Saturday, July 31, 2010

A Hop, Skip and a Jump - in Munich

The past couple of days have been fun-filled and busy. We enjoyed our incredible stay in Northern Ireland with Meaghan. We can´t thank her enough for the hospitality she gave us. We were sad to say goodbye, but it was time for us to move along.

On Wednesday we took the bus to Belfast. Met up with Meaghan for lunch and a wee bit of shopping for Nancy. We said our goodbyes and "until next time" and made our way by train to Carrickfergus. With perfect timing, Nancy´s cousin Lorraine pulled up with her son Stephen. They took us back to their house to meet the rest of the family.
We were warmly welcomed and treated to drinks and snacks as we chatted and caught up. The family then took us to cousin Margaret´s farm. We had a lovely spread and met Arlene, Claire, Victoria, Linda, Margaret and John. After dinner, we had fun playing football with the kids. Eventually, the night had to come to an end, and meant more goodbyes. We headed back to Arthur and Lorraines for a short sleep before we woke up early for the flight to London. Arthur was so kind to drive us to the airport, which was at the ghastly hour of 4:30am. Thank you, Thank you, thank you Arthur.

We had a great flight into London. Took the train back to the downtown, and met up with Ling. Ling totally looked after us, even taking us to Royal Albert Hall to attend a BBC prom of Chamber choir music by Mozart and Dvorak. We really enjoyed our short stay with Ling. Thank you LING!

Again, we had to get up super early at 4am Thursday to make our way back to the airport. It was all worth it, as we had a terrific time.
We had another good flight, landing in Munich on time. The weather was great when we landed, taking the train to the city centre and finding our hotel. We made it to the King´s hotel. We were happy to see the bed and quickly fell asleep.

We are looking forward to enjoying the next few days here in Munich. We are planning a visit to the gallery for Saturday and possibly a couple day trips just outside of Munich for Sunday and Monday.

Cheers!
- JR and Nancy

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

A wee bit from Northern Ireland

Hello! This will be a short update as we're off to see Carrickfergus and see Nancy's cousins before we head back to London on Thursday.

Having a chance to slow the pace down a bit, sleep in and relax in N. I. has been terrific. On Sat. we travelled to Newcastle to take in a piping contest, complete with Highland Dancers and Drum Majors. It was quite the show and we heard LOTS of pipes!! We also went into Belfast to check out the Ulster Museum which has recently opened after a refurbishment. It was really good, lots to look at and learn about N.I. On Monday we got on a train to Dublin to check out as much of the city as we could in a day. It turned out to be a beautiful day, so we were actually a little over-dressed for the weather if you can believe it!

Yesterday we went back into Belfast and JR met up with an artist and was able to view some local galleries. He was definitely impressed with some of the works (Freud, Moore, Picasso), and Nancy met up with Meaghan to view some of the local shops.

Today's our last morning in Banbridge. Then off to Carrickfergus. Thank you so much to our hosts. You guys are the best!!!

Hope everyone is doing well at home!

all the best,
Nancy and JR

Saturday, July 24, 2010

More London Pictures





London Pictures





London

Had a bumpy bus ride into London, and it was much hotter than we expected. But, we found the residence in downtown (Bankside to be specific) and we were able to settle in quickly. In looking over all the things we wanted to see, we quickly realized that we wouldn't have enough time to do it all. First on the list was St. Paul's Cathedral (it opened earliest), where we saw amazing architecture, the Duke of Wellington's tomb, and Lord Nelson's tomb. The whispering galleries were closed in the top, so we weren't able to experience that, but we headed off to the rebuilt Globe theatre. We had a very cool tour there, and then we went to a "London Bridge" experience. It was funny, and creepy, with actors that play out all the dead zombies stuck in the tombs of london's dungeon and bridge. Then we went to the Tower of London. It was really interesting, except there were 1 million other visitors and it was difficult to move about the grounds. We were able to view the Crown Jewels and various prisoner rooms where royalty lived when stuck in the tower. From there we headed to the National Portrait Gallery and Trafalgar Square. JR thought it was amazing and Nancy liked the royalty portraits. Our attempt in viewing the Canada House was thwarted because the common area was closed for some 3-day function. Too bad. We then headed out to get theatre tickets for the Tuesday night. We decided to see "Oliver". It was a fabulous show the next evening. We both loved it.
Back to Monday though... we met up with JR's friend, Ling, and were able to hang out for the evening at a restaurant on the Thames. Very nice. :)

Tuesday morning - Nancy slept in a bit and JR went off to view the British Museum. There was an exhibit of Renaissance master drawings which JR was able to see, as well as the Rosetta stone, an Easter Island head, and some Acropolis statues. That afternoon we headed to Buckingham Palace and went to the Queen's Mews (were her horses and carriages are kept). When we left, we saw many people dressed up in top hats and fancy dresses and Nancy thought the Queen could be having an afternoon tea party... and she WAS! Nancy loved it and JR had to take lots of pictures of all the bustle around the gates of Buckingham Palace. We left the gates of the palace and went to the Queen's gallery. Lots of amazing artwork, including the piano that Queen Victoria and Albert played, as well as original music that Mendelsohn wrote for them to perform together. (Nancy was thrilled!)

We walked back through St. James park and headed to the Parliment buildings and Big Ben. After the requisite pictures we headed back to change and rest before Oliver. Like we mentioned earlier, Oliver was superb. Definitely lived up to the hype of "West End London broadway". That was our last evening in London, but when we fly back on our way to Munich, we will meet up with Ling again, and maybe get some more sights and sounds of London.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Canterbury, England








We had a wonderful time in Canterbury! It was a pleasant surprise in our trip! We landed in Canterbury on a busy day and luckily had the good fortune of staying at the Acacia Lodge. The hosts were spectacular and friendly, making us feel like family. We were able to use their computer and phone, going above and beyond anything we would have expected, and even helped with our travel plans to London. Thanks Mark and Tam!

Check out the leaning building (bookstore) in one of the pictures -Charles Dickens even wrote about it in one of his books!
The Canterbury Cathedral was stunning -hope you can see that in the pictures!

Dover to Canterbury





The Cliffs of Dover!





Taking the Ferry from Calais to Dover





Calais, France





Thursday, July 22, 2010

Vimy Ridge Memorial




Longueau Cemetery





Days in Northern France

Well, we've made it to Banbridge, Northern Ireland. Whew! We'll just backtrack a bit, and post some of the pictures along the way to London. So we left Paris, and headed North on a train toward Amiens. The cemetery site of George Hunter is in Longueau, and we found out our train to Amiens actually stopped in Longueau first. So, we got off at the Longueau train station, planning to get a taxi to the cemetery site and find the gravestone. Now, Longueau is about the size of Sunderland, maybe, and nary a taxi was to be found. So, we had to start walking. Which way was the next question. We clearly were not in a "town". So we found a sign pointing to "Longueau" and off we went. As the rain clouds threatened above our heads, we finally came to a "main' road where I (Nancy) found a nice young girl and I stammered along in my broken French asking where the cemetery could be found. Of course, they had no idea what we were talking about. So we headed down the main street and knowing that the site was close to a major highway ahead of us, I was just hoping George would lead us there. Then, miraculously, as we were reaching the crest of a hill, over a hedgerow to our right, was a giant memorial cross! OH MY GOD I was so relieved. To be in the middle of nowhere Northern France, and to find exactly what we were looking for!! I was so excited I literally threw off my pack, starting jumping up and down and all my exhaustion from the walk (30+plus minutes, but seemed like forever) disappeared. JR was so elated he just sat down. We spent a while there, looking at all the grave stones and taking the important pictures. The site was so well maintained (as we saw all of them are) it was a really beautiful and thoughtful site. It was quite small, only 200 headstones, and most of them were British, but there were a handful of Canadians (George) and some Australian ones as well.
We left Longueau in a bit of a daze I think. Walking back to the train station full of thought... it was so incredible to see the site, and to think of what happened to these young men, literally stuck in hell on earth, made it all so real and meaningful to be alive and experiencing life.

At the train station we had a couple of hours before our train to Arras arrived. JR volunteered (gotta love him) to walk back into town to find some rations to hold us over for the next few hours. He came back with some sandwiches and juice and we ate and caught our train to Arras. Now, Arras was a much more lively than Longueau, and had taxis and hotels, and places to eat all over the place. Our taxi driver knew exactly where we wanted to go, and we able to get to the Vimy Memorial site quickly and easily. When we arrived, there was a Frenchman who kindly asked us how much time we had to view the site, and in saying only a few hours, he quickly radioed to the guides at the trench tours and was able to tell us to run "tout suite" to the trench area. So off we went, literally running down the road about 1 km to the entrance of the trenches and underground tunnels. Just as we were tiring, I looked over at JR and said, if the young guys could run with 60 pds on their backs, so can we! God were we tired when we got there! They were able to take our packs in the office and we met up with the rest of the tour group. The tour was great - learning and walking through the trenches, actually seeing how close the German and Canadian trenches were! (they could hear each other talking!) and to go underground and see where the officers and men waited before the attack on the ridge. After the tour, we went back to the top of the ridge were the massive Canadian monument stands as a remembrance and tribute to the 60,000 Canadian soldiers who were killed and remains are missing, or unaccounted for. As the monument has just completed years of restoration, it was magnificent. Luckily, JR and I had a few moments where we were alone on the hill, and he was able to get pictures without people running all over the statues.
Our taxi came and picked us up and off to the train station we went.

We left Arras totally silent, pondering everything we had taken in that day... it's hard to put into words, even now, so many days later. It was an experience both of us will never forget.

We arrived in Calais around 8pm that night, and found two young Australians, who had been denied entry into the UK as they had no proof of leaving (no exit ticket) so were turned over to the French police. The police had dropped them off at the station, but they were clueless as to what to do. They were so happy to have found people speaking English! I showed them how to operate the automated ticket machine, and got them tickets to inward France, as they wanted to eventually make it to Germany. Hope they made out ok!
We trekked along and eventually found our hotel, facing the Channel! WOW! Then the next morning we got up very early, walked to the ferry port, went through security and customs, and boarded the ferry! I must say, it was more packed than I had hoped and although I did get some great pictures of the Cliffs of Dover, one couldn't really stand on the top deck and bask in the sunshine. It was more of a small space the smokers were coveting and you couldn't squeeze in for too long. Alas, we saw the crisp, grandiose cliffs glimmering in the morning sun, and that was the whole point.

Once in Dover, we boarded a bus and picked Canterbury as our place to stay the night. Like we mentioned before - it was packed full of people and we were so relieved when we found a room at a Bed and Breakfast. Canterbury was beautiful; the cathedral majestic, the castle was superb, and the quaint streets and canals were like a fairytale town. We left Canterbury for London on Sunday and we'll put up at post about that next.

I'll end this post now, as I think it's been quite lengthy. JR will definitely put some pictures up later.

We're loving Northern Ireland right now, and last night I looked up the census from 1911 and found the Apsley family from Carrickfergus! I'll print out the info and bring it home!


Hope everyone is well!
love you all!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Made it to Canterbury

We made it to Canterbury! Saw the Cliffs of Dover from the ferry. Just what Nancy wanted :) We ended up taking the bus from Dover to Canterbury and now we've just found some lodging for the night (WOO HOO"!!) so we're off to get rid of our bags and come back and check out the town! Finding a place has been no easy task, but it's amazing how kind people have been in this little town. Apparently it's graduation weekend and this town is FULL of people... especially STUDENTS!!! aaaahhhhh!!
so we're off to trek to our b&b. Hopefully can post again soon! Thinking of you all!