Hooray! Endured a 10 hour flight with no legroom (again) to arrive bleary eyed - 30hours plus of travel/waiting - at Australian customs and apart from a longish wait for Customs, we were home in 3 hours. Thanks to Warwick for the lift from the station.
Pool is empty but house is sound, if very cold. Wish I were back in Alaska!
I remember the words Thumper had been told by his mother in Bambi - "If you cant say nothing nice, don't say nuthin' at all". Bambi was a wuss but I liked Thumper. And those are hard words to put into practice.
So if you want the dirt on the young dudes on the bus to Whistler, characters from the Carnival Cruise, or the many other people stories along the way, buy me a drink! Better not wait too long or I will forget. We met lots of interesting people along the way. Tess has become positively garrulous with strangers now - and they make up as much a part of a holiday as the sights themselves.
- All my own work. RV. Except for the bits by Tess.
Sitting in the wifi cafe at 3.30pm awaiting our final leg home. I like everything about JAL except the food - and that is no real hardship. Enjoyed the emergency exit with stacks of legroom from Vancouver. Bigger plane and possibly more crowded on next leg.
We have 1000 yen to spend. Tess can while away hours playing Words with Friends but I am finished with the travel blog for this trip, hence the title. Home to work, an empty pool (cost???), overdue bills and reunions with missed family and friends.
Thought we'd start our weekends with a trip down south - meeting the kids halfway to Canberra to greet and exchange vehicles - sorry Em:)
Lots of photos to sort and we also have to lodge our insurance claim after being stranded north of Kamloops. Still, considering all the connections, things have gone very smoothly. I could recommend our hotel in Vancouver and the city itself.
Until 2012, or whenever.
- All my own work. RV. Except for the bits by Tess.
My location in English is simply, Vancouver Airport. Yes, the time has finally arrived. Cleared security, had breakfast, next stop Tokyo!
Tess is off Duty Free shopping while I charge the ipad. Seems very slow on 110 volts but probably just my imagination.
Woke very early this morning after a lovely evening. Even a cold tablet would not settle me so I surrendered and got up, read a bit and packed my bag.
We caught the sky train here. Only $3.75! Beat that Sydney! Another lovely morning. No honking horns or traffic jams. Even the airport seems very quiet. Our train arrived just a short stroll to the terminal and our flight was checking in right in front of us. Very efficient planning.
Can see why it is a livable city although locals complain it rained for 11 months last year!
I have some words I need to write down before I forget even more of them:
Lodgepole pines - scrawny tall pines. Possibly used for wigwams.
- All my own work. RV. Except for the bits by Tess.
Well, all good things come to an end and today marks the last real day of our holiday. So much has happened, so many new sights and cities explored. It will take some time to digest, or "grok" to borrow from an old sci fi classic I have been dipping in to along the way.
Everything has gone remarkably well given the thousands of miles we've travelled, the various modes of transport used, the number of hotel and travel bookings to be honoured and the at times stressful experience of dealing with new places, money, cultures, etc. I look forward to getting home for a rest!
It's 7pm as I write this and we are about to walk a few blocks away from Robson Strasse (as some call it) to the Yale district. It's full of bright new eateries designed to cater for Olympic visitors last year. And now we get the benefits. Vancouver is a very livable city and the weather has been delightful. It's their summer of course, but the breeze off the mountains (snow capped still) or the water is cool so NOTHING like Blaxland in January.
We saw the Harry Potter movie today. I had sufficiently exhausted Tess with our morning stroll along the waterfront and up to Stanley Park that she needed a lemonade! and a couple of hours off her feet.
This is a very modern, clean city. I know we've been here the weekend but it seems pretty quiet too. We have slept with the door open to our 18th floor balcony and had very little traffic noise. People friendly too - we had trouble getting rid of a dog walking stranger in the park today, he was so keen to talk! In Sydney he would definitely have been selling something.
Tomorrow we will wheel our bags a few blocks downhill to the purpose built for the Winter Olympics Sky Train which should take us to the airport for $3.95. Try that in Sydney!
:) Lots to tell and share, far more than my travel diary records. We have been very lucky - so many of the hotel staff we speak to have hardly left their home town and here we are on the other side of the world, not for the first time. But I am looking forward to a lazy weekend soon.
- All my own work. RV. Except for the bits by Tess.
Last stop on our holiday. I rose early and went for a swim in the hotel pool. We passed on the expensive breakfast and packed our bags yet again. Tess wisely decided to save weight by transferring the remains of the Baileys to a water bottle so I enjoyed a rather early nip.
I enjoyed our brief visit to Victoria but the bus trip to the other side of Vancouver Island showed me how big the place really is. Our coach transferred us smoothly to our BC Ferry for the 90 minute trip to Vancouver.
We passed through some interesting coastal forest. The weather remains very pleasant.
In our second friendly and helpful local encounter, a passing stranger hailed a cab for us after we had been sent walking miles in the wrong direction to our hotel by the bus driver. We are ensconced on the 18th floor in the Yale District.
We walked to the Gas town area which is reminiscent of Kings Cross. Probably comes alive more after dark. I feel a little old for it these days. Some of the dives would have been our beds for the night in the 1980 trip!
One of Vancouver's problems remains ...
But there are lots of interesting new buildings blended with the old.
Tomorrow we have booked a ride out to Whistler, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. On our last day, we think we might watch the latest Harry Potter. And then begin the looooong journey back to Australia.
And work.
It's been fun while it lasted.
Will add photos tomorrow.
- All my own work. RV. Except for the bits by Tess.
We're enjoying a cocktail - ask Tess for details - on the Verandah of the Empress Hotel, here in the capital of British Columbia, Victoria. We have had a lazy day, enjoying this picturesque tourist town and our hotel. Tomorrow we head off on another ferry for Vancouver, our last port of call.
Imagine sitting on a wide, deep concrete verandah of an old hotel like the Hydro Majestic or the Carrington. Now picture a small harbour - a bit like Wollongong's Boat Harbour but with out the Pacific beyond the breakwater.
Now add float planes, stately public buildings, BIG ferries and you have Victoria harbour as seen from the Empress Hotel.
I don't blame you if you can't picture it.
The float planes follow the same path to land - very slowly it seems - coming in almost above our heads and landing to seaward and returning quietly before revving their engines noisily as they dock.
The shoreline is decorated with flowers spelling out "Welcome to Victoria", mostly in red. I am pleased that its floral display is not limited to tulip time in Spring. And dominating one side is the BC Parliament with its green copper roof and inviting lawn. Reminds me of a small Reichstag.
I will probably add some pictures later to add to my poor prose [Have tried but online editing of pictures is crap in Blogger. Please fix Google!].
I would like to record the detail that Russ managed in his bikie blog or the emotion of Tess's words. But there you are. At least I write something most days!
I am not a gardener - far from it - but I am glad we took the tour here today. We have seen some magnificent scenery this holiday but the displays on offer in this renovated quarry were up with anything I saw in the UK last trip.
We had two hours to wander the grounds and that gave no time to enjoy lingering on the many benches provided for the purpose.
I think I will let the pictures do the talking.
- All my own work. RV. Except for the bits by Tess.
It's a Busking festival this week and we've enjoyed some good acts as well as the long evenings and reasonably warm weather. Chose Earl's for a light supper - trying to recover after the cruise - because it had some cheap share plates and wifi and, we discovered, a happy hour on food and wine on Wednesdays. Bliss!
Good long day starting at 5.30am in Seattle, smooth ferry across Puget Sound and then straight on to a tour of Victoria and out to Butchart Gardens.
I baulked at the cost of entry at first - $33 - but I was so impressed with the gardens that I have devoted a single entry to them.
We enjoyed Jim's commentary on the return trip although my sleeplessness in Seattle made it difficult to concentrate. Dropped at the Grande Dame of Victoria, we settled in to room 117, with a view of the loading dock.. The room has TALL ceilings and period touches everywhere.
Later we ventured out for a walk along the waterfront with its expensive cruisers and some exceptional buskers in town for a big contest. After promenading for half an hour or so, wended up at Earls. I wish I could have taken a photo of some of the "wait staff" but I might have been bounced! Suffice it to say that recruitment policy seemed to focus on how lithe they looked in clingy black outfits. Our waitress was lovely - genuinely warm and a worthy recipient of a tip. facebook.com/earlsvictoria.
The end of our holiday is approaching. Another night here, three in Vancouver - hopefully with a train ride to Whistler - and then it is into the sardine can for the return trip to Oz. And Year 12 marking as George reminded me. Tess will be happy to be back in regular scrabble contact:)
- All my own work. RV. Except for the bits by Tess.
Just paid CA$15 for a day's use of the Net here at the charming old Empress Hotel. Seemed reasonable until I tried to post last night's offline offering from Blogpress. Turns out, it's $15 per device, even iphones! C'mon Fairmont, fair go!
Take my money but be honest and up front about such restrictions - don't hide behind re-directs to user agreements. If I had known the charge was per device .. I would have gone back to Earls, or Starbucks.
Okay, so not an entirely original title but apposite. Woke at 1.30am after overdoing it during our meal atop the Space Needle. Managed an hour's sleep before our 5.30am wake up call for the ferry to Victoria.
I enjoyed our hotel which had self serve breakfast, town cars on call, helpful staff, free wifi and the best shower so far on tour. The rooms were spacious too. We were very pleasantly surprised to be checked in at 8.30am after our disembarkation from Carnival Spirit.
Apart from not sleeping well and overeating, I enjoyed Seattle. The people were friendly, the roads were tree lined and the skyline showed more thought than Sydney although the harbour was much more industrial. There was an anti-missile weapon on a barge in the middle, en route from its northern station to one closer to China.
Armed with a clever, colour-coded map, we headed off in search of the Space Needle and associated monorail, built for the 1962 World's Fair or Expo as they were known by Brisbane '88. We didn't need a map to find the needle which was close to our hotel and after paying $4 each return for our tickets, we headed downtown. The ticket price is probably the same as 1962. It only has one stop, just near Macy's. It moved faster than Sydney's but was just as ugly. I can see why Seattle has not extended it. Sydney Tower is a complete ripoff of the Needle too. It got me thinking both how far ahead of the world the US was in the 50s and 60s and how much we all have caught up today. Actually, I thought about that for my first Yr12 lesson back, at 2am.
Tess guided me to Pike's Market, a place we'd been advised to visit by folk on the boat. Tess loved the jewelry and other stalls and the fish throwers were at work as well. I hope I caught them and one of the clever buskers on video. Tess has captured better quality images all trip on her camera which I will place at MobileMe.
From Pike's we walked towards Pioneers Square in the oldest part of Seattle. Here we signed on to the Underground Tour which began in an old building with an entertaining speech explaining why Seattle had to raise its ground level.
We then went with another guide into the first of three underground passageways while she explained where we were and why things had been built up. OH&S had not yet gone on this tour which still had rusted braces, loose timber supports, crazy paving, low door sills and myriad other hazards which we all managed to avoid. The lights blinked a few times which reminded me how much I would not like to be down there in the dark. Apparently nothing fell off during the 2004 earthquake, or the others before then. Building owners sometimes dump rubble in the empty chambers rather than pay for its removal and restaurants may one day utilize the spaces for more patrons but at present, the Tourists and rats are the main visitors. Probably worth the $16.
Walked up Yesler Street, one of the many steep hills in the city, reminiscent of San Francisco. Turned left into 5th Avenue and while waiting at the lights, a friendly local suggested taking the free lift in the Columbia Building right next to us. They also had a Starbucks and we needed a rest after the climbing so up we zipped to the 40th floor. From there, I took another lift to the 73rd floor Observation Deck, paid full price ($5) to the eager to give discount attendant and then snapped lots of panoramas of the city from well above Needle height. Great pamphlet too.
Declined harbor tour invitation by (weed?) smoking bike tour guide and wandered back to the Macy's building for our monorail back. Only 5.30pm but we were ready for a drink at least so we were whisked up the top of the Needle and to our seats on the revolving restaurant - one circuit every 45 minutes. Great elevated seating but mediocre food for the prices. Lunch is the bargain. It was still a special meal as we watched the passing Seattle skyline.
The weather has been overcast but there were patches of sun peeking through. Would look lovely at night but we are tiring and were in bed by dark - 9.30! Watched an interesting movie about a lesbian family on HBO. No ads:) Julianne Moore and the wonderful actress from The American President.
And now to the present. This fast catamaran ferry will take just under three hours to make the crossing of Puget Sound to Victoria, BC, CA. We are staying at the Fairmont Empress Hotel, right in the heart of Victoria I hope. The building is listed so fingers crossed. It also houses a miniature world so I can satisfy my toy train needs while Tess shops.
I have paid for a morning tour to the famous Butchard Gardens so we can return to Victoria closer to our checkin time. Check next entry for photos.
- All my own work. RV. Except for the bits by Tess.
