Saturday, February 27, 2010

Loughborough

After ten days the shock has subsided and we have become more accustomed to the weather. Toques, scarves, gloves and jackets have replaced bathing suits, flip flops, hats and sunscreen. Our days continue to be leisurely. After getting the kids off to school, we have ventured out with Lara and the dogs to see some of the surrounding market towns.
We are impressed with the amount of greenspace in England and love the public footpaths that seem to be everywhere. Let's not forget to mention the pub lunches. Whether it be from the carvery or a ploughman's meal, the food is tasty and reasonably priced. So now we are off on another road trip. We have rented a Renault Clio and are heading up to Edinburgh, the land of the Barbarians, to give Craig a little taste of his Scottish heritage. On the way back we hope to make a short stop in Liverpool to see some more of Lynda's relatives. Driving in this country is formidable, but you needn't worry about us. Lynda's seriously challenged navigational skills have been replaced by our newest acquisition....a Garmin GPS. For those of you who had to listen to us "discussing" it in Australia and never thought the day would come, Craig finally bit the bullet. We tested it out this morning on a road trip to Jaiden's choir performance 20 miles away and it worked like a charm. Stay tuned for more tales from the road.

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Monday, February 22, 2010

Neela


The UK Tylers have welcomed a new addition to their family. Neela is a twelve week old purebred Siberian Husky. Her kennel club name is Saturka Actrise.

Jaiden and Kai are thrilled with their new playmate, and Odin is adjusting to his role as "BIG" brother. We are very pleased to be here to be a part of it. Strangely enough, Craig has started dropping hints about getting a Husky of his own one day. (Don't worry mothers, we wouldn't dream of asking you to dog sit.)

London

Welcome to London! After 27 hours of traveling we arrived at our destination. We have vowed to break our next long distance air flight into smaller segments. It probably isn't so bad if you are traveling first class or in one of the new suites (who has that much money?) but there is a reason why economy is called the cattle car. All crammed in. We felt like we were on a charter flight to Mexico, but the plane was filled with Brits returning home.

Day One - Our early morning arrival meant that we had four hours to kill before we could get into our hotel room. We stored our luggage and started walking. It was a cold, crisp, dry day. As we walked up Kensington Church Street, we were delighted to find a Starbucks. Real coffee! We hadn't been in one since we left Canada. It seems that Aussies are not big fans of corporate America. In fact, Melbourne is the only city where you can find Starbucks. Re-charged with caffeine, we walked past Kensington Palace to the Victoria and Albert Museum. We spent several hours viewing the metalwork, fashion, Medieval and Renaissance galleries and before long, it was time to go. We hopped on the tube and made our way back to the hotel. We were able to fight yhe jetlag and catch a few hours of sleep that afternoon. Then we took the tube to Camden Town to meet John Crawford's sister, Cathy and her little dog, Monty, at the Lord Stanley gastropub. After our meal we went over to see Cathy's authentic English flat. Cathy took pity on us warm weather holidaymakers, and outfitted us with scarves, gloves and a few pieces of warmer clothing. It was all greatly appreciated.
Day Two - London is reknowned for its active and vibrant theatre district. We were dying for an artistic/cultural experience so we caught the Tube to Leicester Square and lined up to see what was on sale at the discount ticket booth. It is difficult to choose something when you haven't done much research and you don't place much stock in the critics' reviews, but we were able to get excellent seats for the evening performance of Jersey Boys. With our tickets safely tucked away, we made our way to the Tower of London. In spite of the cold and the rain, the place was packed. We went on a tour with one of the Yeoman Warders and explored the White Tower. We saw an impressive armour collection and Craig was able to try some on for size. Unfortunately, we had to take a pass on the Crown Jewels. It was pouring rain and the line-up was lengthy. Three hours in the cold was enough. We treated ourselves to an early dinner at a French cafe and then trekked over to the West end to see Jersey Boys. What a treat! We were baffled by the comments we overheard from one English lady behind us. She felt that she would have been better off listening to a cd at home. We thought it was excellent and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Day Three - Here comes the sun...What a lovely spring-like day! We got off the Tube at Picadilly Circus and walked towards Buckingham Palace. We just happened to arrive in time to see the changing of the guard. It took us a minute to figure out what all the hoopla was about, but our timing was perfect. We decided to go over to St. Pancras/King's Cross to purchase our train tickets to Loughborough. While we were there, we ate dinner at Yo! Sushi. The fun part of this colourful restaurant is the plates passing by on the conveyor belt and the individual water taps (spring and flat) at your seating place. After a quick meal, we continued on to the Barbican tube stop - the meeting place for the "Blood and Tears: London's Horrible Past" walking tour. If you are interested in Jack the Ripper, serial killers, grave robbers, prison escapes etc. then this is the tour for you. It was an eye opening journey around Fleet Street and London's business district. We had a great time, in spite of the cold.

We were very pleased with our accomodation. We found the Vicarage House hotel through Trip Advisor. This hotel is located on a quiet street within easy walking distance of both the Kensington High Street and Notting Hill Gate tube stations. Our room was located on the third floor (87 steps from the breakfast room in the basement), right beside the toilet/shower room. Every morning we started our day with a huge meal of fruit, yoghurt, cereal, toast, bacon, eggs, sausage, coffee, and juice. (Clearly, no one does bed and breakfast like the English.) Monica and her staff were both friendly and helpful. We would have no qualms about staying here again.

We traveled extensively on the Tube the entire time we were in London. Every morning we would buy an unlimited transit pass for 5.60. Armed with our Tube map, we were able to get everywhere we needed to go. We were surprised to learn that London has the world's oldest underground railway system. We passed through the Baker Street station which has been in existence since 1863. Now there are 270 stations, 408 km of track and 3 million passenger journeys every day. The Tube is amazingly efficient and we experienced very few service disruptions while we were there.

We said goodbye to London and hopped on the train to Loughborough. Although the train was running late and there was a screw up with the reserved seating, the rest of the journey was uneventful. We arrived in Loughborough by 12:30 pm and have now settled in with Kevin, Lara, Jaiden and Kai in their comfy, brick home. FYI - after eight months of healthfulness, Lynda has succumbed to the common cold. Quite clearly, all that airplane travel and the drastic change in temperature does have an impact.

Stay tuned for more adventures from the United Kingdom.

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Friday, February 12, 2010

Reflecting back on our time in Australia:

10 Things We Loved about Australia:
  1. Sailing around the Whitsundays.
  2. Climbing Mt. Kosciuszko.
  3. Living where footwear is optional.
  4. The fabulous wine regions (i.e. Hunter Valley, Barossa Valley, Margaret River etc.)
  5. Getting far enough away from civilization to see wildlife in the wild.
  6. The laid back, friendly nature of the Australian people, and the friends we made.
  7. Hiking in the Blue Mountains.
  8. The sun...
  9. The diversity within the country from one region to the next.
  10. The abundance of amenities and how easy it is to travel around this country.
10 Lessons We've Learned:
  1. Life is great when there is no schedule.
  2. Australia really is a huge country, especially in the not-so populated West.
  3. A heatwave is usually a good indication that a tropical storm is approaching.
  4. The Internet is expensive and Telstra, who holds the monopoly, has the worst customer service ever.
  5. VISA's refund exchange rate is significantly lower than its purchase exchange rate.
  6. Eating out is not in a holiday maker's budget.
  7. The turn signal is on the right and it's the windshield wiper that's on the left.
  8. Nobody likes flies.
  9. You can live quite well without a lot of possessions.
  10. It doesn't feel like Christmas when the days are long and the temperatures are high.

    Last Week in Oz

    We have used our time this week to take in a few local tourist attractions with Craig's brother, Tom. We spent our weekend at the Maritime Museum and the Bell Tower. We can highly recommend both sites, especially the swimsuit exhibit and the submarine tour at the Maritime Museum.
    We finally made it to King's Park, where we had a picnic and enjoyed views of both the city and the Swan River. We said goodbye to Robin and Yvonne, who were heading back to North America, and caught up with Lynda's cousin, Joy, her husband Neville and their daughter Jen. That being said we have also attended to some mundane tasks, like laundry, packing, and shopping. This evening we are going out for dinner to celebrate Tom's belated birthday (February 2nd) and Craig's upcoming birthday (February 21.) Craig is excited because he is finally going to be able to taste kangaroo.(Lynda has been putting out all the stops to delay him since we arrived in Oz.) Tomorrow we are driving out to the Swan Valley to visit some wineries and play Supa Golf. And on Sunday we have a 3:30 pm flight to London via Singapore. Time flies when you're having fun....

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    Saturday, February 6, 2010

    The Long Road Home

    We woefully left the tropical setting of Coral Bay and began our long drive back to Perth. Our first stop was Carnarvon, about 900 km north of Perth. It is located on the coast and at the mouth of the Gascoyne River. Back in the day, it was a booming port town and supply centre for the region. It is currently a prime spot for growing tropical fruit, more specifically bananas. Our main purpose in returning to Carnarvon was to ride the "Coffee Pot" train out to the end of the jetty. We have seen many jetties since coming to Australia, but this one is the longest in the region at one mile or 1.6 km and it is also the only one we've seen with an operating train on it.

    We spent the next day in the van. We try not to have too many driving days, but in Western Australia it is unavoidable. It was the last day before the end of summer vacation and the roads were quiet. We covered the 450 kms to Kalbarri fairly quickly and had no trouble finding a spot at the caravan park. In fact, we were one of only three campers in ninety six spots that first night. What we thought was a positive turned out to be a negative as we discovered that most of the tourism industry shuts down in February. The half day canoe trip we were anxious to do wasn't likely to be going due to a lack of participants so we went out to the National Park, we toured the aviaries at Rainbow Jungle (a parrot breeding centre) and we swam in the pool at the caravan park. As luck would have it, there was a last minute booking for the canoe trip and it was a go for the next morning. Our tour guide, Frank, picked us up at 7:30 am and we headed out to the Murchison House Station, a working cattle ranch just outside of town. Our group consisted of the two of us plus Roz and Wendy. After canoeing for several kms along the Murchison River, we stopped at a tranquil (a.k.a. isolated) spot along the bank and Frank whipped up a breakfast of bacon, eggs and snags. Lucky for us, it was only the equivalent of a warm winter's day. Apparently, summer temperatures in Kalbarri frequently reach 50 degrees celcius. Like everywhere in Australia, water is at a premium. In some places, the river is so shallow that it is only ankle deep. The down side when you are canoeing? Sometimes you had to get out and pull the canoe over the sand bar. Frank refers to this trip as a "family outing." Not only did we get some much needed exercise, but we had an opportunity to try something new in Australia. All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend the morning.

    Next stop: Geraldton. (We are certain it must be one of the windiest cities we've ever been to, but wind seems to be very characteristic of the west coast.) We stopped here on the way up, but we had to come back for the Geraldton Fishermen's Co-operative Live Lobster Factory Tour. We had such enjoyable experiences at the coffee plantation in Mareeba, the sugar mill in Tully, the chocolate factory in Margaret River, etc. that we couldn't pass this by. Yet again, we were the only people on the tour. We were amazed to find out that lobsters are placed in cold water for three minutes to induce hibernation. Once they are asleep, they are packaged in polystyrene cartons with wood shavings, refrigerated and transported by air or freight. When they reach their destination, they are placed back into tanks filled with ocean water and they wake up. A lobster factory is a very interesting place. Many thanks to Annie for sharing her sense of humour and her knowledge with us.

    We spent the last night of our trip in Leeman. This allowed us to rise early and make a short drive into Perth. We left the caravan park ahead of schedule and had only gone about twenty minutes down the road when nature called and Craig pulled off the road onto the shoulder. Well, it wasn't actually the shoulder because that was covered with gravel and it was on a slope, so he had to pull off onto the area beyond the shoulder. Business conducted and back in the van, he drove forward and attempted to get back onto the shoulder. Except that now the grassy area had turned into sand and ...wait for it....we were stuck. Yes folks, life is about the adventure and with Craig, it is always lurking around some corner.

    Thankfully, our guardian angel Dave, a local rancher, showed up within five minutes. When he did, it was in a ute and he just happened to have a chain with him. In no time flat he pulled us out of the sand and we were back on the road. 17 days, 3141 kms, one flat tire, one sand pit, (oh yes, and the car battery that burned up while we were in Coral Bay) and many happy memories later we are back in Perth with ten days to spare before our Australian adventure comes to an end.

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