelled like a kid doing something bad!

One day we drove out to Mahone Bay and Lunenburg which are cute old communities along the south shore. Mahone Bay also had their annual Christmas market so we got into the holiday spirits by jingle bells and holiday decorations.

Colourful houses in Lunenburg

Robert and the green house

Tomorrow we are off to Iceland for a week and then on to Sweden. Iceland sounds very 'cool' and we are quite excited about the next part of our trip. It feels a little strange that this part of the trip is over but we have lots more to look forward to!

written by  Victoria & Robert on December 1, 2009 from Halifax, Canada
from the travel blog: Across Canada
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View over the harbour in Quebec city

Le chateau Frontenac

In Quebec city we explored good food and took a look at the main attractions such as the Citadel, the Market at the port. the Chateau Frontenac and we strolled down the cobblestoned streets. As Christmas is only about a month away, the streets and stores are starting to become decorated with lights, christmas trees and festive decorations and it all added to the feeling of winter and holiday.

The old part of Quebec

The citadel in Quebec city

Robert playing at the Citadel

It soon became evident that our focus after all wasn't perhaps the old buildings and the beautiful scenery but on FOOD! We planned our days around where to eat next and we experienced some wonderful french food from onion soup to rabbit! After being on the road for so long, and after having stopped at most Tim Hortons restaurants along the way between Vancouver and Quebec, REAL french onion soup (not Timmy's version!) tasted soooo good!!!

Our plan leaving Quebec city was to drive around the Gaspesie penninsula which follows the south side of the St Lawrence river and wraps around the river mouth down to the Maritime province of New Brunswick. The region was rated on of the 50 places to see in a lifetime by National Geographic, so we jumped on the opportunity to take a look!

Victoria and the sea

As we already had learned, but which became even more evident during this part of the trip is that we are not travelling during tourist season which has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that there is never any problem to find a hotel or motel that has room available and we rarely book ahead unless we are going to a bigger city. The other side of the coin is that while the hotels might have space, it is dependent on if they are OPEN! In the Gaspesie, we experienced, more than anywhere else, that while there were really nice places to stay, cute roadside cafes and restaurants and interesting shops, they are often closed for the season! More than once did we plan on having lunch at a nice little fish restaurant and ended up yet again at... Tim Hortons because everything was closed. Thank goodness for Tim Hortons!!!

On of our stops in the Gaspesie was Gaspe which is a small but year round open (!!!) town right on the Atlantic sea. The town celebrated its 475th anniversary in 2009 since it was 475 years ago that French explorer Jacques Cartier came ashore and 'claimed' the land by putting a big white cross in the ground.

Victoria and a fishing boat

The journey continued from Gaspesie and soon enough we entered into New Brunswick. Perhaps it was the weather, perhaps the time of the year. New Brunnswick might be a lovely place in the summer, but in mid November with pouring rain, it is not! We only spent one night in the small, industrial town of Dalhousie (reminded Victoria about the industrial area of Eskilstuna) before heading off towards Moncton and the Confederation bridge which connects Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick.

We reached the bridge when it was already dark so unfortunately we didn't see much of it. It is 13 kilometer long and is apparently the "world's longest bridge over icy water".
Once on the island we drove to Charlottetown which is the capital and the major city in this island province.

We found a very nice inn and decided to stay a few nights. P.I island is know for its seafood and especially mussels and clams so we planned on getting a taste of that. The town also (to Robert's delight) has a number of pubs and microbreweries. We also realized most of the downtown area has one way streets. We discovered that by driving down the street and Robert was complaining that everytime he came to an intersection he wasn't sure if he had to stop because he couldn't see any stop signs. It turned out that it would be unnecessary to put the stop signs facing the opposite direction on a one way street. It was quite surprising that 1. we didn't get into an accident. 2. nobody (not even the cars we met on the street) honked or yelled at us for being silly west coast drivers driving against traffic on one way streets! Well, lesson learned and nobody was harmed!

The plan is to go for a small drive around the island today before heading off P.E.I and into Nova Scotia. There is a 190 km loop around the island that is recommended in our tour book that goes through the area where the author of famous books about Anne from Green Gables lived. It could be worth a visit!

P.S Photos will come shortly!!!!! Please check back soon.

written by  Victoria & Robert on November 23, 2009 from Charlottetown, Canada
from the travel blog: Across Canada
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Kingston is located slightly southwest of Ottawa just on the border to the U.S. Robert had been here a few years ago and had good memories of the city but for Victoria it was the first time. Kingston did not disappoint as we found the city wonderfully cute, old, historic and beautiful. As Kingston actually used to be the capital of Canada before the capital was moved to alternate betwen Montreal and Toronto and finally queen Victoria decided that the permanent location would be Ottawa, the town has lots of old historic buildings and landmarks. We walked past the house that used to be the residence of Canada's first prime minister sir John A MacDonald and saw many other beautiful buildings, houses and churches. The weather was beautiful which made the town even more appealing!

We stayed two nights at an inn in a really nice old building, walking distance from the city centre. Our first evening, we explored Kingston's pub life and found a great pub which according to Robert served the best beer he has had so far in Canada. That's no insignificant compliment coming from a guy who loves his beer!

The brewery even had their own car in front.

The following day the sun was shining and we went on to see more of Kingston. We strolled down to the harbour where we found an old locomotive in front of which Robert had to pose:

The view of the docks and the water was amazing:

We went inside the big cathedral which had a nice ceiling:

Most museums were closed for the season, but since Robert has a certain interest for the military and Kingston is the home to the Royal Military College of Canada, we drove out to take a look. Completely open to the public, we were able to walk around on the area and the old buildings which were beautiful. We kind of expected somebody to tell us to keep out, but it seemed to be a regular tourist attraction and nobody said a word about the two strangers strolling around. A guy even asked us for directions as if we looked like we knew what we were doing!!!

Robert was happy to find a tank that he could climb up on (yes, there was a sign saying 'no climbing' but that just made it so much more exciting!)

Yes, Kingston definitely made a good impression on us and we both agree that it's probably the nicest city in Ontario we've seen! We will now head towards Quebec city for more historic sightseeing and hopefully some good food!

written by  Victoria & Robert on November 13, 2009 from Ottawa, Canada
from the travel blog: Across Canada
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After we left Ottawa we headed to Montreal for three days. Montreal is only about two hours drive from Ottawa. Much closer than we had realized. Both of us have been to Montreal before, so we knew that we wanted to stay in the old part of town where you can walk down the cobblestone streets and feel like you take a step back in time. We decided to 'splurge' a little and stayed at a very nice hotel right by Place d'Armes. In fact, the hotel was even called 'Place d'Armes'.

The second day was grey and rainy so we decided to go to a museum or do some kind of indoor activity. We went to the 'Biodome' which is an exhibition about eco systems of the world. It was pretty interesting and well done with sections on the tropics (complete with monkeys, exotic birds, anacondas and crocodiles), the arctic (penguins and other funny looking birds), the Ontario nature (otters, ducks and other Canadian animals) and Madagascar (LEMURS!!!).

That evening we went for dinner in the Latin Quarters and unfortunately picked a not so great restaurant among hundreds of excellent ones! Oh well, at least the atmosphere was nice and festive. It was October 31 which means Halloween in North America. Various creative and funny costumes were on display on the sidewalk as people were on their way to different Halloween parties.

Unfortunately, our visit to Montreal became very somber when Robert found out that a friend of his had died in an accident in Africa. Even though the following day was beautiful, and we went for a nice walk, we decided to head back to Ottawa the following day as Robert had decided to travel to Tanzania for the funeral and his flight was leaving from Toronto which is closer to Ottawa than to Montreal. We decided that Victoria would stay with her friend Tony who had offered us to come and stay with him next time we visited Ottawa. He probably didn't think we would be back so soon....

Robert flew to Tanzania that Wednesday and Victoria settled back in Ottawa. Robert will write a bit about his trip in a separate entry to the blog. Victoria spent her time reading, exploring more of Ottawa; swimming, running and going for a hike in Gatineau Park.

After Robert's five day trip (3 days of travel, two days of actually being in Tanzania), he returned last night completely dazed and confused, jetlagged and exhausted and we are using today to rest before we will continue our travels tomorrow. The plan is to go to Kingston which is located slightly south of Ottawa and then continue back into Quebec and towards the Maritimes.

written by  Victoria & Robert on November 10, 2009 from Ottawa, Canada
from the travel blog: Across Canada
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We arrived three days ago and our plan was to stay two nights, but we liked it so much we decided to stay an extra night!

Night at Parliament Hill

The experience of Ottawa has far exceeded both our expectations. Perhaps that's because we actually didn't think much about what the city could be like before we arrived here. Yes, it is the capital and yes, we knew that there would be Parliament Hill, government buildings and museums, but beyond that, we simply didn't know much about the city.

To our surprise we find the city very nice. Perhaps it's because it has a very distinct European feel to it and maybe that stirs emotions of familiarity in both of us? Or perhaps it is the blend of old buildings, nice restuarants, the mix of French and English and a very welcoming atmosphere? Or perhaps, and probably most likely, it is a combination of all those things!

When we arrived at our hotel and checked in, Robert left the car at the curb. While we were standing at reception we saw a parking attendant approach our car. Robert leaped out to avoid getting a ticket, but ready to fight if she had already given him one. There is something about Robert and parking tickets that just do not go together. Sure, nobody likes to get a ticket, but Robert for some reason has stronger than usual negative feelings against parking attendants (and law enforcement in general).

The poor parking attendent was a lady and she handed him a ticket when he approached her. Victoria, from observing from the hotel reception could see the smoke coming out of Robert's ears and thought that 'this is definitely not a good start on our stay in Ottawa...' However, something strange happened after that. Robert's body language displayed that he was upset... but suddenly he reached out and gave the lady a hug!!!! Victoria thought that this might be it.. he has gone completely mad over the rage of a ticket... or he is trying to strangle the poor lady.... It turned out that the parking lady had seen him coming out of the hotel but since she had started to issue the ticket she just finished it by entering $0 where the amount of the fine is usually displayed! Thank goodness!!!

After the little 'incident' that ended well, everything else has been very pleasant. Even though it is almost November and rainy and grey, the city has still managed to make a good impression on us. We have wandered down to Byward Market with excellent resturants and enjoyed good food, wine and desserts! Our visit to Parliament Hill was interesting and informative. Victoria got to see the centre of power in the capital for the first time as a fairly recent Canadian citizen and we went on a good and informative tour of the government building. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the House of Commons and watch the question period with the Prime Minister as they were full for the day. Apparently you can get in by writing to your MP, but we didn't know that beforehand, and Victoria was very embarrassed admitting she isn't even sure who her MP is.....

Parliament buildings

The second day we went to the War museum which was excellent and LARGE. After four hours we started to skip sections to finish. It was very well done and the exhibitions were excellent. It was also very empty. Not many tourists at all which we later understood was due to the fact that part of the museum staff was on strike and encouraged the public not to visit the museum and to not to cross the picket line. Somehow we missed that so we'll just claim ignorance...

Victoria got her swimming itch satisfied by being invited by an old swimming friend of hers from British Columbia who now lives (and swims) in Ottawa. An early 6:30am start and 3,000 meters of really hard swimming has satisfied the swimming need for the next few days!

Victoria and the Rideau Canal

FLAT prarie landscape

So in seven days we have passed through five provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and entered into Ontario) and adjusted our clocks from Pacific Standard Time to Mountain Time to Central Time and now in Ontario we will shortly change them again to Eastern Standard Time. Since our last blog entry we have been through Moose Jaw (Victoria had to stop since she has a couple of friends from there), Regina, Winnipeg(will tell you more about this experience in a minute), Kenora and finally Dryden from where this entry is being written.

Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan and I'm sure there are interesting things to look at. However, we drove in to town late at night and as we have learned by now; the road that leads into a city in Canada looks pretty much the same anywhere with fast food resturants, gas stations and standard hotel chains such as the Travelodge, Super 8, Comfort Inn etc. After some driving around we ended up at the Howard-Johnston.

It is probably worth a paragraph or two in this blog to talk about accomodations. After almost two month on the road, we have seen a variety of motels, hotels, inns and B&Bs. The standard, quality and expectations are usually (but not always) correlated to the price you pay and while we are not on a backpackers' budget, we've been trying to be a little thrify if the place is just somewhere to rest our heads before continuing driving the next day. On occasion we have 'splurged' a little when we find a cute town or place but for this driving portion of the trip, our motto is 'clean and cheap'.

The Howard-Johnston in Regina was 'clean and cheap', but also completely and utterly disorganized. The hotel was under renovations which made part of it look like a construction site and the drilling into walls (it felt like our heads) started somewhere around 7am in the morning. But the alarming part was the staff of the hotel. There were two girls working the front desk and Victoria is usually a very patient customer who rarely complains, but after the check-in procedure took almost half an hour and when we asked for directions and the girls couldn't even point out on a city map where the hotel was located, even Victoria had problems hiding her frustration. That incident, plus some smaller ones, made us not feeling too sad to leave Regina. Sadly so, as the city probably has so much more to offer than the experience of incompetent hotel staff.

Next stop for the evening was Winnipeg, Manitoba. The city is large and we ended up in the middle of downtown. Again, trying to be.. hmm... 'frugal', we found a hotel that looked fantastic on the outside, located in a beautiful building from 1914; the Marlbourough. The rate of a hotel room (about half of the Radisson across the street), should have given us a hint though..... The hotel had a pool, gym, restaurant and breakfast was included in the price which sounded great. Still.... the price should have been the clue....
We were woken up several times during the middle of the night by people in the hallway who after getting completely drunk had forgotten which hotel room they belonged to and decided to let the entire hotel know that they were lost. Strange characters were snooping around the hotel property and Victoria felt so uncomfortable she turned around and went back to the room after an attempt to go to the convenience store. The security guy at the hotel wore a bullet proof west and the place was just seedy.

The next morning we decided to skip the free breakfast in fear of what the restaurant would look like. We decided to give Winnipeg another chance by driving to the Forks which we had heard was a nice part of town. The Forks looks a little bit like Granville island in Vancouver with an open market housed in an old warehouse. It was quite charming and nice and we had breakfast there before going for a walk along the river and crossing over to the French part via Provencher Bridge which is an interesting masterpiece of architecture and engineering.

Robert and the bridge

Provencher Bridge

Leaving Winnipeg behind us, we soon entered into Ontario and drove through the town of Kenora which was a nice little place on a lake. Not being able to find Robert a proper pub, we continued to Dryden where we spent the night before heading towards Thunder Bay.

written by  Victoria & Robert on October 23, 2009 from Dryden, Canada
from the travel blog: Across Canada
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