Category Archives: Travel

Road Trip: Our Weekend in Calgary

Posted on by

We’re not a family that hits the road very often. To date, “family trip” has generally meant flying to Saskatoon to visit relatives, but we’re trying to expand our horizons a bit. In that spirit, I decided to plan a long weekend in Calgary for the boys. Justin, who has always been an enthusiastic traveller, was literally counting the days (in Spanish…sigh) until it was time to go. Brayden was puzzled as to why we weren’t flying (clearly we’ve set the bar too high) but was otherwise looking forward to the trip.

DAY 1: GETTING THERE IS HALF THE FUN

I was fairly confident we could get an early start, and Justin was certainly happy to get up (he greeted me with “Happy Calgary day, Mom!” when I opened his door), but Brayden had to be dragged out of bed and coerced into eating breakfast. Nevertheless, we managed to get underway by 7 a.m. It was a beautiful day for a drive, and we were determined to enjoy the sun while we could, since the forecast called for monsoon-like conditions in Calgary all weekend (more on that in a bit). The kids kept themselves occupied looking around at the scenery (they especially loved driving through the mountain tunnels), listening to the car stereo and coloring in their activity books. We didn’t even have to get out the iPods until after our lunch stop in Golden, four hours into the trip, which has to be some kind of record. For lunch, Chris and I bought subs and had a little picnic with the boys – the kids sitting together on a hill eating from their lunch kits was both very cute and very reminiscent of many family trips I did as a kid. It was slightly surreal to be the adult this time.

We got to Calgary by 4 p.m., and while it WAS cloudy, it wasn’t actually raining, so we figured we might as well do Calaway Park before the crappy weather arrived. After munching on leftover burgers at the hotel (I was wise enough to get a room with a fridge and a microwave), we got to Calaway at 5:30, only to find out the park was closing at 7. Still, we really wanted to try the rides while it wasn’t raining, so we bought tickets and took our chances. That was probably the smartest thing we did all weekend – the day crowds were gone and with a thunderstorm threatening, no one wanted to be at the park, so there were no lines for anything. We didn’t realize it at the time, but we did more in that hour and a half than we could’ve done in a whole day with normal crowds. We fully appreciated that when we went back to Calaway Saturday afternoon (insane!) I wasn’t sure how Brayden in particular would react to the rides, but both boys had a total blast (which got me thinking about a future trip to Disneyland…but I digress.)

The main reason I chose the hotel I did was the fact that our room had two queen beds and a separate sitting room, so we could put the boys to bed and sneak into the other room to eat munchies and watch TV. That was the theory, anyway. That first night, however, things weren’t quite so relaxing. Thanks to the time change and the fact that both boys had napped in the car, neither of them would settle until 9:30, which is when Chris and I went to bed. Then Justin woke up around 1 a.m. and was just wide awake, hyper and talkative for three straight hours. Brayden slept through all that (thank God for small favors) so at least one of us got a full night’s rest.

DAY 2: A TALE OF TWO ZOOS

The forecast had warned of a possible 35 mm of rain on Saturday, but we woke up to cloudless skies and a temperature that was warm enough for shorts, much to our delight. We decided to celebrate the sunny skies by going to the zoo. We usually go to the Saskatoon zoo once a year, but the place is pretty tiny and really only has the same animals you’d be likely to run into on the prairie anyway. The Calgary Zoo is in a whole different class. For one thing, they have a whole section called Prehistoric Park that’s filled with dozens of life-size animatronic dinosaurs (way cool). It seemed like exactly the kind of thing that would trigger Justin’s anxiety, and there were a few spots where he was too scared to move and Chris had to carry him along the path, but overall he seemed to enjoy it (when we were ready to head back to the car, he started demanding to see the dinosaurs again, but we managed to dissuade him). The part both boys liked best was the children’s play area with its animal-themed playground and even a little zoo train that they could ride all by themselves. Good stuff.

After three hours at the zoo, we took a break at the hotel and pondered our next move. The kids had really enjoyed Calaway the night before, and I noticed the park has cheaper rates if you go in the afternoon, so I suggested we go back there around 2:30 p.m. Everyone was excited about this plan, until we got to the parking lot. When we saw the sea of cars, it finally occurred to me that Saturday afternoon of a long weekend might not have been the wisest time to visit an amusement park. We lucked out in that the guy ahead of us in the ticket line had some discount tickets he couldn’t use, so at least we got in for cheap, which was good, cause we were in the park for a full 40 minutes before we finally got on our first ride. Hence the second “zoo” of the day. The kids did awfully well with the heat and the crowds and all the stimulation, but after a couple hours they were just DONE.

You’d think that would mean they’d crash hard. They did go to sleep at their normal time, and Chris and I got to enjoy an hour or so of kid-free time in the sitting room, but Justin pulled his nocturnal act again and stayed awake talking between about 1 and 5 a.m. Brayden joined in the fun for about an hour this time. Neither kid was unhappy or fussy – just AWAKE. Sigh.

DAY 3: ODDS AND ENDS

The long-predicted rain arrived Sunday morning, so we figured it was a good time to check out the children’s museum at the science centre. It was smaller than we were expecting, but the kids seemed to have fun running around trying the different interactive exhibits. They had a special Lego theme that really seemed to impress Brayden, although more than once I caught him crawling under the barricades to try to get closer to the displays. Justin was fascinated with the “jam room”, which was filled with all kinds of metal and plastic objects that the kids could bang to create different sounds. The whole place would have bored me even as a kid, but the boys had fun.

The rest of the day was a mish-mash of stuff to fill the time. We checked out the hotel pool, which had a two-storey waterslide that Justin was initially afraid of but eventually fell in love with. Then we went to a nearby school to let the boys run and climb on the playground, but the mosquitoes were pretty fierce, so that didn’t last as long as I’d hoped. We finally went out for dinner for the only time the whole trip, and that worked out really, really well.

So the day ended on a positive note. The boys finally did crash hard, and slept all night, and even though Brayden woke up at 5 a.m. I wasn’t too concerned.

DAY 4: HOMEWARD BOUND

And today we drove home. We were on the road by 7 a.m., but we needn’t have worried about traffic – it all seemed to be going the opposite direction. There were the usual construction areas but nothing really slowed us down too much, and we made it home by 2 p.m. Then of course I had to unpack, clean the car (ewww!), clean the house, do the laundry…but the work is done, the kids are in their own beds, and I think we all agree it was a highly successful trip.

Home Sweet Home

Posted on by

Actually, we’ve been home for five days now, but it’s only in the last couple that I’ve started to feel vaguely human again. I picked up a nasty cold on the flight back from Rome (I couldn’t complain, though, since ours was pretty much the only transatlantic flight to leave Rome that day, albeit four hours late — stupid Icelandic volcano), and combined with a nine-hour time change I’ve felt absolutely wretched for most of the past week. The boys also have runny noses and there was one night this week that Justin was up all night with a sore throat, so it’s been loads of fun. But everyone seems to be on the mend now.

I can now conclusively say that I enjoy cruising. I’d been wondering if it was the mode of travel that bothered me — I didn’t particularly enjoy the two cruises before this one, but that’s because I didn’t like the destination (Alaska and the Caribbean are just not for me). Cruising in Europe was amazing. I did a camping tour of Europe just after finishing college, and I remember being annoyed at having to unpack everything (tents, air mattresses, sleeping bags, cooking gear) even if we were only staying in a place for one night, and then having to pack it all up again in the wee hours of the morning so we could spend another five or six or seven hours on the bus. Granted, it wouldn’t take much to beat that, but being able to eat a meal, enjoy a show or sit by the pool while the ship moved on to a new port was pretty darn cool. I’ve even got my eye on another cruise, this one to Scandinavia, a couple years from now, but we’ll have to wait and see how things work out.

Enjoy the pictures in the photo gallery!

Walking Through History

Posted on by

Location: Naples, Italy

The body casts impressed me the most. Everyone knows the story of Pompeii: how Mt. Vesuvius erupted early one morning in 79 AD and buried the city under 20 feet of volcanic ash. Almost 20,000 people suffocated from volcanic gases, and many of the victims’ skeletons remained intact under all that ash. Archeologists have since added plaster to the bones to make casts of the people who died. We saw a dog, a young boy, a pregnant woman…all frozen in time. More than anything else about the site, the body casts made it all real.

Pompeii is larger than you might think. The site covers 125 acres, and although we walked around for two hours, we barely scratched the surface. We saw entire streets lined with the remains of old shops, including a bakery with its original oven. We saw the gladiator barracks, the forum and city hall, the law courts…and let us not forget the red-light district with its 25 brothels. The buildings in that area actually had carvings of penises on them to lead prospective patrons to the right place. Classy.

There are sites here in Naples I wouldn’t mind seeing, but I have vacation fatigue and all I really want to do this afternoon is relax by the pool. Tomorrow morning we dock back in Civitavecchia and are scheduled to fly out of the Rome airport just after lunch. I hear volcanic ash is causing problems in the Atlantic, but I’m crossing my fingers that our flight to Toronto won’t be affected. Wish us luck!

Under the Sicilian Sun

Posted on by

Location: Trapani, Italy

Rival groups have fought over control of Sicily for centuries, and I can see why. Aside from its strategic location in the centre of the Mediterranean, Sicily boasts some amazing natural beauty. Rolling hills and small mountains covered in lush greenery…vineyards everywhere…lemon, orange and olive trees dotting the landscape…medieval towns perched on mountain tops…this is the Sicily of everyone’s imagination. To see it spread before you defies description. Scenic drives normally leave me cold, but even I was captivated by the countryside here.

Our destination today was the Valley of the Temples, a collection of ancient Greek temples strung out on a ridge near Agrigento in southern Sicily. The Greeks founded Agrigento in the 6th century BC, long before the Romans ever came to the island. They then defeated an invading Carthaginian force in 586 BC and decided to build some temples in celebration. Not all have survived, of course; many were plundered for their building material or destroyed by new groups who conquered the area. But some, particularly the Temple of Concord, are very well preserved, largely because they were converted to Christian churches when the Byzantines arrived in the 5th century AD. We walked through the area (now a UNESCO World Heritage site) admiring the remains of four major temples, the ancient city walls that once surrounded Agrigento, and a necropolis that once contained the tombs of local citizens. I’m not much for scenery, but looking at 3,000-year-old rocks is my idea of a good day. Awesome.

The four of us have agreed that we’d like to see the eastern Mediterranean sometime, but we also agreed that we’re glad we’re not doing it all in one trip. This cruise has been great, but we’re getting to the point of being ready to go home. After days of eating too much, drinking too much and sitting on our asses too much, we’ll be lucky to fit into the airplane seats. I’m exhausted from all this leisure.

Naples tomorrow!

Adventure in Africa

Posted on by

Location: Tunis, Tunisia

It’s easy to forget this is Africa. Tunisia encompasses a lot of cultures, but the place is primarily Arab, and you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve landed in the Middle East. I can’t make heads or tails out of Arabic writing, so it was nice to see that most signs were also in French (since Tunisia is a former French colony). I always try to speak the local language a bit when I travel, but we were addressed in Tunisian, Italian and French at various times today, so I basically gave up.

We started our tour in the ruins of Carthage, ancient Rome’s great enemy. Carthage was utterly destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC, but there are a few original structures remaining, like the Roman baths from the second century AD and the aqueducts that brought water to them. We also saw the Punic cemetery that was here before the Romans ever were — it’s the oldest part of Carthage and dates from 814 BC. Cripes. That’s. Old.

We also walked around the marketplace in the city centre, called the Medina. Medina literally means “hidden city,” so named because the Romans built it to protect against incursions from the sea. It was also supposed to protect people from the insufferable heat (summer temperatures here can get to 45 or 50 degrees), so the buildings are placed extremely close together, providing more shade from the sun. Tunisia is famous for handmade carpets, so naturally we were led into a carpet store, and despite the very pushy salespeople we managed to escape without buying anything. Pushy salespeople were endemic in the Medina — if you showed the slightest interest in anything, a merchant would appear at your elbow and offer you their best deal. Bartering is common and acceptable, but I suck at it and didn’t bother trying. Tanya got a mosaic plaque for a third of the marked price, though, so good for her.

Next was the Bardo Museum. The building was more interesting to me than the displays of Roman mosaics inside — the museum is housed in the former palace of the kings of Tunisia, and we all know how I love anything to do with royalty. It was after 1:00 by this time and we still hadn’t had lunch, so I was too tired and hungry to focus on what the guide was trying to show us, but I was still impressed by some of the rooms in the palace.

After a lunch break the tour continued to a wealthy suburb of Tunis called Sidi Bou Said, a little village full of white houses with blue roofs. We didn’t even bother following the guide and instead plunked ourselves at a little cafe to try the local beer (which apparently tasted like horse piss, but I don’t drink beer, so this is just what the others reported). Coca-Cola tastes the same all over the world, and I’m grateful for that.

I have to go dress for dinner. On to Sicily…

Sailing on the Open Sea

Posted on by

Location: Somewhere in the Mediterranean

I’ve never been good at doing nothing — excuse me, at “relaxing.” Even at home, when the boys spend a morning at Grandpa’s, I fill the free time with shopping or running errands, cause I need to feel occupied. I need to feel like I’m accomplishing something. So spending a whole day on the ship is a bit of a challenge for me. I was starting to get bored and a bit frustrated — but then I read an email from a mommy friend of mine who reminded me to enjoy being able to eat a meal in peace, go to the bathroom by myself and not have to base my whole day on someone else’s schedule. Point taken.

So how have I spent my day? I slept in, for one thing, but for me that means 7 a.m., so there were still many hours to fill. I sat by the pool reading the book I borrowed from the ship’s library while Chris relaxed in the hot tub (he chatted with one woman from New Zealand who explained that her journey to Europe involved 24 hours just in the air, which made our trip seem like nothing). We browsed the shops on board, sat for a while watching the sea, and went for an early lunch. There’s a magician’s show this afternoon and then someone’s giving a presentation on the ancient Mediterranean, so I might check those out, and then tonight there’s another sing-and-dance number on the main stage. Life could certainly be worse.

And at last the weather is improving! The sun peeked out of the clouds and I think it’s about 20 degrees outside, so I can put away the fleece jacket I’ve been wearing and think about summer again. Tomorrow will be my first time in Africa — it should be an interesting day.

Castles and Cathedrals: A Day in Mallorca

Posted on by

Location: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Just before we left Valencia last night, the cruise director announced that we would be sailing straight into a gale and that we should be prepared for some rough going en route to Palma. Lovely. I had my Gravol handy just in case, and the ship did rock ‘n’ roll a bit overnight, but I was fine, and the wind had died by the time we were ready to tour around today. It’s still cool, grey and pissy, but hey, you can’t have everything.

Those who know me well know that I’m a monarchy junkie and can’t get enough of palaces and castles. So when I found out Palma had one of each, I was really looking forward to this port. We started off by touring Bellver Castle, a circular stone structure perched atop a hill overlooking the city. It was the original residence of the kings of Mallorca (back when there actually WERE kings of Mallorca) and offers amazing views of the island from its battlements. Then we explored the bullring, which is modelled on the Colosseum in Rome and looks really ancient, but only dates from the 1930s. Next was a guided tour of the cathedral (we’ve seen so many cathedrals on this trip that I was beyond caring about this one) and then we saw the Almudaina Palace, an old Arab fortress that now houses visiting heads of state. The current king of Spain uses the palace for official receptions when the Spanish royal family comes to Mallorca in the summer. Very, very cool.

Having other people along on the cruise adds a whole other dimension to the experience. Yesterday, for instance, Dave went for a nap, I went to blog and Chris and Tanya played Scrabble. If it was just Chris and me, and one of us wanted to nap or whatever, the other one would kind of be stuck. Plus if it was just Chris and me, we would be far less likely to sit in the bar and have a drink, cause we can do that at home — but with Dave and Tanya along we have people to socialize with, so it’s all good.

It’s become a running joke among our group that Chris is constantly focused on food. While we were all sitting around yesterday playing board games, I happened to look at my watch. Here’s a verbatim account of what was said:
ME: Oh, wow, it’s four o’clock.
CHRIS: So we should go hit the buffet?
ME: Do you ever think about anything but food?
CHRIS: (accusingly) You brought it up!
ME: All I said was, it’s four o’clock.
I’m hoping he still fits into his tuxedo for the next formal night coming up in a couple days, but there are no guarantees.

Tonight we say adios to Spain and start the long trek across the Mediterranean to Tunisia in North Africa. It’s a long way, so tomorrow is a full day at sea. It’ll be nice not to have to rush out the door for a tour. On we go…

Going Underground

Posted on by

Location: Valencia, Spain

I could’ve sworn it was 32 degrees in Valencia every time I checked before leaving home, but unfortunately it was eight degrees and raining when we actually got here. No matter, though: the tour we took didn’t really depend on the weather. We had a brief city tour of this, Spain’s third largest city. The first half hour was so boring that Chris was literally falling asleep on the bus, but then we came to the historic centre of the city, which was stunning. We saw the bullring; the town hall; the Silk Exchange building and the cathedral that contains what some experts believe is the original Holy Grail. Pretty cool stuff.

Then it was off to the San Jose Caves, where we boarded a small boat and floated through an underground river. The caves are 15,000 years old and had some amazing rock formations; in many places the roof of the cave was so low that everyone in the boat had to duck to fit through. It was awesome, and probably would’ve been even better if there had been a guide or a sign or anything to tell us about what we were seeing. The guy driving the boat would occasionally warn us to watch our heads (in Spanish — Tanya was able to translate) but otherwise didn’t say a word. I guess I’ll have to look up some more info online when we get home.

Tomorrow we’re off to Palma de Mallorca — here’s hoping the sun comes out!

Hola, Amigos!

Posted on by

Location: Barcelona, Spain

You might ask why, since I have motion sickness issues, I chose to take a cruise. The answer is that large ships generally don’t bother me, although I still have to be careful to get a cabin on the lower decks in the middle of the ship. So when Chris woke up in the middle of the night and noticed the ship’s rocking was causing the coat hangers in the closet to bang together, he jumped up to move them, afraid that the noise would wake me up and then I’d get sick. Fortunately, I slept like the dead and only know about the rough going cause he told me about it this morning. I’d say I’m over the jet lag.

So today we discovered Barcelona. The four of us had audio guides (iPods) and maps and spent over two hours wandering around the historic centre of the city, which is jam-packed with medieval-era buildings and churches. We have four cameras among our group but I’m the only one who likes to have people in the pictures, so I focused more on that and let the others photograph the sights. I didn’t know much about Barcelona when we got here, but it was an interesting tour of the old city — I wouldn’t rush back here, but it was still neat to see.

We’re still liking our time on the ship. The staff is amazing at remembering everyone’s names and preferences, we get chocolates on our pillow every night and we just generally feel like we’re being taken care of. Our first formal night went well: Chris actually seemed to enjoy wearing his tux and I managed to corral everybody for a formal group portrait. After dinner we went to the theatre for the Broadway-style show and were handed free glasses of champagne on the way in, so that’s not too shabby. We’ve been away from home for close to a week and neither Chris or I really misses the kids — we’re just having too much fun. Awesome.

Scaling the Rock

Posted on by

Location: Monte Carlo, Monaco

The defibrillators should’ve been a good clue. They don’t call Monaco “the Rock” for nothing — the whole principality is only one square mile, but it’s built on top of a rather large cliff, and when you approach by sea you’ve got to go a long way up to see the sights. We passed the occasional elevator but figured we were young enough and fit enough to handle the stairs. I even thought it was funny when partway up we saw a sign that said defibrillators were available a few meters away; by the time we got to the top we realized it wasn’t a joke. If you ever go to Monaco by cruise ship, heed my words: take the elevator.

If there was ever a group that would need the defibrillators, it would be the crowd from this ship. I knew going into this that Holland America caters to the elderly crowd, but I’d heard that more younger people were starting to get on board too. We have run into the odd 30- or 40-something couple, but we’re usually the only ones in the room under the age of 60. The ship clearly caters to that clientele, too: the shore excursions all talk about how much walking is involved, and whether the sites are wheelchair-accessible…plus the lines for the buffet can be clogged with slow-moving seniors. The entertainment on board has been pretty subdued up to this point — lots of singers and piano players, along with classes on how to use a digital camera — but there’s supposed to be a big Broadway-style show on the main stage tonight, so I’m looking forward to that.

Anyway, we had fun in Monaco today. As luck would have it, today was Labor Day in Europe, so lots of shops were closed, plus it was the day of the heritage Grand Prix in Monte Carlo, so the streets were closed for the race and the public buses weren’t running. All this meant that we had to pass on seeing the casino (too far to walk) but we went inside the cathedral (which had the Grimaldi family tombs, so that was cool), wandered through the oceanographic museum, toured the palace (way cool) and watched the changing of the guard. I have been to Monaco before, but that was only for a couple hours one evening 12 years ago, so this time around I got a more detailed experience.

Dealing with French seemed like a breeze after days of Italian and German. Apparently I have a decent French accent, too — I addressed a cashier in French and then had to assure her that yes, I wanted the English guidebook. We’re currently sailing for Spain, which I’ve never been to, and in fact from this point on the ports will be all-new to me. Anchors away!