Our life in the UK

Fall 2008

2008-11-29T21:14:00.011Z

Time has gone by fast and we have been living here for almost 19 months and have now started to feel comfortable with the British way of life which was unfamiliar and unsual for us a few months ago. Life is also becoming busier and hence the lack of updates on the blog. So here goes a brief summary of the fall.

Our last trip during the summer was a short visit to Madrid, Segovia and Toledo. We visited with my aunt and enjoyed the sunny days and evenings in Madrid. The highlight of the trip was the roman Aqueduct of Segovia, built around 1st century AD and still working. We also enjoyed the Spanish wine and the tapas.

The end of the summer also meant the end of university life for me, which concluded with the submission of my Masters dissertation and more importantly, the official end of school year celebration at our home - we had representatives from 17 different nationalities, a baby who was born during the school year and a putluck dinner with dishes from each corner of the world.

At the begining of September, life continued to change for us since I started working in central London, changing the dinamics of our life, joining the crowds of commuters in the underground. So since then, we have been spending more time in central London during the week, which we did not use to do before.

The last bit of fall felt more like winter, with our visit to our friends Elke and Thijs where we catched the first snow storm in the Netherlands. It was very cold, I guess we are slowly losing our Canadian winter toughness - especially true for Scott who was used to playing sponge hockey outdoors in Canada at -30 and now was feeling cold at -1. We visited the Rijskmuseum and the Heineken experience in Amsterdam, walked around Maarssen and enjoyed some quality time with our friends.

Garden Tea Party at Buckingham Palace

2008-07-26T13:17:00.007+01:00

We were lucky enough to be invited, through Canada house in London to one of the three Royal garden tea parties that the Queen offered this summer in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, in July. It was a remarkable experience for us, we had a short conversation with Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall (Mainly Scott, I basically nodded and smiled while Scott told them about our lives in London). We were are able to walk around the private gardens of the palace while two bands dressed in bright red uniforms played happy tunes (Among them Beatles and some of the songs of the Chicago musical).

We tried the famous cucumber sandwiches, Victoria sponges, strawberry tarts and square chocolate covered cakes with a crown on the top. Incidentally, if you are ever in this situation do not go for the Victoria sponge because it is quite messy and they apparently do not like to give you napkins. Even though they had the famous Buckingham palace tea, made from loose leaves of earl gray and jasmine, it was a very hot afternoon and most people had iced coffee or juices instead. Towards the end of the party, they offered Loseley ice-cream with "real jersey cream".

Of course one of the highlights for a hat lover like me was that the invitation stated that ladies must wear a "day dress with a hat". So after careful research and consideration, I realized that what most people do is hire a fancy hat rather than buy an ok one. So I hired my first British hat from a very peculiar and cute store. They even added some red feathers to match my dress.

It was a beautiful treat to see the Royal family and spend time inside the gates of such famous building. It was also a very British experience for us which we will never forget.

All roads lead to Rome

2008-07-19T17:35:00.033+01:00

We just recently returned from our camping/road trip through Europe. We camped for 17 days and drove at least 5000 kilometers through seven countries. It was a truly amazing experience and also a very effective and inexpensive way to see Europe. I will not post pictures of France, Netherlands and Belgium again since you've probably saw and read about those places last year in this blog.

The itinerary

We had 17 days and our final desitination was Rome. Based on that, we decided that we would visit selected cities on route, while keeping long driving days to the minimum and trying to stay in the same campground for at least two nights. So we pre-calculated the distances and times of each segment and selected campgrounds along the way.

The selection of the campgrounds was based on their location with respect to public transportation (i.e. near a train or subway station) in the big cities or their scenic views or distance to the sea in some other cases.

There is a lot to say about the campgrounds in Europe and we have come to know them quite well. The main advantage is that you save a lot of money comparing it with staying at a hotel and the campgrounds are very convenient with many different services such as restaurants, bar, store, fresh bread delivered every morning, laundry, hot clean showers, etc. We were able to access public transportation to the city center from all the camprgounds located near or inside the cities and some of the campgrounds even had free shuttle buses. For 17 days we were outside for the most part of the days and into the nights, enjoying fresh air and open skies.

Highlights of the trip

It is hard to say what were the best parts of our trip, but we came to the conclusion that it was the two days we spent in Switzerland, camping at the feet of the giant mountains Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau in the valley of the 72 waterfalls. We camped literally at the foot of a waterfall and with views of snowy mountains on each side. We took a cable car up the mountain to a region declared UNESCO world heritage site called "Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn". From there we continue the hike across some of the most glaciated parts of the European Alps

Northern Italy: Lerici and Pisa

Lerici was sort of what I imagined an Italian mediterranean town to be like. The relaxed athsmosphere, the small town feeling, the blue ocean contrasting with the houses built on the cliffs painted in bright colors and whites.

Tuscany

We spend a couple of nights in Barberino, Tuscany. We visited Sienna, St. Gimignano and Florence. It was a brief introduction, so we will have to come back again to fully grasp the essence of Tuscany.

Rome

Rome was more than I expected, if that is possible. It is a truly amazing city, every corner, every street, every piazza and every church. I absolutely loved Rome, even though it was crowded with tourists and incredibly hot. We waited in line for hours under the sun to visit the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and walked around and learned all about the Coliseum and the ruins of the Roman forum. We saw the fountains and the Spanish steps. We tried their pizzas, lasagnas, pastas, risottos, gnocchi, gelato among many others.

Venice
I guess I did not realize the whole island of Venice is off-limits to motor vehicles, so all the transportation is done in boats, water taxis and of course, in gondolas. Venice smells like salty water and is much bigger than I thought. The campground was one of our least favorites, they were many mosquitos and it was really hot and humid.

Mallorca

2008-02-29T19:39:00.010Z

To celebrate our third anniversary we planned a trip to Mallorca, the largest of the Spanish islands. When we first booked the trip back in December, I initially thought that it was going to be a winter getaway to sunny beaches. However, later on as we started to research more into it we realized that it wasn't going to be quite as warm on mid February. Nonetheless, we got sunny and blue skies every day and temperatures up to 18C which was very nice after the long grey winter in London.

The island was surprising larger than I expected, for a point of reference is about the area of Lake of the Woods or about 1/3 of the area of Puerto Rico. So we spend our time exploring the different beach areas, towns, mountains and of course the most popular touristy spots as well. We found a great deal on a car rental from a company called Record so we had flexibility to move around. We stayed in a nice hotel full of elderly German tourists, actually the whole island was full of German tourists. Apparently since the 1950's they started to promote cheap tour packages in Germany and later on came the discounted airlines with direct flights from many German cities. We were pleasantly entertained by their ballroom dancing abilities (and I am sure they enjoyed our merengue moves).

My favorite place in the island was a little town called Valldemosa, a beautiful spot on the mountains which is home to a large monastery house and many picturesque streets and gardens.

We did a long walk from the town of Soller to its port, Portsoller and then we rode back on the tram. We visited the Caves of Drach in Porto Cristo, one of the highlights of the trip. One of those places that seems to be out of this world, with the Crystal clear water and the stalactites, the lighting and then a lake inside this caves where they put on a performance of a organist and two violinists on an illuminated boat playing classical music. It is very hard to describe but you are under the earth in this magical place. It is dark, the only light coming from the illuminations on the boats. And this incredibly serene music coming from the organ and violins. It lasts about 10 minutes, and then they go back into the darkness where they came from. In the surroundings it almost felt as it it were a ghost ship that had happened to cross our paths in this surreal underground world. It was a very, very strange feeling. Something I'm sure I won't ever experience again. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed inside the cave.

We are still here...

2008-02-01T23:29:00.000Z

We are very sorry for our long absence from the blog. Back in September, with the passing of Scott's Dad, we lost our most regular reader and it has been difficult even thinking about posting here knowing he won't be reading it.
I supposed now four months on its a little bit easier to deal with it and we feel quite guilty for not having posted for you others that were reading this. So, we hope that from here on we'll be keeping in touch more often. Stay tuned for a new posting soon!
Abrazos,
Alex and Scott Gallagher

Shibboleth: Doris Salcedo's exhibition at the Tate Modern

2007-10-11T12:08:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we visited the Shibboleth exhibition of the Colombian artist Doris Salcedo at the Tate Modern museum in London and I found it really interesting and I though I'd write my impressions and share it with you through the blog - if some of you read yesterday's Colombian newspaper El Tiempo you might have heard about it and if you are in London and read the papers, there has been info on it from Sunday and on.

Location: The turbine Hall of the Tate Modern museum in London
Artist: Doris Salcedo, born and works in Colombia
Cost: £300.000
Size: 548 feet long and 3 feet deep
Popular description of the work: "A crack in the floor"

A crack in the floor, that is what you see when you come in to the Turbine Hall. A massive crack in the concrete floor across the length of the turbine hall. I heard someone asking: Excuse me, where is the exhibition of Doris Salcedo? And the girl answered: It is there, it is just the crack. Well, at the end I have to agree, it is not just a crack. It is what it represents, feels, make you feel, inspire, transpire....and it does in my humbled opinion, maybe not all of the things the artist claims but it does make you think.

According to the official definition of the word Shibboleth (Title of the work) “A word used to as a test for detecting people from another district or country by their pronunciation " in other words a word to separate people one from another. A crack divides, separates, breaks.

She wants to show the stand off between reach and poor, colonialism and aftermath in postcolonial nations, division of southern and northern hemispheres.
If you are in London these days, you should take a look at the crack, it will be there at the turbine hall until April 08, until is filled with something else.

El carnival de Notting Hill 2007

2007-09-07T22:23:00.000+01:00

En el ultimo fin de semana de Agosto que es Puente en el Reino Unido, desde hace mas de 40 anos que se celebra el carnaval callejero de Notting Hill, el mas grande de su clase en Europa. Es una celebración que iniciaron los inmigrantes de las antillas, con sus trajes vistosos, su musica y su comida.

Es un festival que atrae mucha, mucha, mucha gente no solo de Inglaterra sino de toda Europa que viene a pasar el fin de semana de carnaval. Cuando digo mucha gente, dicen que esta vez atendieron 1.5 millones de personas al carnaval. El carnaval se celebra en un barrio de la ciudad que se conoce como Notting Hill, donde viven muchos londinenses ricos o famosos. El festival literalmente se toma las calles.

La atracción principal para muchos es el desfile de caravanas, que incluye bailes, tambores, trajes vistosos y bailes por supuesto bailarines. Además del desfile habían numerosas tarimas con música en vivo y DJs en diferentes locaciones en el barrio, muchos ni siquiera ven el desfile, solamente vienen a disfrutar la música y por supuesto las bebidas. En cuanto a música, un poco de Soca y calipso, reggae, funk y house.

Una de las comparsas que más me gusto fue la de un grupo de energéticas mujeres haciendo música con tambores.

Our holidays part II: Belgium

2007-09-07T19:26:00.000+01:00

I was expecting Scott to be keen to write about our travel but I guess he is still trying to get caught up at work. As part of our Holland holiday, we visited 3 cities in Belgium, each one special on its own way.

Ypres - Flanders Fields

Scott's Great Grand father was sent over to Europe to fight with the Canadian army in World War I and thankfully he came back to Canada to tell the story. Scott was very excited to see the fields were his ancestor had fought and also to visit some historic sites and museums that will give us a frame of reference to understand more of what happened there.

The first stop of this journey was the city of Ypres, which was completely destroyed during the war and was all re-built including the magnificent cathedral. We visited the “In Flanders field museum” which holds a very modern (by modern I actually mean abstract) exhibition of what happened in Flanders fields.

We drove around the fields were the battles took place; it was very touching to see the hundreds of graves, so many people died in those fields.

Brugges

Brugges seems to be a town pulled out from a children's book. Brugges was on my must-see list of Unesco World heritage cities. As you approach the city, you see a number of windmills by the river. Then you cross the river over a retractable bridge that brings you inside the walls of the city. The main square is spectacular all corners of it are picture perfect. We sat by the centre monument staring at the surrounding buildings, I was just thinking how much I want to keep those images in my head.

Gent

Gent (or Ghent in English) was a surprise for us. A bit of history, it was in the middles ages one of the largest and richest cities of Europe, it is said that in the 13 century it was bigger than London. The impressive medieval architecture of the buildings remains very well preserved makes you feel as if you were in a movie set. The most scenic place is the old city centre, you can see the Sint-Michelsbrug bridge, the old post office and in the distance the three towers of Ghent. We saw one of the most beautiful churches we have ever been too: Saint-Nicolas church, the stained glass, the cathedral ceiling and the marvelously decorated interior.

The Netherlands

2007-08-24T18:16:00.000+01:00

Windmills CHEESE Clogs TULIPS bycicles CANALS Diversity PORT ELKE A land claimed from the sea

All words that describe our experience in Holland, a country that I have been wanting to visit for a long time and where we spent a great holiday despite of the rainy weather. We crossed the English Channel in a ferry from Dover to Dunkerque and drove from the north of France through Belgium and spend our first night in Maarssen, in the province of Utrecht, where my friend Elke and her boyfriend Thijs live.

Amsterdam

My first impression was a very organized used of the land, Holland is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with 392 people per square kilometers and to put it into perspective, Colombia has 40 people sharing one square kilometer and Canada only 3.2! And yet there are lots of green spaces and agricultural designated terrains everywhere you look. It is a very flat country, reminds me of the Canadian prairies, although with more cows and windmills and less flax seed. We did not realize that the main cities were so close to each other in distance, the main cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag (The Hague) and Utrecht are located around a horseshoe area known as the "Rim city". Over 10 million people live in this area, about 2/3 of the country's population and they are connected with big and very well maintained highways.

We spent our first day with Elke and her boyfriend Thijs. Elke and I were roommates during our exchange semester a West Virginia University and we have stayed as close friends ever since. We had a great time, they showed us around Maarssen and the surroundings and Utrecht; had a very nice dinner and a great time with them. The picture was taken in one of the canals of Utrecht.

Utrecht is the fourth largest city in The Netherlands, a beautiful city with a very organized canal system and many nice streets. It is host to the largest university of the Netherlands and because of that the city has a young and fresh atmosphere. Lots of students riding their bikes and lots of bikes parked around the canals. The city's greatest landmark is the Dom tower of Utrecht, which was part of a large cathedral that was destroyed by a tornado. Unfortunately we could not get in and climb the many steps up the tower, were we were tall you could see even as far as Amsterdam and Rotterdam on a clear day.

Utrecht

Alkmaar, the cheese market
On Friday mornings during the summer, the town of Alkmaar has a cheese market where tourist can see a representation of what a cheese market used to be, with the "cheese porters" wearing white uniforms and straw hats with colored ribbons carrying wheels of cheese on wooden barrows suspended from their shoulders. It was very crowded but totally worth it, we were able to buy small pieces of many different kinds of cheese from the market and it was delicious.

The cheese market in Alkmaar

Amsterdam
I do not think I have ever been in a city with as many tourists as Amsterdam, or may be it is with as few locals. It was actually hard to spot a local, except in the bikes, were it is clear who are the ones that actually know what they are doing and not the tourist with the bike rentals breaking all the rules and endangering everybody else. I absolutely loved the canals and the architecture of the buildings around them and how the city can be busy and loud and in the next canal peaceful and quiet. I have never seen so many bikes, parking lots with hundreds maybe thousands of bikes, more bikes than cars. We rented bikes and rode around the city, to experience what it will be like and also to see more of the city. We saw the famous smelly cafes and the red district which to me seem to be more of a touristy attraction that a place for business, maybe it is different in the evenings.

The Hague and Rotterdam

Den Haag is where the government offices are located and is home to the royal family, a city with impressive modern architecture and beautiful buildings. It is known as the city of Peace, Justice and Security, many international organizations are based in The Hague. We had a great walk around the many parks and historic buildings of the city as well as the Royal palaces.

We also visited Rotterdam and saw part of the great Euro port, a modern looking city that was destroyed during the Second World War and completely rebuild, hence lacking the historic-European look and instead has newer buildings and bridges.

Kinderdijk
A village in the Netherlands with the largest concentration of old wind mills, definitely one of my favorites places in the Netherlands; a system of 19 windmills was build to drain the reclaimed and below sea level land, surrounded by two rivers. The windmills are one of the UNESCO list of world heritage sites. It is a very impressive site, surrounded by water and the windmills. We were able to see the inside of one of this windmills and we could see how it was built and how the mechanism worked, really fascinating to think that even though they were build at around 7140, the same principle is used today for water management.

Well, there is much more to tell about a holiday in the next post and many more pictures to share, but I have to leave some for Scott.

Stonehenge and Salisbury

2007-08-02T18:02:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update following on Alex's post. Things here are good, and we are finally starting to get used to things here and into a bit of a routine. You'd hope so after 3 months! Wow....does time ever fly by.

We've finally had some nice weather here and it is feeling, dare I say, summer like. We managed to make it from Sunday - Wednesday with no rain, which shatters our previous record of two days set in early May. It rained a bit today, but now the sun is back out again. Fortunately, here in London, whilst I may complain about the soggy weather, it is nothing like what they have had just north east of here with the terrible flooding.

Last weekend we made a little trip down south east of here to Stonehenge and Salisbury. The ring of stones, and the gothic cathedral were both high up on Alex's list of things to see.

That said, while everything we'd ever heard about Salisbury Cathedral was glowing, Stonehenge had not received such favourable reviews. In our unofficial tour guide to this country, Bill Bryson's "Notes From a Small Island" he describes his trip to Stonehenge as follows:

Impressive as Stonehenge is, there comes a moment somewhere about eleven minutes after your arrival when you realize you've seen pretty well as much as you care to, and you spend another forty minutes walking around the perimeter rope looking at it out of a combination of politeness, embarrassment at being the first from your bus to leave and a keen desire to extract £2.80 worth of exposure from the experience.

This did have me a little concerned, and despite needing to see Stonehenge, (because it is one of those places that you are supposed to see) I didn't find myself overly anxious to go down there.

Well, as these things happen, on Saturday we didn't get out of the house until around 10:30 am, so were on the highway with all of the other weekend travellers. The 80 mile journey, which Mapquest had confidently proclaimed would take 1 hr 25 minutes, took us in excess of 3 hours. As Alex can attest, there is nothing I like more than motorway converted into a parking lot.

By early afternoon we'd finally arrived at the mightly henge. At first glance, I must say, it was not really what I'd expected. For some reason, given the mystique surrounding the site, I imagined it to be tucked away in a remote secluded site, far from the eyes people going about their everyday business. In fact, the site lies about 500 metres from the A303, a relatively significant higway in that part of the country (the very same one that had me so frustrated moments earlier). So, here you are, driving like mad on this motorway, and as you clear a little hilltop, there is that famous site of ringed stones, just off to the side of the road.

Stonehenge as viewed from the A303 Motorway

I must say, it is quite unexpected, and really amazing that one could just stumble across it as they drove along the highway.

Again, we had read all of these comments about Stonehenge concerning there really not being too much to see. Well, what you see can see from the road is what you get....so, we were a little reluctant to part with the £6.30 per person (it's gone up since Bill Bryson was last here) to walk around something for a couple of minutes that could be seen from the road. We may be in a foreign land here, but we're not that easily separated from our money.

Nonetheless, due to some savvy salemanship by the English Heritage people on the site, they managed not only to get the 13 £ out of us, but rather, convinced us to purchase an annual membership to English Heritage for a mere 69 £.

All in all I am pretty happy about this. English Heritage is a government agency that protects historic buildings, sites and monuments. Throughout the country, they apparently look after over 400 properties. Our membership now gets us into, free of charge, some 100 or so different properties. Now that we've paid in advance, we'll do our best to take advantage of it.

I actually think that this will be a very worthwhile membership, as many of the properties they manage (with a couple notable exceptions) are not what you would call Class A sites. Rather, many of them are secondary and terciary sites that wouldn't normally feature on people's tourism plans. But they now will on ours, and hopefully that will make for some unique visits throughout the country.

Back to Stonehenge.......

Now, English Heritage card in hand, we were ushered to the front of the line (membership does have its privledges!) and equipped with our free audio tour guides (little Fisher-Price-like walkie talkie things) and we headed under a tunnel across to the site.

Whilst in the tunnel, our audio tour guide encouraged us to imagine we were entering another time, another world, etc...etc....which I personally found a little difficult to do in a concrete underpass stuffed with tourists, but anyways...

so, there we emerge to see the famous stones (from about 10 metres closer up that what we had seen from the road. Pleasantly though, there was no longer a chain link fence obscuring our views. From some placards we read, it seems that access to the site is all being re-designed so that the roads do not approach so closely. I gather one of the plans is to tunnel the A303 highway so that it can't be seen from the site.

Anyway, it truly is an impressive site, and contrary to Bill Bryson's 11 minutes of interest, we were able to spend our 45 minutes throroughly entertained by our audio guide.

Stonehenge (from inside the fence)

While I honestly expected the stones to be higher it is quite breathtaking. The audio tour was excellent, giving both the history of the site as well as pointing out some key things that you mighten'd have noticed otherwise.

The history is really interesting. Work began around 5000 years ago, when it was first staked out as a ceremonial site. Its use seemed to have lasted for a relatively short period of time, and then it was abandoned for around 1000 years. Then in 2150 BC the interesting work started to take place. While the development of the site in 3100 BC consisted of digging a ditch and some holes (and perhaps a wood building), 1000 years later, someone came up with the bright idea of importing a bunch of big rocks (bluestones) from Wales, nearly 250 miles away.

Each of the stones (which are the smaller ones you can see in the center of the site) weigh about 4 tonnes each. Historians / Archeologists posit that these stones were transported on some sort of rollers, from the quarry to the sea, where they then travelled by raft down the coast and onto inland rivers. They then would have had to lug them up a hill for the last 1 mile 1/2 or so.

This done, the designer (or more aptly....his great, great, great, great....etc...grandson...these things took a while to get done) , not entirely satisifed with the effect that had been created, moved onto a more ambitious phase, in which the tall standing stones that currently ring the site were brought in. These sarsen stones, each measuring about 4 metres by 2 metres weighed about 25 tonnes. These were arranged in a circle, each about 1 metre apart. As part of the grand plan, each stone was moulded with a point on the top, on which would sit the top stones (lintels) which are the ones you can see lying across the top. These lintels (each around 3 x 1 metres) were fashioned with an indentation (which accomodated the point on the saracen) and with tongue and groove joints so that each lintel could be attached to one another. In all, with the lintels on top, the stones stand about 5 metres tall.

Finally, almost happy with the design, they decided to throw in some even bigger stones into the middle of it all, and so added five additionalpairs of giant sarsen stones (with lintels on top) in a horesehoe shape. Only one pair of these actually remain, and they stand almost 7 meters above ground, with another 2 1/2 meters buried in the earth.

They then spent the next 1000 years or so periodically re-arranging things, and then around 1600 BC stopped.

No one is quite sure who, how and why Stonehenge was built. There are lots on interesting theories, it more than likely seems to have been a ceremonial site with astrological significance built by some folks along time ago, who were really motivated to move heavy rocks around the countryside.

Who really knows, but in context it is a remarkable achievement.

Furthermore, it is amazing that it still stands (at least a good set of remains) today.

When the townspeople nearby realized 100 years ago that they could cash in on the site with tourism, they would actually rent out chisels so that visitors could take with them their own piece of the famous henge as a souvenir. Moreover, it seems that it is only in the last 20 - 30 years that they actually cordened the site-off. Now you can only get to within around 30 yards of the stones, but apparently up until relatively recently you could walk right in amonst the stones, and sadly, as one would expect, clandestinely etch out your name on the rocks.

Some reviews I've read complain about the rope, but I think that it is a good thing. Sure, getting up close and personal with the monoliths would be great, but something tells me that seeing a heart-eveloped "Tim and Lucy forever, 1958" might diminish the site's mystique.

Here's some photos from the visit

SALISBURY

After the visit to the henge, we made the drive over to neighbouring Salisbury, to take in its famed 13th century, spired cathedral, which is really a site to see.

While in the 13th century, common sense may have had the sun going around a flat earth, and advanced medical treatment may have been limited to remedies involving herbs, leetches and sawing, and the thinking on sanitation may have been that a bucket, the window, and the street consitituted a perfectely acceptable system, these things aside, folks sure did know how to make a nice church.

With all of our modern sophistication, we'd be hard pressed to make something as timeless and beautiful as Salisbury Cathedral.

Now, I know very little about architectural periods and such matters, but this cathedral is unique in that "....only taking 38 years to construct, it is almost entirely in one architectural style, English Early Gothic."

Now, I'm not sure if this line strikes a chord with you or not, but in my little mind, I think, cool...all one style...very nice......but wow...ONLY 38 years to build. Things clearly moved at a different speed back then. Can you imagine a construction firm today sitting down and planning out a 38 year building project. Well, yes..if all goes as planned, we should be able to complete it by 2045.

Can you imagine what the cost would be to do something like that today? But imagine what we could build if we patiently focused our efforts for that much time. Clearly these were very different times.

Well, hopefully the pictures speak for themselves. It is one of the most beautiful churches / cathedrals I have ever seen.

As an added bonus, Salisbury Cathedral also has one of only four surviving copies (and apparently the most legible one) of the Magna Carta. A little background for those in the same boat I was in until last weekend: the Magna Carta is a pretty important document, in fact, considered one of the most significant legal documents in history.

It was written in the 13th century in response to serious disagreements between the Pope, King John, and the Barons (who I assume not to be a football team, or squadron of flying aces....but rather, weathy landowners running their own little fiefdoms within the kingdom). It seems that everybody at the time was a little unclear on what their rights were, and everybody seemed to think that King was taking far too many liberties with his power. On the verge of civil war, they came to an agreement, which is outlined in the Magna Carta.

The document bascially set out that even the King would be bound by law, and that all people should be entitled certain basic rights such as Habeas Corpus, etc....A number of important contemporary documents: "the American Constitution", the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms, Canada's Charter of Rights, etc...etc... can be linked back in some way to this original document.

There were numerous copies made and distributed throughout the kingdom, but, as one might expect to happen over the course of 800 years, most were lost, and now only 4 remain. The one under glass at Salisbury is in remarkably well-preserved condition, and if I had better eyesight (very, very tiny writing) and understood Latin, I could have read the whole thing.

On to Old Wardour Castle

With the purchase of our English Heritage membership, they gave us this nice little guidebook of all their sites in England. Wanting to make the most of the couple of hours remaining daylight, (as well as to start further justifying our 69£ purchase), we picked out another nearby site and rushed over. The place is called "Old Wardour Castle" and probably doesn't feature on too many tourist maps, which is a shame.......but good for us Heritage members, who basically had the place to ourselves (well...with the exception of the wedding that had rented out part of the place).

Old Wardour is the remains of a late 14th castle built by some apparently quite weathy guy in those times. Seems he was a Lord of something or somewhere.

This was his fortified house, which makes it different from say a military fortress. So, this was just some rich guy that wanted to protect what he had, and more importantly, to impress the neighbours. Nowadays one might build an electric fence with a sophisticated security systems, CCTV and perhaps a couple of Rottweilers, but back in the day, state of the art security meant thick, thick walls, and perhaps a moat. Apparently, Old Wardour was more about the looks than the actual defenses, and it was not that much of a stronghold.

It was in operation for a few generations until the great grandson of the original owner picked the losing side in the War of the Roses, and susequently had all the family property confiscated. It passed through the hands of a couple of different families, and then in 1643, the castle was severely damaged during the Civil War. It was decided not to bother fixing things up, and instead a new Wardour Castle was built just down the hill, and this old one became a nice romantic fixture to have up in the backyard. Really, who wouldn't want to have a castle in their backyard?

Anyway, it is a very beautiful spot. You may not recognize it from my photos, but back in the 90's it received international exposure, standing in as Kevin Costner's ancestral home as he returns from the Crusades in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.

As in Stonehenge, they equipped us with Fisher Price walkie talkies, and we embarked ont he audio tour. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to complete the whole audio tour, but it was great. They take you through each room and re-create how it would have been, with the sounds of the time as well as 'interviews' with employees of the time. It may sound a little bit cheesy, but it does an impressive job of helping you picture how things might have been.

Here's a few miscellaneous photos.

There was a couple using part of it for their wedding. Sure beats the local Legion hall.

All said, not a bad way to spend a Satuday afternoon.

On Sunday, we were fortunate to have the sun shining, so we went out for a bike ride. Where we live is really close something called The Grand Union Canal, which is part of the country-wide canal system. We ended up cycling up to a town called Rickmansworth (where we stayed temporarily when we first arrived in the UK). It was a very, very pleasant afternoon, and by the end of it, we had cycled around 30 kms. Off course, one does need sustanance on a ride like this, so fortunately, the canal is dotted with pubs, were one can enjoy a cool pint.

Something interesting about the canal is that it is full of these long narrow barges. Some are clearly people's vacation spots, whereas others are people's homes. Of the latter, some seem to be really nice homes (albeit on a barge...), well painted, lots of flowers, etc....whereas others are merely affordable housing for someone who might otherwise be living in the street. An interesting coexistance, this variety of barges all moored alongside one another on the canal.

swans, swans everywhere....no longer the exotic bird I once thought

along the canal..you can see some of the barges.

a set of locks..note the thatched roof in the background. some scenes couldn't be more quiant

Our backyard in all its glory on Sunday evening.

The Sunday night harvest from our apple tree and blackberry bushes

the golf course out our back gate.

Well, that's about it. The weekend is here, and we're off to look at some more castles, churches and perhaps a stately home or two.

Take care all.

Exploring London: National Gallery, St Paul's cathedral and The City

2007-07-30T22:43:00.000+01:00

I like to share my impressions of our last excursion as tourists in London, which I think we will never ceased to be. I love the sense of exploring this enormous city; every corner of it seems to tell a story. We started our day in one of my favourite’s spots in the city so far: Trafalgar square. It is a large square with a big monument in the centre, surrounded by a large building that holds the National Gallery and some other buildings including the Canadian Embassy. From the square you can see down one of the streets the houses of parliament and the Big Ben. Every time I’ve been here there are lots of people, tourists, activists, scouts, musicians, bands, and cyclists. To me this place represents what London is, a vibrant spot where lots of people from all over the world converge, where there is always something happening and you could never be bored. To my delight, one of the bands was playing one of Shakira’s songs, only instrumental and I saw people grooving on the streets. We had our picnic lunch on the grass in front of the gallery where there were people sunbathing, drinking wine and vodka and enjoying the nice weather, for a change.

Trafalgar Square

The National Gallery has a large collection of some of the most acclaimed paintings in the world presented in the walls of a beautifully decorated building. I will just mention my personal favourites: A Wheatfield with Cypresses by Van Gogh, The virgin in Prayer de Sassoferrato and The Fighting Temeraire de Joseph Turner, named the greatest picture from England.

The virgin in Prayer, by Sassoferrato.

We also visited St Paul’s Cathedral, one of the buildings that you can always recognize in the London skyline. Normally they charge you to visit the cathedral except on Sundays which is the day of worship. We lit a candle and made a prayer for our families.

St Paul's Cathedral, London

We walked to the financial centre of London, known as “The City”, about a square mile with the London stock exchange and the offices of the most important financial institutions in the world. There is a great selection of buildings of interest, among them the 30th Street St. Mary, completed in 2004 and designed by Foster, one of the greatest architects of our time. The building is one of the first fully ecological buildings and in my opinion, somehow this modern building fits well among so many historic old buildings in the city, although the general opinion seems to be that it is not harmonious with its neighbours.

30th Street St. Mary

Another building which I thought is neat is the 122 Leadenhall Street, which is being demolished (see picture) in its place there will be a building which will be ready by 2011. It is very impressive to see so clearly how the core of the building supports the rest. The building is being demolished trying to minimize the impact on the surroundings.

Demolition in progress at 122 Leadenhall Street

Our week in France

2007-07-16T19:05:00.000+01:00

Sorry its been a while since the last post. Things have been busy around here. We hadn't even finshed unpacking the boxes in our new place and it was time to head off on vacation. Being over here, we decided to take advantage of the fact that 1) we have a car and 2) France is just across that little channel south of here...so we caught a boat across and spent the week driving around France (and well...a bit of Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium as well.....) All said and done, 3000 kms in 8 days....a bit crazy, but we did get to see a lot.

We started out early Sunday morning and drove down to Dover where we caught a ferry across to Dunkerque. Not wanting to be late, I got us to Dover about 2 hours early, which while disappointing to Alex who would have preferred a couple extra hours of sleep, let us walk along some trails on top of the famous white cliffs....

Two hours after boarding the ferry, we were in France. Now I got to get used to driving back on the 'correct' side of the road, but now on the wrong side of the car. We quickly got lost and ended up in Calais, almost out of gas....a very good start. Eventually that afternoon we made it down to Paris, where we set up shop in a campground in a neighbourhood called Maisons Lafitte, which is in the north-west part of the city. The campground was very, very, very cramped, but on the bright side, was only a 15 minute walk to the train station, from where it was 25 minutes into central Paris. We spent two days there and did as many of the tourist things we could do. I think that Alex may provide some more detail in her post.

On Wednesday we left Paris and drove down to Lyon where we found a campsite just outside of town. What a beautiful city Lyon seems to be (at least what we saw of the historic centre). I intended for it to be an unavoidable stop-over spot on the way down to the mediterranean, and was really blown away by the city. Who knows what it is really like, but in our evening there it really impressed.

The next morning was on our way through Provence to a place just between Nice and Monacco, on the Cote Azur. Of course, I got lost, and we spend far too much time driving the coastal highway (much to Alex's disappointment...lots and lots of curves and ups and downs......) Eventually, perched high, high, high above the water was our campground. What an amazing spectacle. I think that the views over St. Jean Cap Ferrat couldn't be bested by any other campsite in the world. We spent the afternoon on the beach.....no sand on the riviera apparently...just smoothed stones....very odd....and the water was cold, cold, cold....reminded me of Lake Winnipeg in June. Then we spent an hour or so in Monacco (did our groceries there!) and then the early evening in Nice. We settled down for the night with a good curry, some wine, and the views over the sea.

The next day was on to Geneva. I got us off to a bad start by almost running out of gas. We were driving around helplessly with about a litre in the tank and me asking in my long forgotten French, " Ou est-ce que on peut acheter du gasoline"...After about 5 failed attempts at that (and more of that precious litre of gas we did have used up driving in circles...) someone was kind enough to point out that gas or petrol (depending on your English) is actually called Essence in French. That does ring a bell somewhere deep in the cobwebs...After that correction, we were pointed in the right direction and on our way with a full tank. We crossed over to Italy, and rode about on the coastal highway for a bit before turning up towards the mountains. We skirted past Turin and had lunch in a nice little town at the foot of the mountains called Aosta. Fittingly, ALex has Ravioli and I had Gnocchi.

Then further into the Alps...(wow...amazing scenary) and then under Mont Blanc via an 11 km tunnel.

Into France past Chomonix and then over the border in Switzerland. I got us lost again looking for the campground (not sure why Alex lets me take care of directions....) but finally, mercifully before the sun set, we found our place on the shore of lake Geneva, just east of the town. We spent the night in Geneva, which is really a very charming spot. We had fondue for dinner, which seemed appropriate.

The next morning, and early start had us drive up through Bern, where we stopped for a quick look around....this is another place that I would like to spend some more time in, as the historic centre is really very beautiful.

We made it up and out of Switzerland, through a bit of France and into Luxembourg, where we looked around for a couple of hours, and had a bite to eat. Then on to Brussels, which, I suppose like Lyon, I had no expectations of. And again, we found it to be a really beautiful looking place. We strolled around a bit near the Royal Palace, etc... Alex had a Belgian Waffle...and then we had to get to our campsite. We got to a place near Dunkerque called Brays Dunes (very French sounding, non?) just before sunset and set things up in the sand. An odd little resport / campground we stayed at, but an amazing long sandy beach, and one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.

The next morning, we had time to do some grocery (read..wine) shopping before catching the boat back to Dover. By pure coincidence, the timing of this worked out so that we could see the Tour de France as Stage 1 passed through the south of England. While we spent most of the afternoon out there getting burned (a rare sunny day in England) the race itself was over in an instant. The riders were basically all together, and while we were on a hill, it meant nothing to them, and the whole lot of 'em whizzed by in about 20 seconds. I'd no idea that it would be all over so quickly.

Anyway, that's the quick lowdown on the trip. Sorry for the lack of interesting details. It had been too long since I posted, so I thought I'd better get something down soon.
I hope everyone is well.
Scott.

Camping, food and churches in France

2007-07-10T23:17:00.000+01:00

Camping in Paris, Lyon, Nice, Geneva and Brais-Dunes

During our trip we stayed at 5 different campgrounds, we did not get to enjoy the camp sites as much or socialize, as we just had time to set up the tent, cook something quick and sleep. We became experts in setting up the tent and beds in less than 15 minutes and fortunately enough it only rained in Paris. Camping has proven to be a great way to enjoy all the sites without spending a lot of money in accommodation, at the end, we spend very few hours at the campsites, since there is so much to see and limited time.

Camping International in Paris

In Paris we stayed at the Camping International campground, on the shore of the Seine River on the north west of the city and only a 15 minute walk to the metro station and from there 30 minutes to the main attractions. Then in Lyon, we stayed at Camping International in the outskirts of the city, just off the main highway it about a 15 minute drive into the city.

View from campsite in Eze

My favourite one was the Indigo camping in Eze, in the outskirts of Nice on the Cost D’Azur: This campsite has the most amazing view. Right on the cost but about 800 meters above see level. In Geneva, we camped on the south shore of the Geneva lake at a campsite with a very convenient bus service to the town centre, about 20 minute ride.

The last night camp site was an unexpected surprise, on the North of France near Dunkerkerque in a small town called Brais-Dunes. We camped on sand and about a 5 minute walk to the beach. The sea did not have the blue colour, it reminded me of the Pacific Ocean but the sand was soft and the water felt warmer than the one in the Mediterranean.

Acampando

Acampamos en 5 campamentos diferentes aunque no tuvimos mucho tiempo de disfrutar sus servicios o socializar, llegando tarde y saliendo temprano. Acampar en Europa me parecio bien facil y una manera bien practica de quedarse en diferentes ciudades sin gastar mucho y con el carro.
En Paris nos quedamos en Camping International, muy bien ubicado en un barrio del noroeste de Paris, al lado del rio Sena desde ahi era 15 minutos caminando a la estacion del metro y en el metro 30 minutos a el centro de la ciudad.
En Lyon nos quedamos en un campamento como a 10 km de la ciudad. El mas lindo de todos fue el del mediterraneo, en Eze, en una cornisa de la montana y al frente de la costa con una vista espectacular, yo diria que mejor que la de cualquier hotel!!!

En Ginebra en un sitio muy lindo sobre el lago, desde donde podiamos tomar un bus directo a el centro y estabamos alli en 20 minutos y la ultima noche en el norte de Francia nos quedamos en un sitio con una playa lindisima y un atardecer inolvidabe.

Atardecer en Bray-Dunes, Norte de Francia

Food

While in France we mainly ate baguettes, wine and cheese. The French seem to really like their baguettes; every morning, either in the towns or campgrounds you see people walking back from the store with their fresh baguettes for breakfast. There was a great variety of cheeses in every little store, and the wine was very cheap.
I certainly enjoyed the crepe au chocolate from street vendors in Paris, we agreed that Nutella was underestimated in Canada and it should really be included in more recipes.

In Italy, we stopped in a very nice town called Aosta with great views of the Alps and Mont Blanc for lunch, and had good Italian food (although there it was just called lunch), pumpkin filled orange ravioli!

In Switzerland, we found the perfect place for cheese fondue in Geneva, in the heart of the city. It was a real threat for me (Better than La Cuisine Suisse in Bogota ).

We did not really spend that much time in this Brussels, but it was long enough to found a stand of Belgium waffles and try them out, they serve them very hot and coated with some type of syrup. Very tasty!

Comida

La base de nuestra alimentacion en Francia fue pan Frances (Baguettes), quesos y vinos. A los Franceses les encanta sus panes y lo compran fresco cada manana. Incluso en pequenas tiendas se encuentra una gran variedad de quesos y vinos, y se encuentran vinos muy baratos. Tambien probalmos la crepe de chocolate Nutella en las calles de Paris y los croissants.
En italia estuvimos en una ciudad pequena llamada Aosta, con unas vistas espectaculares de los Alpes y el Mont Blanc, alli comimos unos raviolis anaranjados rellenos de ahuyama, una delicia.
En suiza comimos Fondue de queso, estaba espectacular y muy autentico (aun mejor que el de La Cuisine Suisse en Bogota). En bruselas probamos los wafles belgas, servidos calientes.

Churches

We found a lot of spectacular churches along our way. We have this tradition in Colombia (maybe is everywhere) that when you visit a church for the first time you get to make 3 wishes. So I can say that our families were very lucky last week for all the wishes and prayers we made for them over the course of the trip.

Inside Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris: Notre Dame is as I had I had imagined it or seen in so many movies I guess. The gargoyles seemed smaller, but they are very high up. There were to many tourist making it look more like a museum than a church. I was very impressed by the gothic arquitecture and the sculptures on the outside walls. We did not wait in line to get into the towers, it was enough with what we saw inside!

Sacre Coeur, Paris

Sacre Cour is a beautiful church on top of a hill in the Montmartre area of Paris which can be seen from the distance and from there you get a great view of the city, it is a bit of a climb but the neighbourhood is very cute, with lots of narrow and steep roads.

Basilique Notre-Dame, Lyon

Basilique Notre-Dame, Lyon: Even though we climbed the mountain we did not make it inside this beautiful basilique as it was closed. A great building with gorgeous gardens around and a fantastic view of the city, totally worth the effort.

Iglesias

Tuvimos la oportunidad de visitar varias iglesias. Seguimos la tradicion de los 3 deseos por cada iglesia que visitas por primera vez, asi que nuestras familias recibieron muchas oraciones durante esta semana.

Notre Dame, Paris

La cathedral de Notre Dame es como la habia imaginado. Las gorgolas se ven mas pequenas de lo que las pensaba, pero la verdad es que estan muy muy altas. Habian muchos turistas en la iglesia, que hacian que pareciera mas como un museo. Me impresionaron la arquitectura gotica del interior de la iglesia, las esculturas en la fachada principal, la estatua de Juana de Arco, las columnas del exterior de la iglesia y los vitrales.

Sagrado Corazon en Montmartre (Paris)
Una preciosa iglesia blanca en al cima de una montana. Esta ubicada en el barrio Montmartre nombre y desde la iglesia se pueden apreciar vistas maravillosas de la ciudad. Esta en el mismo barrio que el Moulin Rouge y otras varias tiendas de dudosa reputacion.

Basilica de Notre Dame, Lyon

Aunque despues de subir la montana encontramos la iglesia cerrada, esta iglesia me parecio divina. El esfuerzo de la subida estuvo bien recompenzado con la vista.

We finally moved

2007-06-25T21:21:00.000+01:00

Finally the process of finding and moving into a home in London has ended, it took us officially 8 weeks to achieve this but finally is all done. Letting a property here is significantly different than in Canada or in Colombia. The market conditions were not ideal, everybody wants to sell and fewer properties are available to rent. Once finally we decided on a house, the negotiation process took a long time. There is a "listing price" and you make an "offer" with different conditions, and the landlord can decide to take your offer, make a counter offer or amend the conditions. Once a "number" is agreed then the real fun starts to try to agree on a letting contract, not sure if everybody goes through the same but this was true for us, a very lengthy process. At the end the contract was signed on the moving day.

The house was built in 1936, it was built in the Elizabethan style, timber framed, black and white, vertical timbers supported by diagonal timbers. Very English in my opinion. It backs onto a golf course and has a beautiful garden on the back. I really hope that we will have some guests during our stay in this house. My favorite thing about the house is the garden (see picture).

It will take us a while to get Internet access up and running in the house, so for now I have to keep it short. But, soon we will be updating the site with some more pictures.

En Español: Jardín con casa

Finalmente ya encontramos y alquilamos una casa en Londres, nos tomo oficialmente 8 semanas, fue difícil porque todo el mundo quiere vender y hay pocas propiedades en el mercado para rentar; y cuando te decides por una casa, entonces comienza el proceso de negociación, donde puedes hacer una “oferta” de cuanto quieres pagar mensualmente por el alquiler y cada parte pone condiciones, a través de dos agentes. Es complicado y demorado. Finalmente firmamos el contrato el mismo día que nos la entregaron.

La casa fue construida en 1936 y el estilo de la construcción que parece común de la época se llama Elizabethan, con columnas verticales y diagonales de madera, fachada blanca y negra. La parte que mas me gusta es el jardín (Foto) y da contra un campo de golf en la parte de atrás. Esperamos que nos visiten mientras estamos aquí.

Aun no tenemos conexión a Internet en la casa, así que no puedo escribir mucho pero una vez estemos conectados pondremos mas fotos. Un abrazo.

Faces of Istanbul

2007-06-12T22:47:00.001+01:00

Here is a photographic look of some of the sculptures from the Istanbul Archeology Museum. Sadly, one of the main sculpture halls was closed for renovations.

Nonethless it gives you an idea of the quality of the collection they have at this place.

Turkish Culture

2007-06-12T22:02:00.000+01:00

There are a number of reasons for me to be excited about this trip. First of all, because travelling through Europe was one of the main bonuses of living in England and this trip could be the start of that and second because it was my first time in a country where the first language is neither English or Spanish, the main religion is not Christian and the role of Woman is so notoriously different, so in a world, a truly cultural experience.

Estaba emocionada por este viaje por muchas razones. La primera, viajar por Europa era uno de las ventajas de vivir en Inglaterra y este viaje seria el comienzo de eso. La segunda es porque este viaje seria mi primera experiencia en un país cuya lengua no es Español o Ingles, su religión no es Cristiana y el rol de la mujer es tan diferente, entonces es una verdadera experiencia cultural.

Turkish W.C.

This was one of the challenges for me in particular. The first public bathroom was on the side of a Mosque and it was simply "men only". There are very few women on the street and on the Mosque, even inside the Mosque they have a very small separate area enclosed with dividers where they can not be seen. About 90% of the shops attendants that we saw were men. I guess there is not as big of a demand for women's public bathrooms.

The second bathroom experience was a public bathroom on an underpass, close to a main tram station. After paying the fee, I realized that for my 75 cents I was getting a bucket of water and a pink latrine (See picture below). I can not help to wonder how this women do it, with the long skirts, head scarfs and multiple layers of clothing, how do they manage to use a latrine? . I also found latrines on the bathrooms of the museum and any other outside public bathroom.

But then, contrasting my public bathroom experiences, I found a couple of fancy bathrooms. In the lobby of our hotel, the airport and a fancier restaurant there were toilets with electronic sensors for flushing and odour absorbers with sensors.

Los baños públicos

Fue uno de las dificultades que encontré para mi en este país. El primer baño publico simplemente era solo para hombres. Hay muy pocas mujeres en la calle, trabajando en las tiendas y en las mezquitas. Todo es atendido por hombres, incluso en las mezquitas tienen un área separada para las mujeres que es muy pequeña y esta bien encerrada. Así que no hay muchas mujeres en la calle y así, muy poca demanda para baños públicos. Luego encontré un vano publico para mujeres, pero era una letrina, después de pagar los 75 centavos que costaba la entrada, me dieron un baldecito con agua y ya esta. Yo me pregunto como hacen estas mujeres con las faldas largas, las túnicas en la cabeza y tantas capas de ropa para usar esos baños?
Pero en contraste, también encontré unos baños bastante modernos con censores y también censores-extractores de olor, en la recepción del hotel y el aeropuerto.

Temples: The Aya Sofya

The Aya Sofya truly impressed me, this enourmous temple which has been a place of worship for both Christians and Muslims for almost a millenium and a half (More specifically opened in year 537). The diameter of the dome is about 30 meters and its height is 55 meters (to give you an idea, the statue of liberty without its base would stand nicely under the central dome). Its architecture and construction has fascinated humanity for decades. To me this building stands as a symbol of faith and respect and that is what I felt when I got inside it.

Templos: El Aya Sofya
Este templo verdaderamente me impresiono, una construcción monumental que ha sido lugar de oraciones de Cristianos y Musulmanes por casi un milenio y medio (Fue abierto al publico en el año 537 d. C.). El diámetro de la cúpula es de 30 metros y la altura es de 55 metros (la estatua de la libertad sin base cabria dentro del edificio). Su arquitectura y construcción a fascinado a la humanidad por décadas. Para mi, este edificio es un símbolo de fe y respecto y eso es lo que sentí cuando entre a el.

Fauna

We were quite lucky to see dolphins fighting the busy ship traffic on the Bosphorus and the seaguls lying on and flying around them, they were jumping outside the water and although they were far from our ferry we were able to enjoy the show.

There were some others, not so glamorous, animals around the streets of Istanbul. Street cats, every where and on every pile of garbage. It was kind of spooky to be around so many hungry-looking cats, specially at night in the dark streets (Well, spooky for me - and cute for Scott).

Fauna
Tuvimos suerte de ver delfines en el Bosphorus, aunque había mucho trafico de barcos y botes. Los delfines estaban relativamente lejos de nosotros, estaban saltando afuera del agua y las gaviotas revoloteaban alrededor de ellos y se posaban en ellos también. Un buen espectáculo nos dieron.
Habían otros animales, no tan glamorosos en las calles de Estmabul. Gatos callejeros, miles, en casa esquina, husmeando en la basura. A mi me parece un poco aterrador estar rodeado de tantos gatos, que parecían hambrientos, en esas calles oscuras (Bueno, aterrador para mi pero a Scott le parecían como lindos).

Food

We enjoyed a couple of versions of the traditional Doner Kebab, lamb or chicken, it was very good, they eat it inside bread and with some salad - as a fast food snack. The more elaborated delicacies that we enjoyed include Anatolian chicken casserole, Sea bream and fish stew. Lots of fruits available including cherries, "ericks" (a mini green plum) and orange juice parlors very inexpensive. Pastries filled with cheese or chicken for breakfast, boiled corn-on-the-cob stacks everywhere (without butter!) and for desserts, we tried different varieties of the "Turkist delight", made into cubes from starch and sugar and in different flavors, lots with pistachios and also the Baklava, a sweet pastry typical of the middle east. Around the Bosphorus, there were hundreds of fishermen catching tiny fish and then we saw many barbq stands grilling them and putting into bread and selling them as a snack - very smelly - did not get to try that.

Comida
Probamos el tradicional doner kebab (Foto abajo), de cordero o pollo, se lo comen con pan y un poco de ensalada, como un sándwich. También degustamos otros platos mas elaborados como cacerolas de pollo de Anatolia, pescado Dorado y cazuela de pescado. Había una gran variedad de frutas, cerezas, “ericks” que eran como ciruelas pequeñas y verdes, jugo de naranja natural. También probamos los pasteles de hojaldre rellenos de queso (al desayuno). Tienen puestos en la calle donde venden mazorca hervida, simplemente hervida, ni siquiera le ponen mantequilla. De postres, probamos el famoso “Delicias Turcas”, que son unos cubos de azúcar con diferentes sabores, como pistacho y también probamos el Baklava que es un postre del medio oriente hecho de hojaldre y mieles, con diferentes rellenos. Alrededor del Bosphorus, habían muchos hombres pescando unos pescaditos diminutos, que luego otros se encargan de ponerlos en una parrilla y venderlos dentro de un pan: eso olía mucho a pescado y no parecía nada provocativo, así que no lo probamos.

Alex.

Back from Turkey

2007-06-12T17:37:00.000+01:00

Well, we're back from Istanbul today. Funny thing...on the plane home this afternoon they served us a very nice lunch. We had a choice: Pasta or Turkey. (not chicken...turkey...)

We had a great time these five days in Istanbul. While it is not likely at the top of most people's tourist agendas, it is a great city with a very rich history. I wouldn't say that it is a 'pretty' city, but it does have quite a number of interesting sites to see. We managed to hit most of the main tourist spots including the Blue Mosque, Aya Sophia, Topakapi Palace, the Archealogical Museum, Boat ride up the Bosphorus, the Prince's Islands and the "Mystical Water Pipe" complex.

Boldly contradicting the rather dismal forecasts, we had exceptional weather the whole time. It was sunny and warm and we both got a little bit sunburned.

My impressions of Istanbul

1) Distinct odours (good and bad)
2) Amazing water
3) Pockets of beauty.
4) Potential..potential..potential.
5) Rich History

Let's see if I can delve into each of these a little more.

1) Distinct odours...well...I suppose I won't go into this one too deeply. Suffice it to say: Good: Egyptian Spice Market or the fresh Sea Air on Buyukada Island. Bad: Standing room only on the 6pm tram ride from the station.

2) Amazing water....Istanbul sits at the junction of three waterways: the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and the Marmara Sea. There is water everywhere, and it is beautiful. The Golden Horn is an inlet on the European side. The northern side of the inlet seems to be progressively more modern. You start with the area down by the Golden Horn which has some historic sites such as the Galata tower, and then the further you go up towards the Black Sea the more 'posh' and modern it all seems to get. On the south side of the Golden Horn is the more historic area which has the Aya Sofia, Blue Mosque, Topakapi Palace etc.... The City is then further divided by the Bosphorus which is a straight connecting the Black Sea to the Marmara (which then connects to the Mediterranean). The Bosphorus is also a continental divide. On one side is Europe, and on the other is Asia. Finally, to the south and west of Istanbul is the Marmara Sea which eventually runs into the Aegean and Mediterannean. The water is everywhere and there is a great public transport system that connects everything by boat. We spent hours out on these buses of the sea and it was fantastic.

3) Pockets of Beauty: Throughout Istanbul and even across into the "Prince's Islands" you see a mixture of buildings that I would classify as: 1) Restored and Magnificent; 2) Magnificent but not restored, in OK condition; 3) Magnificent, not restored....falling apart 4) well..the rest of them...which I would classify as never nice in a variety of conditions. The first category really are spectacular, and we saw some nice examples of this over on the Prince's Islands. The second category is fine. The 3rd however is really a shame. In a number of places we saw what seemed to have been great buildings, in excellent locations, surrounded by beautifully restored buildings, literally crumbling to the ground. I don't know if there is some law in Turkey that prevents the tearing down of historic buildings, but it really seemed odd that these old places were left to actually crumble to the ground. Finally, the 4th category...well, Istanbul is a big city, and, at least in the areas we were in, I suppose the practicality of architecture seems to have greatly outweighed the aesthetics.

4) When I say "Potential, Potential, Potential" I mean to say that Istanbul is a great place that is, well, perhaps a little rough around the edges. You can see all the beauty that it could be, just beneath the surface. It wouldn't take much and you could make this a truly great city. A little cleaning and restoration and it would be wonderful. Around the Galata tower for example, you see a number of apartment blocks that have been restored, and how 'nice' they are...and then there are all of the others that for some reason or other haven't. One day, perhaps all that have been left to crumble, will have fallen to the ground and everything can be brought up to modern standards. Were that the case, it would really be a great place.

5) Rich in History: To go into this subject in any detail would require more space than I dare bore you with. Here are the basics for you: Istanbul has been the capital of four empires: Roman Empire: 330 - 395; Byzantine Empire 395 - 1204 and then again from 1261 - 1453, the Latin Empire from 1204 - 1261 and then finally the Ottoman Empire from 1453 - 1922. Through this time some pretty cool guys have called this place their home. The Roman Emperor Constantine was there for the last 15 years of so of his life, from where he ruled the entire Roman Empire. Then there were the Ottomans. Sultans with great names like: Sultan Mehmed II "The Conquerer"and Sulieman "the Magnificent". A regular Vince McMahon show.

The city apparently dates back to around 5000 BC, but most of the 'history' that you can see there now starts around 400 or so AD. Having been the seat of great empires and occupying the crossroads of Asia and Europe, a lot has happened, and there are traces of this everywhere. It is incredible to think about the history that happened within the walls of the places we visited.
Imagine...one day out in Topakapi Palace (which we visited), one of the Sultans decided that he wasn't going to let the Europeans pass through to India and China anymore....and so...in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue and well..now you have all of us Americans (I mean this in the most continental of respects possible.....all 950 million of us..not just the 300mm between Mexico and Canada.) I know that this is all highly oversimplified, but were it not for a decision made by the guy who's dagger, sword and robe we got to see, taken in a room we got to walk through....we wouldn't even be here. Its funny...coming from Western Canada, I am always quite astounded by history. In a city where the oldest building dates back to the mid 19th century, history is something you read about, not something you actually get to walk through and touch.

Anyway, I've rambled on far too long, and Alex will like to add to this. Here are a couple of pictures from our trip.

Talk to you later,

Scott.

picture of the Blue Mosque taken from inside the Aya Sofia
Foto de la Mezquita Azul tomada desde la Aya Sofia

Inside the Egyptian Spice Market
El mercado de especies de Egipto

The 'real' market. Outside of the Grand Bazaar on Saturday afternoon, where the non-tourists come to shop. El "verdadero" mercado, afuera del Grand Bazzar en la tarde del sabado, donde los locales van de compras.

Istanbul (Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia) taken from across the Golden Horn on our late return from the Prince's Islands. Estambul, tomada desde el ferry durante el regreso de las islas Prince's.

Alex with the Golden Horn and the Galata Tower in the background. Alex con el Golden Horn y la torre Galata en el fondo.

The entrance to Topakapi Palace (the Buckingham Palace (or 24 Sussex Dr.) of the Sultans. Entrada al palacio Topakapi, palacio donde antiguamente vivia el Sultan (Monarca de la region).

The Aya Sofia (Hagia Sophia) taken from the exit of the Blue Mosque. La mezquita Aya Sofia.

En Español: Regresamos de Turquía

Regresamos de Estambul hoy. En el avión, para el almuerzo teníamos dos opciones Pasta o Pavo (en Ingles Pavo se dice Turkey, la misma palabra para el nombre del país – esto le causo mucha gracia a Scott).

La pasamos muy bien, aunque Estambul no esta en la agenda de muchos turistas, es una ciudad grandiosa con una historia fascinante. No diría que es una ciudad “linda”, pero tiene un gran número de lugares interesantes. Tuvimos la oportunidad de visitar la mayoría de los sitios turísticos: Aya Sofía, palacio Topakapi, museo de arqueología, crucero por el Bosphorus, islas Prince’s y el Jardín místico de la pipa de agua.

Mis impresiones de Estambul (resumen):

1) Olores (Buenos o malos). Buenos en los mercados de especies y el olor fresco del mar, malos en el transporte publico.

2) Agua: La ciudad esta en la unión de el estrecho Bosphorus, el mar Marmara y el Golden Horn. Hay agua por todos lados. El estrecho Bosphorus conecta el Mar Negro con el Mar Marmara (que se une luego con el Mediterráneo). También es la división continental de Asia y Europa. Hay un muy buen sistema de transporte publico que conecta todo en botes (Ferrys y buses acuáticos), pasamos horas en esos botes.

3). Construcciones: Un gran numero de construcciones bien preservadas y otras no tanto, o mas bien en decadencia.
4) Potencial: En Estambul puedes ver toda la belleza en la superficie y no costaría tanto esfuerzo convertirla en una verdadera ciudad grandiosa, con mas limpieza de las calles y restauración del los edificios.

5) Riqueza histórica: Estambul fue la capital del imperio Romano, Bizantino, Latín y Ottoman, y sus monarcas vivieron y construyeron sus hogares en ella. La ciudad fue fundada 5000 anos a. C. pero la mayoría de la historia que se puede ver es de alrededor de 400 d. C. Muchas cosas pasaron dentro de las paredes de esa ciudad. Por ejemplo, un día en el palacio Topakapi uno de los sultanes decide que no dejara pasar por su región a los Europeos que van en camino a China e India en busca de especias… entonces… en 1492 Cristóbal Colón va en busca de nuevas rutas y así nace América.

Saludos,
Scott.

2007-06-05T06:06:00.000+01:00

Yesterday London revealed the logo for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Seriously....this is the logo..........

Can you see how it captures the spirit of Sport, London and England? What are they thinking?

In case you're having trouble 'getting' it, (like I was), here is the official explanation as to why we should like it.

http://main.london2012.com/en/news/press+room/releases/2007/June/2007-05-04-11-45.htm

Maybe you'll have more luck understanding this that I've had.

Driving

2007-06-03T15:38:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went through something called a triple roundabout in Aylesbury. For the most part, these roundabouts seem like good ideas, and they seem smoother than traffic lights. This "triple roundabout" was a bit of an exception though. It was a mix of lights and of roundabouts.

I tried to find a picture / map of this online, but couldn't. Nevertheless, I did find a two page list of the Aylesburg driving test route. Friends from North America will appreciate how confusing this looks / sounds compared to anything we might have. Here's page two of the Aylesbury practical driver's test.

I'd say that it all looks OK until you hit about Tumfurlong Lane. Not sure exactly what a Gyratory system is. I don't recall one of these being on my driver's test.

It's not just the driving on the 'wrong' side of the road and the roundabouts that are different. They've got a whole different set of roadsigns here.

Here's a couple to consider:

This one apparently means "No Stopping". [ Español: Esta señal significa "NO PARE" ]

Well, yesterday we turned on to a motorway on-ramp and there were two of these signs ominsously standing guard over the entry way.

My first reaction was that this means "do not enter" and we thought we'd entered a motorway off-ramp (rather than on-ramp).
So, stop is exactly what we did, while we tried to figure out what to do. Fortunately, another car eventually came up and passed us from behind, so we just followed him along.

Then there is the Red Circle series of signs.

I have to be honest that a red circle with nothing in it doesn't mean a thing to me. It's tough to interpret. But the other two, I might guess are "pedestrians only" and "cars only (no trucks?)"

Well, I'd be wrong. Apparently the red circle means "not permitted". So an empty red circle would mean no traffic at all. A circle with a pedestian: no pedestrians, and a circle with a car, means no vehicles except for scooters and motorcycles.

What would be wrong with putting a slash though something to mean "not permitted"?

Español: Conduciendo...

Aquí en Inglaterra hay muchas glorietas, que parecen una excelente idea hasta que encontramos una triple-glorieta en Aylsbury. Scott encontró una lista del examen de conducción que incluye muchos términos que no conocemos, así que esperamos no tener que pasar uno de esos exámenes.
También las señales de transito son diferentes, esa señal de circulo azul y cruz roja quiere decir No Pare, nosotros pensábamos que era No pase y en efecto, paramos - hasta que vimos otro carro pasar. Las otras tres señales tampoco tienen mucho sentido, aparentemente circulo rojo quiere decir prohibido, así que la que tiene el circulo en rojo y es blanca, quiere decir "No transite", la del peatón es no transiten peatones y la del carro... No transiten carros.

Pub Signs (June 2, 2007)

2007-06-03T13:53:00.001+01:00

Faces of Oxford

2007-06-03T13:47:00.001+01:00

Lucy (our GPS)

2007-06-03T11:47:00.000+01:00

Adding to Alex's comments....Here is our new travel companion Lucy. Never had a GPS before (in Winnipeg I'm not sure what exactly you would use one for!) but am very excited about this new toy ( I mean tool). Driving here is a little complicated and while Alex is a top notch navigator, she also likes to sleep and well, kind-of wander off in the car.

Driving at home was a lot of straight lines and traffic lights. Here, there are plenty of curves in the roads (not exactly sure why....seems they add curves wherever they can. The grid plan seems to not have appealed to early planners and this tradition has been carried on to today. Back at home, driving was basically the following: "Take Street A....follow it for around 10 minutes. Turn left on Street B, follow it for 5 minutes....then turn right on Street C and it's the fifth on the left." Pretty straight forward.

My initial impression of what the same journey here might be is..... Take Street A for 2 minutes....at the roundabout, take the 3rd exit....keep straight for 3 minutes, bear right...at the roundabout take the 1st exit....continue for 5 minutes....at the roundabout take the 2nd exit (ie...keep going straight after going half-way around the roundabout...) continue straight...etc...etc.....Tricky...but not too bad if you get it all right the first time around.

If you get off track though (which as you are going through roundabouts every couple of minutes can be easy to do), it can get a lot more confusing. On the way to the grocery store the other day things didn't go the way we saw them happening on the map (for some reason there was a no right turn....) anyway, it took us about 1/2 hour to actually get to the parking lot for a building we could see.

So, now we have Lucy. On her first day out she performed very well and got us flawlessly to where we wanted to go. On the way back however, I though that I would change the 'preferences' on the unit and request the 'shortest route' vs. the 'fastest route". It was funny actually....I don't mind 'shortcuts', but Alex is not quite as comfortable. The shortcut started out OK...small but OK. and then the roads just kept getting smaller and smaller. Finally we were on what you can see in Alex's picture where it was a lane about the width of the car with walls of tress/ shrubs / bushes on either side. Good practice for me driving on the right side of the car, as for some reason I've had a tendency to drift over to the left. Not possible on these roads as you'd run into the wall of shrubbery.

Here is a Google map link to the trip from yesterday. Never used the "My Maps" function on Google, so we'll see how that goes.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&om=1&msid=110225640462974242602.00000112f1398d5757c2e&ll=51.75339,-0.449066&spn=1.581187,5.108643&z=8

Cheers.

Scott.

Oxford and Stratford-Upon-Avon: Our first road trip

2007-06-02T22:43:00.000+01:00

Today we had our first road trip in England that was made possible with the assistance of our new Navman Gps navigation system (we called her "Lucy"); one less thing to worry about because I do not like navigating, looking down on maps when there is SO much to see through the windows and with the left side driving and the unknown roads we thought we deserved the treat.

The trip started in Oxford, the beautiful city where Oxford University is located, about 90 miles from London and over 800 years old. The university buildings are spread throughout the city, they all keep the same architectural style - it is hard to see where the university starts and the city ends. As visitors, we were able to access some of the university "Colleges" and see the student residences, the Churches inside this colleges, libraries and classrooms.

It was a beautiful summer day and some of the students were studying outside on the many parks and squares. The city inspired peace and reflection, almost respect.

We visited a nearby town called Woodstock, a charming little village where Blenheim Palace is located, one of England's largest houses and also the birth place of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. We had lunch at the beer garden of a pub on the side of a river. There were Swans on the river and also got to see a performance of some English dancers.

After that, we decided to go further north to Statford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. A historic place well packed with hundreds of tourists. A town with lots of very old buildings, older from what we have seen in London so far. There are a number of Shakespeare-related attractions, a number of houses related to his life and theater productions. There is a lovely canal with boats and Swans (we used to think that Swans were something really special that you would only see in a blue moon, but today we changed our views on that, since we saw more swans on the rivers and lakes than ducks and geese). We enjoyed an afternoon tea at a tea house which has been in business for over 400 years.

On the way back we stopped in Alsbury, a small town with an old medieval church and lots of narrow streets. We enjoyed the English views driving outside London, the hills, country side and specially the sheep. A truly unforgettable day!

En Español : Nuestro primer paseo en carro

Hoy tuvimos nuestro primer paseo en carro en las afueras de Londres. Empezamos en Oxford, la ciudad y la universidad, como a 90 millas de Londres. Una ciudad realmente deslumbrante, muchos edificios componen la universidad, como facultades, con las residencias de los estudiantes e iglesias. Es mucho mas linda de lo que la había imaginado, tantos jardines y espacios verdes. Almorzamos en un pueblito que se llama Woodstock, en un "pub", que es como un bar típico Ingles, este en especial tenia un "jardín de la cerveza" al lado del rió donde vimos cisnes. También fuimos a Stratford-Upon-Avon que es donde nació Shakespeare, una ciudad mas pequeña pero llena de historia y magia, canales y rió. Visitamos Alsbury, un pueblito con una gran iglesia medieval. En el camino, en lugar de vacas, vimos miles de ovejas en las colinas.

Driving in England: Think left!

2007-05-28T00:54:00.000+01:00

We bought our car today, a nice Ford Focus in great condition, I can not describe how happy and relief my dear husband is. We found out that buying a car in England was not as easy as we might have hoped for. First of all, it is not like "pay and drive". It is more like: pay a deposit; go and get insurance and proof of insurance; come back in a couple of days; take your car but do not drive until you pay the road tax at the post office (?); Oops, sorry, not here, you have to go to the other side of the city to register your car... five days and 5 hours of train rides later: Now you can drive, well, attempt to drive...

Driving on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car, shifting gears with your left hand, looking at the mirror on the left side of your face... that is one too many "lefts" that I was preparing for. The challenge is not only to remember to stay on the left side of the road, it is also complicated to manage to stay on the center of the road, as we tent to drive closer to the left... the roads are so narrow here; I guess they were made when they were only single horses on them, plus, they allow drivers to park on both the sides of the road... making it virtually impossible for two cars to fit on a two-way road. The following is an example of an extreme two-way road that our dear "Lucy" gps navigator friend took us too. I think my Dad would have been very excited to take the "Short cut", quite the adventure.

En Español: Para manejar en Inglaterra hay que pensar en la Izquierda

Ya al fin tenemos un carro, un Ford Focus, y con el descubrimos todas las dificultades de manejar a la izquierda, con el timón a la derecha del carro, mirando al espejo en el lado izquierdo de la cara y con la mano izquierda en la palanca de cambios: esas son muchas izquierdas. Además, las calles son muy angostas y permiten parquear carros a ambos lados.
Comprar y registrar el carro fue más complicado de lo que pensábamos, se demoro varios días y con muchos tramites. Pero ya esta! Para quitarnos al menos una preocupación, tenemos un sistema de navegación satelital GPS, en el que entras la dirección a donde vas y el te va diciendo la ruta, lo llamamos "Lucy". Es bastante efectivo y muy útil, sobre todo al comienzo cuando tenemos que acostumbrarnos a manejar al otro lado.