The next stop on our tour of this part of the trip was the little town Louisbourg - which we chose to go to because there is a big historical fortress with people in period costume.
The town itself turned out to be really sweet - tiny and on the coast. And we stayed at the Cranberry Cove inn which I can absolutely recommend. It was beautifully decorated - each room with a theme. I stayed in the "Secret garden" room.
And then to the fortress itself. We were very glad to be there in the off season. Turns out they get so many visitors that you have to drive to a visitors centre with a GIGANTIC parking lot from which you catch a bus to the fortress itself.
They really do a recreated historical site well here. Turns out that there was actually no fortress left at all. It was French, after all, and when they lost, they were all kicked out and transported back to French. Then, when the coal mines in the area shut down in the 60's, someone in the Canadian government came up with the idea of rebuilding the fortress as a tourist attraction. All the miners were retrained in traditional crafts, like stonemasonary, and they rebuilt the whole fortified town. It is all based on the original plans, which were still stored in the archives in France. Really a magnificent achievement.
Because it was the off season, there were not as many staff in the fortress in period costume as there are in the summer months. But all of the people we met there were wearing extremely authentic looking costumes and could give you all sorts of interesting facts about life at the time that the fortress was really occupied. Like, for example, that the uniform LOOKS really warm - but is actually too hot in summer and freezing in Winter. Or about what life was like for soldiers in the barracks - who only had a life expectancy of 35. Or how to cook in a kitchen with an open fire and hearth.
Well worth a visit if you ever happen to be in Nova Scotia.
Sunday 31 October 2010
Monday 4 October 2010
The world famous Cabot trail
The Cabot trail is a road around the top of Cape Breton island. the signs say it is world famous. It may well be world famous - but I would have to say I had never heard of it until we started reading brochures about booking a trip here...
We have been very lucky with the weather here - especially given it is autumn - and only struck serious rain on "transit" days rather than sightseeing days. So we left Charlottetown in the rain and caught the ferry from Prince Edward Island back to the main part of Nova Scotia then John did a lot of driving to get us to Baddeck (interestingly pronounced badDECK - more deck less bad) and the start of the Cabot trail.
Baddeck is a lovely town in itself and features a museum about Alexander Graham Bell - who did lots of things with flight as well as the whole telephone thing. In fact, he had a finger in a lot of pies and one experiment that he was successfuL in was transmitting sound using light. Turned out not to be practical at the time - but seems pretty darn clever to me.
The Cabot trail is about 300 k. Lots of people do hiking and bicycle riding and motorbike riding around it. The scenery that we found most appealing was at the beginning where there were little villages in valleys nestled in the forest. But unfortunately didn't really realize how special it was until after we had zoomed past it. The rest is coastline - quite nice as coastlines go - but coming from a large island with lots of spectacular coastline ourselves, we are probably a little hard to impress.
The trail is in a national park. Unlike Australian national parks they give you instructions on what to do if attacked by a coyote or a bear at the entrance. Turns out that with coyotes you should make yourself as big as possible, yell and wave a stick. However with bears the story is that you should just back away, v e r y quietly and not climb a tree - as bears are generally better climbers than we are. You don't want to get mixed up between the two. There were also words of wisdom about moose - but they were mainly to not run into the moose with your car. Not sure whether that was for the benefit of the car or the moose. In any event, we didn't run into any wildlife - in any sense - on our journey.
The other thing we got at the national park entrance was a map. Unfortunately, the people who had printed the map didn't seem to have spoken to the people who put in the signs - so attractions and side trails that appeared on the map weren't necessarily signposted, meaning we zoomed past them (oh that must be the crofters cottage, guess we have also missed the track to the waterfall then), while other things were signposted but not on the map (what does it say about that on the map? It's not mentioned - oh)...
Incidentally, turns out that Canadian for "lookout" is "look off". Makes sense I guess.
So - in summing up - probably underwhelmed by the whole Cabot trail. World famous or not.
We have been very lucky with the weather here - especially given it is autumn - and only struck serious rain on "transit" days rather than sightseeing days. So we left Charlottetown in the rain and caught the ferry from Prince Edward Island back to the main part of Nova Scotia then John did a lot of driving to get us to Baddeck (interestingly pronounced badDECK - more deck less bad) and the start of the Cabot trail.
Baddeck is a lovely town in itself and features a museum about Alexander Graham Bell - who did lots of things with flight as well as the whole telephone thing. In fact, he had a finger in a lot of pies and one experiment that he was successfuL in was transmitting sound using light. Turned out not to be practical at the time - but seems pretty darn clever to me.
The Cabot trail is about 300 k. Lots of people do hiking and bicycle riding and motorbike riding around it. The scenery that we found most appealing was at the beginning where there were little villages in valleys nestled in the forest. But unfortunately didn't really realize how special it was until after we had zoomed past it. The rest is coastline - quite nice as coastlines go - but coming from a large island with lots of spectacular coastline ourselves, we are probably a little hard to impress.
The trail is in a national park. Unlike Australian national parks they give you instructions on what to do if attacked by a coyote or a bear at the entrance. Turns out that with coyotes you should make yourself as big as possible, yell and wave a stick. However with bears the story is that you should just back away, v e r y quietly and not climb a tree - as bears are generally better climbers than we are. You don't want to get mixed up between the two. There were also words of wisdom about moose - but they were mainly to not run into the moose with your car. Not sure whether that was for the benefit of the car or the moose. In any event, we didn't run into any wildlife - in any sense - on our journey.
The other thing we got at the national park entrance was a map. Unfortunately, the people who had printed the map didn't seem to have spoken to the people who put in the signs - so attractions and side trails that appeared on the map weren't necessarily signposted, meaning we zoomed past them (oh that must be the crofters cottage, guess we have also missed the track to the waterfall then), while other things were signposted but not on the map (what does it say about that on the map? It's not mentioned - oh)...
Incidentally, turns out that Canadian for "lookout" is "look off". Makes sense I guess.
So - in summing up - probably underwhelmed by the whole Cabot trail. World famous or not.
Friday 1 October 2010
Anne of Green Gables and lighthouses
Today we visited the real home of an imaginary figure and the imaginary home of the author who created her. Anne of Green Gables and her author (LM Montgomery or "our Maude" as they call her here) are really big news on Prince Edward Island. Today we visited Green Gables, which is sort of a real place. L M really lived on the island and was al sot an orphan.and the cottage on which she based green gables really exists - it's Anne herself who is fictional.
The green gables property is presented as it would have been - IF Anne had lived there. Kind of a bizarre concept really. It is a very pretty cottage with nice grounds. Glad we are here after the real tourist season though. The car park at green gables is HUGE - which. I fear may be indicative of the number of summertime visitors. Much quieter for us in the early autumn.
From there we went to visit the SITE of the home where "our Maude" actually lived with her grandparents after her mother died. Unfortunately no one lived there for a while and it fell down - so all you can actually see is the remains of the cellar. Kind of ironic that Anne has a real house but Lucy Maude doesn't.
We then tried to go on a scenic drive. It is kind of hard to avoid a scenic view on the island pretty houses nestle in green fields near little coves with fishing boats. And Lots of little white churches that look as though they are straight out of the pages of a picture book.
But all the souvenir shops show lighthouses and that is what I really wanted to see. But in spite of the many models of lighthouses in souvenir shops, the poster of "lighthouses of Prince Edward Island" and the mini lighthouses in peoples front yards we found it difficult to locate an actual lighthouse. We drove around all over the place- but only managed to locate one. I took several photos for good measure.
In the process of looking for lighthouses we did find a beach and John and I dipped our toes in the Atlantic Ocean.
It is nice to be able to cross a p,ace off hour list and feel that you have definitively seen enough of it. Must say - I feel that way about PEI. It is u deniably very pretty and if it was a little closer, would probably be a fun holiday destination (equivalent of Batemans Bay from Canberra) but I feel I have seen it now. Tomorrow we attempt to catch a ferry back to nova scotia and go on to The Cabot Trail onCape Breton Island.
The green gables property is presented as it would have been - IF Anne had lived there. Kind of a bizarre concept really. It is a very pretty cottage with nice grounds. Glad we are here after the real tourist season though. The car park at green gables is HUGE - which. I fear may be indicative of the number of summertime visitors. Much quieter for us in the early autumn.
From there we went to visit the SITE of the home where "our Maude" actually lived with her grandparents after her mother died. Unfortunately no one lived there for a while and it fell down - so all you can actually see is the remains of the cellar. Kind of ironic that Anne has a real house but Lucy Maude doesn't.
We then tried to go on a scenic drive. It is kind of hard to avoid a scenic view on the island pretty houses nestle in green fields near little coves with fishing boats. And Lots of little white churches that look as though they are straight out of the pages of a picture book.
But all the souvenir shops show lighthouses and that is what I really wanted to see. But in spite of the many models of lighthouses in souvenir shops, the poster of "lighthouses of Prince Edward Island" and the mini lighthouses in peoples front yards we found it difficult to locate an actual lighthouse. We drove around all over the place- but only managed to locate one. I took several photos for good measure.
In the process of looking for lighthouses we did find a beach and John and I dipped our toes in the Atlantic Ocean.
It is nice to be able to cross a p,ace off hour list and feel that you have definitively seen enough of it. Must say - I feel that way about PEI. It is u deniably very pretty and if it was a little closer, would probably be a fun holiday destination (equivalent of Batemans Bay from Canberra) but I feel I have seen it now. Tomorrow we attempt to catch a ferry back to nova scotia and go on to The Cabot Trail onCape Breton Island.
Thursday 30 September 2010
Charlottetown
Today was another traveling day. We left Halifax and drove to Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island.
on the way,we stopped at a service centre at a place that claimed to be halfway between the equator and the north pole. The whole service centre had a mammoth theme because a mammoth skeleton had been dug up there at some point. This included mammoth minigolfm- in case you wanted to break your trip along the trans canada highway with a spot of mini golf. Reminded me of Sam and max hit the road.
I had a bit of a drive - just to remind myself how freakishly odd it is to drive on the wrong side of the road.
We took a bit of a side trip to a place called Pugwash. I really wanted to go there because of fond memoriesmof reading a Captain Pugwash story to the kids whe they were little. It is also the home ( as it turns out) of Seagull pewter - which Glenyce is really fond of. But we ended up not being there at the right time for the factory tour.
The trip from new Brunswick (the province next to Nova Scotia) to Prince Edward Island included crossing a 15 kilometer bridge. That is an awfully long bridge as it turns out. When you are in the middle you can only just make out either of the shores you are travelling between - so it is kind of like driving over the middle of the ocean.
The whole area is really pretty. Very green, bits of ocean view all over the place. Houses with that gingerbread look about them.
Tonight we are in Charlottetown. Another very pretty down. The cruise ship seems to have followed us here - and could well be bigger than the whole town. Anne of green gables is all the rage heren- have downloaded a copy of the book to read while I am here.
The local delicacy here? ChocolTe coated potato chips. I kid you not. True,these are two of my favorite foods - but together?
on the way,we stopped at a service centre at a place that claimed to be halfway between the equator and the north pole. The whole service centre had a mammoth theme because a mammoth skeleton had been dug up there at some point. This included mammoth minigolfm- in case you wanted to break your trip along the trans canada highway with a spot of mini golf. Reminded me of Sam and max hit the road.
I had a bit of a drive - just to remind myself how freakishly odd it is to drive on the wrong side of the road.
We took a bit of a side trip to a place called Pugwash. I really wanted to go there because of fond memoriesmof reading a Captain Pugwash story to the kids whe they were little. It is also the home ( as it turns out) of Seagull pewter - which Glenyce is really fond of. But we ended up not being there at the right time for the factory tour.
The trip from new Brunswick (the province next to Nova Scotia) to Prince Edward Island included crossing a 15 kilometer bridge. That is an awfully long bridge as it turns out. When you are in the middle you can only just make out either of the shores you are travelling between - so it is kind of like driving over the middle of the ocean.
The whole area is really pretty. Very green, bits of ocean view all over the place. Houses with that gingerbread look about them.
Tonight we are in Charlottetown. Another very pretty down. The cruise ship seems to have followed us here - and could well be bigger than the whole town. Anne of green gables is all the rage heren- have downloaded a copy of the book to read while I am here.
The local delicacy here? ChocolTe coated potato chips. I kid you not. True,these are two of my favorite foods - but together?
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Halifax
Tuesday was a travelling day - drive to Toronto, flight to Halifax - leading to holiday part 2 - Nova Scotia.
We arrived in Halifax late yesterday. We thought this was the place that might be cold - but it is even warmer than Kingston and quite humid. It is great to be by the ocean though. The water just smells right here.
We have had some lovely meals in waterside venues - the scallops here may just be as good as they are in Tasmania - and enjoyed watching the harbour traffic go backwards and forwards.
Today has been a bit of a museum day - so prepare for lots of information you never knew you wanted to know about Halifax.
Halifax has the world's second largest natural harbour. Where is the biggest? Sydney Australia (well it was news to me!). This harbour seems much busier than Sydney to me - but maybe you just don's see it there. While we were having lunch I thought that one of the office blocks had started moving - but it turned out to be a huge cruise ship going past. There are two of them moored here today and you would scarcely notice.
One of Halifax's other claims to fame is that it was peripherally involved in the Titanic disaster. Sailors from Halifax did a lot of recovery of the bodies after the event and quite a few of the casualities are buried here. People here traditionally used bits and pieces from shipwrecks (there were a lot of them) to make things and some of the exhibits in the museum included items that people had made from pieces of Titanic salvage.
Another thing that you won't know unless you have been here is that there was a huge explosion on December6 1917 (the date of my birthday - but just a little before I was born). Two boats, including one laden with WW1 munitions collided. The munitions boat drifted into the dock at the town and exploded with 2000 casualties. Sounds pretty grim - but the museum has a really interesting exhibit on it including lots of survivor accounts. There is apparently a stone church here with a piece of timber embedded in the wall from the explosion and the clock on city hall is permanently set to 5 past nine - the time when the explosion occurred.
We also visited the citadel - a fort here at the top of the hill. We figured that just climbing the hill should have been enough to deter any potential invaders - but they also had cannons just in case. This time it was the French rather than the Americans that they were fighting.
Tomorrow we are off to Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island for more scenery accompanied by delicious food!
We arrived in Halifax late yesterday. We thought this was the place that might be cold - but it is even warmer than Kingston and quite humid. It is great to be by the ocean though. The water just smells right here.
We have had some lovely meals in waterside venues - the scallops here may just be as good as they are in Tasmania - and enjoyed watching the harbour traffic go backwards and forwards.
Today has been a bit of a museum day - so prepare for lots of information you never knew you wanted to know about Halifax.
Halifax has the world's second largest natural harbour. Where is the biggest? Sydney Australia (well it was news to me!). This harbour seems much busier than Sydney to me - but maybe you just don's see it there. While we were having lunch I thought that one of the office blocks had started moving - but it turned out to be a huge cruise ship going past. There are two of them moored here today and you would scarcely notice.
One of Halifax's other claims to fame is that it was peripherally involved in the Titanic disaster. Sailors from Halifax did a lot of recovery of the bodies after the event and quite a few of the casualities are buried here. People here traditionally used bits and pieces from shipwrecks (there were a lot of them) to make things and some of the exhibits in the museum included items that people had made from pieces of Titanic salvage.
Another thing that you won't know unless you have been here is that there was a huge explosion on December6 1917 (the date of my birthday - but just a little before I was born). Two boats, including one laden with WW1 munitions collided. The munitions boat drifted into the dock at the town and exploded with 2000 casualties. Sounds pretty grim - but the museum has a really interesting exhibit on it including lots of survivor accounts. There is apparently a stone church here with a piece of timber embedded in the wall from the explosion and the clock on city hall is permanently set to 5 past nine - the time when the explosion occurred.
We also visited the citadel - a fort here at the top of the hill. We figured that just climbing the hill should have been enough to deter any potential invaders - but they also had cannons just in case. This time it was the French rather than the Americans that they were fighting.
Tomorrow we are off to Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island for more scenery accompanied by delicious food!
More Kingston ...
Wow - have been pretty slack on the blogging front of late.
In a tchnological note - the iPad is a bit of a disappointment as a substitute for the laptop when travelling. Hotels tend to have networks that you need a cable to connect to - the iPad has no cable. (I know - 3G - but I would have had to pay for that whereas I have already paid for an internet connection in the hotel room). And the "lite" operating system means that flash and client side scripts tend not to work - so the editor that I am currently typing this in will not work on my iPad (luckily the travelling companions brought a netbook with them). And while the iPad will display my photos fabulously and let me load them to Facebook via an ap - I can't access them to post them here... Any non nerds who are reading this are already asleep - so I will move on.
The rest of our time in Kingston waslargely a family affair. The wedding went well - it was a bit windy, but the rain held off and the bride and groom seem deliriously happy. There were som beautifuld speeches. And there was dancing - with lots of music that I recognised. Of course, made a total fool of myself on the dancefloor as usual - although I hear they played the TimeWarp some time after I left - always sorry to miss that.
We also managed a brunch with the newlyweds before they departed for their honeymoon in Disneyworld with a cruise on the side. They will overlap with us for a day in DisneyWorld - just what any honeymooners want - a chance to catch up with the whole family for a meal.
We managed to fit in a trip to the home of the first Prime Minister of Canada - Sir John A. MacDonald. We are unable to confirm rumours that the "A" in his name is why Canadians add "eh" too any sentence... I also believe that he is unrelated to any hamburger chain and never owned a farm.
The home advertised as his home is only one of the several places in which he lived during his tenure as PM - Kingston being the first town that they tried out as a capital for Canada. Unfortunately, at that time, the PM gig came without either a place to live or a salary - so the poor guy had to move about a bit, probably according to what he was earning from his law practice at that point. I think they choose this place to show as it is one of the nicer places he lived (before the money ran out).
John A had a very illustrious career - united Canada and organised for a railway to be built - but what I like best about him is that he had crazy clown hair (like mine) and that he was rumoured to be a bit of a heavy drinker. People are so wowserish with their Prime Ministers these days!
We also squeezed in a trip to the cottage (scenic as ever) including a paddle on the lake.
On our last night in Kingston, I managed a bit of swing dancing. A google search for lindy hop in kingston before our departure yielded the Limestone swing club - who weren't doing much of anything on the nights I was there. They put me on to the Queens Swing club - who had a beginner class and some social dancing on Monday.
The academic year is just starting here and Queens is the local university - so most members have only been there a week or so and were just attempting their first swing outs. There were a few long timers there though and they were kind enough to do a jam circle and I had some lovely dances.
Unfortunately I didn't get a photo - but we passed a great Canadian sign while driving around in Kingston offering a season ticket for curling including - $399 - including your own shoes, name tag and broom.
In a tchnological note - the iPad is a bit of a disappointment as a substitute for the laptop when travelling. Hotels tend to have networks that you need a cable to connect to - the iPad has no cable. (I know - 3G - but I would have had to pay for that whereas I have already paid for an internet connection in the hotel room). And the "lite" operating system means that flash and client side scripts tend not to work - so the editor that I am currently typing this in will not work on my iPad (luckily the travelling companions brought a netbook with them). And while the iPad will display my photos fabulously and let me load them to Facebook via an ap - I can't access them to post them here... Any non nerds who are reading this are already asleep - so I will move on.
The rest of our time in Kingston waslargely a family affair. The wedding went well - it was a bit windy, but the rain held off and the bride and groom seem deliriously happy. There were som beautifuld speeches. And there was dancing - with lots of music that I recognised. Of course, made a total fool of myself on the dancefloor as usual - although I hear they played the TimeWarp some time after I left - always sorry to miss that.
We also managed a brunch with the newlyweds before they departed for their honeymoon in Disneyworld with a cruise on the side. They will overlap with us for a day in DisneyWorld - just what any honeymooners want - a chance to catch up with the whole family for a meal.
We managed to fit in a trip to the home of the first Prime Minister of Canada - Sir John A. MacDonald. We are unable to confirm rumours that the "A" in his name is why Canadians add "eh" too any sentence... I also believe that he is unrelated to any hamburger chain and never owned a farm.
The home advertised as his home is only one of the several places in which he lived during his tenure as PM - Kingston being the first town that they tried out as a capital for Canada. Unfortunately, at that time, the PM gig came without either a place to live or a salary - so the poor guy had to move about a bit, probably according to what he was earning from his law practice at that point. I think they choose this place to show as it is one of the nicer places he lived (before the money ran out).
John A had a very illustrious career - united Canada and organised for a railway to be built - but what I like best about him is that he had crazy clown hair (like mine) and that he was rumoured to be a bit of a heavy drinker. People are so wowserish with their Prime Ministers these days!
We also squeezed in a trip to the cottage (scenic as ever) including a paddle on the lake.
On our last night in Kingston, I managed a bit of swing dancing. A google search for lindy hop in kingston before our departure yielded the Limestone swing club - who weren't doing much of anything on the nights I was there. They put me on to the Queens Swing club - who had a beginner class and some social dancing on Monday.
The academic year is just starting here and Queens is the local university - so most members have only been there a week or so and were just attempting their first swing outs. There were a few long timers there though and they were kind enough to do a jam circle and I had some lovely dances.
Unfortunately I didn't get a photo - but we passed a great Canadian sign while driving around in Kingston offering a season ticket for curling including - $399 - including your own shoes, name tag and broom.
Friday 24 September 2010
Oh Canada!
So yesterday and today have probably not been all that fascinating for you - my public.
John drove us from Toronto to Kingston, we caught up with the family, did bit of shopping and wandered around Kingston a bit.
Kingston is very nice - on a lake (which gives you water - without that magical salty smell and feel of the ocean) with some nice old buildings, mixed in with some truly hideous seventies architecture. All in all, quite nice, but unless you have relatives here or are enrolling at Queens university - I wouldn't necessarily advise you to add it to your Canadian itinerary.
Tomorrow is THE WEDDING.
So today I thought that I would mention some traps for novice Canadian travellers.
John drove us from Toronto to Kingston, we caught up with the family, did bit of shopping and wandered around Kingston a bit.
Kingston is very nice - on a lake (which gives you water - without that magical salty smell and feel of the ocean) with some nice old buildings, mixed in with some truly hideous seventies architecture. All in all, quite nice, but unless you have relatives here or are enrolling at Queens university - I wouldn't necessarily advise you to add it to your Canadian itinerary.
Tomorrow is THE WEDDING.
So today I thought that I would mention some traps for novice Canadian travellers.
- TEACanadians do not understand tea. Our well appointed serviced apartment has a drip filter coffee maker - but no kettle. And all the tea is orange pekoe - which I think tastes odd - but my travelling companions think is just fine. So maybe it is just me.
- COFFEE
Canadians (and Americans) think that espresso is that stuff you buy at Starbucks. They drink coffee here by the bucket load - but it is filtered coffee with most of the flavour filtered out. The coffee is weak - that's why you can drink so much of it -and will quite likely be served with some kind of UHT cream concoction instead of actual milk.
If you do find somewhere that serves espresso, don't ask for a long black (they will think you are making racist remarks about a basketball player) or a mugacino - you will only confuse them. - MEALS
Strangely for a country where half the people speak French, the Canadians think that an "entree" is a main course. What we would refer to as an entree, they call an appetizer. I can only think that his was some kind of obscure French joke that the Canadians ( and Americans) have not yet figured out...
And if they serve you a salad, they will expect you to eat it before they serve you the rest of your meal.
And the servings are huge and the sauces are rich. They must practically starve when they come to Australia - poor things. - SWITCHES I wouldn't want to swear that the water goes down the drain the opposite way - but switches definitely work the opposite way. Up is ON and down is OFF!
- CHEESEThe default colour for cheddar cheese here is orange. You can get yellow cheese here these days - but often it is this freaky orange colour. And, of course, tasty cheese - not all that tasty.
- SULTANAS They don't have sultanas here - only raisins. Not a big issue...
- SALES TAXGets added on top of the price on the price tag. And it varies from place to place in Canada because it is applied at the federal and province level. Currently 13% here in Ontario. Which is kind of handy, because you can mostly kind of tip someone the same amount. Unless you actually see your waiter or waitress spit in your food - you tip them 15%. You are also supposed to tip the person who cleans your room but I would never know that if I didn't have relatives here -so just pretend I didn't tell you.
Breakfast cereals are weird here too. It is hard to find one that is not lurid colours and it is not uncommon for them to contain marshmallows (no -really)
Wednesday 22 September 2010
Well my bags are packed...
It took a long time and many creative excuses to delay the process (like sneaking out for a final dance on Monday...) but at last my bags are packed and the long awaited trip to Canada is underway.
Anybody who has been within about 50 metres of me in the last week may have had the opportunity to notice that I was just a little tense about going. The great thing about being on a plane is that whatever you or anybody else may WANT you to do - you are totally powerless to connect to the rest of the world. All there is left for you to do is to sit back, relax and have people bring you food and drink - not a bad deal really.
So, that is basically what I have been doing for the last 24 hours or so. Anything I have forgotten (and I have already discovered some things) is irrevocably left behind and all there is now is to let the holiday happen.
I am almost embarrassed to admit that we actually travelled business class on Delta for the Sydney LA leg - which meant a "pod" seat where I could lie flat with my own quilt and pillow and my own little vido screen, fabulous headphones and people practically beggin to give me more food... SOOO much more comfortable than the usual economy experience - but, will I ever be able to afford it again?
The rest of the day was more prosaic, LA to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Toronto. Lots of waiting in queues - for Immigration and Customs, to get on and off the planes, to collect our luggage - and walking through kilometres of airport terminals.
Going from a Sydney Spring to a Toronto Autumn means almost no temperature change. There is a different quality of light here (more muted) and the trees are a little different (no eucalypts - more autumn colours) - but otherwise, Toronto could almost be Sydney... a city on the water, big expressways, tall builidings - just that everyone drives on the wrong side of the road.
Anyway - Wednesday has gone on for about30 hours by now - so I think it is time to say goodnight.
Anybody who has been within about 50 metres of me in the last week may have had the opportunity to notice that I was just a little tense about going. The great thing about being on a plane is that whatever you or anybody else may WANT you to do - you are totally powerless to connect to the rest of the world. All there is left for you to do is to sit back, relax and have people bring you food and drink - not a bad deal really.
So, that is basically what I have been doing for the last 24 hours or so. Anything I have forgotten (and I have already discovered some things) is irrevocably left behind and all there is now is to let the holiday happen.
I am almost embarrassed to admit that we actually travelled business class on Delta for the Sydney LA leg - which meant a "pod" seat where I could lie flat with my own quilt and pillow and my own little vido screen, fabulous headphones and people practically beggin to give me more food... SOOO much more comfortable than the usual economy experience - but, will I ever be able to afford it again?
The rest of the day was more prosaic, LA to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Toronto. Lots of waiting in queues - for Immigration and Customs, to get on and off the planes, to collect our luggage - and walking through kilometres of airport terminals.
Going from a Sydney Spring to a Toronto Autumn means almost no temperature change. There is a different quality of light here (more muted) and the trees are a little different (no eucalypts - more autumn colours) - but otherwise, Toronto could almost be Sydney... a city on the water, big expressways, tall builidings - just that everyone drives on the wrong side of the road.
Anyway - Wednesday has gone on for about30 hours by now - so I think it is time to say goodnight.
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