Archive for the ‘Liz and Robin Adventure’ Category

Back in Edmonton, Colton and I do Battle!

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

Liz and I are now back in Edmonton, and settled in quite nicely.

My brother Colton visited for the weekend, and we even managed to get in a game of Warhammer 40K. Pictures here!

Cheers,

Robin

Stonehenge, Lacock, and “Sheephenge”

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

Happy Holidays Everyone!

As Liz and I enjoy the smells of the turkey dinner roasting in our newly-installed gas stove, I thought I would keep our weekly photo updates going and post about our day trip that we took while in the UK to Stonehenge and the village of Lacock. Stonehenge doesn’t need much of an introduction, but Lacock might.

The village of Lacock is almost completely owned by the English National Trust, which results in an unspoiled appearance. It is also home to Harry Potter’s house. This is the house used in the films when they show ‘you-know-who’ paying a little visit to Harry’s parents.

We took a Mad Max minibus tour out of Bath, trundling through the English countryside. We stopped at Stonehenge first. Be warned that if you visit Stonehenge, it can be underwhelming. After all, it is just a hill with some rocks on it. But for the curious at heart, it can be a lot of fun speculating about what it has been used for throughout history. The audio tour provides a lot of background, and reinforces what a mystery this site truly is. I can’t help but feel the astrological tie-in to the site, so my theory is that it was indeed used for marking time and the passing of seasons, along with providing a meeting place. I mean, it is a bunch of big-ass rocks on a hill. I can just imagine it… “Hey Bill, after work, wanna meet at the big-ass rocks on the hill?”

Works for me.

For those wondering, Sheephenge is what I dubbed the sheep-filled pasture that surrounds Stonehenge, heh. There are a few fun pics of it in the gallery.

By the time we got to the village of Lacock, the light was rapidly passing us by, so some of the pictures are a little dark. All in all, it was a really fun day. Liz and I really enjoy day trips like this to check out the sites.

Full Gallery: Stonehenge and Lacock (27 photos)

A few highlights:

  

  

  

Full Gallery: Stonehenge and Lacock (27 photos)

Cheers!

Robin

Time for a Bath

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

After our visit to London (see previous post), we decided to hop on a coach and head west to the city of Bath. On the way, Robin and I caught our first glimps of the English countryside. That first real slate-cottage thrill!

Bath is grand, and layered with Roman history, yet charming and serene at the same time. It is a gateway to the English countryside, and when you gaze out to the little houses spilling across the hills, you can just begin to see the overlap of the Cotswolds. The Georgian style buldings that can be seen everywhere in Bath were once stained black from coal fires. In recent years the buildings have been cleaned to reveal that milky stone that Bath was famous for.  The Roman baths, though no longer in use are an important part of a visit to the city. The museum has done a wonderful job preserving ancient crumbling rooms below ground level, and you can wonder amongst them, a catching a glimpse of the hot springs gushing along as abundant as ever. In the shopping areas of Bath, you can find oodles of fudgeries, Cornish pasty shops, and corner cafes, trinket shops and English souvenirs a plenty. Bath is a great place to stay especially if your planning on some day-trips to Stonehenge, and the village of Lacock (which we will post about soon).

Full Gallery: City of Bath (46 photos)

A few highlights:

       

  

  

    

We did have a fun adventure one evening, we had been given a tip that inexpensive and tasty dinners were to be found in many local pubs. So, Robin and I wandered until we found one with a couple of available chairs, and sat down. We both had a beautiful roast chicken dinner, Robin had some ale, and I had a Blackthorn Cider. Before long Robin said, “I don’t want to alarm you, but did you realize you are the only girl in this whole place?” Yes, indeed I had noticed that all around me men were glued to the “Football” game. Well, when our dinners were done, a friendly inebriated young man came up to us, said that he was hungry, and then asked if he could have a go at our leftovers (of which there were none- just the bones really.) It took a moment before we realized that this poor soul wasn’t joking, and then he turned around apparently too embarrassed to speak to us any longer. We did feel a little bad, but the man could have bought food instead of booze. Well, there is no shortage of adventures to be had in English pubs, and neither is there any shortage of chips.

Full Gallery: City of Bath (46 photos)

We would love to hear your comments,

Liz

London: Codpieces and Cannonettes

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

Now that we are back from the UK, our pictures of London have been posted (over the coming weeks, we will regularly post about our tour of England and Scotland):

Full Gallery 1: London (49 photos)
Full Gallery 2: Tower of London (25 photos)

London is too big to see in one visit, too diverse to sum up, so filled with ancient history it leaves your head swimming, and frankly too bloody astounding for words. But, I’ll try to paint a picture for you; London is a bustling metropolis filled with layers upon layers of architectural wonders, world treasures, haunted pubs, umbrellas and tureens of clotted cream! Robin and I were electrified by London’s goings on! We took full advantage of one of those handy hop-on hop-off double-decker buses (and it’s our opinion but it’s the best way to see London in a day), and marvelled that we were actually there, in the middle of it all. In fact, my first thought coming into Kensington station on the Underground, was the “Chim Chimney…roof tops of London” song from Mary Poppins! There it was; that chimney sweep world of enchantment.

We stayed in a little hotel in South Kensington with scented toilet paper and a shower tap mechanism previously unknown to us. We enjoyed English breakfasts at a spot called “The Muffin Man” and puzzled that every bloody plate came with a whithered tomato, and explored as much as we had time for. We ate fish and chips, and cream teas, we found Turkish delight, and lamb and mint flavored potato chips. We also managed to master the Tube, listening to countless announcements to “Mind the Gap between the platform and the train”.  I was desperate to get all the haunted information I could, and on Halloween night, Robin and I not only found the Sand Witch, but met up with a ghost tour complete with limb-less live action.  We toured the British Museum which is amazing, and equally exhausting, the National Gallery were we both fell in love with Turner’s paintings, and The Tate Modern, where some installations actually made my stomach turn.

As I am ever on the search for the world’s greatest chocolate, I made a special trip to Chelsey to visit Rococo chocolates, where my lovely friend Christine had found me a rose-flavored bar. Rococo is known for their unique flower flavored chocolate, and the violet was almost as nice as the rose.

The Tower of London is worth an entire day, that’s time enough to go up into all the towers, see the levels of museums inside, have a lovely pricey little lunch at the cafe, and view the dazzling crown jewels (don’t miss out on the little cannonettes or the arms and armour, codpieces included!) The London eye is also a must-see to appreciate the enormity of the city, but ration your liquids it’s a 30 minute ride! London is truly beautiful and wondrous, exceeding expectation.

Full Gallery 1: London (49 photos)
Full Gallery 2: Tower of London (25 photos)

Here are a few highlights:

  
  
   
  
   

Liz

Full Circle

Friday, November 21st, 2008
Our last night in London, as viewed from a bridge on the Thames.

Last Night in London

Liz and I have come full circle, and are back in Toronto, where we first started our travels (boy, is Canada ever sunnier than the UK).

After close to 3 months travel, we decided to head back to Canada, just in time for winter (what are we thinking?) It feels like time to hole up for a bit, possibly doing more travelling next year. Not exactly sure what the future holds, but it may involve spending the winter in TO.

Now that we are back in Canada, and likely with regular internet access, we will be posting up pictures and such.

It has been an awesome adventure, we are bursting with stories and memories, but it is time to start a new chapter. Also, I think I may die if I don’t paint some miniatures soon.

Robin

Hello From Scotland

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

It has been a while! :)

Liz and I are currently in Edinburgh with our friend Ashley (whom we stayed with in Liverpool). We toured around the city today on one of the double-decker tour buses, and then spent the rest of the day checking out the Holyrood Abbey and Palace, then the Royal Mile and a couple of the museums. Tomorrow we are going to head to Edinburgh Castle, amongst other things.

Our trip across England has been wonderful, and we have a ton of pictures to share. Internet access has been sparse enough, that when combined with our hectic schedule, we aren’t able to stay connected with everyone as often as we would like.

Cheers!

Robin

Liz and Robin in Reykjavik, Iceland

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

We have finally posted up our pictures of Iceland! They are broken up into two sets,

Full Gallery 1: Touring the city of Reykjavik (31 photos)
Full Gallery 2: Iceland - Blue Lagoon and Golden Circle (48 photos)

Rather than post gobs of text here, we have included commentary in the photo galleries, though we may post additional thoughts on Iceland in the future. It is worthy of multiple blog posts, we loved every minute there.

For those who don’t want to click through all the photos in the galleries above, here are a few of our favourite shots:

  

 

   

    

Full Gallery 1: Touring the city of Reykjavik (31 photos)
Full Gallery 2: Iceland - Blue Lagoon and Golden Circle (48 photos)

As usual, we love to hear your comments, so please post if you can. Enjoy!

Robin

A Quick Hello

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Liz and I are now in London, needless to say we haven’t had much time to update lately. Iceland was *amazing*, we will post up lots of pictures and stories soon.

We arrived in London at the start of the week (wow), and I thought we would post up our itinerary to show you what we are up to. Again, we hope to find some time to post pictures and stories on our adventures. So much has happened since our last update :)

Oct 26 to Oct 31: London (yes, that means Halloween in London!)
Nov 1 to Nov 3: Bath
Nov 4 to Nov 6: Stow-on-the-wold and touring the Cotswolds
Nov 7 to Nov 10: York
After that: Liverpool (Nov 11-13?)
Next up: Edinburgh (Nov 14-16?)

Getting to Scotland is the last currently planned location on our itinerary, not sure where we will end up after Edinburgh!

Take care, and stay tuned for details on Iceland.

Robin

Reykjavik and London, Here We Come!

Thursday, October 16th, 2008
London Calling

London Calling

Liz and I are super excited, as we booked flights to Iceland and then the UK last night (all while watching the Oilers beat the Ducks!)

We will be going to Iceland first, staying in Reykjavic for close to a week, and then on our way to London! Iceland Air has a great deal where if you fly from the US or Canada to Europe, you can stop over in Iceland for up to seven nights on the way there (and you can even book it through expedia, which we did). The cost of the flights works out so the whole package is cheaper than booking the flights seperately, and was quite reasonable overall.

Ice Ice Baby

Ice Ice Baby

We almost have our Iceland trip planned out, and hotels there are super cheap right now (although I hear the food will be expensive). Liz has a previously planned London to Edinburgh itinerary that we will probably us as a basis for our UK travels, although who knows where we will end up. :)

We will be spending the rest of the week and weekend in Montreal, and then flying out Monday!

Robin

Here We Go A-Leafing

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

Fall greetings!

Pumpkins!

Pumpkins!

 Robin and I finally stumbled into old Montreal with eyes wide and a child-like compulsion to explore. Tunnels and cavernous cobbled streets were lined with iron signs protruding from the entrances of shops. It was nothing short of Muggle “Diagon Alley” with posh galleries, and hip restaurants boasting “best poutine in town” speckled throughout. Horse drawn carriages clip-clopped their way down the alleys, and wealthy folks on holiday bounced in those carriages in all their finery admiring the views of the port.  To my dismay, the chocolate shops were few and far between! The docks at the port jutted out into the St. Lawrence river, and were swarming with seagulls. If you turned around, you could see the towers of Notre Dam, the steeples of other gorgeous ancient churches among the skyscrapers, and Mont Royal Mountain.

Still hoping to find my favorite chocolate on earth, I trekked to Jean-Talon Market by metro. Jean-Talon market is an enormously good time for anyone who enjoys grocery shopping the way it should be. Outdoors, and under countless tents. There were kiosks dedicated to selling pumpkins of all sizes, garlic and dried peppers, vendors who’d combined exotic berries in baskets to create irresistible displays. You could find giant figs that had to be bought individually, and shops specializing in hard-to-find spices. The cheese shops were so busy that the Montrealers had to shout their orders over counter tops and shove each other ever-so-slightly. I bought currants as bright as cherry candy, Concords, a few giant figs (because I do not fool around), and a handful of artisan chocolate- but still no sign of that darn Porcelana chocolate! I am beginning to have bad dreams about finding my favourite chocolate on store shelves, but when I get close, the packages turn into cd’s. It is very frustrating!

Sutton

Sutton

 As a very thoughtful birthday gift to Robin, Joan and Deirdre rented us a car for one whole weekend. So, Robin and I drove out to the Eastern Townships (Cantons de l’Est) during the first weekend in October, which might have been the very best time to go! The mountains in the distance were on fire with oranges and reds, yellows and greens. There were leaves blowing around the streets of those little towns too, and pumpkins on almost every doorstep! It was heaven! Robin and I stayed in Sutton the first night, at Gite Vert le Mont, a lovely B&B run by a British woman and her mother who kept us in stitches the whole time. The next morning was overcast and chilly, with the sent of woodsmoke drifting in from somewhere, and we decided to go for a drive.  Because of the cloud cover, we were unable to get the pictures we wanted. But Robin and I will be able to recall the colors in our minds- we were speechless! I was lucky to find two lavender farms during our travels that day- but of course, all the lavender had been harvested so there was little more to see than the gift shops. We drove on and on through the most scenic towns, each with their own little churches and graveyards, until we stopped in Knowlton. Knowlton is where Deirdre grew up and I must say that she is a lucky one! It was the most charming town we had seen yet, surely the most sceninc town to spend Halloween in, and we got to spend the night in the historic hotel on main street! Robin and I went book shopping, and wandered around the town crunching leaves under our shoes. Delightful! We spent one more night at the B&B in Sutton before heading back to Montreal.

Full picture gallery here.

Love and pumpkins to you all,

Liz

P.S. Here is a little video from Robin, of a seagull we met on the pier who kept having to chase his hard-won prize: