Here we are…it’s finally the night before leaving and we’re actually ready to go.  It’s been such a whirlwind over the past four months getting everything lined up, both at home and for when we’re on the road.  Hopefully we haven’t forgotten anything or anyone.  Dale sure knows how to “make it happen” eh?

We are really looking forward to our year of adventure and will be keeping in touch with all of you by posting stories and photos on this website and by e-mail.  Please don’t hesitate to send us news from home.  We’ll be looking for your messages whenever we find a cyber cafe.

So…we’re off without further adieu.  Take care until our paths cross again.

(scroll down to reach the country you want to read about)

We arrived in Fiji on January 18th, 2003 having left home at 4:00 a.m. on the 16th.  We missed the 17th completely due to crossing the international date line.  The weather was 25C at 3:45 a.m. when we landed and went to 32C later that day.  Our first stop was Nadi Bay and the Travellers Beach Resort.  Spent a few days acclimatizing to the heat and getting over jet lag.  We sat by the pool, ate, drank, and swam in the ocean...nothing too strenuous.  Best we ease into this Wandering Wino thing.

We decided to take a tour of the island of Viti Levu with Fiji Experience, a local adventure tour company.  Our first stop was the town of Nadi, where we picked up a few supplies and headed off around the island towards the Coral Coast.  On our way we stopped for a Fijian picnic lunch and swam in the ocean, then went sandboarding (using boogie boards) down huge dunes.  Very dirty and hard work climbing back up, but lots of fun.  Arrived at the Coral Coast and checked into The Beach House, which was to be our home for the next three days.  We booked a dive boat for Beqa Lagoon, one of the top ten dive spots in the world and had a great time with two new friends we met from Denmark; Kirsten and her daughter Rekki, who are on a two month holiday in the south Pacific.  They were relaxed and confident divers and we enjoyed their company.

Back on the bus a few days later, we were on our way to Suva, the capital city of Fiji.  That time our day included a tropical rain forest trek with tubing on the Navaua river and a longboat ride back to our bus.  It poured rain all day and we were totally water logged.  The hike we completed was part of the Eco Challenge held here a few years back and it was a treacherous trail due to all the rain.  We ended up hiking in the river rather than on the banks at some points because it was easier.  We were all coated with red volcanic mud, but quite satisfied with our accomplishment by the end of the day.  Our driver gave us a quick tour of Suva, pointing out all the historic buildings and also the new ones being constructed for the South Pacific Games to be held here later in 2003.  Checked into the Raintree Lodge and got ourselves settled and then completely unsettled again when I entered the women's shower and toilet facilities and found I was sharing them with a 4 inch spider!!!  Any of you who know me well know that I DON'T LIKE SPIDERS!!!!!  Dale came to the rescue and got a broom to shoo it back outside into the garden.  Great, I wanted to see the body!  Next day, guess what...the spider was back and brought a friend.  So I started showering with a friend...no, not Dale...two ladies we met from Ontario, Tracy and Lynda (they were travelling with us on the Fiji experience), and we stood on guard for each other while using the facilities, safety in numbers right?...HA!

We had been in touch with a local hiking club and arranged to go on an excursion with them the next day.  Our trip to Bau Island proved to be a highlight, as Bau is the chiefly island of Fiji (all the kings come from this island) and the history is incredible all the way back to their cannibal days.  We had a great local guide, Niko, who took us through an authentic Yaqona (kava) ceremony.  We had practiced for this a few nights earlier, so felt like old pros and were even able to manage a few phrases in Fijian without stumbling over our tongues too much.  All in all, a truly great honour as we discovered that it's extremely rare for outsiders to get an invitation to visit Bau and you can't show up without one.  Dale wasn't feeling entirely well but dragged himself through the day and was soon back up to par.
Across the road and down from the Raintree Lodge was the Colo-I-Suva Natural Forest Park, so we, plus Tracy and Lynda (the teachers from Ontario we've been hanging around with) headed off for a nice hike to the waterfalls and pools.  Of course, it was the rainy season in Fiji, so it started to pour and we were soaked to the bone within ten minutes.  We toughed it out and got to the pools.  Local families come here to cool off and swim, jumping and diving from one pool to another.  Lots of fun but we were already soaked so just took a look around and headed back to our hostel.  We were delayed in Suva for a few extra days because of a cyclone which hit north of the island and the resulting rain which washed out roads around the island.  I would have preferred being delayed in an area without big, furry spiders.  Wandering Winos have to deal with these things!
Next stop Nananu-I-Ra, an island just half an hour by kayak or fifteen minutes by longboat, off the northeast coast of Viti Levu.  Bula!

We had an exciting day getting from Suva to Ellington Wharf (where we caught the boat to Nananu-I-Ra), the roads were not as bad as everyone expected, however still not in great shape by Canadian standards.  Stopped in Nausari for supplies and then headed north.  We passed through typical Fijian villages along the way and stopped for kava and lunch in one of them.  Afterwards, the local folks took some of us bilibili rafting (bamboo rafts...not too comfortable).  The drive from that village to the wharf was spectacular with mountainous scenery and lush green rainforest on one side and the ocean on the other.  Our boatman was waiting for us at the wharf, quickly loaded our gear and we were off.  It was only a short ride over to the island and we were so thrilled with our first glimpse of it that we decided to extend our stay to a week.  We met a wonderful couple from England, Sue and Keith Moxon and will be visiting them next fall when we start our UK leg of the trip.  They had the cottage next door to us and we spent six wonderful days snorkelling, swimming, suntanning and boating with them...and we drank a few Fiji Bitter beers with them too.  Spent one day on a beach at the far end of the island (a local fellow took us over by boat) and it was like a scene from the movie Castaway.  It had been arranged by another fellow we met, John (a doctor from Darwin in Australia) and his wife Jill and family Maddy, Chloe, Sophie and Sam.  They're living in Lautoka, Fiji for the next year on a doctor exchange program and were all delightful.  We spent our days relaxing on the beach and our evenings watching the night sky from the end of the jetty, laying on the dock looking for shooting stars.  All in all, our experience on Nananu-I-Ra was incredible and saying good-bye to everyone was difficult but we had a flight to catch!

Our trip back to Nadi included a stop in Ba town where we checked out our e-mail and read that the shuttle had exploded.  We were shocked at how out of touch we'd been for that one week, hadn't heard any news of it at all on Nananu-I-Ra, as it was a barefoot island, the only power came from a generator that was fired up during meal times so we could cook.  Radio and television wasn't part of the deal.   We spent our last night in Fiji back at the Travellers Beach Resort in Nadi.  All their staff were glad to see us back safe and sound from our adventure around the islands.  We organized our gear and packed up.  The taxi picked us up at 6 am and we were off to New Zealand!

Had a smooth flight over to Auckland and our first glance at the islands of New Zealand was of green rolling hills surrounded by the ocean.  We were met at the airport by Julie Thomas, a free lance television producer, who's part of the Global Free Loaders Network we belong to.  (The GFL is a group of travel minded people who open their homes to folks from other places in the hope of exchanging friendship and culture.)  After a little delay in the airport parking lot, thanks to a flat car battery, we headed to Julie's home.  In her work as a producer, she meets all sorts of interesting celebrities and has developed friendships with Placido Domingo and Russell Watson.  Opera is a huge part of her life and we listened to beautiful music.  She was also a great guide and we enjoyed seeing Auckland through her eyes.  Thursday February 6th was New Zealand's national holiday, Waitangi Day, so we spent the morning walking around the Viaduct Harbour, watching all the America's Cup activity that had caught the whole country by storm.  Saw the Alinghi Swiss team's challenger yacht head out to sea and went by all the bases for the teams that were beat out by them to challenge New Zealand's team in the finals, which were due to start in a few weeks.  The waterfront area had a festive atmosphere with buskers and music.  We took a tour of the harbour by water taxi to get up close and personal with some very luxurious super yachts.  Afterwards we headed up to Bastion Point for a picnic lunch with a view of the ocean and the city.  Kelly Tarleton's aquarium was next on our agenda and we spent the afternoon watching the penguins in the Antarctica exhibit and all the sea life in the various aquariums.  Headed across the harbour bridge to the north shore and walked along the beach to work up an appetite for ice cream before heading home.  We were quite tired from the sun, wind and walking so spent a quiet evening and got a good rest for the next day's activities.  Friday we went into downtown Auckland and did a walking tour of the area, stopping at the Lion's Brewery for a taste test.  Decided to catch a movie and went to see a local film called "The Whale Rider" which is based on a Maori legend.  It was an excellent film and has already won many international awards.  Saturday we took an early ferry from the Viaduct over to Devonport, only 15 minutes away, to attend the Devonport Wine Festival.  Spent the better part of the day sampling all the great wines New Zealand has to offer, along with some of their food specialties.  Saturday evening we wanted to go to the Mission Bay Jazz Festival, however as we approached the area, traffic stopped to a standstill and there were literally hundreds of thousands of people on the street.  Needless to say, our "love" of crowds won out over our love of jazz and we headed back to Julie's to spend a quiet evening visiting and listening to her selection of music.

On Sunday morning we picked up our "micro-camper", a little station wagon with a tent off the back.  Compared to our backpacking tent, this is luxury!  We said our goodbyes to Julie and headed north towards the Bay of Islands.  Found a campsite in Paihia, the campgrounds here have kitchens, hot showers, pools, tennis courts and we enjoyed checking them out as we travelled around both islands.  There was a lovely beachfront area in Paihia and we spent a day soaking up the sun and planning our next move.  Monday we toured Kawakawa (a little town a few kilometers away) which had the most unusual public toilets.  They were designed by the Austrian artist Frederick Hundertwasser and are a work of art, both inside and out.  Then we went to Waitangi.  This is the sight of the signing of the treaty which saw New Zealand become a nation.  There was an interesting museum in the original treaty house and an authentic Maori meeting house, as well as a display of Maori wakas (war canoes) which hold 120 men with 80 of them paddling.  Had a picnic on the treaty grounds before returning to Paihia.  We spent three days in this area and then got back on the road to head south towards Waitoma and the famous glow worms.

The drive from Paihia to Waitoma took us through an ancient forest of Kauri trees.  These are similar to Douglas Fir, Sequoia or Redwoods, just bigger.  We saw  "Tane Mahuta - The God of the Forest", a 2000 year old tree that's about 15 meters across at the base.  Further along the coastal highway we came to the giant sand dunes at Opononi and Omapere, so stopped for a walk along the beach to stretch our legs.  One of the best things about New Zealand's scenery was the diversity; with everything from mountains to forest to rolling hills to pastureland to sand dunes to beaches, the views changed every 10 kms.  We arrived in Waitoma and found another great campground to settle into for a few days.  We met a couple from Wales; Marc and Kay Brussalis-Davies (Marc is originally from NZ) and went on a 5 km hike with them in the morning.  In the afternoon, Dale and I headed to the Waitoma Glow Worm Caves.  We decided against the commercialized tour with fifty people and opted instead for a personalized black water rafting trip, with a local guide to another set of caves a little further from town.  There were only nine of us on this trip and it was like white water rafting, but in the dark, through the caves.  We also had a chance to do a little cave walking and the glow worms were gorgeous.  Unfortunately none of the photos turned out as it was too dark and any flash took away the effect.  The glow worms were like seeing millions of tiny stars through a canopy of trees.  Spent a lovely evening sharing dinner and stories with Marc and Kay.  Tomorrow we head to Wellington, though we wish we could stay here a little longer, we had arranged to meet Doug and Carolyn Stevens, another host couple with the GFL network.

Decided to take the Surf Highway for our drive from Waitoma to Wellington and found it quite beautiful, although there was a lot of road work on most highways at that time of year, which slowed us down a little.  A huge storm blew in from the Tasman Sea around dinner time, which made finding our way a bit interesting, but thanks to Doug's detailed directions, we were able to locate their home after only a slight delay.  On Saturday Doug took us on a tour of Wellington. We stopped at Te Papa, which means "our place" in Maori.  It's a hands on museum with displays of Maori artifacts and culture, along with exhibits on the movie Lord of the Rings (which was filmed here), earthquakes (which are very common here), and various other parts of NZ history.  Then we went on a drive along the coast to the south tip of the north island where we could just barely see the outline of the South Island on the horizon.  We also booked ferry passage for Monday.  Sunday was spent touring around the Wellington area, stopping at beaches and towns dotted along the coastline.  We were already sensing that a month in New Zealand would not be enough.  The people were so friendly and we felt completely comfortable in their country.

Before we left to catch the ferry on Monday, Doug took us up to a viewpoint overlooking Whitby and the ocean.  The weather was a bit misty, so the view wasn't as good as he had hoped, but we still enjoyed the ride up.  The ferry crossing was splendid.  Clear and sunny with a good stiff breeze that made sitting out on deck quite refreshing as we enjoyed the passing scenery.  The Cook Strait between the north and south island was not overly wide, but the crossing took three and a half hours nonetheless.  As we entered the Marlborough Sounds of the South Island, the scenery got even more beautiful and it felt like we were in Gulf Islands off British Columbia, just with bigger mountains.  After disembarking, we took the Queen Charlotte Drive from Picton to Richmond and were awed at every turn by the bays, cliffs and hills along the route.

Early next morning we headed towards Greymouth, driving along the coast and stopping to walk on the beach where big rollers were crashing in from the Tasman Sea.  Greymouth is a quaint coastal town and we were visited at our campsite by a weka (a flightless bird similar to the Kiwi) which ate out of Dale's hand.  We went for a walk down the beach we were camped on and sat on driftwood watching the ocean.  Wouldn't even entertain the thought of swimming as the surf was huge and we had been told there are really strong rips and tows.  There was a small airstrip right next to our campground, which we discovered when a small plane came in for a landing and cleared the top of the last tent by about 5 meters.  Later on that evening, a gyrocopter (which looks like a helicopter without the cabin, just a bike style contraption under the rotor) kept buzzing the campers.  Luckily the local fly boys put their toys away went it got dark.  The wind and rain picked up overnight.  Some other tents were blown over, we just got a little wet inside our unit.  Packed up in the morning rain feeling slightly sorry for ourselves until we saw a British couple who had arrived on mountain bikes the night before, they were packing all their soggy gear on their bikes for the day's ride and suddenly we didn't feel so bad.

We headed to Haast, past Franz Josef and Fox glaciers where it was too rainy to see anything above the trees.  At Haast we set up camp and then walked through a bird estuary and along an incredible stretch of beach with gigantic driftwood scattered everywhere.  The weather was wet and unsettled, as we were told to expect along the west coast, but it didn't stop us from enjoying the area one bit.  Our next day took us through Mount Aspiring National Park and the weather started to clear around noon.  We decided to stop and take every little forest walk and read all the historic and natural interpretive signs along the way, so we spent all day in the park.  It was really restful as we needed a day with a slower pace.  Stopped for the night at Lake Wanaka and felt like we had arrived in the Okanagan valley of interior British Columbia in Canada.  It constantly amazed us how similar parts of New Zealand were to our familiar Canadian landscapes.

In the morning we toured around the Wanaka townsite for a few hours before heading to Cromwell, where we received a warm welcome from Bernadette and Stewart Bolger of the GFL network.  Stewart had sold his sheep farm in the Southlands six months ago and was a wealth of information about rural life in New Zealand.  Bernadette was extremely busy with a weekend long youth group function, but Stewart proved to be an excellent tour guide as he took us all over Central Otago on back roads we would never have discovered on our own.  At one point we mentioned we were going to take a tour at Walter Peak Station (a sheep farm across the lake from Queenstown), and Stewart took it upon himself to find us our own private show instead.  He found an area where there were dog trials going on.  These are working dogs from the sheep farms and they follow commands (whistles or calls) to head off and herd the sheep in the direction that the farmer wants.  It was really interesting to watch these dogs do their work.  The trials involve a course which is set on a steep hillside and the dogs are awarded points based on the time it takes them to get three sheep through a series of gates (picture a slalom ski run), to the top of the hill. It's almost a sporting event where the farmers can show off their best dogs.  Some of the dogs were trained to head the flock and others to herd them in different directions.  A little ways down the road from the dog trials we found ourselves pulling off the road again into a farmyard, Stewart had spotted some shearing going on in a wool shed.  We went over to the farmer and Stewart told him he had a couple of Canadians that wanted to watch.  I'm sure the farmer thought we were crazy, but he just smiled and nodded his head so we were able to watch them shearing the lambs and ewes and feel the wool with all the lanolin in it.  We were amazed at how relaxed the sheep seemed to be, as thought they would really be stressed out by the process.  Our tour of the countryside included the dam and reservoir at Clyde, a street fair in Ranfurly, a tour of Naseby and St. Bathans and assorted small towns that had interesting gold mining history with original buildings (post offices and the like) still standing and in some cases, still operating.  Cromwell was one of the highlights of our time in New Zealand and we were really sorry to say goodbye to the Bolgers.

The drive from Cromwell to Queenstown went through a gorge with steep drop offs and winding roads (very typical of NZ) and we arrived in Queenstown to find a town similar to Banff or Jasper, but with a large lake at it's heart.  There were lots of cafes, bistros, bars and of course, lots of tourists.  We spent the afternoon taking a gondola ride up for a view of the lake and The Remarkables, a mountain range which frames the town.  Decided to press onto Te Anau rather than fight the crowds of tourists and arrived in time to take the last campsite available in town.  We decided to stay for three days and booked a cruise on Doubtful Sound.  Woke to a cloud free blue sky and warm sunshine and headed to Manapouri where we got onboard our  boat to cruise across the lake.  Then we boarded a coach for the trip through the pass to the head of Doubtful Sound.  On our way we went 300 meters underground into a 2 km tunnel to a power generating station for a quick tour.  Once at the sound, we boarded another, larger boat and started our cruise of the sound.  Many scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed in this area and we could see why immediately.  Doubtful is more pristine than Milford Sound, with less visitors and tour planes (which is why we chose it).  We decided during this trip to extend our stay in New Zealand by another week.  Maybe it was the fur seals or penguins along the coastline, or the pod of bottlenose dolphins that were playing alongside the boat, but we just felt we wouldn't see everything we wanted without more time.  Spent part of our day on board with Laurens and Mineke Zwaan from Holland, who were camped a short distance from us and  joined us for a glass of wine after dinner.  They had once lived in NZ for five years and were back for a visit of some of their favourite areas.  We made the calls to arrange an extra week; extended our micro-camper rental and changed our flight date to the 12th of March.  We felt better with the ease that would give us to see the rest of the country.  Spent the rest of the day reading on the lakeshore across from our campsite and bringing our trip journal up to date.

Feb 26th we finally left Te Anau and all it's glory and headed east towards Dunedin.   The drive took us through rolling pastoral land with mountains far off in the distance.  Arrived in Dunedin early afternoon and took a campsite before heading into town.  We came over a rise in the road and suddenly Dunedin and it's harbour were spread out before us.  An absolutely beautiful city, with old stone buildings and lots of Scottish influence.  Their central square is actually an octagon and because it's a university town there were heaps of young people milling about.  The city was a pleasant surprise as we had been led to believe there wasn't much there.  We toured Larnach Castle and then went to the end of the Otago Peninsula where we pulled our picnic rug and a couple of beers from the car and sat watching the albatrosses soaring overhead, coming into and out of their nests in the cliff face.  Dale spotted a seal in the surf below us and we enjoyed the sights for a few hours before heading back to our campsite.  The next morning we woke to a heavy mist hanging over the valleys and hills of Dunedin, so packed up to look for the sun again.  Drove north up the coast, stopping at the Moeraki Boulders before heading inland towards North Central Otago again and the town of Omarama.  The valley we drove through was hot and sunny with a clear blue sky and we were glad of the heat when we stopped for the day mid-afternoon.  Sat in the sun after putting in a laundry and checking e-mail.   The chores never go away completely, even on a trip like this!  We also decided to try and find campsites with cabins, as Dale had developed a chest cold, probably from our wet tenting experience in Haast and Greymouth earlier in the trip.

Next stop was Mount Cook, the highest peak in the Southern Alps and in all of New Zealand.  The Maori's call it Aoraki, which means "Cloud Piercer".  We liked that name better than Mount Cook.  There were a few clouds in the early morning, but they cleared as we approached Mount Cook National Park and we were able to hike around the area for most of the day (to the Blue Lakes and the toe of the Tasman Glacier), enjoying the views.  We stopped at a little cottage in Timaru that night, before heading to Christchurch the next day to stay with Richard and Colleen Loffhagen from the GFL network.

On our way to Christchurch we took a slight detour to Akaroa, an extinct volcano crater that has a few small villages in it.  The road was extremely steep and winding (they don't seem to build any flat or straight roads in NZ), but the town of Akaroa was well worth it.  Spent the afternoon watching a cricket match (which we slowly started to get a grasp of) and had a wonderful dinner of steamed mussels and calamari.  Arrived in Christchurch at the Loffhagens after dinner and spent the rest of that evening getting to know Richard and Colleen (and their two sons, Ben and Tom) over a few bottles of wine.  The next day Richard took us on a lovely drive to Lyttleton with great views of the ocean and town from the surrounding hills.  Headed into the arts district of Christchurch for a walking tour and stopped for lunch there.  We were impressed with how they've made use of the old university buildings by transforming them into theatres, shops and cafes.  Christchurch had a wonderful old world feel to it and we enjoyed our afternoon looking at the sights.  Richard made the most delicious hot lamb salad for dinner and we were sure to put on a few pounds if we kept eating like that.  Our time in New Zealand was short and with everything there was yet to see and do we were feeling the pressure to cram it all in.  It was hard work...really!  Colleen suggested we stop at Hamner Springs on our way north, so that was added to the agenda.  The Loffhagens were wonderful hosts and we really enjoyed our stay with them.

Hanmer Springs was a lovely little summer retreat town and we decided to stay an extra night there rather than just pass through.  There were hot springs to soak in, so we took a cottage at the local caravan park.  Went back for another dip at the pools in the morning and ran into Laurens and Mineke Zwaan again, our paths were destined to cross!  After spending the morning enjoying the pools we headed north to Picton to spend the last few days of our South Island tour there.
Picton was so scenic, we stayed across from the waterfront and had lovely views of the marina.  Took a drive east of town and found an ancient Maori Pa (stronghold) with ruins of Maori housing and food storage areas.  Climbed down from the cliff and sat on the rocks by the waters edge for awhile, then back up to the lookout above the ferry wharf for a picnic lunch.  We just sat and enjoyed the view for most of the afternoon.  The Marlborough Sounds were so peaceful.  We booked our ferry crossing back to the North Island for the next morning.  Laurens and Mineke Zwaan were at the same campground as us that night, so we spent the evening chatting with them over a bottle of wine.  They extended an invitation to visit them in Holland when we're in Europe next fall and hopefully that will happen.

Woke to a clear sky and no wind, the crossing was smooth and we arrived back in Wellington around noon.  There were dozens of dolphins swimming alongside the ferry for most of the crossing, we loved watching them play in the bow wake.
Our next stop was Napier.  This town was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1939 and as a result nearly all it's buildings were rebuilt in the Art Deco style that was so popular around that time.  It was a beautiful city, right on the water and when evening came it lit up, with fountains and floodlights and neon outlining the rooftops.  Very pretty.  This was prime wine country and we were in our glory there.  There were just too many winery's to visit and not enough time to fit them all in.

The drive from Napier to Rotorua took us through some severely logged parts of the country.  Unlike Canada, where most of the logging is far from the eye, here it was right beside the highway and we were shocked by how much of the forest was gone.  A strong replanting mandate was obvious and we could see neat little rows of saplings in amongst the cuttings.  It will be years before this forest grows up again and the area was more than a little depressing.  We were glad to reach Lake Taupo and then Rotorua where we got away from the logging cuts.  Lake Taupo was like driving in Kelowna or Vernon, a huge blue lake surrounded by hills and mountains and a premiere holiday spot for Kiwis.  Our first indication that we had arrived in Rotorua was the smell.  I'm told by Dale's cousin Randy, that it wasn't sulphur as most folks think, but rather hydrogen sulphide and it had a lovely rotten eggs odour.  We took a couple of deep breaths and got used to it within an hour or so.  The landscape was unbelievable.  Couldn't decide if it felt like Mars, the moon or hell...maybe a mix of all three.  We had never seen such violent displays of nature; bubbling pools of mud, boiling water pools, rocks that radiate heat through the soles of your shoes and geysers spouting off all over the place.  You had to watch where you walked, the ground was very thin in places, eroded away from beneath.  We took in as much as we could in two days and came away awestruck.  This wasn't a "beautiful" place, but it was powerful and violent and impressive in it's own way.  We're glad we experienced it.

With only four days left before leaving NZ, we decided to spend them at Waihi Beach.  We rented a little self-contained cottage and went walking on the beach, watched movies, ate well and enjoyed the local wine to rejuvenate ourselves before the next step of our adventure.  It was cloudy and rainy for our stay at Waihi, almost like New Zealand knew we needed some down time and was encouraging us to sleep in and move slowly for our last days there.

March 12th arrived and we headed into Auckland to return our micro-camper.  We met Julie Thompson from GFL for lunch and she drove us to the airport and wished us farewell from her islands.
NZ had been wonderful, the Kiwi's were warm, fun-loving people.  Cheers to you New Zealand, but Australia is calling us!

G'day Mates!  We arrived safe and sound in Sydney and immediately started exploring that gorgeous city!  Our hotel was ten minutes walk from Darling Harbour near Chinatown and the Powerhouse Museum and right across the street from the Hay Markets.  Bought a Sydney Pass which gave us unlimited access to the buses, trains and ferries and went sightseeing and took harbour cruises and acted like tourists.  There were four major beaches within an hours bus ride and while Bondi and Manly may be the most famous, we really liked Coogee and Bronte better.  Everyone there had there own idea as far as where the best beach, swimming and surfing was and no one seemed to agree on one place, so we just had to try them all.  One night we took a Harbour Lights tour on a ferry around Sydney Cove and into Darling Harbour which just showed off the beauty of the city at night.  The choice of restaurants was unlimited and we walked our feet off.  The Sydney Explorer, Bondi Explorer and Parramatta Explorer were all buses that toured areas around the city on a hop on-hop off basis and gave a commentary explaining where you were and what you were seeing.  It was a great way to get your bearings and decide what interested you enough to go back to.  Everything was within an easy walk of our hotel, half hour at the most and the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge were every bit as beautiful as we expected.

Strolled through the Botanical Gardens, the Domain and Hyde Park, enjoying the flowers, trees, birds and fruit bats.  The birds were all so colourful and plentiful, we saw lorikeets, cockatiels, parrots and all sorts of others we couldn't identify, just flying wild around the city.  Ate supper from a street vendor in Chinatown one night, taking in the ambience and enjoying the sights and smells.  We had an internet cafe and bottle shop next door to our hotel and the train station was a five minute walk away, so we were set and decided to spend a week there before heading off to see the rest of the country.

Dale made contact with some long lost cousins on his Mom's side of the family; Tom, Peter & Robert Richmond, and we took a train up to Hawkesbury River to meet them one evening.  They gave us a quick tour of the town of Brooklyn and we had fish and chips and went over old family albums and a good visit before taking the train back to Sydney.  Was great to meet them and we've arranged to get together again when we come back to Sydney later in our trip.  We also got in touch with Gavin and Sandra, friends we met on our 25th anniversary cruise a few years back, but were unable to get together due to work schedules and the such.  Ironically they were in Canada when we came back through Sydney.

We spent a week touring about and enjoying the beaches and sights that Sydney and area had to offer.  Then we booked passage on the Indian-Pacific train to Adelaide (23 hours) and started exploring the rest of the country.  Dale found out about a car race, The Clipsal 500, while we were in Adelaide so guess where we went.  We got our first glimpse of the outback from the train and early in the morning we could see kangaroos bouncing alongside the tracks in the fields, as well as hundreds of emus.  They were very fast and it was amazing to watch them.  Some folks consider them pests, as they seem to end up in the ditches as roadkill quite often.  Would imagine it's like hitting a deer or moose at home.  Ouch!

Met Mark, Jan and Alysha Thriscutt (GFL Hosts) and spent a few days with them getting to know Adelaide.  We all went for a stroll along the beach in the morning and Mark, Dale and I went to the car race on the Sunday afternoon. Afterwards there was a free concert with four bands, including Diesel and INXS, so we really had a great day.  We were glad to come back through Adelaide a few times, as it was the hub for our train journeys to Melbourne, Perth and Alice Springs.  Mark drove us to the train station on Monday morning and we headed off to Melbourne via the Overland Train.

We stayed a week in Melbourne and split the stay between two GFL hosts, part of the time with Sandra Gordon, a teacher at a local high school.  Took a walk with her one evening along the beach and jetty at St. Kilda.  Sandra had opened her house to us like all the GFL families have and we were constantly amazed at the hospitality we received.  Later that week we stayed with Noel Lockett in South Melbourne and got our first taste of Aussie Rules football as he arranged for tickets to the season opener.  We were hoarse once they taught us their club song!  We had been doing the tourist thing in Melbourne for a few days and discovered a city with a real urban flair.  The choice of restaurants was staggering, they had beautiful gardens everywhere and a river valley that was well developed with parks and walkways.  We took the free City Circle Tram around the central business district to get our bearings and then went up the Rialto Tower to the Observation Deck to check out the view of the city.  Afterwards, we wandered through the Crown Casino (where Chris won big last year!) and were stunned by how full it was in the middle of the afternoon.  Good thing we're not big gamblers or we could have blown our entire travel budget!  Met Noel after work and headed back to his place for a BBQ fish dinner of barramundi.  Friday we strolled through the Fitzroy Gardens and met up with Noel and a group of his friends for beers at a local pub before walking over to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds for the big game.  The Richmond Tigers were playing the Collingwood Magpies.  We were cheering for Richmond, but alas they lost, so we all had to go and console ourselves at a pub after the game.  The atmosphere in the stadium was electric and Canadian sports fans could learn a thing or two about cheering on your team from these folks!!  One of the best things about the game was the crowd.  Support split about 50/50 between Richmond and Collingwood fans and the tension in the stands really added to the excitement of the game.  Plus, the players were tough!  They didn't wear any protective equipment; no helmets, no shoulder pads, and their game was chaotic.  It's not the structured advance down the field with one team in possession for three downs that we're used to.  They kick, pass, bounce, shunt and run the ball in every direction around the oval and the umpires never seem to stop the play.  The stadium is currently being renovated and will hold 104,000 people once done, can't imagine what that crowd would be like as we had about 70,000 for the game we attended and it was loud!  All in all we had a great time and will no doubt be looking for footy matches on TV for the rest of our stay.

Noel hosted a barbeque so we could meet some of his friends and we got our first taste of kangaroo meat, it was quite good.  We really enjoyed meeting his mates and getting a feel for how Melbournians live. Sunday he took us on a driving tour to the Mornington Penninsula and the town of Portsea.  We stopped at a place called the London Bridge, a rock formation along the Bass Strait and walked along the beach working up an appetite for fish and chips.  On our drive back to Melbourne we had a great view across the bay from Arthurs Seat towards Melbourne about 60 kms away.  We arranged for a rental car to drive the Great Ocean Road along the south coast from Melbourne to Adelaide.  At about 1000 kms in length, we're taking five days to travel it so we'll have time to explore.

We said our goodbyes to Noel and left Melbourne by 8:00 am, our first stop was Bells Beach which is home to famous surfing competitions, so we stopped to watch the locals strut their stuff on the waves.  The surf is definitely huge here and we saw sea kayakers, surfers and wave runners all "surfing" in the huge waves.
The Great Ocean Road was truly magnificent and there were lookouts and viewpoints every few kilometers so we were able to stop and enjoy the view without driving off a cliff, as the road wound along the edge of the coastline.  At Anglesea we stopped to watch the big rollers come in off the Southern Ocean with nothing to stop them all the way from Antartica to Australia, no wonder they're so big.  The historic lighthouse at Airey's Inlet was quaint and we walked all around the area for a few hours before driving into Lorne.  Took the scenic drive to Erskine Falls and hiked down to the pools under the falls, then wandered through town and sat on the jetty watching the local fishermen.  Dale was hand feeding dozens of cockatoos, green parrotts and rosellas at breakfast before we left Lorne the next morning.  The scenery between Lorne and Apollo Bay is rugged with steep sandstone cliffs and rock stacks rising up from the ocean.  We found ourselves stopping every few kilometres to admire it.  We saw our first koala bears in the gum trees at Cape Otway and climbed down to the beach at Gibsons Steps to walk along the shore.  The natural rock formation of The Twelve Apostles was incredible and could be found on just about every postcard in the area.  At Loch Ard Gorge we spent a few hours walking along all the pathways and boardwalks, exploring every nook and cranny the coast had to offer. Our next day took us to The Arches, London Bridge (different than the one on Mornington Peninsula), Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, Warranbool and Port Fairy where we stopped for a picnic lunch along the canal.  Finally stopped for the day at Mount Gambier, which was an extinct volcano crater.  Spent the next morning exploring the Blue Lake area of Mount Gambier before heading towards Adelaide along the Coorong.

Our next stop was at Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills and it felt like we were in Europe.  A small, quaint village that the folks from Adelaide like to week-end at.  Mark picked us up at the car rental shop in Adelaide the next day and we spent an enjoyable evening back at the Thriscutts.  After a walk along Glenelg Beach in the morning, we boarded the Indian-Pacific for the long journey across the Nullarbor Plain to Perth, almost 40 hours by train from Adelaide (we had already travelled the 23 hours from Sydney by train, so it was a long trip!).  The train stopped at the "town" of Cook, population 4, and we were able to disembark and wander around town for an hour while the train took on fuel and water.  Couldn't believe the isolation there, I wouldn't last a week!!!  Later that night our train stopped again at Kalgoorlie and as it was a three hour stop, we wandered through town until we found a pub where we had a beer with the locals.  There were lots of aboriginals in this town and they were not the most fortunate people, their social problems similar to many of the native American Indians at home.

Our train finally arrived in Perth the next morning where GFL hosts Beryl and Rob Slabak met us at the station.  We took the coastal route to their home in the Hillarys, and after a delicious lunch walked to the beach and local marina.  Caught a ferry to Rottnest Island the next morning and spent the day sunbathing and skinny dipping at a completely secluded beach, it was a beautiful little slice of heaven there.  Rob haggled a rental car deal for us while we were loafing around and we spent the next ten days travelling through the Great Southern and South Western regions of Western Australia.

Our first stop was Manjimup and "tall timber country".  Some of the largest trees in Australia and a forest that was beautiful.  We drove to Albany the next morning and decided to base ourselves there for a few days to fully explore the area.  The weather had turned foul, but the storms and rain only made the coastline more exciting.  We took a long walk in the rain along the boardwalks and pathways to Kings Point Lighthouse and saw seals on the rocks and a gorgeous rainbow when the sun came out after the storm.  A great meal, a little red wine and the footy match on the telly capped off a near perfect day.  We went out to Torndirrup National Park in the morning and got absolutely soaked by the salt spray at The Gap and Natural Bridge.  We also went to Frenchmans Bay, Cable Beach, the Salmon Holes and Stony Hill lookout, which were all equally spectacular.  The next day we drove over to the town of Denmark after spending a few hours on the beach in the morning.  The road took us through a small winery area which was very pretty.  We had a picnic on the beach at the Green Pools and then drove up to the viewpoint above Wilson Inlet and Ocean Beach.

We left Albany in the morning and stopped at Nornalup to take the Tree Top Walk through an ancient Tingle tree forest.  The walk took us up into the trees along a structure suspended along the tree top canopy and was a highlight of our trip.  We had never experienced any forest from that vantage point before and it was awesome.  Two hours later we came back down to earth and took the Ancient Empires walkway through the base of the forest.  We stopped in at Augusta and Cape Leuwin then headed to Hamelin Bay for the night.  We spotted dolphins during our walk along the shore before sunset.  The next morning we took our coffees down to the waters edge and watched a couple of local girls hand feeding fish bait to manta rays and sting rays that had swum up to the beach looking for handouts.
We continued our journey towards Margaret River, stopping at Prevelly Beach to watch the surfers, where we saw more dolphins who seemed to be jumping through the waves with the surfers, playing with them.  It was a special sight to see. Margaret River is gorgeous wine country and we decided to take a tour of the local wineries.  A van picked us up at the caravan park and took us to three wineries before a great bushtucker lunch in the gardens of the third vineyard, two more wineries after lunch, then the chocolate shop and cheese factory.  Another perfect day in paradise.  This was a great part of the country and seemed to have everything we love in one little spot.

After a few days in the Margaret River and Cowararup area, we stayed one night with Helen and Steve Godfrey in Busselton, taking in the two kilometre long Busselton Jetty as well as Cape Naturaliste, Meelup Beach, Canal Rocks and then heading up to Mandurah for our last night before returning to Perth.  The side trip had been wonderful, but we were looking forward to going back to Perth to spend some time with Beryl and Rob and hopefully go scuba diving again.

The weather in Perth was perfect and we spent alot of time walking along the beach, sunbaking and swimming.  We needed more of these days at this point in our trip.  Easter week-end was wonderful and Monday we decided to go scuba diving with Beryl and Rob on their boat the Sea-Bee II.  Rob and Beryl were really accomplished divers and made us feel comfortable on our first dive without dive masters.  We saw a manta ray, newbies, lots of crayfish and spent an hour at about 10-12 meters depth exploring the rock and coral caves and swim throughs.  Afterwards we anchored off "Little Island" and were having our lunch when an inquisitive seal popped up and started swimming around the half dozen boats there were anchored there.  Dale got his mask and snorkel on and went into the water and this seal swam right up to him and stared him in the face.  Dale dove under and the seal did the same...everything Dale did, the seal would imitate.  It was really incredible to watch and Dale said they were doing somersaults around each other under the surface.  What a wonderful experience.  We headed into Perth's Kings Park on Tuesday and took in the views from the point as well as an Aboriginal Cultural show before hitting the beach again for some boogie boarding and fun in the surf.  Beryl and Rob liked "the grape" just about as much as us, so our visit with them was marked with some great evenings of good food and wine.  Wednesday we said our goodbyes as they took us to the railway station.  We caught the train to Adelaide and spent a day on the beach at Glenelg Bay before catching our next train up into the Central Red Desert and Alice Springs.

The landscape in the center of Australia was like a science fiction movie about Mars, it was RED and even though there wasn't much vegetation, it had a beauty and serenity to it unlike anything else.  Alice was a quiet little town of about 26,000 friendly people and it was hot (by our standards anyway).  We were up at 6:00 am the next morning and on our way to Uluru, the aboriginal name for Ayers Rock.  We saw the most stunning 360 degree sky at sunrise, it completely bathed the desert in light that changed with every second...unreal.  About two hours from Alice we stopped at this huge red sand dune and climbed up to the top for a view of Mount Conner (the Aussies call it the big toothbrush) on one side and a salt lake on the other.  The sand was bright red, soft and fine and it stuck to everything.  We got our first view of Uluru from miles away, and it was just as we expected, an awe inspiring sight and we decided to climb it.  About an hour later, when we actually pulled up to the base of it, we were having second thoughts...this Rock was HUGE and STEEP.  But, of course, you know Dale and he wouldn't let me chicken out, so up we went.  As we were ascending I kept thinking of how hard it would be to get back down (bad knees, vertigo, it's a scaredy cat Claire thing), but amazingly it went much better than I had anticipated.  We watched a helicopter land and take off from the top and I was thinking "why am I climbing if I could take a chopper ride up?", but it was actually an emergency evacuation for a woman who had fallen and hurt herself quite badly, they don't usually allow helicopters to land.  We were up and back in under two hours (pretty good for a couple of out of shape old farts in their forties).  It was about 29C and quite windy, so I was glad to get back onto terra firma.  We then headed to Kata Tjuta (which is the aboriginal name for The Olga's).  These are even more gorgeous than Uluru and we would have loved to climb and hike there, but time constraints wouldn't allow it.  We went to a viewpoint to watch evening descend on the desert and had champagne and a barbeque dinner while we watched the changing face of Uluru with every moment of the sunset.  We probably have about twenty photos of the sunset and the Rock looks different in each one.  On our way back to Alice, we stopped at Mount Ebenezeer for a coffee and Dale and I walked out back from the roadhouse into the desert and looked up at the sky with millions of stars shining down on us.  This was a place that begged us to come back.
We decided to plant ourselves on a beach somewhere up the east coast for the last segment of our stay in Oz and chose Byron Bay.  Our train left Alice the next day and we planned to spend a few days around greater Sydney before heading up that way.

Sydney was just as beautiful the second time around, but alas a 24 hour flu bug felled us and we stayed in bed at the hotel for two of our three days.  We then went up to Beecroft and spent four days with Peter and Carol Richmond (Dale's relatives) and Peter played tour guide and took us all through the Blue Mountains.  The Jamieson Valley at Katoomba was spectacular and we had fun riding the vertical railway down to the valley floor and taking the gondola back up.  We also saw West Heads, Commadore Heights and Homebush Bay which was the site of the 2000 Olympics.  Dale was able to visit his 98 year old relative, Gladys MacCartie, however the visit was in the hospital as she had taken a fall and was recuperating there.  Peter and Carol took us out to Palm Beach, where Carol had spent a lot of time as a teenager and it was wonderful to see the little known places around Sydney that most tourists don't get to.

We took the train from Beecroft up to Brisbane and spent a couple of days exploring that city.  It really reminded us of Melbourne, as both cities were very much centered around their rivers.  We explored the Botanical Gardens and rode the City Cat ferry up and down the river.  Then it was onto the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise for a couple of days.  This was an area that's very congested with people and traffic and highrises and really not our cup of tea...we also had an interesting encounter with a lady drug dealer which is best left out of these pages!  We decided that is was time for Byron Bay sooner rather than later.

Now...this was more like it!!!  We took a condo apartment that was a ten minute walk from the center of town and a five minute walk to the beach.  It was great, we completely unloaded our backpacks for the first time in four months!  The unit had one bedroom, a small kitchen, a living-dining room combination and a nice, full bathroom with a washer and dryer.  We also had a private patio overlooking the pool and hot tub, and a barbeque at our disposal.  It was heaven and we spent the next three weeks there.

We explored the Byron Bay area and discovered that there were no stop lights, no parking meters and no high-rises.  But there were lots of shops, cafes, bars, bistros, beaches, hiking trails and lots of surfing, kayaking, swimming and sunshine!  Chris arrived in Byron on May 12th, but we didn't meet up with him until my birthday May 16th (e-mail issues!).  He spent a week with us, taking surfing lessons (Dale even gave it a try and said it was a lot harder than it looked), swimming, suntanning and just generally relaxing and catching up on the past five months.  He then booked an excursion up to the Whitsunday Islands and will meet with us in Sydney at the end of our stay.  We were really glad to see him even though it was a short visit and were looking forward to the last few days in Sydney with him.

We walked up to Cape Byron Lighthouse one day and discovered a great place for spotting marine life.  We saw Humpback whales, Bottlenose dolphins (lots of them), sea turtles, manta rays and sting rays.  We spent hours just sitting on the hillside with the binoculars.  The dolphins were really playful, they body surfed the waves, jumping backwards over the big surf, flipping and spinning in the air.  I loved it.  We had fallen into such a great routine, breakfast on the patio, reading on the beach, playing cribbage, backgammon, chess and chinese checkers, a little wine and cheese at the end of the day, movies in the evening, lots of sleep, lots of sunshine.  Life was good.

With a sad farewell we left Byron Bay, knowing it will always have a place in our hearts.  Our train arrived in Sydney around noon and we walked back over to the Aaron's Hotel where we had stayed the last two times through.  Chris was already checked in, so we freshened up and met for dinner.  Mary Weeks, a friend Chris met in Byron Bay was also there.  The four of us spent a few days enjoying Sydney again, eating sushi, driving to Coogee Beach and through The Royal National Park  Dale and I had one extra day by ourselves after Chris headed home to Canada, so we walked from our hotel to Darling Harbour, all through The Rocks, across the Harbour Bridge and to the Opera House before turning around and heading back to our hotel through The Domain and Hyde Park.  This was an incredible city in an incredible country and it won't be our last visit.   For now our time there was over, because the Winos had a date with Indonesia!

We arrived in Indonesia the evening of June 5th to find Peggy and Jay Mann waiting at the airport holding up a sign for the WANDERING WINOS.  That prompted a few curious stares from the other passengers, but gave us a good laugh.  The first thing that hit us about Indonesia was the smell; wood smoke and clove cigarettes.  As you adjust to that, you realize your skin is glistening and your clothes are stuck to your back.  It’s hot and it’s humid.  Then you see the people, lots of tiny, smiling people, all talking rapidly and you don’t understand a word they're saying.  Our photos really won't do Indonesia justice, you need the sounds and the smells to fully appreciate the country.  Every morning we woke to the "tink, tink" of cart vendors rapping on a piece of wood or glass, each of them with a different sound to indicate to the people inside the houses what they had for sale.  The traffic there was incredible.  It’s best described as “progressive parking”, move a few feet, stop...another hundred feet, stop again…everywhere…all the time.  It's the place to learn patience, heaven knows some of us need it more than others.

Our first day in Jakarta, Peggy had arranged a traditional Indonesian spa day for the girls and while we were off getting manicures, pedicures, cream baths and massages, Ibu Minah came to the house to give Dale a two hour massage.  Poor Jay had to work, someone had to pay for all this pleasure!  Many Indonesians practice Jamu, which is a holistic, herbal, healing way of life.  Jamu ladies can be found on the streets with their baskets of herbal tonics.  The men drink them for virility and stamina.  I guess the women take them in order to keep up with the men!  Regardless, Jamu was a very nice frame of mind and body to be in.

The next day had us all on a 20 km bike tour of the countryside just out of the city.  We rode through small villages and rice paddies, coming to a waterfall and river that was foaming with pink bubbles from all the soap left by women doing laundry.  Men with long, narrow boats were digging sand from the bottom of the river, filling the boats and bringing them to the riverbank, then other men moved the sand up the bank.  All by hand, not a machine in sight.  Labour intensive, but when you have a population of 200 million people to draw from, labour isn’t an issue.  We saw a family walking back from the market with supplies balanced on the woman’s head and in large baskets hung from a stick across her husband’s back, even the children were laden with packages.  Parcel pickup at my grocery store back home never looked so good.  We continued on, but the path was rugged and not being used to cycling, I wimped out around 10 km, Jay called his driver to pick us all up.  Still, in those 10 kilometers we saw a multitude of rural Indonesian sights that for us were so unusual and interesting.

Jay and his son Graham were entered in a cross country bike race the following day, so we piled into the van and their driver, Budi, took us up to Puncak (which means peak and is the name of the town as well).  Jay and Graham took off on their race while Peggy, Dale and I enjoyed lunch at the peak overlooking the tea plantations which cover the hills outside of Jakarta.  As we drove from Puncak to Bogor to meet the guys at the end of their race, we encountered all sorts of vendors walking amongst the cars on the highway, selling everything from newspapers and cigarettes to candies and water, all sold out of cardboard boxes hung on straps around their necks.  In Bogor we watched the awards for the race and walked through the Botanical Gardens before heading home.

Jakarta is a bargain hunter’s paradise, so Peggy introduced me to a few of the local specialty shops; pearls, batiks, wood carvings, copper, brass, clothing, shoes, furniture.  Plus, her dressmaker and all the malls.  You name it, they’ve got it.  The prices are so inexpensive, it’s really hard to resist.  So I didn’t.

A few days later, Jay decided we needed to see more than just shopping centers, malls and street shops.  He planned a walk from a nearby warung (which are small food and drink stops, usually in the middle of nowhere).  Our path took us right into the rice paddies, past a rural school (and a little further on past a brothel), to a bamboo bridge where we watched a group of men washing ginger on the bank of the river.  All the ginger root was laying on tarps and they threw bucket after bucket of water at it, removing the earth and cleaning it enough to bundle it up into huge sacks.  All by hand and again very labour intensive.  This time however there were a few water buffalo nearby, although they seemed to be more interested in cooling off in the river than doing any work.  The smell of fresh ginger in the air was intoxicating.  After our walk, Budi picked us up and drove us halfway to Puncak so we could go to the Taman Safari Wildlife Park and Zoo.  We drove slowly through the wildlife park side while the zebras, tigers, lions, elephants and bears walked freely around the van.  Some of the more curious animals wanted to put their faces right into the vehicle, so we had to be extra careful when rolling down a window to take photos!  The zoo wasn't the politically correct, environmentally friendly version found in North America, if you know what I mean!

The second week of our stay, we all took a trip to Jogjakarta and Bali.  Jogjakarta is the ancient capital of Indonesia and home to the Sultan's Palace (they still have a sultan here, but just as a figure head, the Indonesian president has the real power).  There was also the largest Buddhist temple in the world nearby, called Borobudur as well as the ancient Hindu temple of Parambanan.  At the Sultan's Palace we saw a Wyang Puppet show, all done behind a lit screen, like the old hand shadows we used to do in the days before television.  It was very interesting to watch the way they made the thin, flat, wooden puppets come to life.  At one point during the day, we were surprised by a group of school kids who came up to us and wanted to interview us for their class.  Very strange!

While we were in Jogjakarta we went to see the classic Indonesian ballet "The Ramayana".  It’s basically a love story about an evil demon who kidnaps a beautiful princess and her prince's quest to free her so they can live happily ever after.  It's a story we find in all cultures, but the presentation here was superb.  The costumes and make-up were beautifully ornate.  The dancers were accompanied by a Gamelan orchestra playing gongs, drums, bells and xylophone type instruments and a performer who sang the ancient sanscrit story.  Thankfully there was a narrator who told the story in English too.  It was an exquisite evening as the performance was staged in an open garden with waterfalls, pools and the scent of plumeria floating in the air.

Touring the temple of Borobudur was very interesting and not just because of the sprawling grounds with the seven level temple of carved stone depicting the life of Buddha, but because everywhere we turned, young Indonesian students would ask if they could have their photo taken with us.  At 5'7" I was the shortest in our foursome and at that I stood a head taller than most people there, you can imagine the spectacle we created.  By the end of the day, my cheeks were aching from smiling so much for all the photos and we felt like celebrities.  There were also a few students with note pads wanting more interviews on what we bulas (white people) thought about Indonesia.  We were in Jogjarkta during their International Festival and came across an art exhibit set up in a freshly harvested rice paddy on the way back to the hotel.  We saw both static and performing art and decided that artists everywhere are a community onto themselves.  Some displays were very good, some were very odd, but all were interesting at the least.

The next day at Parambanan Temple, two teenage Muslim girls came up to us and asked if they could give us a tour (in French for me and English for Dale) so they could practice their language skills.  Two other students offered the same to Peggy and Jay.  It was a unique experience.  They didn’t want any form of payment, just a chance to practice speaking the languages they were learning at school.  We couldn’t imagine teenagers at home approaching strangers with a request like that, much less being interested in school work on a sunny, week-end afternoon.  The requests to have their photos taken with the big, tall, white  foreigners continued, from students, their parents and young children as well.  We must seem very strange to them indeed!

Leaving Jogjakarta, we flew to the island of Bali and were greeted at the hotel with cool drinks & towels, fresh flower garlands and a little, old man playing traditional music.  Asian hotels really know how to do it!
Our first day in Bali we rented a van and driver to go up the island past Ubud to a lookout over the volcano Gunung Batur for lunch, stopping along the way at the Spring Temple and then at the Monkey Forest on the way back.  The countryside was terraced rice paddies interspersed with lush rain forest and vendors would try and sell us carvings and batiks and other souvenirs each time we stepped out of the van.  The Balinese people were still reeling from a severe drop in tourism after the bombing last year of a nightclub in Kuta, coupled with the outbreak of the SARS virus earlier this year.  Despite those events, we felt safe everywhere we went and the people we met were gentle, soft-spoken and kind.  Even street and beach vendors were polite, respecting our "no thank you" for the most part.  Jay and Peggy went back to Jakarta on Tuesday night, so Dale and I spent the next three days on our own, exploring Kuta and the beaches and the garden pools of our resort.  Bali is not Muslim or Buddhist and although it has a strong Hindu background, it is simply a culture onto itself and nothing else compares. The carvings were more ornate, the architectural styles were vastly different and the Balinese lifestyle seemed more spiritual than what we had seen elsewhere in Indonesia.  They celebrated the Galungan Holy day during our week there and we were fortunate to see local men making Penjor, coconut leaf weavings attached to long bamboo poles and suspending them over the streets everywhere.  The women put offerings of rice and flowers out for their ancestors on a daily basis.  it was lovely and we could easily have spent a month on that tiny island.  We hope to have the chance to enjoy Bali again one day.

We arrived back in Jakarta on Friday night and Budi was waiting for us at the airport.  It took 2 1/2 hours to get home to Jay and Peggy's place in the Pondak Indah suburb, longer than the flight from Bali to Jakarta, oh the joys of Indonesian traffic.  Patience, patience, patience...really...I was trying hard to learn it.

Saturday morning, Dale and Jay woke at 3:00 a.m. to drive two hours to the trailhead of a volcano trek they were doing with a group from Jay's office.  Wisely, Peggy and I opted out of this trip and went shopping instead.  From the condition of our guys after the 20 km, 1700 meter elevation gain hike, we were very glad we didn't go.  Dale and I have done a fair share of backpacking and hiking in the Canadian Rockies, but Dale said this was by far the toughest day he had ever endured.  The trail was rough, uneven and narrow, taking them past hot waterfalls and steam vents, they were climbing a volcano after all.  They walked for over eleven hours and were still hurting two days later, even though Ibu Minah, the masseuse, came to the house on Sunday afternoon to work out the knots in their aching muscles.  As for Peggy and I, we had a  great shopping trip!

After more than five months on the road, we were beginning to think we had become a little lazy during our three weeks in Indonesia.  For the most part we had been living a luxurious ex-pat lifestyle, with someone looking after our every whim.  That’s very dangerous for a couple of backpacking winos on a budget!
We had to quickly get back into our traveling form as we left all the pleasures of Indonesia behind.  It was an incredible experience and we are forever indebted to our good friends, Peggy and Jay, for showing us their Jakarta and making our stay there more than the “lonely planet” could ever imagine.

We arrived in Singapore the evening of June 26th to 30 C heat and the highest humidity on our journey to date.  After looking after the essentials at Changi Airport (moneychanger, maps and public transit information), we went to the Mass Rail Transit (MRT) station at the airport to buy passage to the station near our hotel in Chinatown.  As we were standing at the ticket dispenser, a young man came up and asked if we needed any assistance in figuring out the machine.  He was the first of three local people who offered assistance to us on our way to the hotel.  Each time we stopped to look at our map, someone was right there to help.  It was a wonderful, friendly welcome to the city and was the norm during our stay in Singapore.  Anyone wanting a taste of Asia without the stress of a foreign language and culture, should consider Singapore as their first trip.  Nearly everyone (except the very elderly) spoke some English and all signs were in English as well, so it was easy to get around.  The city was clean, well ordered and the MRT (their subway) was brightly lit with no litter or graffiti.  We heard lots of comments about sterile Singapore, but for someone like me, who tends to the neat and tidy side, it was heavenly.  Our hotel was in a restored, three story heritage shophouse building in Chinatown and close to the MRT station.  The room was small but nicely appointed and clean.  After the sprawling splendour of Jay and Peggy's home in Jakarta, anything would have felt like a closet.  We quickly got used to restricted spaces again.

Our first day we woke early and walked over to the Malaysian Rail Office at the Train Station to book tickets for Kuala Lumpur later in the week, and afterwards decided to continue our walk across the causeway bridge to Sentosa Island and the amusement park, golf course, beaches, zoo, aquarium, butterfly park, gardens and fountains.  It was a VERY long walk and I would definitely take a bus or taxi if I were to do it again!  We spent the whole day exploring Sentosa and also took in the evening dancing waters show, which included a laser light spectacle with animated projections on the wall of water created by the fountain.  It was all set to music and we enjoyed it thoroughly.  Afterwards we rode the cable car from Sentosa Island back across the bay to Mount Faber and made our way to our hotel.

The next morning, Jurong Bird Park was our objective, where over 8000 birds on display, some caged, but many flying free.  The lure of constant food supplies keeps them in the park.  After spending a good part of the day at Jurong, we took the MRT to Orchard Road to check out the main tourist and shopping district of Singapore and to people watch.  This is the place for designer clothes, shoes, purses, jewellry and everything else upscale.  There we discovered a local Singaporean treat; huge slabs of ice cream sandwiched between slices of fruit flavoured bread.  It not only cooled us off, but was absolutely delicious.  After we had enough of the people and traffic of Orchard Street we went back to Chinatown and found a little noodle house run by three sisters who were really funny and friendly.  They served us up a local dish called Hokkien Prawn Mee, which was a traditional local meal in Singapore and delectable.  We also tried Haw juice, which is supposed to be good for everything and anything that ails you.  It tasted good so we drank lots of it from there on in.

Our third day, we took a walking tour of Chinatown.  Dale spotted a little bakery where we bought fresh pastries for breakfast; some savoury, some sweet, all delicious.  We saw the oldest Hindu Temple in Singapore, the Sri Mariamman Temple, as well as the Chinese Thian Hock Keng Temple on Telok Ayer Street.  Our walk took us past parks, stores and old shophouses that had been converted to businesses or apartments.  The shophouses are all different heights as in the old days the higher the shop house, the wealthier the family.  By this point we were getting hungry, so we  stopped by the noodle house again and this time the three sisters fed us their version of chicken noodle soup.  After a quick rest in our hotel to freshen up we headed to Clark Quay and took a Bumboat Ride on the Singapore River to Merlion Park.  The Merlion is the mythical part lion - part fish creature that is said to protect the city of Singapore.  We then went walking again, this time to the Esplanade and afterwards to Suntec City, home of the Fountain of Wealth, which is reputed to be the largest fountain in the world.  Of course, we had to do the walk around the fountain with our right hand in it, to ensure our future prosperity and good fortune...let's hope it works!

Since we were in Singapore, we headed to Raffles Hotel, where the Singapore Sling was first invented by an ingenious bartender over 40 years ago.  We hopped up on the barstools at the outdoor courtyard lounge and ordered 2 slings.  Then we noticed a small sign with the price on it...$25 Singaporean dollars EACH.  Dale just about choked, until I pointed out that the price included a souvenir glass.  Without the glass, our drinks still set us back $16 apiece.  Those drinks may have the distinction of being the most expensive of our entire year...oh well, live and learn!
As we were walking back to Boat Quay to find a restaurant for dinner, we passed City Hall, the Supreme Court and the old Parliament Buildings.  A dragon dance troupe came drumming up the street on two open flatdeck trucks and went into the old Parliament Building (which was now converted to a performing arts center).  It was great to hear and watch them as they moved into the building.  We found a lovely little open air restaurant serving black pepper crab alongside the river, overlooking the lights of the city.  For our last dinner in Singapore it was really tasty, but we should've just gone back to the three sister's noodle house, where we wouldn't have been charged $25 for a plate of fried rice to go with our crab.  The Wandering Winos had learned that it doesn't really matter which city or country you're in, you always pay for the ambience and that you can spend as much or as little as you want in Singapore, you just have to choose your spot!

We took the train to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore and had booked first class seats in an air conditioned coach, so we were comfortable and well rested when we arrived.  As we approached the city, we could see the twin towers of the Petronas building from miles away.  The city of Kuala Lumpur is a showcase for the whole country and the difference between the poor rural lifestyle and that of people in the city was vast.  The train station in KL is state of the art, very modern.  We avoided all the late afternoon traffic by taking the light rail transit line to our hotel, The Park Plaza International.  Dale booked us in here through the internet at an 85% discount off the $230.00 rack rate.  He loves getting a deal.  Our room on the 17th floor was huge with a great view of the city, and just a block from the Petronas Twin Towers in the heart of KL.  I loved the huge bath tub!  We watched the sunset while having a quick room service supper and then went for a walk.  As we stepped out of the hotel lobby, the Petronas Towers loomed above us, sparkling like silver filigree.  They're truly beautiful buildings and everyone walks around the area looking up at them.  We found the Malaysian Tourism Village only a few streets away and wandered around their displays for awhile before walking to the gardens surrounding the Petronas towers, where we spent a few hours enjoying the view and grounds.

Our room included a buffet breakfast (I told you Dale loves a deal!), so we ate our fill and walked to KLCC Suria, a monstrous, seven floor shopping plaza at the base of the Petronas towers.  There weren't as many English speaking people in KL as Singapore and even the shopkeepers had only a halting grasp of it.  But between smiles, pointing and gestures we were able to make ourselves understood.  It seemed to us that only young businessmen spoke much English, so when we were really stuck that's who we approached.  We decided to take an evening cultural tour and saw the Chinatown night market and the Sri Mahamariamman Hindu Temple, where a young couple were having their baby's dedication ceremony into the Hindu religion.  Our evening ended with a traditional Malaysian dinner and stage show of their traditional songs and dances.  It was really interesting and we were amazed at the similarities to the Central Javanese music and dance we had experienced in Indonesia.

The next morning we decided to take a guided city tour to maximize our limited time in KL.  We went to a local handicrafts complex where craftsmen were making jewellry, weaving cloth and baskets, painting batiks and carving wood.  Then we toured the National Palace, Kuala Lumpur Lake Gardens and the National Museum.  We also went past their National War Monument, the ASEAN Sculpture Gardens, the Jamek Mosque and the Old Railway Station.  Many buildings were in a Moorish architectural style and very beautiful with archways and menaras (towers) abounding.  Once our tour was over we decided to go up the Kuala Lumpur Menara and have dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top.  It was a great way to end our short visit to KL and in two hours we had made a complete circle viewing all the city lights.

We took the overnight train back to Singapore in a first class compartment.  We won't be doing any train travel in second or third class over here, as we're not fond of sharing our space with live chickens and goats!  We have about ten hours to spend in Singapore before our flight to Bangkok, Thailand.  Hopefully we can get back to Malaysia at some point over our next two months in Southeast Asia.  It's a country that really needed more time than this visit afforded us.

Bangkok welcomed us the evening of July 3rd with steamy, hot weather.  We caught a bus into town and were dropped off half a block from the Vieng Tai Hotel which was located just off Khao San Road.  We had heard so much negative press about Bangkok and were pleasantly surprised at how nice the city was and how easy we found it getting around the old part of town where we were staying.  Mostly we used our feet or tuk tuks (little three wheeled motorcycle taxis) and were able to take in all of the main sights with ease.  The Grand Palace and Wat (temple) Phra Kaew's Emerald Buddha were spectacular.  The Emerald Buddha was actually made of jade and covered in plaster when it was first found.  Most of our temple photos are from there as it was definitely the most ornate and beautiful of all the temples we visited.  The Thais are very reverential about their Buddha statues and forbid photographs of the most sacred, so we respected that and don't have any shots of them.  We took a longboat tour of the klongs (canals) and visited the floating market and a snake farm along the way.  It was an experience to say the least!  The klongs are lined with houses, some very simple, some nothing more than tin roof shacks, but others were sprawling mansions and looked somehow out of place.  Our guide was telling us how "clean" the canals were compared to a few years back, but we found "clean" is open to interpretation!  We then visited the Vimanmek Mansion, which is the largest teak wood building in the world, and was used as the royal families residence for a few years in the early 1900's.  It was gorgeous and houses many of the crown jewels now as a museum.  There was a show of traditional Thai dancing that we were able to watch and it was beautiful as well.  The highlight of our visit to this museum was seeing a 32,235 carat blue topaz, it wouldn't fit in my pocket and I don't think I would like a Thai jail anyway!  We spent a lot of time along Khao San Road, haggling with the vendors, drinking Chang Beer and eating extremely spicy food.  Dale and I spent our last morning in Bangkok treating ourselves to haircuts, massages and facials.  Total bliss and the bill was under $25 CAD for everything.  All in all we enjoyed Bangkok more than we thought we would and put aside a few days at the end of our trip to revisit the city.  But we wanted to head north to do a little trekking and visit some hill tribes!

Took the night train from Bangkok and got into Chiang Mai early the next morning.  Our guesthouse, The Lemongrass, used to be a gay go-go bar and lots of former customers still hang around so we had a great time partying with them.  It was small but clean, and the management was really friendly and helped us arrange our treks and tours.  Chiang Mai is a more traditional city than Bangkok and we stayed in the old part of town, within the canal and battlement walls that were still standing from the old days.  On our first morning we took a walk all the way around the outside of the old city (about 4 kms) and found a park where we had a picnic lunch of rambutans (they look like hairy strawberries and taste like a cross between green grapes and kiwi fruit) and peanuts.  Were very surprised to find the peanuts were not roasted in the shell, but raw and in a brine.  About halfway through the bag we looked at each other and said "do you think they used bottled water in the brine? are these going to make us sick?".  We ate them all anyway, they were good.  The next day we headed to the south west of Chiang Mai and went into the hills of Doi Inthanon National Park.  The first part of our trek was by elephant and we can honestly say we have never had a more uncomfortable ride in our lives.  It was loads of fun and we were laughing at ourselves, but were very glad to get off the elephants and onto our own two feet a few hours later.  The hill tribes we visited were of the Shan, Akha and Meo people, who came across the border into Thailand from Burma about 30 years ago.  They're still considered refugees and have no rights to healthcare, welfare, voting or anything else in Thailand, but it's better than what they came from.  Their lives are very basic, the women work their butts off in the fields and the men sit and smoke all day!  I would've set them straight if I could have only spoken the dialect.  Regardless, hiking and trekking in the hills of northern Thailand in 30C heat with the odd rain shower thrown in was not as romantic as we thought it would be and we were very glad to get back to Chiang Mai and our lovely little room at the Lemongrass.   Unfortunately the peanuts came back to haunt us and we spent a lot of time in our lovely little room's tiny, little bathroom.  Thank God and Buddha for Immodium!

The next day we dragged our sorry asses north of Chiang Mai on a tour to the Orchid and Butterfly Garden, Chiang Dao Caves, and more hill tribe visits.  This tour was a little easier on us (air conditioned mini van and a great guide).  We spent time with the Mong and Padong tribes.  The Mong women chew beetlenut and it turns their teeth black, one old women kept trying to give me some but I politely resisted.  The Padong women are the "longnecks", they wear brass rings around their necks starting with five rings at the age of five and add two extra rings every year thereafter.  It looks painful but I asked one of them (through an interpreter) and she said it only hurt for the first few years and she didn't feel it anymore.  They remove the rings once a year to wash their necks, can you imagine our mothers letting us get away with that!  The whole tradition started as protection for girls born on a full moon.  The tribe believed they were born unlucky and a tiger would take them and slash their throats, so the rings were to save them from that fate.  Over time, it became a symbol of beauty and now all the women wear them whether they're born on a full moon or not.  I'm so glad to be Canadian, I only have to wear a Maple Leaf on my backpack!  One of the other people on our tour had a Mong phrase book and I practised how to say Hello, are you well?  The reception I got from one old woman when I asked her that surprised the hell out of me.  She smiled wide with her black teeth and grabbed me around the waist, danced us around and starting chattering away to me.  That's the problem with getting one phrase down right...they think you can speak their language and keep going on in it.  She kept hugging me and clapping my back and grinning at me.  It was a really special moment.  I ended up buying a few crafts from her, so I think I left a good impression.  Our group went on to do a little bamboo rafting, but Dale and I took one look at the river and decided to wait for the others along the shore with a couple of beers, good choice as they all ended up smelling like wet mud.  The last stop on this tour was a combined village of Meo and Akha tribes.  They live very close to the highway and have had too much western influence.  One little guy kept riding his bicycle past us yelling "10 Baht, 10 Baht!" with his hand outstretched (the Baht is Thai currency).  I turned the tables on him and chased after him with my hand open yelling "10 Baht, 10 Baht" and he stopped in his tracks with wide eyes and looked like he thought the farang (white) lady was nuts.  But when I broke up into fits of laughter he joined in.

The night market in Chiang Mai was also a nice surprise, we took in a Thai Kick Boxing demonstration (which was about as real as Stampede Wrestling), a Lady Boy show (men dressed very convincingly as women) and more of the traditional Thai dancing.  Plus we tried a local dessert, Mango Rice, which was heavenly.  We had lots of fun in northern Thailand but it was time to head south and find a sunny beach.  Dale arranged train, bus and ferry tickets while I found myself sick again and spent a day in the guest house wishing I would die.  We then had the added surprise of an e-mail from home telling us to call Visa about a suspicious charge.  We found out that some enterprising little crook in Malaysia had duplicated our credit card number and sold it on the black market.  Whoever bought it tried to charge 6000 in jewellry at a shop in England and took off when the clerk called Visa for authorization.  Thank goodness Dale had given Visa our itinerary before we left home and they knew we were in Thailand not England!  End result, we cancelled our card and had to get a new one.  Thanks to Yvonne and Fed-Ex we had it all sorted out, got our new cards delivered to our hotel and are none the worse for wear.  Lesson learned:  Don't use your credit card in Malaysia (Jay we should've heeded your advice!).

Our trip from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui took three days by train and was absolutely brutal.  We were both still a little sick from the damn peanuts AND it was hot and muggy AND the train from the north was slow AND we had a seven hour lay-over in Bangkok AND we felt too sick to leave the train station to go do something interesting AND the train south was late AND when we finally arrived in Surat Thani our bus wasn't waiting at the train station like it was supposed to AND we had to sit on a curb AND wait two and a half hours for the bus to show up AND then it had a flat tire AND we had to change buses and take about twenty extra people AND their luggage on the replacement bus AND even though it was an express bus it made five stops AND it took another two hours to get to the ferry terminal AND it was hot and muggy AND the ferry terminal stank of diesel AND we were still feeling sick AND it was still hot and muggy AND we finally got across to Koh Samui AND it looked beautiful...BUT our ride from the Samui Orchid Resort wasn't waiting so the taxi stand guy took pity on us AND he made a few inquiries to get us a phone number for the resort AND the driver was waiting for us at the other pier in Nathon AND we waited some more for him to arrive AND we finally made it to the resort AND it didn't look like the internet photos at all AND our Air Conditioning didn't work AND they moved us to another room AND the tap dripped non-stop and kept us awake AND their restaurant was adjacent to the birdpark, tiger zoo and aquarium AND you could smell the cages from the tables in the restaurant AND we were woken up by some idiot pounding on our window and door in the middle of the night AND the next morning I lost it...(I'll just bet you're all amazed that it took me that long, but I've actually been quite relaxed and laid back lately).  So they upgraded our room and gave us a night for free but the damage was done and besides the Samui Orchid had seen better days and our only solace was at a little restaurant down the road called The Simple Life, but despite that and one very friendly talking bird that made us laugh each time we walked past, we arranged to move to a different resort in Lamai a few days later.

So we spent four weeks at the Samui Beach Resort in Lamai and turned brown as berries.  Koh Samui found a place in our hearts and we extended our visa and said a visit to Vietnam and a return to Malaysia would just have to wait for another day.  We saw octopi, jellyfish, crabs and lots of tropical fish and corals as we snorkelled right off our beach, we swam in the ocean every day, we sat on the beach and read through 35 or 40 books each, we went on a terrific scuba diving jaunt at Koh Tao with Mary and Rhys (a beautiful, young couple from England) and we partied and played with all sorts of new friends; Maureen and Vern from Edmonton, Paco from Rome, Gerben, Monique and Tim from Holland, Martin & Steph from England, and Brian, Hilary, Josh, Adam and Ross all from England, and of course Mary and Rhys who were there almost as long as we were.  The local strip in Lamai had about two hundred bars, clubs and restaurants and really started hopping at night.  Thai Kick Boxing in Lamai wasn't a demonstration sport like it was in Chiang Mai and we went to a couple of bouts where both women and men were fighting.  I was glad not to be on the receiving end of any of the punches or kicks.  We also found "The Bauhaus Club" for dancing where every Friday night was a foam party and every Wednesday was 2 for 1 drinks night and 10 drinks got you a free t-shirt (we have a couple, Mary & Rhys must have a dozen).  Then there were all the beer bars, where women (and men dressed as women) dance and serve drinks and play dominos or dice with you, in the hopes that you'll take them home for the night.  We were always able to resist and decided amongst ourselves that the most beautiful Thai women were actually the men!  Thailand and especially the southern islands were very tolerant of all lifestyles and everyone can find anything they're looking for in the way of a vacation here.  It was a very laid back way to live.  We met so many wonderful people on Koh Samui, both locals and fellow travellers and it was hard to leave the island, but we had to go to Bangkok and  take in the last of the sights we wanted to see there before catching our flight to Heathrow.

Our trip back up to Bangkok was far more pleasant than the trip down.  We arrived early in the morning and caught a cab back to the Vieng Tai Hotel off Khoa San Road where our room was ready and waiting for us even though it was only 6 a.m.  We promptly dumped our backpacks and went to sleep for a couple of hours.  Once rested we had a nice brunch and then wandered through the shops.  We decided to give ourselves the whole "spa" treatment.  We both had Thai massages and got our hair cut and had facials and it all felt great.  After a supper of spicy Thai food, we went to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar and strolled through all the shops and stands for an hour before heading over to the infamous Patpong Street.  It really didn't live up to all the hype and we were told by a local fellow that the police have really cracked down on the sex shows and prostitution, but it was still there if you went looking.  We had a beer and decided we didn't want to go looking.  But it was still fun to take in the atmosphere of the area.  Our last day was hot and sunny so we sat by the pool and relaxed.  We packed up and got ready to leave for England, but Thailand hasn't seen the last of the Wandering Winos.

London greeted us with sunny, mild weather and after the long flight from Bangkok we were glad to stretch our legs and get our bearings in Heathrow, arming ourselves with transit and attraction passes.  Our first days in England were spent exploring London.  Like most large cities, the pace was frantic and we were exhausted at the end of nine days from trying to take in all the regular tourist sights and some “off the beaten path” areas that Mark, our GFL host in London recommended.  We were in town for the Notting Hill Carnival, frightened ourselves in the London Dungeons, walked along Southbank through places like Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Tate Museum and the London Eye for a terrific view of the city.  We hobnobbed with all the rich and famous wax statues at Madame Tussaud’s, saw the changing of the guard,  we toured Buckingham Palace, the Royal Mews, Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. Pauls Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.  We got as close as the guards would let us to 10 Downing Street.  We ate, drank and made merry in Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus and Camden Town.  We took a narrow boat on Regents Canal through the London Zoo, we rode a tour boat up and down the Thames, walked over the Thames on the Tower Bridge, the London Bridge, the Millenium Bridge and a dozen other bridges.  We walked under the Thames through a tunnel from Greenwich Village after standing on the Prime Meridien and setting our watches to Greenwich Mean Time at the Royal Observatory.  We climbed thousands of stairs, walked for miles and rode the tube endlessly, even surviving the night of the great London power outage which shut down the tube and caused havoc in a city wholly dependent on public transit.  We saw the Cutty Sark and the HMS Belfast.  We walked the narrow cobblestone streets of the mile and down Pudding Lane where the great fire of London started in 1666, we enjoyed lunch at St. Katherine’s Docks and saw endless monuments, statues, parks, churches and historic buildings.  We drank barrels of beer and ate far too many pub meals and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, but enough was enough and we were tired, it was time to get out of London and see England!

Our plans to use the railways throughout Britain were discouraged by horror stories of waiting for trains that never arrive and the constant delays of Brit Rail .  We changed gears and hired a car.  Leaving London, we headed for Hastings on the south coast, figuring we might as well start at the beginning and the Battle of Hastings in 1066 was pretty much the start of English history as we know it.  One of the best decisions we made that day was to buy a membership in the English Heritage Society, which gave us free admission to virtually all the historic sights throughout England, Scotland and Wales.  That saved us a pile of money (which made the Scottish Accountant very happy indeed) and we received a comprehensive guide that let us plan our route to take in places of interest to us in amongst our visits to friends and relatives all over the country.  Brighton was next and although the glory days of this seaside town were long ago, it was still an enjoyable stop.  We spent an evening visiting our friend Beryl in Southampton after touring the Medieval Wine Merchants House in the same city and spent the next morning wandering around the mysterious Stonehenge.  The  earthworks at Old Sarum were on our way to Dorset, so we stopped for awhile there.

Met up with our friends Mary and Rhys in Dorchester and spent three great days with them, seeing the beautiful countryside in their area and renewing our friendship from Thailand.  Lulworth Castle and Lulworth Cove were gorgeous, as were Portland Island and the drive along the coast to Burton Bradstock.  Saw the huge Cerne Abbas Giant carved into the chalk hills of Dorset and  enjoyed Rhys and Mary’s company for the few days we were together again.  Stopped in Bath on our way to Wales and saw the old Roman spas and lovely architecture of this picturesque and very expensive city.  After a few days in Wales (you can read about that on our Wales page), we travelled back into England and made our way east to our friend Ann’s house in the village of Westhall outside of Halesworth.  Spent a remarkable day getting the “Änn Trodd Tour of East Anglia” and once again it was lovely to renew acquaintances with someone we met earlier in our travels.  Next up was Lowestoft and Dale’s uncle Stanley (who we discovered is really his first cousin twice removed).  We toured around his area as Dale and he exchanged  information on the family tree they’re both tracing.  It was great to connect with family again and we reluctantly left to head north the next morning.

Our next stop was North Yorkshire and the village of Littlethorpe, near Rippon where our friend Judith warmly welcomed us to her home.  We spent a few days visiting and seeing her favourite spots, discovering how lovely the north country is.  It was truly a restful and relaxing stop for us, but we probably tired her out completely.  She pointed us in the direction of Ambleside in the Lake District and we were off once again.

Cumbria and the Lake District was stunning and we fell in love with Ambleside and Windemere Lake (the largest lake in England) spending hours both on the water and walking along the shore.  We took a drive up a little backroad called “The Struggle to Kirkstone” which was a one lane road with passing spots every so often, lined with stone walls and falling away to the valley on one side.  It was by far the steepest road we’ve ever driven and the views were well worth the effort it put our car through.  We spent the rest of that day travelling along Hadrian’s Wall, stopping to walk along what is left of this famous roman wall and the ruins of it’s milecastles and watchtowers.  We crossed into Scotland the next morning and you can read all about our time in that most lovely of places on our Scotland page.  Upon leaving Scotland we decided that some extra time in the Lake District was needed, so we headed to Keswick and spent a few days hiking in the hills, getting our fill of fresh air and exercise.

Then it was off to Mansfield where our friends Keith and Sue, whom we met and spent a week in Fiji with last January, were waiting for us.  We had a great reunion with them and they took us all through Nottingham and Derbyshire and Sherwood Forest.  We ate too much and drank too much and visited late into the night and are glad they’re planning to come and see us in Edmonton next winter for a little ski trip.
Leaving them after a terrific weekend together, we pointed our little car towards Cambridge where we relaxed for a few days, punting down the River Cam and strolling through the tree lined streets of this old university town.

We ended our tour of Britain back in London and took in the National Gallery and a show in the theatre district.  Our passage on the Eurostar high speed train is booked and tomorrow we head through the Chunnel to Belgium.  Sure hope the rest of Europe is ready for the winos!

We arrived in Wales late at night in cool, wet weather and found ourselves a hotel in Cardiff Gate.  The next morning was dry but still cool so we drove into Cardiff itself and toured a little of the city and then walked along Cardiff Bay and the pierhead.  A stroll through Bute Park and along the shops of Queen Street and High Street took up the rest of the day.

We drove to St. Fagan’s and the Museum of Welsh Life to see this unique open air museum.  It’s set up like a village, with displays ranging from the 1500’s to present day.  Most of the buildings were donated, taken down and moved to St. Fagan’s area, then reconstructed as part of the exhibit.  It covered acres of land and was an interesting way to spend a day, giving us a good idea of what life was like in Wales throughout the ages.

The countryside in Wales was surprisingly different than England. Even though we were only a few miles across the border we could tell that the history, lifestyle and culture here was not English.  The houses had a different style, the fields were edged with brush and trees, not the hedges and stone fences of England and there was a feeling of more space and less people.

It was unfortunate that we didn’t have time to get into other parts of the country, as we would have loved to see northern Wales, but that will have to wait for another trip.

Scotland is full of broad hills and big trees and the roads are less travelled and the towns are not as frequent and the people have the loveliest lilt and we fell in love with it all at first sight.

Edinburgh was a city that we could easily spend a month in and still not have enough.  “Auld Reekie” as it’s affectionately called by the locals was full of beautiful, old buildings and standing guard over it all is Edinburgh Castle.  Built on the basalt cone remaining after the erosion of an ancient volcano, the cliffs rise from a beautiful park and garden and the castle dominates the city.  We took a room within walking distance and spent our time in the heart of this fantastic city, exploring all the little backstreets, eating haggis, neeps and tatties (haggis, turnips and mashed potato), listening to bagpipes played by kilted Scotsmen on street corners, walking the Royal Mile and just enjoying ourselves.  We will have to return to this city at some point in the future as our stay was just not long enough, but the rest of the country was luring us away.

We drove north through spectacular countryside towards Inverness, the landscape made us think of Alberta’s foothills and we both felt a little homesick.  We headed down the west side of Loch Ness once reaching Inverness, finding the water blue and  sparkling in the autumn sunshine.  After numerous stops along the lake all afternoon we pulled in Fort Augustus and took a bed and breakfast right on the lake shore at an old converted pier house.  Spent the afternoon sitting on the shore drinking coffee laced with Scottish cream liqueur and eating shortbread.  Decadent!  Dale found a  blackberry bush and we stuffed ourselves with them, although Dale did save a few to try and entice Nessie to shore.  It didn’t work and despite hours spent watching the water, we never did catch a glimpse of her.  The next morning we headed out for a hike into the Scottish Highlands and by noon we were sitting on a ridge with a million dollar view of Loch Ness.  We realized how much we’ve missed our treks into the Rockies this year and yearned for our hiking buddies as we drank in the scenery.

We continued south from Fort Augustus, passing through Oban and Tarbert.  The scenery on this side of Scotland was even more incredible than inland.  We loved having a car and the freedom to stop whenever we wanted and get into small villages and travel over winding backroads.  Arrived  in Campbeltown mid-afternoon and settled into a lovely B & B with a view across the harbour to the town.  Dale was on a mission, as his great, great grandfather was born here and we spent hours pouring over archived land records and census reports from the 1800’s.  He had great success, working with the local librarians, to track down his family’s history in the area and we were able to locate the ancestral house (which was still standing) and the gravestone of his great, great, great grandfather.  Besides all this family research, Campbeltown itself was a lovely little town that we had a superb time exploring.  We travelled on one track roads all around the Mull of Kintyre and spent a few days getting to know the hills and coves that Dale’s ancestors had called home.  It was a part of this country that begged for more of our time and though we couldn’t linger, we know we’ll come back to hike the Scottish highlands again.

Arriving in Belgium via the Eurostar was a unique experience.  We put our packs in a locker at the train station and walked to La Grand Place, passing the famous fountain and statue of Mannekin Pis, a little boy endlessly relieving himself into the water.   We wandered about the square for the afternoon and met up with Olivier (another GFL host) back at the station once he was off work.  He settled us into his apartment and we were able to briefly visit over dinner before he headed to Amsterdam for the week-end, leaving us with the keys to his home.

The weather was cool and rainy the next day but we headed into town and toured the Cathedral, Galeries St. Hubert, Place de la Monnaie, Place Ste. Catherine, La Tour Noir, Place du Beguinage, St. Gery, Place Fontainas and ended up back at La Grand Place where we enjoyed a cool Belgian beer and a local display of scarecrows which were being judged for a charity fundraiser.  My second language came in quite handy, although I had been warned to approach people in English first, as the Flemmish Belgians from Flanders don’t like the French Belgians from Wallonie (and vice versa).  It wasn’t a problem at all as like everywhere else we’ve been, most folks spoke a little English and with a little French thrown in we were able to communicate easily with everyone we met.

After three days in Brussells, we decided to take the train to Bruges.  This city is straight from the pages of a fairy tale book.  It still has all of it’s original buildings, having been spared the bombing during the wars that the rest of the region received.  It is intertwined with tree lined canals and lots of lovely, old churches with bells that ring out on the quarter hour.  Our second day in Bruges, we took a tour of Flanders Fields.  It was a cold, windy and wet day and our guide told stories of the great war and the battlefields in Belgium and we were able to walk through Ypres, Tyne Cot and Polygon Woods.  Dale was able to locate the gravesite of his great, great uncle Stanley Rumsby, who was killed here in WWI.  It was an emotional and sombre day.

Feeling the need to lighten our mood, the next day we took a Triple Treat tour that had us sampling Belgian chocolate, Belgian waffles and Belgian beer.  All were good!  We also toured the Chateau of Loppem, an old medieval castle with surrounding moat and the town of Dammes.

Belgium was a pleasant surprise for us and our week there ended too soon.

We took the train from Bruges to Amsterdam and felt the pulse of the city immediately upon our arrival.  This is an old town with a young and vibrant population and that attitude is everywhere.  Our hotel was in the heart of the city, just a couple of canals off the infamous Red Light District.  The history is evident in the buildings and canals and churches.  Museums abound with the great works of  Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Rubens and Vermeer.  Streets are crowded and the unwary tourist is likely to get run into by masses of people on bicycles, they even have bicycle parkades that securely house thousands of bikes on multi level structures.  Crossing a street entails watching in all directions for trams, trains, buses, cars and especially the cyclists who don't use their bells and wouldn't think of stopping for mere pedestrians.  Nevertheless, it's an exciting city and fun to explore on foot and by canal boat and we did both at all hours of the day and night.

The art museums in Amsterdam were wonderful and made grand statements in both the buildings and the displays.  We spent a day in three of the best until our minds and hearts were full of beautiful paintings and sculptures.  Then we went to see a diamond shop and spent an hour or so watching young men turn chunks of raw diamonds into sparkling gems, at one point during the tour we sat in a locked room with about 2 million Euros of stones spread on the table before us.  Lovely, but the Scottish Accountant wasn't springing for any trinkets!  Holland's naval history is vast and the maritime museum was expansive.  A rowing regatta was taking place in the harbour alongside while we where there and just added an element of fun to our afternoon.  There were over 2500 houseboats along the canals, so we had to tour the Houseboat Museum (which got us thinking about staying in one for a few nights).  We could have spent another week in the rest of the museums in town, but decided to change the pace a little.

So we went into the Red Light District and walked along it's canals at night "window shopping" (which has a completely different meaning in this town!).  The Museum of Sex through the Ages made for another interesting evening and had both of us gaping, laughing and shaking our heads in wonder at some of the very unusual displays.  Drug dealers approached quietly whispering "ecstacy, charlie, cocaine?" as they walked slowly past us hoping for a reaction.  Although the atmosphere in this part of town is very liberal, there are still some basic rules and we could see the distaste on the faces of local people when some tourists behaved like idiots.  We had to wonder how people living in the area put up with it, as there is a large residential population alongside the sex shops and brothels.

We had originally thought that Amsterdam never sleeps, however on Sunday morning the streets were quiet and we went in search of the famous art markets, flea markets and floating flower market.  My favourite was definitely the flower market and I really missed my garden as we wandered through the stalls.  It was nice to see a more peaceful side to the city for a change.

The lure of staying on a houseboat made us decide to stop in Rotterdam for a few days and we discovered the busiest port in the world.  We booked a cabin on The Clipper, a hostel houseboat on a small canal off the old port.  Rotterdam's old buildings were just about completely bombed out in the war, so it's now a city of mostly modern architecture and is known for it's unique buildings, bridges and structures.  A boat tour of the harbour took the whole afternoon and we passed endless docks, cranes and shipworks with barges, boats and ships crisscrossing all around us.  Amazing to think of the trade that has sailed from or through this city.  We spent a little time in the old harbour, where lovely old sailing yachts are now permanently anchored providing homes to their owners.  A walk through the city center also took us to their Museum Park and it's huge modern sculptures.  We celebrated our Canadian Thanksgiving holiday by having an Italian dinner served by an Asian waitress in a Dutch city.   What an interesting world to travel in.  Tomorrow we leave the Netherlands for Luxembourg, but one day we'll hopefully return here to see the parts we missed on this visit.

The train to Luxembourg from Rotterdam went through part of Holland and Belgium before we finally crossed into the tiny Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.  It was a fine day for sightseeing and we enjoyed the scenery as we rode the rails.  Our hotel was only a few minutes walk from the train station so we quickly dropped off our packs and went out walking.  The city is built along the steep banks of a gorge left by an old river and is dotted with high arched bridges and narrow roads winding down into The Grund (lower part of town).  We spent our first day sightseeing and took a little train around to save ourselves a few steps.  It was lots of fun and also provided a commentary giving the history of this small country.  Afterwards we visited museums and churches, stopping for lunch at Place d'Armes, which is the city center and has dozens of cafes and bistros surrounding it.  A two hour guided walking tour filled in the bits that our tourist train had missed and we headed back to our hotel armed with bread, cheese, wine and fruits for a simple supper.  Once we were fortified with the food, out we went again and found the city a completely different place by night, with all the bridges and spires lit up and the music and chatter of the bistro's spilling into the streets.

The next morning we spent three hours at the Bock Casements and Archaelogical Crypts, wandering through the tunnels cut into the walls of the gorge and getting a taste of what life must have been like here in the middle ages.  We were able to see a couple more small museums that afternoon.  Elk Island National Park was mentioned at the Museum of Natural History in their display on plains and wood buffalo, we were really surprised to see the reference to a place near home that we take quite for granted and where we've both been many times.  Made us realize once again just how small the world is.

Our first stop in Germany was Dusseldorf where we met up with the Brill family, Herwart, Monika and Aline, who we know through our friends Mike and Elsbeth.  They picked us up at the train station and took us on a quick walking tour of Dusseldorf, stopping to sample a few beer in a real German beer garden.  Mike and Herwart have been friends since their teenage years, so Herwart was able to point out many of the places we've heard about from Mike.  We drove to their home in Langenberg and stayed up late visiting over a bottle or two of wine.  The next morning we headed through Wuppertal past an old iron rail bridge to Schloss Burg and toured the old castle.  The autumn colours were showing on the hills and our Sunday drive was really enjoyable.  We wrapped up the afternoon by dropping in to visit Mike's dad, Ferdi in Dusseldorf and he entertained us with stories and jokes.
Herwart and Monika's daughter Aline agreed to act as our tour guide and we drove to Blankenstein and Hattingen the next morning, stopping to visit old castles, churches and jails and of course to stop in bakeries and sample some of the great pastries from the area.  Then Dale and Aline took to the go-karts and raced against each other, too fast for me!  I convinced Monika to let me take over her kitchen for the evening and had a great time preparing dinner.  It's a little thing I'm surprised I miss this year, especially considering I'm not much of a cook at home.  Once again, we stayed up too late visiting over the meal and more wine.
Aline suggested that we take a trip to Köln (Cologne), since it was so close.  On Wednesday we took a local train and spent the day, taking in the sights as well as a short boat trip on the Rhine river through Cologne.  We ended our day by climbing the 507 steps up the spire of the Kölner Domes at the famous cathedral.  It gave us an incredible view of the city and beyond and was well worth the effort.
We spent some time taking Felix, the family dog, out for walks and found the hills around there really beautiful that time of year, the weather was crisp but enjoyable, even though we did get a few flakes of snow!  Our week in Langenberg was wonderful, it's so good to have generous friends open their homes to us and give us a break from hotels and hostels!  We were able to really relax and get ourselves ready for the next two months of extensive touring through Europe.

Next on the German timetable was a visit to Wolfgang von der Burg in Detmold.  Wolfgang is our friend Mike's older brother.  He was on the platform when our train pulled in and greeted us with big hugs.  We settled into his four year old daughter's room and Lealotte made sure we had time to play with her and have tea parties and do puzzles together.  She didn't speak any English (yet) and we didn't speak any German, so it was quite funny at times.  Wolfgang was teaching the next day, so arranged for an English friend of his, Hugo, to give us a tour of the area surrounding Detmold.  We visited Hermann Denkmal, a huge statue on the hills outside of Detmold, lovingly referred to as Hermann the German (it's as big or bigger than the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour).  Then went over to Externesteine and it's unique and some say magical rock formations with stairs cut into the stone, to allow you to climb up for a great view of the surrounding valleys, and finally to the village of Horn.  After our tour, Hugo dropped us back at the market in Detmold and we checked out the shops, buying ingredients for dinner and of course wine.  The next day we visited the Kite Art Museum and the Schloss and went on a walking tour of the old part of town.  Wolfgang, who is an opera singer, was performing in a production of 'Das Land des Lachelns' at the Landestheatre that night, so we went to watch and got a great backstage tour prior to showtime.  Lealotte sat with us and was absolutely enthralled at the music and costumes and whispered 'Papa' to me each time Wolfgang appeared on stage.  It was priceless and she was the best behaved four year old we've ever seen at an opera!  The next morning, we all had a nice breakfast together and Lealotte wanted to take us to the train station but had to go to kindergarten, she did manage to drag my backpack to the door to help though.

We caught the train for Munich and thought everything was going fine, until our train was stopped just before Frankfurt.  There had been a bomb threat at the Frankfurt train station and no trains were being allowed to pull in.  We sat on the platform, had a beer and waited for the irate crowd to clear out of the information office, then had ourselves re-routed to Munich without a Frankfurt stop.  Our trip ended up taking 12 hours as everyone else in the area was in the same position and the trains were all overcrowded.  We were tired travellers by the time we reached Munich but found a small pensione hotel about a minutes walk from the train station and crashed into bed.   The next morning we headed out to see Munich.  It was a beautiful city, we found the Marienplatz with it's famous Glockenspiel Clock Tower.  Every noon hour the Glockenspiel comes alive and animated characters stage horseback jousts and there are dancing jugglers and all sorts of bells ring.  It's very funny to watch all the tourists staring up at this. But the best part is after all the bells stop ringing and a rooster pops out of the top and crows three times, scaring all the pigeons away from the tower.  We took a tour of the city highlights, that included the Olympic Park (very impressive even after 31 years) and also a visit out to Schloss Nymphenburg.  The weather was cool but clear and sunny and really showed the city off in a good manner.  Afterwards we walked over to the Viktualien Markt (a huge food and beverage market) and sampled the sausage and the beer.  We did that quite often in fact!  Some of the sights we saw were the Frauenkirche and Peiters Kirche (very old and lovely churches), Konig's Platz (kings square), the Peace Angel statue and many of the museums and monuments that seemed to be spread throughout the city.  We even found the surfers on the Isar river, where there was an outlet of the Isar as it comes back above ground after being forced underground due to roads or buildings or some such thing.  Anyway, the water comes back up very fast and furious and the local sports buffs bring their kayaks and surfboards and take full advantage of a continuous rushing wall of water.  We took a video of it, as couldn't believe what we were seeing!  Our last day in Munich was spent strolling through town and stopping at various beer gardens to sample the wares.  The best was the Hofbrauhaus, probably Munich's most famous beer garden, where the regulars have lockers to keep their own personal steins in.  They wouldn't want to drink out of a plain glass mug like the tourists!  Munich was fun and we're glad we listened to our friends at home who advised that it would be just as much fun AFTER Oktoberfest.  It was time for the winos (or maybe the beero´s!) to say goodbye to Germany and continue their journey.  Italy was up next.

The night train from Munich to Rome had us arriving in Italy early in the morning.  The sun was starting to melt away the morning fog and the hills of Tuscany looked wonderful in the mist.  By the time we reached Rome, the sky was clear and we had to take our jackets off.  It was great to be in the warmth again.  Our first trip to Rome a few years ago had left us wanting more, so during this visit we were able to leisurely enjoy the city and explore areas we had only briefly touched last time.  After checking into our hotel, we started walking and didn’t stop for three days.  Rome is a city best visited on foot.  You stroll from one amazing monument to another, trying to imagine what it must have been like during Roman times.  The art is everywhere, on bridges and street corners, in fountains and churches, and of course throughout the Roman Forum where the ruins are so well preserved that you feel you’ve stepped back to 700 BC.  One of our prime reasons for visiting Rome was a tour of the excavations under St. Peter’s Basilica.  Russell Jolly, a friend from work, had suggested that we put our names in for a spot on this as the space is very limited.   We did so in October of 2002 and promptly forgot about it.  Then in July of 2003 we received an e-mail from the Vatican Excavations Office advising they had an opening for November 3rd, 2003 at 9:15 am.  So our European agenda was guided by that date.  It was well worth it, as we were in a small group of ten people taken three levels under St. Peter’s through a myriad of tunnels to see the ancient necropolis with both pagan and Christian burial chambers and crypts.  The visit only lasted a few hours, but was very interesting and historic.  After coming back up we were able to spend more time admiring the art and architecture of the basilica itself, an amazing building which seems to leave everyone who visits it speechless.  We were on our way back to our hotel by the metro when we had a little encounter with one of Rome’s pickpockets.  The subway was extremely crowded and we were pushed up against other riders.  Dale suddenly grabbed the arm of this tiny, young lady and wrestled our camera out of her hand.  She protested her innocence very loudly, but he got her red-handed and then turned the tables on her by plucking her wallet out of her pocket!  He wanted to take her into the police, and used her wallet to try and get her to come with us, but the storm she kicked up wasn’t worth the effort.  We ended up explaining what had happened to the transit authority and wouldn’t you know it…the wallet didn’t belong to her after all.  Another ride had called the metro earlier that day to advise of the theft and it was returned to the rightful owner.  We were glad we still had our camera and a good story to tell, but our adrenalin was up for the rest of the day!
That night we called Paco (another friend we had met in Thailand) and arranged to spend the next day seeing his favourite places.  He now lives in Prague most of the time, but spends some time in Rome as well as Thailand.  We spent the day with he and his girlfriend, walking around the city to sights that many visitors don’t know about.  It was great to see him again and hopefully he’ll come visit us in Canada!

Having decided that we would wear our feet off if we stayed in Rome any longer, we headed to Pisa.  The tower REALLY leans!  Pisa is a lovely small city and much easier to see on foot as there isn’t as much distance to cover.  We had perfect weather our first day and took advantage of it to visit the Duomo, the Battistero, the museums, and of course the Torre Pendante (Leaning Tower).  We were able to climb up the tower to the belfry on the 7th and 8th levels.  As we climbed, our minds tried to align our bodies to what our eyes were seeing.  Very unusual sensation to feel like you are going downhill when you know you are ascending.  Even Dale, who can ride the wildest roller coaster and not bat an eye, was feeling the vertigo.  The view from the top was splendid, it was a moment that will be forever etched in our memory.  Pisa is in Tuscany and the food was delicious…buttered spinach and gnocchi with a divine cheese sauce, great wine, tart olives, pizza, pastries…we ate and drank so much we knew we just had to get some exercise.

So, we took the train up to Cinque Terre to do some hiking.  The weather was quite wet when we arrived and we were glad for our raincoats, but our feet were soaking within ten minutes.  They stayed that way for the rest of the day, but we had fun despite it.  Cinque Terre is a region along the west coast of Italy, tucked up into the corner.  It consists of five, brightly coloured fishing villages that literally cling to the cliffs.  The sea is on one side and the terraced hills covered with grape vines, olive trees and orchards on the other.  It is picture postcard perfect.  We spent the day hiking between the villages (about 18 kilometres from one end to the other) and discovered that each one has it’s own unique character.  If you don’t care to hike, there is a ferry service between the villages, as well as a local train.  We’ll definitely have to return in the summer and seriously explore the rest of the trails of the Cinque Terre National Park that surrounds the area.  This is a place we would highly recommend that anyone considering a trip to Italy include in their itinerary.

Our next stop was Florence, a city known for it’s museums.  We counted 67 different museums in the booklet that the tourism office provided.  The Uffizi is the most famous and we spent an afternoon there; gazing in wonder at the sculptures and paintings and ceilings and the building itself.  Ponte Vecchio is an interesting old bridge that spans the Arno River, with shops and merchant stalls lining both sides.  The view from Piazza Michelangelo high above the city highlighted the bridges on the river, the lovely architecture and the churches.  The duomo (cathedral) in Florence is the most ornately decorated marble building we have ever seen.  Absolutely stunning, especially in sunlight when the pink and green and white marble sparkles.  Florence was very friendly, with a young, vibrant populace and we enjoyed it completely.

A few days later we made our way to Venice.  The canals of Bruges and Amsterdam didn’t even begin to prepare us for this city on the water.  There are no cars; there are boats, there are no buses; there are vaporettos, there are no taxis; but why would you want a taxi when you can take a gondola?  It’s incredible to watch a lively city go about it’s business using only the canals for transport.  Our hotel window opened up onto a side canal off the Grand Canal, so we had the pleasure of the gondoliers gliding under our open shutters, serenading their passengers.  After a few attempts to follow a street map…we gave up…and instead we just set out in a general direction, following the signs painted on buildings that more or less tell you which way you are heading.  It was fun and we found little side streets we would never have discovered if we had stuck to the map.  We eventually arrived where we wanted, and since Venice isn’t a city in a hurry, we took our cue from that.  The city has a well known carnaval, when everyone dresses up and wears masks.  The masks are made from papier mache and have very detailed designs with themes of music, birds and love.  It was a good thing there was no room left in our backpacks or we would have brought dozens home, they were gorgeous.  St. Mark’s Square was a pigeons paradise, more birds in that piazza than in London, Rome and Paris combined!  It floods when the tides and phases of the moon are exaggerated by rainfall, but we were lucky to have good weather, so kept our feet dry.  The concierge at our hotel suggested a trip over to Murano to see the glass blowing and we caught a vaporetto over to this small island across the lagoon.  The Murano glassware is ornate and the price tags are unbelievable.  Some of the chandeliers were more than we paid for our car!  I picked up a small cluster of glass grapes (I have a collection of these at home) and it was all I could do to gently place it back on the display counter, I didn’t want to have to pay for it if I accidentally dropped it…over 300 Euro about 450 Canadian dollars!  Needless to say, we didn’t buy  any souvenirs.  We did however, do the tourist thing and take a gondola ride.  It was so much fun, we had two old, Italian men serenading us, one playing the accordian and the other singing, plus our gondolier serenely poling the gondola through the canals.  How romantic, how idyllic, how ridiculous when our gondolier took a call on his cell phone!  It was hilarious, we’re still laughing about it.

Our plans were to visit Vienna next and then onto Budapest.  The Austrian railways had other ideas and staged a strike the day we were to travel from Venice to Vienna.  No one could tell us when the strike might end.  So being the flexible, experienced and worldly travellers we are, we took out our Eurail map, closed our eyes and pointed.  Switzerland here we come!

Back on the train…from Venice to Milan (just enough of a layover to have lunch and take a quick walk around the piazza in front of the train station), back on the train…from Milan to Geneva.  We crossed the border from Italy into Switzerland inside a tunnel that goes under the mountains.  The Swiss border guards were already aboard and just walked through the train cars examining everyone’s passports…pretty cool way to cross a border.  Our journey took us through incredible scenery and we were sorry we hadn’t booked an earlier train as the sunset took away the view a couple of hours before we arrived in Geneva.  Our friend from Edmonton, Madeleine Monod, now lives in Geneva and was waiting at the station for us.  We stopped at a local fondue restaurant for a meal on our walk to her apartment.  Madeleine is 86, a retired professor from the University of Alberta and a world traveller herself.  We had a wonderful time drinking wine and telling tales with her until the wee hours of the morning, sleeping in and then going off on our own to wander through Geneva while she took little afternoon naps.  One of the areas we wandered around was Lac LeMan.  It’s a well developed area with walking trails along the shoreline, benches to sit and watch the Jet d’eau when you get weary, boats to cruise down the lake to Lausanne, playgrounds for children and a unique outdoor bathing and sauna complex where we spoke with some local gents who had been swimming, even though it was the middle of November.  They said they froze solid in 5 minutes and seemed quite proud of it!  We had a relaxing couple of days, enjoying friendship and laughter, it was sad to part company at the end.

We took the train to Bern, the capital city of Switzerland.  Bern is a well-preserved medieval town with a downtown core that celebrates it’s history.  The clock tower is famous for animated characters that come out every hour and dance and play music.  There are also about 15 old fountains that have been restored.  We found 14 of them on a walking tour we took.  Autumn is the time to visit, as the hills of the Aare River were alive with colour and the crisp air and blue sky set the city alight.  Outside of their visitor center is a pit with four large bears who are so well fed by locals and visitors, that they won’t even move an inch to catch a piece of carrot or turnip tossed down to them, they just wait for the next morsel to hit their mouth.  It was very funny to watch this spectacle.  Luckily the visitor center sells the only food to feed the bears with and can control their diet this way.

That night we took the train to Biel, where Pierre and Christine Auer (global freeloader hosts) were waiting for us.  Their home is 700 meters above Biel in the village of Evilard and has a view of the Bernese Alps that stunned us when we woke up in the morning.  Often times the city of Biel is covered in fog, but up in the hills it’s sunny and bright and the Alps soar across the valley.  It looked like we were floating on clouds.  Pierre took us on a walking tour of Biel while Christine cooked up a delicious lunch (it was the first of many gourmet meals we were treated to).  In the afternoon we drove over to Aarberg and saw the covered bridge and old town center, then onto Murten and it’s medieval walled fortifications.  We also stopped to see their 200 year old cottage on the lake at Murten, which has been in their family for years.  Murten is a lovely town with arcades surrounding the main square and typical Bernese architecture on many homes.  We climbed up the towers and walked along the city walls surrounding the old town for spectacular views of the lake and hills.
That evening we met the rest of the family, all grown and moved out now, but still close enough to come by when Mom’s cooking!   An evening full of laughter and we’re hoping for a few visitors from Switzerland when we return to Canada.
It was suggested that we take a day trip to Interlaken and connect to the mountain railways that travel up into the Alps.  The next morning we did this and discovered the Swiss Alps that we’ve read about and seen the photos of since we were small.  It was a perfect day.  The morning fog lifted by the time we reached the lakes and we had the most beautiful vistas on the train ride.  At Interlaken we took the narrow gauge cogwheel train to Lauterbrunnen.  There we transferred to an even smaller train to get up to Kleine Scheidegg.  Spent a couple of hours hiking in the snow, admiring the view at the foot of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau mountains.  This trio of giants was magnificent and the whole area made us glad to be alive.  We stopped halfway down in Grindewald for the rest of the afternoon.  We bought sausage, cheese, bread and fruit at the local market and took it all to a bench with a view of the Eiger glacier and surrounding mountains.  It was a great place to picnic and we enjoyed ourselves until the sun began to fade away.  The final leg of the cogwheel railway took us back to Interlaken, we had completed the loop and crowned it with a red, purple and pink sunset.  What a perfect Alpine day.
Pierre and Christine were waiting back at the station in Biel and we headed to their home for another sumptuous dinner of traditional Swiss cuisine.
We spent our final day in Switzerland catching up on chores.  Our laundry and journal and website all needed tending to.  Christine showed me how to make a proper Swiss cheese fondue, ( I can practice on any willing victims when we get home) and we did all manage to squeeze in a visit to an observation tower higher up in the hills above Evilard (at about 1000 meters) and with the clear skies we enjoyed another view of the Alps.  This one from afar but lovely nonetheless.

Switzerland has been everything we knew it would be; green alpine meadows, blue lakes, white capped mountains and friendly, warm-hearted people.  To all our Swiss friends, old and new…come and visit, we can’t wait to return your hospitality!

On the train from Geneva to Avignon Dale was looking at our map of Europe and mentioned that he really would have liked to see the French Riviera...so we adjusted our plan, got off the train in Lyon and instead of catching the next train to Avignon, we caught the one for Nice.  It was a great decision!  Our train was quite late arriving, but we didn´t have any problem finding a hotel and settling in.  We walked down to the beach our first morning and strolled along the Promenade des Anglais all the way from Quai Lunel to Regence Plage.  There was a large market going on in the old town square that we caught the end of.  Then we found a great little cafe for a delicious lunch of moules frite (steamed mussels in wine and garlic).  As it was the off season the city was not over crowded like it is during the summer.  The Christmas decorations were up all over town and there was a very festive air about us wherever we went, especially along Rue Massena.  We decided to take a daytrip to Monaco since it was so close (only half an hour by train), you can read about that under Monaco.  Our last day in Nice we walked up to the Colline du Chateau and enjoyed the spectacular views over the rooftops of the old town, the sea and the mountains.  Very lovely.  Our plan was to head straight for Barcelona from Nice, but this time I was the one looking at the map and we ended up in Marseille...I had a craving for bouillabaise.

It was another good decision, although when we first arrived we had our doubts.  The area around the train station wasn´t scenic to say the least!  But we gritted our teeth and said there has to be more to Marseille than this...and there was.  We took the subway to the old port and found a little hotel with a friendly couple running it and then we set out to explore.  This city doesn´t have the glitter of Nice or Monaco, it´s residents are down to earth; fishermen and working class people and proud of it, there is almost a thumbing of their noses at the ritzy Cote d´Azur and a this is who we are...love us or get lost attitude.  We loved them.  The food was incredible and good wine in the south of France is so cheap...we can´t believe we were drinking Beaujolais Nouveau on the day it was released for about 4 euros a bottle (about 6 CAD), we can´t get it for that price at home!  We saw most of the area by taking a tour on an open top bus, going to Notre Dame de la Garde on top of the highest hill in the city (for great views), the Cathedrale, and the small fishing villages along the coast.  We also walked our feet off again, and went through the Jardin du Pharo, past the three forts that used to guard the harbour and into the old part of town to the cultural center at Vielle Charite.  We decided to spend a day in the town of Aix-en-Provence, so took the train there the next morning.  This was a smaller city with lots of shops, cafes and squares.  Very green, as all the boulevards were lined with trees.  It was a nice way to spend a day and we headed back to Marseille glad we had made the excursion.  Our last morning in Marseille was sunny and warm, so we walked down to the old port and out along the sea wall where we sat in the sunshine and watched the ships, sailboats and fishing vessels coming and going.  After one more delicious lunch at our favourite sidewalk cafe we caught the train to Barcelona.  We were very lucky to have such good weather in France, as the day after we left it started raining and within a few days the area experienced the worst flooding it had seen in years.  But the wandering winos were on their way to Spain and unaware of the trail of destruction they had left behind.

We only spent one day in Monaco, and it wasn´t nearly enough.  After a half hour train ride from Nice our first view of the city was high above the harbour at the station (which was truly a work of art, like the rest of the country).  You could almost smell money in the air...this is a very wealthy area and when we come back here for a longer stay, we´ll have to bring bags of Euros!  The city is all pale yellow, rose and peach coloured buildings with creamy white verandas clinging to the cliffs with lush flowering hedges and vines and palm trees and luxury cars and the sea and we loved it...but we would also have loved to have a few of our nice things from home as our cargo pants and t-shirts didn´t quite cut it amongst all the diamonds, pearls and designer suits and shoes.  The country is made up of a series of small cities that run into one another.  The famous casino is in Monte Carlo, the palace of Prince Rainier is in Monaco Ville, the main harbour with billions of dollars worth of yachts is in La Condamine and the race course for the famous Grand Prix F1 race winds throughout all them.  We walked up to the Palace to watch the changing of the guards.  The walk up almost did us in, but then a kind old lady clued us in to the fact that you don´t have to climb up and down all the roads along the cliffs...this is Monaco...they have elevators built into the cliffs!  That made it much easier for us to see all the sights for the rest of the day.  We went to a museum which houses 105 of the royal family´s antique luxury cars, some of them were race cars and Dale was in heaven...he´s such a petrol head!.  We had lunch on Rue Basse near the palace, it was one of the prettiest streets we´ve ever seen.  Afterwards we made our way to the casino.  There are actually many casinos, but the famous Casino Monte Carlo stands out as a gem amongst them.  We wandered up Allee des Boulingrins and sat on a park bench overlooking the city while happily munching hot spinach and cheese tarts that had tempted us from a bakery window.  A wander through the harbour to admire all the yachts and then back on the train to Nice.  Such a short visit to such a beautiful country.   Another one to add to the ever growing list of places we have to return to one day.

So we finally made to to Barcelona.  We got in late at night and the tourist office in the train station was closed.  Oh well, after almost eleven months on the road...who needs them!  We found a sign for the metro, figured out roughly what part of town we wanted to stay in and got on the subway.  We had been travelling without booking anything ahead for the last few months and were getting a little cocky about how easy it was to just arrive and go with the flow.  Barcelona gave us an attitude adjustment on that...the first three hotels we stopped at were fully booked...then it started to rain.  There is something about being in a strange city where you don't speak the language, late at night, in the rain, with your 25 kilo backpack on, looking for a hotel...it really brings out the best in you.  HA!  We did find a hotel with a friendly desk clerk and using sign language (since he spoke no English and we speak next to no Spanish) we finally managed to get a very small room for a very large price.  Ah well, such is the life of a wandering wino.  The next morning we woke to a Barcelona blue sky and headed out to see the city.  And what a city it is.  It's young and alive and the mix of architectural styles is incredible.  We wandered down Las Ramblas to the port and checked out the schedules for a ferry to Mallorca later in the week.  That done, we hopped on a bus for a tour of the city.  It gave us a good look at where everything was and an idea of what we wanted to explore further.  One of the first things we noticed was the influence the architect Antoni Gaudi had on the city and the evidence of his work or that of his students everywhere in Barcelona.  His unfinished masterpiece Sagrada Familia, a cathedral that he started in 1882, is still being worked on today and is the most unusual style, with rooflines dripping down and sculptures worked into every surface and multiple spires of different heights.  Incredible.  The 1992 Olympics also left a huge impression on the city and the stadium they used in 1992 was the same one used for the 1929 Olympics, they kept the facade and re-worked the interior.  There were fountains and modern sculptures all over the city, adorning simple squares and street corners.  We took the bus up to the Tibadabo where there was supposed to be a tram and funicular to get to the top of the mountain.  It didn´t seem to be operating, so we walked up, stopping to have lunch at a cafe overlooking the city and sea.  That afternoon will stand out in our minds forever.  The next morning we checked out of our hotel and stowed our backpacks in lockers at the ferry terminal, bought our tickets for the overnight ferry to Mallorca and then headed back up Las Ramblas for another day of sightseeing in Barcelona.  We´ve discovered that we like Spanish wine almost as much as French wine, and it´s even cheaper!  All in all Spain is much less expensive than the rest of Europe had been, which is good as our wallet was starting to get thin.  We enjoyed Barcelona and hope to return soon, but there was this little island off the coast we had to get to first.

The ferry left at 11:00 pm and we arrived at the island of Mallorca at 6 am.  It was a smooth crossing, but we didn´t get much sleep.  We walked to Wolfgang´s place and along the way encountered lots of young people spilling out of the clubs after a night of partying.  It reinforced the comment we had heard that Spaniards get 3-4 hours less sleep on average than other Europeans!  Wandering winos, however, need more sleep, so we put down our packs and went to bed.  By the time we woke up in the middle of the afternoon, we felt human again.  Our first few days in Mallorca were pretty laid back, we had been on the move, non-stop, for over a month and needed to recharge.  Once we felt rested again, we set out to see the city and discovered a quaint town with friendly people.  The apartment is in ¨the neighbourhood¨, so we got to know the local way of life.  The people are friendly, most don´t speak much English, but we always made ourselves understood and picked up a few key phrases to get by.  Castel Bellver on a hill overlooking the harbour was the first place we visited and well worth it.  The Palma cathedral was also outstanding, but was being renovated, so access was limited.  We walked out to the local beach one morning and sat reading in the sun.  It wasn't quite swimsuit weather, but still sunny and warm so we were happy.  We decided to rent a car and drove up the west coast to the northern tip of the island to Cap de Formentor.  We were astounded by how mountainous and raw the island was once we left the city of Palma de Mallorca.  The roads were in really good shape and we had a great day exploring the nooks and crannies, coming across little Spanish towns nestled in valleys or barely clinging to mountaintops.  It was a beautiful drive.
A few days later we took a rental car out for another day and this time drove along the south coast and up the east side of the island to Cap de Pera.  We ate our picnic high on a cliff overlooking the sea and literally had to fight off the local cats that wanted some of our lunch!  The west side of the island was mountainous while the east was more rural.  We passed many small farms and fincas (orchards) of olive, almond, orange and lemon trees.  This was also the side of the island where all the beaches were, so we stopped at a few to check them out.  The sunset as we drove westward along the south coastal road back to Palma was incredible, the sea was afire with red and gold ripples and the sky was purple and pink.  Another incredible day.  Our time in Mallorca extended itself beyond what we originally had planned, it was hard to tear ourselves away from the lazy afternoons sunning ourselves on the rooftop terrace of the apartment, evenings filled with music and good Spanish wine and a comfortable place to stay.  Eventually though we had to hightail it north.  We took the ferry back to Barcelona.  A day in Avignon and another in Paris (still my favourite city in the world), onto Brussels to catch the Eurostar and under the English Channel to London.  We spent a couple of days there and then...across the Atlantic to Jamaica.  Of course, Spain had by now been added to our list of must return and visit again places.  We could easily become Mallorquinos Winos on a permanent basis.  Adios!

A funny thing happened on the way to Jamaica...we had to go through Canada to get there!  Our flight connection wasn't kind and after flying from London to Toronto, we spent ten hours in a departure lounge at Pearson (in my humble opinion the second worst airport in the world right after Heathrow), waiting for our flight to Kingston.  We tried sleeping to no avail and a couple of hours before our flight was to leave, this fellow walked up and kicked me in the foot...it was my brother, Alain, he was also on the way to Jamaica to meet us for Christmas and noticed that our flight number was leaving from the next gate.  So, we had an airport reunion with him, as well as my Mom and sister-in-law Pam.  We tried to jam a years worth of news into twenty minutes as we saw them off at their gate and caught our own flight an hour later.
There were the usual delays involved with flights from Toronto and the arrival lounge at Manley Airport in Kingston was chaotic, but we finally all arrived and settled into our resort in Ocho Rios.  First thing the next morning we called our son, Chris, who had been enjoying Jamaica for a few days already.  I can tell you that "The Mother and Child Reunion" was a wonderful Christmas present for me and his Dad was pretty happy as well.  It was great to have Chris join us on a couple of segments of our trip (he had also met us in Australia last May for my birthday), but it really meant the world to be together for the holidays.
We spent Christmas Eve visiting with everyone while watching a terrific tropical rain storm from the lounge of the hotel.  The open air plan of the lobby made for an extremely wet day inside as well as out, we were just glad it wasn't snow!  Luckily the weather improved and Christmas Day was spent sunning ourselves on the beach and drinking various rum concoctions.  Alain and Pam had brought a small Christmas tree, as well as shortbread and Christmas cake.  The resort put on a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  Yet it wasn't Christmas to me.  It was great fun to spend time together with our family in Jamaica, but it just didn't feel like Christmas. ...I guess some of  us crazy Canucks need snow and cold weather to get into the holiday spirit! Next year, back to our traditional family celebrations, we'll leave the sunny holidays for January and February from now on.
Chris had to get back to work and left us a few days later, but my Mom, Alain and Pam were able to stay for the New Year festivities.  The resort had a big outdoor party planned for New Year's Eve with lots of decorations and food, but once again the weather wouldn't cooperate and this time a wind storm sent everyone scurrying for shelter.  It did settle down after awhile and we partied into the wee hours with new friends from Medicine Hat, Rob and Cheryl Jackle joining the family.  There were lots of sore heads the next morning, especially when the steel drum band started playing as the entertainment for the New Years Day brunch...I really think the hotel staffed planned that on purpose!
We were back on our own again just a few of days into the new year, everyone else had to return to work and we settled into an easy routine of breakfast on the balcony, cribbage, suntanning, cribbage, cocktail hour, cribbage, dinner, dancing and sleep.  Dale has discovered all sorts of new ways to win (cheat!) at cribbage over the past year and keeps on beating me, and I am a gracious loser.  HA!  We did occasionally wander into the town of Ocho Rios, but we weren't really interested in shopping for trinkets.  We had intentionally planned a restful end to our trip and decided to take full advantage of it, sunning our lazy hides on the beach or relaxing by one of the resort's swimming pools.  We tried to enjoy every last minute.
Our year of adventure was coming to an end.  As the days counted down, we started to get excited about returning home to see our friends and family again.  The 365th day arrived, we loaded up our backpacks for the last time and said our final goodbyes...the wandering winos were going home.

So...we finally arrived home.  Our good friends, Sandy and Doreen, were waiting at the airport to pick us up and once they got us home, promptly served up dinner which they had brought with them, as we wandered around our home looking at all our familiar things, completely useless to do anything else.  Our housesitter, Yvonne, had already moved out and left our fridge stocked with food.  Everyone was looking after our bellies!  The phone didn't stop ringing for the first week and we made dates to see friends and family.  The weather was kind for the first few days, but then a full blown January in Edmonton cold snap hit with a vengeance, and the temperature dropped to -39C with new snowfall on a daily basis.  Oh, how we miss the warmth of Fiji, Australia, Thailand and Jamaica.  Still, it's great to be home again!

We thought you might enjoy a little statistical recap of our year...

30,000 kilometers in the air
18,000 kilometers by train
14,000 kilometers driving
2,000 kilometers on foot
1,000 kilometers over the water
10 kilometers perched on elephant back (but it felt like 10,000)
2950 meters above sea level at the summit of Ganong Gede in Indonesia, Kleine Scheidegg in Switzerland was a close second
25 meters below sea level the deepest depth reached while scuba diving in Beqa Lagoon off Fiji
7 near misses (you'll have to ask us about those)
300 litres of wine, beer or whatever the local drink happened to be
50 new friends
9,756 photographs
365 days
20 countries
2 people
1 dream

Thanks for coming along for the ride!
 
        The Wandering Winos...aka Claire and Dale Scott