Kristin had a full day planned for us on Saturday. We started with a great brunch at Bill’s in Covent Garden and then wandered for a couple of hours. Evidence of the Queen’s Jubilee celebration can still be seen. The … Continue reading
Hello readers! After a pandemic hiatus, we are back in the United Kingdom. How great it was to board the Air Canada Dreamliner again in Calgary and arrive in one of our favourite cities nine hours later. Despite the many … Continue reading
From Barcelona, we travelled by train to Madrid. The Ave Train is a high speed train that whisks along at speeds up to 300 kph and gets you very comfortably from Barcelona to Madrid in just over 3 hours. We … Continue reading
During our time in Scotland, we spent 3.5 days in Edinburgh (2.5 before we headed north and 1 additional day at the end of our trip). It is a great city and I’ll share some of our highlights. Edinburg is … Continue reading
The drive from Oban to Glasgow was an easy journey, with the sun shining brightly across the hills, castles and lochs. We stopped at Inveraray Castle. This residence of the Duke of Argyll has a striking exterior, a beautifully decorated … Continue reading
From the Isle of Skye, we made our way to Oban, also on the west coast of the Highlands. On our way, we took a detour to the Glencoe Valley. The spectacular scenery of this valley may seem familiar to … Continue reading
After leaving York, we took a train journey to Edinburgh, where we spent 3 nights. However, we will be returning to Edinburgh for 2 more nights later in our trip so I am going to hold off blogging about our … Continue reading
We left our Heathrow hotel again on the Piccadilly underground line to Kings Cross Station, where we hopped on a train to Cambridge. The train was very comfortable with lots of luggage room. We once again stayed at the Ibis … Continue reading
London is one of those great cities – where there is a great sight around every corner. You could spend weeks if you were to visit each of these things to see and do.
We last visited London in 1983; we plan on being back at least once in the next year. So on this visit, we decided we wouldn’t spend time seeing all of the sights. We chose to ride the hop-on hop-off bus tour one day to reorient ourselves to the city, and we also took a short cruise down the Thames.
London was decked out for the Christmas season. Some of the great light displays were on:
Oxford Street
Regent Street
Carnaby Street
We took in the Burroughs Market in the Southbank area. It would be great to shop there regularly – for both prepared foods and quality fresh ingredients to prepare your own.
For the Christmas season, a huge area in Hyde Park becomes Winter Wonderland. This includes 3 main areas, each impressively expansive – a Christmas Market, the Bavarian Village and an incredible amusement park, as well as many individual presentations. We wandered around for a while, made a few purchases and had our last Gluwein of the trip.
The large department stores were of course well into the season. Being fans of the TV show, Mr Selfridge, we enjoyed visiting Selfridge & Co. We also stopped in at Harrods. The window displays are fabulous to view.
Kristin took the train in from Cambridge to spend Saturday with us. We walked a bit, had a great dinner and then took in Bat Out of Hell, the Musical. It was great. An excellent job of creating a story based on Meatloaf’s songs and the cast were very talented.
The Brexit vote in Parliament was to occur the day we left London and the protesters and news media were out in full force. At the last minute, the vote was cancelled. It will be interesting to see how that progresses.
We walked a lot – one day, our Fitbits registered over 34,000 steps.
Here are some photos of the many sights we passed in our travels.
Trafalgar Square is London’s central square and is dominated by the world’s biggest Corinthian column. Admiral Horacio Nelson gazes in the direction of one of the greatest naval battles, where in 1805, Nelson defeated Napoleon’s French fleet and saved England. At the top of the square sits the domed National Gallery and to the right of the Gallery is the steeple of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, built in 1722.
Of interest, the Christmas tree in the square is given to London each year from the people of Oslo, Norway in appreciation for British help during World War II.
In 1983 when we visited London, the Elizabeth Tower that houses the 13 ton bell of Big Ben was covered in scaffolding. And it was the same on this visit, although one clock face was showing. Maybe someday we will see it in its grandeur – although it is apparently undergoing a multiyear renovation.
Opposite Big Ben on the south bank is a giant Ferris Wheel. The London Eye, built to celebrate the millennium, stands 443-feet high and is one of the world’s highest observational wheels.
Of course, one of the major tourist sights is Buckingham Palace. We did a walk-by…
On the banks of the Thames sit the Houses of Parliament, home to the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Across the street is Westminster Abbey, where royalty have been wedded, crowned and buried since the 11th century.
St Paul’s Cathedral is England’s national church. This baroque cathedral with the 365-foot-high dome was constructed from 1670-1710.
The Tower of London started with the ‘White Tower’, built by William the Conquerer in 1077. Enlarged over the centuries to its current 18-acre size, the Tower has served as a lookout for invaders coming down the Thames, a royal residence, the Royal Mint, the Royal Jewel House and most famously as a prison and execution site.
The iconic Tower Bridge was built in 1894 with a Neo-Gothic look. The bridge is a fully functional drawbridge, opening close to a thousand times a year.
Now, we are home and busy with our own Christmas preparations. Thanks for reading about our travels and we will be back again in 2019 with more journeys!
Cheers!
Bev & Harv
Harvey and I are spending two weeks on the east coast. We have started with a week ‘on the rock’ – in Newfoundland.
On Saturday, we flew to St John’s – a great Air Canada flight that touched down in Ottawa, but we didn’t even have to deplane. It’s a bit of a shock to have a 3 1/2 hour time change with what seemed like a relatively quick flight. Speaking of that, I’m sure you are aware that Newfoundland is the only area in North America with a half hour time zone difference. There are a number of other areas of the world with this quirky time, but did you know that there are some with a 15 minute difference?! That would be very strange!
We spent Saturday night at a new Holiday Inn Express, a stone’s throw from the airport – I would recommend this hotel if you happen to need one near the St John’s airport.
Sunday morning, we took off on the TransCanada Highway (known here as the TCH). We can now say we have been on both ends of the TCH, as well as most of it in between. We travelled over 600 km, arriving in Deer Lake to spend the night. The highway was great and there was some great scenery. In the St John’s area, we thought we wouldn’t be seeing much fall foliage as the majority of the trees were conifers. But this changed as we headed east. I think we may be a wee bit early for the height of the fall colours, and the colours are primarily yellow and orange, lacking the reds of the northeastern U.S. You may know that we are connoisseurs of fall foliage (right, Deb?), and this isn’t the best, but still pleasant to see.
We stopped in a couple of small villages and viewpoints and enjoyed the scenery. Here are some photos taken at Norman’s Cove and near Gambo (at Joey’s Lookout, named after Joey Smallwood).
We had a picnic lunch at Notre Dame Provincial Park. The park was closed for the year, but we thought it looked like it would be a great place to camp – however, it’s a bit of a drive from Stony Plain.
Deer Lake’s claim to fame is being the heart of the snowmobile world. They apparently have many miles of groomed trails in the winter. Great cuisine is not one of their high points, and we ended the day with dinner at Jungle Jim’s. To my surprise, the food was actually quite tasty, although the Sangria was more like tropical juice. 😦
Monday morning, we were on the road again, heading north on The Viking Trail. We entered Gros Morne National Park, stopping at the Visitor Centre for our park pass and some information. Many of the park attractions and activities closed for the season at some point in September, but we are here to see the area and aren’t concerned with the closures.
Gros Morne National Park is located on the west coast of Newfoundland. At 1,805 km², it is the second largest national park in Atlantic Canada. Shaped by colliding continents and grinding glaciers, Gros Morne’s ancient landscape is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park is named for Newfoundland’s second-highest mountain peak (at 806 m or 2,644 ft), which looms over the park.
We checked out the community of Norris Point and Bonne Bay. This area looks like it would be quite the bustling tourist destination in the summer months. Now, it was a lovely village.
We travelled through Rocky Harbour and stopped at Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse. The light at this lighthouse was activated in 1898 and the exhibit shows details of life there over the years. The final lighthouse keeper retired in 1970, a year after automated equipment was installed.
Travelling north, we stopped in Cow Head and Parson’s Pond, where we paid homage to the homeland of Harvey’s work mate, Ted.
Speaking of Parson’s Pond, we have no idea what constitutes a pond in NL. What we would call a very large lake in Alberta is often called a pond here! Likewise, many ‘brooks’ would definitely be rivers in Alberta.
We stopped for lunch at the Arches Provincial Park. Here three natural arches have been formed by tidal forces. At low tide, you can walk under the arches – but you certainly wouldn’t have wanted to try that when we were there.
Our next stop along the way was at Port au Choix. This area is considered of the richest archeological finds in North America. Burial sites uncovered in the town in the 1960s & 70s provide evidence of its earliest settlers – from the Maritime Archaic Indians to the Groswater and Dorset Palaeoeskimos to the Recent Indians (ancestors of the Beothuks). It is a National Historic Site of Canada. The Visitor Centre is closed for the year, so we didn’t see any of the archeological findings.
However, we continued on the road to the Point Riche lighthouse, where we encountered one of the day’s highlights – a family of caribou! They were not phased at all by our presence and it was great to watch them grazing.
We travelled the rest of the way non-stop to our destination of St Anthony. Our journey today was ~425 kilometres. We are staying at the Grenfell Heritage Hotel. In my next post, I’ll tell you some of the Grenfell story and more about St Anthony.
Again, many of the area restaurants are closed for the season, but we were directed to one known for its home cooking. The grilled salmon and pan-fried cod were excellent!
By the way, the weather on Sunday was great – sunny and 16. Cooler on Monday – high of 6, mix of sun and the odd shower.
More later on our day today on the Northern Peninsula!
Cheers,
B & H
A Long and Winding Journey 