Author: bbpeck

We are just completing our Edinburgh interlude and heading now to our house sit in Thornhill, Scotland. Today, April 21, is the real birthday of Queen Elizabeth, although most of the official observances will be held in May and June. She is the first monarch to reach the age of 90.

Edinburgh is an amazing city. We fell in love with it straight away, as every corner we turned seemed to elicit another “wow” comment from us. It is a lovely mixture of old and new with a museum or tour to meet anyone’s area of interest. In fact, the city itself has been designated a World Heritage Site.

Some of the highlights of our week here include

• Climbing Arthur’s Seat, the highest point of the volcanic-formed hills in Holyrood Park for a lovely, 360 degree view of the area;

• Climbing up Calton Hill (and passing the monument to Robert Burns) to summit the 143 steps of the Nelson Monument for another great view of the city;

• Spending at least 3 hours touring the Edinburgh Castle where we could take in great views of the New and Old Town, watch the runners in the Great Edinburgh 10 mile run, sample some whisky, and learn about the history of Edinburgh and the castle;

• Walking to the Leith Market (open on Saturday) near the edge of the Firth of Forth (body of water that connects with the North Sea) to peruse the vendors and purchase a Scottish Egg to split;

•  Walking to the Stockbridge Market (open on Sunday) to peruse the vendors;
•  Walking to (via a pedestrian/bike path) and through, the beautiful Royal Botanical Gardens;

• Exploring some of the highlights of the Writers’ Walking Tour around town;

• Enjoying a real Scottish Whisky experience with a 2.5 hour transport, tour, and tastings at the Glenkinchie Distillery outside of Edinburgh;

• Exploring Glasgow with a day trip out of Edinburgh (more on that in a separate post).

Incredibly, it is time again to move on. I really, really cannot believe how fast the time goes! We leave today (4/15 — how are taxes coming?) for Scotland. We will spend a few days in Edinburgh — with a couple of day trips to other towns before our next house sit in the small town of Thornhill.

In the last week, we have walked (12 miles one day!), run (Beth survived the Manchester Marathon), bussed, and trammed our way around the greater Manchester area. Much of our time was spent exploring the Trafford area where the marathon began and ended. This is a lovely area with a large outlet mall (under a gym and residential building, a theatre, an Imperial War Museum, and, most importantly, the stadium for the Manchester United football team and the Old Trafford cricket grounds.  The Imperial War Museum (free) is a comprehensive look at the UK’s involvement in various wars.  We perused the WWII section but also did a 20 minute tour on spies (lots of women) in WWI and WWII and watched a film that spoke to the transitions that countries go through after wars.

See highlights from the Trafford area —

The other fun thing that we did recently in Manchester was to go the Bury Market.  This is a huge market in the community of Bury that has anything you could possibly want in terms of goods (any item that you would shop for at Target you can get here), food (fresh meat, fish, produce, as well as ready-made food to sit and eat) and services (on-site clothing alterations, funeral planning and headstones  — maybe because it’s the Bury market?).

Finally, we have to give a shout-out to our Manchester host.  She initially wanted us to come to care for her home and pet while she was away on holiday.  Sadly, after plans were set, her pet died unexpectedly.  She was so lovely to allow us to come anyway and was a lovely host during our hand-off time by showing us around, taking us to dinner, and just making us feel at home.  We have made a great new friend and hope that our paths cross again.

 

This week, also on Tuesday, we headed to the west coast of England to walk in the steps of John, Paul, George, and Ringo. It was a fun trip in a town with an interesting history.

We again took an Off-Peak train at 8:32 from Levenshulme into Manchester Piccadilly and then transferring there to our train to Liverpool, which was a quick 45 minute trip. Awesome public transportation!

We had better weather this time with a high of about 11 C (52 F) with little wind and only a short drizzle. There was a lot to see and do, so we got after it upon our arrival. We had thought about doing a viewing from the Radio City Tower but since it was so overcast we doubted we’d be able to fully experience the view. Instead, we started our day at the Liverpool Cathedral, which is a truly impressive structure which might be expected since it took 74 years to complete.  It is not overly ornate, but it has a number of beautiful stained glass windows and an impressive altar and organ and choral area. Our favorite section, however, may have been the much smaller, but really lovely, ladies’ chapel. While we are used to seeing gift shops and cafes located within the grounds of cathedrals, this one seemed a bit over-the-top. Hopefully, the earnings help to maintain the lovely building. Alongside the cathedral is a lovely park that was formerly a cemetery and many of the headstones remain on the grounds.

Views of Liverpool Cathedral

Views of former cemetary that is now a park next to the cathedral

From the cathedral we walked to Albert Dock, an area along the waterfront (Mersey River) that includes many of Liverpool’s impressive museums as well as restaurants, residences, and retail. We did most of the museums with the exception of the Beatles Story which was 27£ (app. $40) per adult. We love the, Beatles but not that much and also had read that it was just OK. We started at the (free) Maritime Museum where the 3rd floor is specifically dedicated to the slave trade in general and Liverpool’s role specifically. It was really well done and also spoke to the impact of the slave trade on Africa’s development as well as on-going slave trade activities still on-going (bonded labor, sex trafficking, etc.) throughout the world.

Views around Albert Dock

We then went onto the Tate Liverpool (free) which is the Liverpool venue of London’s Tate museum. The Tate Liverpool had a great Matisse exhibit which showed his development as an artist over time. They also had two additional floors of exhibits dedicated to modern art. They were staged in “silos” based on specific themes, using one piece as a jumping off point — really interesting and we got to see some cool paintings, sculptures, and short films.

An exhibit at the museum and more views around the Albert Dock area

Finally, we were off to the Liverpool Museum (free). This was a multi-dimensional overview of the City from which we learned a lot and still left so much unseen. We focused our attention on their Beatles and Liverpool music exhibit including the 10 minute film on the Beatles that they show multiple times per day. The film is shown in a room with the stage from the church where John and Paul first performed together. Some fun post-Beatles facts: George had the first solo #1 (My Sweet Lord) after the break-up; Ringo was the most successful in the early 70s; and John had only three #1 hits with one coming shortly before his death. Liverpool was and is a live music town.

The other part of the museum that we focused on was Liverpool civic facts and issues. The museum did not shy away from the city’s “opportunities for improvement” including its high unemployment rate, poor health status, and significant population loss over recent decades.

To continue with the Beatles theme, we made our way into the town center to see the Cavern Club where the Beatles initially performed. Sadly, the original club was destroyed some years ago to make room for a rail line, but the original entrance is noted, and a new Cavern Club is open nearby.

We had a couple of surprise finds at the end of the day as well. The first was the Liverpool Central Library. It is housed in an impressive older building but looks unexpectedly modern and unique inside.  It also has a beautiful reading room that is located in an adjacent rotunda.  I also liked the word art on both the sidewalk entering the building as well as the atrium floor.

The other find in the afternoon was the Metropolitan Cathedral.  This may be the most unique cathedral we’ve seen.  Not much to look at on the outside — in fact from one side it looks like the top of a space capsule — but it was a bit more attractive on the inside.

We ended the day at Lucha Libre, Liverpool’s version of Mexican food. Check out the chilaquiles below — a unique take on nachos with homemade chips, a bit of cheese, radish slices, pickled onions, and a fried egg–and it was very tasty.

When telling others about our stay in Manchester we received 3 recommendations for day trips out of the city — Chester, York, and Liverpool. As we had visited Chester prior to our housesit, we pegged York and Liverpool as our targeted day trip excursions. Last week we spent Tuesday in the lovely (even when wet and chilly) town of York. It was an easy excursion by train.  We bought Off Peak tickets and left from the Levenshulme station which is only a couple of blocks from our temporary home. We switched trains at the Manchester Piccadilly station and then were off to York. The whole trip took about 2 hours. It was a full day, as we left on a 9:20 am train and returned a little after 9 that evening.

York is another walled town. After an introductory boat ride on the Oise River, we walked the wall around the main town center. It gave us great views of York Minster (main cathedral), pretty residential houses and lawns, the York Castle (what remains), and portions of the town. It is a fun perspective from which to view a town. As opposed to the Roman wall in Chester, York’s is not a complete loop. Following the town map we had picked up, we walked on sidewalks between the three separate sections.

Views from the boat

The Great Tower built by order of King Henry III between 1245 and 1260 and a scale of the full original structure.

The upside of rain is the gorgeous green grass and flowers that it brings. We saw lots of evidence of this during our walkabout in York and enjoyed poking around the many cute shops in the lovely town center which had many pedestrian-only streets.

Before our return, we stopped in a Spanish tapas (with Yorkshire twists) restaurant and split a sherry flight and nibbled on a few yummy selections.

I know that we could have seen and done more with more time, but it provided a fun day out and a great introduction to this part of England.

Bob and I have been getting acquainted with the greater Manchester area and have even taken a day trip out of town to the lovely city of York (more on that in separate blog). We have been doing this in all sorts of weather, though rain has been a constant. We’ve only had one rain-free day during our stay. The changing weather factors have been — 1) whether the sun will make an appearance, 2) if so, for how long and will it be in place of the rain or in conjunction with the rain, 3) how gusty will the wind be and from what direction, and (as of yesterday) will the rain come in the form of hail? Yes, no drought worries in this corner of the world.

We have found a lot to enjoy in the City Center as well as in some outlying boroughs. In Manchester itself, our favorite finds recently have been the Levenshulme Saturday market, Whitworth Art Gallery on the University of Manchester campus, the Printworks and Corn Exchange complexes, the National Football Museum, the Beetham tower, and the Museum of Science and Industry. In Stockport, we discovered a fun old city center and cathedral the other day and are returning today to tour a local brewery (Robinson’s Brewery) and Air Raid station. They have a hat museum as well that we are not planning to visit, though it sounds unique.

We have also been following the news here and the biggest story right now (apart from concern over a possible sell-off of a British steel company) is Brexit, the term used to describe the UK’s (Note:  UK stands for United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.) possible exit from the European Union. There is a national referendum/vote on this scheduled for June. The latest polls indicate a near even split on the issue.

From a health perspective, there are strikes by junior doctors over the work requirements in the government’s latest contract offer and issues, as in the states, with rising costs around caring for an aging and sicker population. This is all further complicated by costs for treating recent immigrants as well as non-Brit EU residents who can access health care here. While care for EU members is apparently to be reimbursed by the home country while Britain reimburses other countries for health care provided to its residents, more non-Brits come to the UK for healthcare than Brits leave to seek care elsewhere.

Bob and I have gotten into the UK version of Master Chefs, and I must say that a reality show can survive and be entertaining while the contestants remain civil to each other. However, we have noted the frequency of the use of the term “gutted” in relation to how the contestants say they will feel if they are sent home. Hope this doesn’t find any of you gutted about anything! Also, in terms of truth in television (or a CYA technique) the home search shows always state the year when the quoted home price was valid.

In terms of money, we have had to flip flop how we do our cost calculations. In Canada, since the US dollar was higher whenever we saw a price listed, we new that our real cost in US dollars was actually less (about 75%) of the Canadian price by the time we left. In the UK the dollar is lower than the pound, so things seem cheaper than they actually are for us, so we have to remember to multiply the stated price in pounds by about 1.5.

Bob and I are now settled into our new temporary home in Levenshulme (Levy), a suburb or district of Manchester. We are getting acquainted with the local supermarkets (quite a selection!) and starting to learn our way around the neighborhood and larger area as we have begun our sight-seeing. Our first full-day out we walked to the Fletcher Moss Parsonage and Garden in Didsbury — another district of Manchester. It was a little over an hour walk there. The parsonage has a lovely garden and is still used for art and other classes. There is a church with very old tombstones, a visitors center with educational information on the local birds, a rockery, and a large green space with a walking path that goes close to the River Mersey across which is a golf course. In the visitors center we picked up a brochure for one of the health walks that starts at the park. It took us close to where we are staying but had us walk through a number of local, community parks on our way back. Very nice. It was also the nicest day weather wise with a high of about 12 C and no rain. Both of us were jacket less for a bit in the afternoon.

Yesterday we walked into the city center of Manchester to find the Visitor Information Center. This was also about an hour walk. We got a great map of the downtown area as well as a free brochure on things to see and do in Manchester. We had googled some free activities so did some of these as well while we were in town. The first stop was the Manchester Art Gallery which was 3 stories and had everything from impressionist paintings, landscapes and portraiture and a fun modern exhibit inspired by Alan Turing (WWII code breaker — see Imitation Game movie) and his query as to whether we can teach computers to think.

From the Art Gallery we headed to the Ryland Library where we got to see a huge array of old volume books in a gorgeous old building and an exhibit on the beliefs and prosecution of witchcraft.

We found the Manchester canals, some of the local big shopping centers, and some parks. We stopped in the People’s History Museum for a high-level overview of Manchester’s history. Who knew that it plays an important role in the sale and pricing of cotton?

Okay, a very obscure title reference, likely only understood by anyone who went to camp as a kid in WI.  It is sung while touching corresponding body parts and keeps getting sung faster and faster until only one person is still keeping up with the song.  To Bob’s chagrin, I regaled him with this tune while we were in Chester cuz it’s just one of those songs you can’t not think of once it’s in your head.  Anyhoo, about our visit —

Our first stop in the UK was a lovely 3 1/2 day holiday in Chester, England.  On Thursday night, March 24, we flew from Calgary to London on BritishAir where we caught our connection to Manchester.  In Manchester, we picked up a train at the airport to Crewe where we changed trains to head to Chester.  We arrived at our hotel about 7:00 pm on 3/25.

Chester is in the county of Cheshire.  It is a gorgeous little community with lots of history. We started our introduction to the community with a walk around the Roman wall that still circles the town center (some portions were rebuilt during the Norman Conquest). The wall allows a 2 mile walk and provides views of the town center, town square clock, oldest race horse grounds in England (on site of old Roman aqueduct), cathedrals, other Roman ruins, as well as the canal and River Dee. We had a great time exploring the town center, taking a boat ride on the River Dee, learning more about the local history at the Grovesnor museum, viewing the half-timber architecture of many of the buildings, going to a local market, and exploring some of the local walking paths. Beth even found a greenway (hiking and biking path) to run on.

We were there over a holiday weekend — Easter and a bank holiday Monday. Little Chester was hopping with lots of people out on the wall on Easter and shopping in the town center on Monday. There was also a big food festival being held in Chester over the weekend at the racecourse. It rained (of course), it was sunny, it changed within minutes, and sometimes it was both (rainy and sunny) at once.

Now, we are getting acquainted with Manchester.  More on that later. . .

Hey All!

A quick photo blog to formally farewell Canada.  Our last couple of nights in North America were spent in Canmore, Canada getting up close and personal with the Canadian Rockies. Awesome, awesome!

We have spent the past few days in Chester, England before heading to meet up with our homeowner for our Manchester (suburb of Levenshulme) house sit.  Chester is a lovely, walled city from Roman times, with much of the wall still intact.  It’s about a 2 mile loop around the wall.  We loved the architecture, old Roman ruins, and many gardens and bridges (across the Dee River and canal network).  Stay tuned for photos of Chester and the greater Manchester area.  We are currently able to access wifi solely from a laptop and need to educate ourselves on the best way to get our photos from our mobile devices to the laptop to put into our blogs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob and I are having a lovely Albertan vacation, as we are staying within the province before we head out later this week (already?!) for the UK. However, before we regale you with highly entertaining tidbits of our Tour de Alberta, we need to give one last shout out to our favorite Canadian feline friends — Purrcy and Squeak.  We are adjusting to not having Purrcy sleep curled up on our tummies (after the requisite number of turns), or curled up against our legs (when we sleep on our sides) or in-between us on Bob’s out-stretched arm allowing us to revel in his purrs (one of life’s happiest noises!). We miss his outstretched body on the floor begging for a tummy rub. And I seriously miss my cuddles with Squeak when she would lie up against me and reach her paw up at me.  She is a highly selective cat, so I felt honored by her attention.  However, they are both happily back with their owners, who are also Cool Cats (though not feline).

Since our time in Calgary, we have been flitting around the province in our rental jeep (upgraded for free from our requested economy-size car — pays to be a Hertz Goldmember in a shoulder season, I guess.). First stop was Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, and about a 2 hour drive north of Calgary. This was a full-on urban day with a 3-hour walkabout of the Old Strathcona district and the City Center including a visit to their farmer’s market (held each Saturday year-round) and viewings of the legislature building, Winston Churchhill Square, their award-winning public library, and their gorgeous art gallery. Like Calgary, a river runs through it (the North Saskatchewan), so we got to cross a couple of bridges as well and noted the in-progress construction of a new one. We finished the day at the West Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in North America (was largest in the world until 2004).  It is now the 10th largest (per Wikipedia, I’m not on top of these things), and at only two stories and with mostly surface-level parking, it seemed much smaller than what we were expecting.

We spent just a night in Edmonton before heading onto the town of Jasper which is located in Jasper National Park. To enter the park, you need to buy a pass. Since we were planning to be in the Jasper and Banff National Parks for parts of at least 3 days, we paid $39 C to cover us for both parks. Both parks are home to parts of the Canadian Rockies and are gorgeous. I definitely prefer life with a mountain view, and we have been busy hiking and seeing some of the natural features — including our first real snow of the trip and wildlife!

Due to the length of our current holiday, Bob and I are trying to be fairly responsible with our flexible expenditures (food, entry fees,etc.), so we like to do as many free activities as possible (super easy here with all the pathways to explore and public art to enjoy). We also regulate the food budget by limiting the amount of eating out that we do. That having been said, we can still get our Foodie fill by perusing local markets. Calgary has a number of them that we have explored.

The first time we were in Calgary (many moons ago) was basically to fly in and out on our way to Banff and Lake Louise. We had read about the Calgary Farmer’s Market; however, and made a point of stopping there on our way back into town. We really liked it and wanted to try to visit the market this time around as well. Our first effort failed. Since we really like to walk, and it’s a cheap way to really get to know a City, we had decided that we would walk to the market.  Well, it is located in the very southeast part of town (app. 5 miles from the condo). We used Google maps to plan the walking route and then took photos of the route to refer to while walking since we don’t have cell service to use this function outside of the condo (or wherever we are accessing wifi). Though we requested a walking route, Google Maps took us on a route that had us end up at the intersection of two major thoroughfares neither of which had sidewalks or a safe means of crossing.  Luckily, it was a good weather day, so we just enjoyed the fact that we had a good walk. Bob continued researching other walking routes after we returned and eventually found one that got us successfully to the market on another day. It was well worth the 2 attempts. Lots of fresh produce, locally made products (food, art, jewelry), and prepared foods. The walk also took us by the Chinook Center Mall (which we had learned is Canada’s 6th busiest), so we popped in there on the way back to poke around.

Another local market that is a mini version of the Calgary Farmer’s Market is the Crossroads Market. This one is closer to the downtown area just a bit east of the river in the Inglewood/Ramsay area. Again, our first effort to see it failed. This time though we successfully found it — just not on a day that it was open (open Fri-Sun only)! We did get to see it last weekend after our walk to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. We restocked on some local produce and goodies. Awesome!

Another “market” that we have perused is the Bridgeland Market — not surprisingly in the Bridgeland area of Calgary just north of the river and a bit east of us. This was more of a specialty foods store with lots of fun local and international items. Local markets (more like mini Whole Foods or Fresh Pluses in Austin) are Bite in Inglewood and the Sunterra Market at the bottom of our condo. Both of these markets sell produce, groceries, prepared foods, and serve food and drinks in their in-store cafes. We are regulars at Sunterra.

During our housesit in New Zealand, we started noting signs that we found amusing for one reason or another. We have found a few of these in Calgary as well. See below.