Fall 2008

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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.