Heading South

Darcy and I left Toronto at the end of September and joined up with sisters, Patty and Sandy, for our annual trip to Ottawa to help celebrate Aunt Do's birthday. Darcy had not been to Ottawa since our cross country trip in 1975 so he enjoyed touring the parliament buildings, library and peace tower. My sisters and I are so shallow. We prefer to see the National Gallery and shop in the Byward Market. It is always fun to spend time with our Ottawa relatives

Quebec City was our next destination. The fall colors were beautiful. We stayed just outside the old city and took a wonderful walking tour by a very knowledgeable francophone guide. On advice from cousin Elaine we had lunch at anciens canadiens (pea soup, tourtiere and sugar pie). It was fantastic. From Quebec City we headed to PEI where we spent four days at a golf resort on the very east side. The weather was a little windy and rainy but Darcy managed to get in a couple of rounds of golf. The rest of the time we drove back and forth on the island just enjoying the scenery. September is the Pumpkin Festival in PEI and there are pumpkins everywhere. We realized when we go to Nova Scotia that pumpkins are popular everywhere in the maritimes. They decorate their yards and porches with them and even make scarecrow people with pumpkin heads. Darcy was very patient while we were in PEI and let me visit everything "Anne", Lucy Maud Montgomery's Museum and birthplace. Our last Canadian destination has been St. Margaret's Bay, just south of Halifax. We rented a coach house and our window looks out on the bay. There are sailboats and the trees with the beautiful fall colors come right down to the water. It has been a little cool, windy and rainy but that has given us chance to rest up, do some reading, get some office work done and do lots of driving. We have put miles on the minivan touring the south shore, Peggy's Cove, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay, Shelburn, Birchtown, Wolfville, Kentville. There are so many quaint towns and the fall colors are beautiful. We have also spent some time in Halifax where our favorite tourist spot was the Alexander Keith Brewery tour. It was fun and we were definitely the oldest tourists there and the only ones who did not have to show ID. We also did some serious touring like the Maritime Museum, the Black Cultural Museum, the Loyalist Museum in Shelburn, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia where they have a Maud Lewis exhibit including her "little painted house" that they recently moved to the gallery. Now we are busy getting the boxes repacked. We leave Saturday and will spend the weekend in the Annapolis valley and the Bay of Fundy to see the tides. Then we start heading south.

Our Trip to Europe

I have tried 3 times to get this blog done and have been having nothing but trouble with the website. If it doesn't work this time, I give up. Darcy and I, together with our wonderful Toronto friends, Trevor and Brenda Green, left for London September 3 and that was the beginning of a very hectic 21 days. We got up early every morning and went until late every night, trying to see everything we could. The first thing we did when we arrived was go to Abbey Road. So now Darcy can cross that off his bucket list. We spent the next 3 days trying to see all the famous tourist sites - Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace (I have attached a picture of that), Thames River cruise, Tower Bridge and Tower of London and Billy Elliott. My favorite was seeing the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum. We also took the train to Windsor to see the castle. Unfortunately the Queen was not there to receive us so we had lunch at a wonderful pub (like we did every day) where we always tried their meat pies and banger.

Then we took the Eurostar under the channel to Paris. What a great surprise we had when we arrived at our hotel so find we had a view of Eiffel Tower. So every night we had our nightcap on the balcony watching the lit Tower. We did all the usual tourist things while in Paris - Notre Dame, Montmarre, the left bank, Musee d'Oursay, Champs Elysee, l'Arche de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur and, of course, the Louvre. Two hightlights was seeing the Mona Lisa in the Louvre and doing a bike tour of Versaille. The tour involved riding bikes to the metro in Paris, getting them on the train in 7 seconds, riding to Versaille, buying lunch at the outdoor market and then eating on the banks of the Grand Canal. I have included the picture of Darcy with the baguettes in his backpack. (Please excuse my terrible french spelling.)

After 4 wonderful days in Paris our tour bus picked us up and took us to Trier, Germany to start our river cruise. We spent 7 days cruising the Moselle, Rein and Main Rivers. We toured many quaint towns along the rivers and saw lots of vineyards, churches and castles and ate sausages and drank beer at every one.

We docked at Nuremberg and we were taken by bus to Prague for the last 3 days of our trip. Prague was wonderful and one place, besides Paris, that we want to come back to some day. There is so much history, architecture, music, shopping and food. We just scratched the surface. I have included a picture of the astronomical clock in one of the squares. We sat at one of the outdoor cafes, having goulash, watching the clock as it struck the hour. What a spectacle.

We had such a great time with Brenda and Trevor and are already planning our next trip together.