Canada trip 2016

My wife was on a short cruise with her sister and two cousins through the Maritime Provinces in Canada. They ended up in Montreal, so rather than coming right home, I met her in Montreal to spend the week exploring, Ottawa, Quebec, and Montreal. It was a great trip despite the hot weather ( low 90's most days). We took a small tour side trip the Quebec City for just a day. For us that was enough, the City is beautiful and somewhat museum like. It kind of reminded me of Venice. I know most people would not feel this way because Venice is much older and there are canals everywhere. But Venice is museum like too in the sense people go there to just see the City and not the attractions in the City. That is the way Quebec City is, people go just to see the City and not the attractions in the City.
We spent several days and nights in both Montreal and Ottawa. Both are really great Cities. Montreal is easy to get around because of a great subway system. We spent an afternoon exploring the Botanical Garden, more like a Botanical Park than garden. It is quite large and we walked most of it.
We took the train to Ottawa, a short 2 hour ride on a very nice train. We had reserved seats even in economy seating. Very comfortable, clean restrooms and very much on time.
The highlight of Ottawa was the Parliament Building. We spent most of one morning waiting in a half-mile line to get the free tickets for a guided tour. The tour was terrific especially for someone who understands comparative political structures. The view up top was from the main tower in the building, called the peace tower..
Another highlight of the trip was the light show that the City puts on every night on the lawn on the Parliament building. About 5,000 people gather each evening in the summer on the lawn of Parliament to watch a light show depicting the story of Canada. It is a very moving and interesting event and would encourage anyone visiting Ottawa in the summer to attend.
The food scene was exceptionally good as well. We ate at several world class places that I would put up against anything in New York or Europe. Great trip.

Portree Harbor

Portree is the best home base for the Isle of Skye area and the largest settlement and general hub of activity. The name comes from Port Righ which literally means royal port. It is small with only 3000 full time residents, way too small to be considered a town, but in the summer it is filled with tourists and sightseers. We only spent one night in the village but that evening was very enjoyable, just walking around, having a dinner with a terrific view of the harbor it was magic. I would encourage anyone who visits the Highlands of Scotland to make a stop or stay for a night on the Isle of Skye and stay in Portree.

Scottish Highlands Wild Mountain Thyme

We had perfect weather the 3 days we spent in the Highlands of Scotland. It was something to behold. It reminded me a lot of one of my favorite traditional songs-"Wild Mountain Thyme"the chorus of the lyrics go as follows:

     And will all go together
     to pull wild mountain thyme
    All around the bloomin heather
    Will ye go  
     lassie
     go
The fields are spectacular and not crowded. Scotland is about the same geography as England and has only about 5 million people where as England has 30+ million people. There are parts of the Highlands that are truly remote.

While we did have perfect weather, I am told and have seen pictures of some pretty rotten weather in the Highlands so our visit is by know means representative of the weather all year.

We recommend to everyone that they include the Highlands on their personal bucket list of things to do before they die.
Tomorrow Isle of Sky

Edinburgh February 25, 2016

People always ask me what is your favorite country and what is your favorite city? If the truth be told it usually is the last place I have been. That place is still fresh in my mind and there was a good reason for my being there. Either I read about the place in a book or on the internet and wanted to see what it was like myself.

One of my favorite places has been Scotland and especially Edinburgh. We stayed in the old section of the City and happened to hit the City at a particularly good weather time. We have very little rain the week we were in Scotland.

Most people know the City for the Castle and the Royale Mile, both are interesting but that is not what I wanted to experience. I wanted to see what the food scene was like.
I learned in Edinburgh that one or two owners were buying up a lot of the old Pubs in the UK and "commoditizing" them. They weren't changing the appearance of the building, but the food was all the same. We noticed that when we went to one of the famous Pubs on the Royal Mile that the food the menu was the same as the Pub we were in the day before in London. Curious, I asked the waiter and he explained that the Pubs are now owned by one or two individuals.

I can't say the food was bad, but clearly the variety was not there, it was like we went to an American Version of English Pub food. Something you might find at Disney World.
However, we did have some terrific food in Edinburgh. One night we went early to a place suggested in our guide book call the "outsider". We were early enough that we got a window table. We happened to be there one of the few rainy nights in Edinburgh. The view was of the Castle and a light rain coming down on an old City. It was everything that I pictured the City would be. It was truly magical. I took this picture with our small pocket camera and really love the image.

I will write about the rest of the country tomorrow.

February 24 2016 Copernicus

This is my beautiful granddaughter. She, her mother and brother came over for dinner last night and we went to the park. It was such a good day, and it was still light at 6:00 PM and still warm. I love taking pictures of her and will use this blog to celebrate her and others in my family from time to time. I will generally try and post images on a daily or weekly basis mostly from my travels since that is the purpose of the blog.

It is my intention to share with any who read it the beauty and majesty  of the world, and all that it has to offer. I hope that people will find the blog interesting and useful and the ideas fruitful. It is my first attempt at blogging so I have no roadmap or guide to follow only the blogs that I have read over the years. I will not introduce any politics into the blog, that is not my purpose.

When I was in high school, I worked out at an old fashion gym, way before weight machines, just real free weights. They were always sweaty so before you used them you would need to wipe them down with a rag you brought with you. On the wall of the gym in big letters, so everyone could see it were the words- "no talk of religion or politics" in the gym. I am not sure that would work today with the 24 hour news cycle, but it worked back then. I will stick to that principal in this blog.

Lets see where this goes. Eric