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Posts from the road

Our Rainy Weekend in Montreal

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(Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

Everything was in place for our trip to Montreal. The only thing we couldn’t control was the weather…and, in this case, it definitely did not want to be controlled.

Montreal’s City Hall (with the flags of Canada, Quebec and Montreal)

I travel to Montreal from time to time, but I have done only one previous blog entry on the largest city in the province of Quebec. That trip didn’t go completely according to plan either, as I forgot my camera and took only a few iffy photos using an iPod. I remembered the camera this time; fortunately, I also remembered to bring an umbrella!

Downtown Montreal, on Boulevard René-Lévesque

However, the focus of this trip wasn’t on the usual touristic sights in Montreal.  Yes, we wandered through Old Montreal once the weather cleared a bit, but we spent most of our time in various Montreal neighbourhoods that were a little more out of the way.

My main course at Fenêtre Sur Kaboul, in Montreal’s “Plateau” neighbourhood

Dinner on Friday was in an Afghan restaurant in the “Plateau-Mont-Royal” neighbourhood.  My favourite Montreal record store was nearby, and we found some interesting grocery stores where we could stock up for Saturday’s breakfast. This particular area has a lot of students and a huge number of dining options.

A rainy day in downtown Verdun, Quebec

Saturday saw us visit Verdun for the very first time.  We picked it almost at random.  It’s only a few subway stops from downtown Montreal, but when we left the subway it was as if we had completely left the big city.  It was kind of fun to feel like we were the only people who didn’t live there. As a bonus, we also had success at a clothing store that catered to tall people 

Marché Jean-Talon, in Montreal’s Little Italy neighbourhood

We also visited the Marché Jean-Talon in Little Italy, after having lunch at the Breizh Café on boulevard Saint-Laurent. This was our first time at a crêperie since enjoying them nearly every day during last summer’s trip to Normandy and Brittany (“Breizh” is the Breton word for “Brittany”).  We were very happy with our galettes and the cider from a local cidrerie was a perfect accompaniment. We felt a little nostalgic, and vowed that we would return to northern France again someday.

Tibetan Dumplings

The dodgy weather continued on Saturday night, so we stayed fairly close to our hotel and ate at a Tibetan restaurant near the bottom part of boulevard Saint-Laurent.  It was OK, and certainly inexpensive, but not a highlight. My Tibetan meal in Luxembourg, for example, was far superior.

My lunch at Liv Salades, in Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood

On Sunday, we had lunch in the “Mile End” neighbourhood. I think we had probably eaten too much rich food on the first two days, as we both had strong cravings for salad!  As you can see from the salad photo above, they were  huge and appealing…both visually and tastewise.  “Mile End” is home to a number of important food sites (of course), such as St-Viateur Bagels and the Dieu du Ciel microbrewery.

Front of the horse and carriage line, in Old Montreal

So yes, there was a bit of a food emphasis on this trip.  Our trips to Montreal usually work out this way, and it seems like Montrealers truly appreciate food.  But we also tried something else on this trip for the first time:  buying a weekend transit pass for the Metro and buses.

Narrow streets of Old Montreal

That was probably the best thing we could have done.  In addition to saving a LOT of money (the cost per ride ended up being less than $1.00), we found ourselves in some truly unique neighbourhoods that we would never have walked to from our downtown hotel.  It also made the rainy weather easier to handle: we could quickly get back to the hotel and dry off, unload our purchases (mostly food, naturally), and/or get more appropriate clothes.  The pass was valid from late Friday afternoon until early Monday morning, and we will definitely consider it again for a future weekend trip.

Posts from the road

Road trip to Perth

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(Perth, Ontario, Canada)

In “real time”, I’ve been back from Alberta for almost two months.  During that time, I was very busy with sports…lots of hockey and curling, with a couple of out-of-town bonspiels too.   However, on April 13, we decided to visit Perth for Record Store Day!

We had lunch here

Perth is a community of about 6,000 people that seems to have resisted the commercial decline of many other small Ontario towns.  It has a lot of unique small businesses, including the quirky barber shop below that doubles as a “Husband Day Care” and lists Elvis as one of its offerings.   

An unusual barbershop in downtown Perth

Our main destination was a combination bookstore/record shop called “Backbeat”.  I have always received good service there and I stop by from time to time whenever I’m in the area.  They always have special events for Record Store Day and this year was no exception.

Backbeat Books and Music in Perth

After picking up some interesting music, we wandered the streets of Perth and found some other treats to take home…including Italian nougat (with chocolate), a nice Grapefruit Radler (from the Perth Brewery), and some tasty Basque-style cheese (made from raw ewe’s milk by the nearby Back Forty Artisan Cheese company).  You don’t have to travel to a big city to enjoy these indulgences!

An oasis right in the middle of downtown Perth

Speaking of big cities, stay tuned for my report on what used to be Canada’s largest city…and is still a fun place to visit at any time of year.

Posts from the road

Lake Louise

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(Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada)

Right before our first day of skiing, we visited the legendary Lake Louise (the village, the lake, and the hotel, but not the ski area…yet).

View of the lake, from Chateau Lake Louise

I’m sure every Canadian has seen multiple pictures of Lake Louise: the grand hotel overlooking the narrow mountain lake with snowy peaks in the background…it is an iconic Canadian sight.

Skating in front of the Chateau Lake Louise

And yet, it wasn’t exactly how I’d imagined it. I thought it would be at the bottom of a steep and narrow alpine valley.  But that would be wrong: it is actually located some distance up from the broad valley floor, on a winding mountain road.  

Only in Canada!

It actually reminds me quite a bit of St. Moritz, Switzerland…except that there is only one hotel (rather than hundreds) and it seems isolated even with hundreds of people enjoying the lake.

Hiking across Lake Louise

Anyway, it is definitely beautiful and there was plenty going on when we arrived.  There was a fully operational ice bar, a huge number of ice sculptures, multiple hockey games in progress on the lake, cross-country skiers darting to and fro, and many others just walking on and around the lake.  A horse-drawn sled was ferrying people around the coastal trail, while some fearless folks were climbing an ice waterfall. 

A climber ascending the ice falls at Lake Louise

As we were just visiting and not actually staying at the hotel, we chose to walk the length of the lake (about 2 km) and back, taking in the views and the general good cheer about winter.  It seemed like the right thing to do, given that the temperatures were more than cold enough for us to curse them.  Of course, the happiest creature we saw was a very photogenic husky.  Sadly, I didn’t take a picture!

Hiking alongside Lake Louise

Lake Louise (the lake, with the hotel) also turns out to be different from Lake Louise (the village) and Lake Louise (the ski area).  The village is on the valley floor, a couple of kilometers down from the lake, on the Trans-Canada Highway.  The ski area is even further from the lake, on the other side of the valley.  

Ice bar at the Chateau Lake Louise

The verdict:  yes, as you can see, it is definitely worth a visit.  I’m sure I haven’t seen the last of this famous lake…and hopefully, I will get back here at least once in the warmer seasons, so I can see the lake’s (apparently) mesmerizing colours for myself.  

Posts from the road

Cross-Country Skiing in Canmore

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(Canmore, Alberta, Canada)

After four chilly days on the alpine slopes, the temperature dropped even further. The overnight low was around -30’C. The visibility was iffy and there was also a cold wind. It would have been miserable on the lifts, even with Hotshots! We made an executive decision to skip our planned last day of downhill skiing and try an outdoor sport that keeps you a little warmer: cross-country skiing.

Me at the Nordic Centre “stadium”

Fortunately, I was in one of the best places in the country to do this: as I mentioned a few days ago, Canmore hosted the Olympic cross- country skiing and biathlon events at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.  The facilities have been maintained and remain a competitive/training centre today.  Instead of just visiting, however, this time I was actually going to ski!

Richard races to the finish line

I haven’t done cross-country skiing regularly for about 40 years.  The equipment has changed enormously.  But the basics are still the same and it is just a little easier to ski uphill with the new “skins” skis.  

Skiing through the forest at the Canmore Nordic Centre

There was no way that we could have enjoyed skiing downhill today: the windchill was approaching -30’C, although the actual temperature was about -17’C at midday.   While cross-country skiing was also cold initially, I warmed up after about 15 minutes of work.  We decided to do a series of loops that didn’t take us too far from the base lodge, just in case .  Eventually, the main concern was not getting too hot, as the moisture could really make you freeze when you got cold again later. 

Richard overlooks the meadow

After a delicious lunch, we did another longer loop in the afternoon.  The forest trails were beautiful but my favourite spot was  a spectacular alpine meadow (see photo at the very top of this post), where you could really appreciate all of the mountains around us. The sun had graciously reappeared shortly after we started, and the wintry colours were intense.

Some of the many flags at the Canmore Nordic Centre (representing the countries that competed at the 1988 Winter Olympics)

I don’t say this often, but this was definitely a day where it was better to be off the slopes than on them.  We ended up skiing more than 20 km and fully deserved the Mexican meal we enjoyed that evening.  I certainly wasn’t expecting to drink horchata in Canmore, but there it was! 

The Canmore Nordic Centre

We made the most of our last full day in Canmore, and we could only laugh the next morning when the temperature dropped to a totally ridiculous -36’C (again, without the windchill!) on the way to the airport.

Coming up: another Alberta attraction!

 

Posts from the road

Highlights from the Banff and Lake Louise slopes

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(Canmore, Alberta, Canada)

This post was supposed to be about skiing in the Banff area without a polar vortex.  Alas, I cannot do that.  There was a relative warming over the next two days of skiing, but I still needed to buy and use Hotshots (for my hands) for each of those days.  However, I was able to ski through both the morning and the afternoon without resorting to hand dryers for warmth…and I finally get a proper feel for the slopes at both Lake Louise and Sunshine Village.

Richard poses near the top of the Back Bowls piste at Lake Louise

My first impressions of skiing at Lake Louise were mixed.  The views were great, but most of the pistes near the main gondola were “used up” by mid-morning.  We then made our way to the “Back Bowls”, a large area on the backside of the main mountain (see photo at the very top of this post).  

The Back Bowls pistes are not really defined…they are more “areas” than formal pistes, so it is sometimes difficult to figure out which piste you are actually on. There are three distinct Back Bowl sections, each with a fairly easy piste running through the middle, and exclusively black diamond-rated (or double black diamond-rated) slopes branching off.  Sometimes a hike is required to reach these pistes. 

Some of the mogul fields on the Lake Louise Back Bowls can get pretty gnarly

The farthest of the three Back Bowls was accessible only by a “platter” lift.  This is almost prehistoric technology that should have been retired long ago.  It is similar to a T-Bar: you ride it alone, and you are dragged uphill by a “disc” that you place between your legs.  It can be quite difficult to ride, especially on steep inclines, and the resort even ranked the lift itself as a black diamond!! 

Close-up of the mogul fields – compare the moguls to the size of the skier!

We cursed this wretched lift each time we used it.  The steepest section makes you fight the lift; it feels like a fall is imminent as you try to squeeze your thighs around the disc. But we then realized that this horrible lift was actually keeping people away from the third Back Bowl.  It was really our friend!

While it had been several days since the last snowfall, we managed to find a hidden piste that checked all the right boxes: barely used, a decent amount of powder, and a steep pitch that made you work but didn’t seem to have any hidden rocks or icy surprises. 

Another view from the top of the Back Bowls (Lake Louise)

We returned to this “Traumpiste” (“Dream Run”) several times, each time enjoying the sun, snow, solitude, and attainable challenge.  We then had a late lunch and decided to figure out the name of our great discovery.  Perhaps it would have a lyrical name, to match the internal melodies we heard while skiing it.  Or maybe it would have a rugged name, to reflect the worthy challenge it was.  I could have lived with either option.

The Alberta/British Columbia border, at Sunshine Village ski resort

But no.  This piste turned out to have the worst name I have ever encountered: it was called “Brown Shirt”.  I kid you not. What on earth were they thinking?  To compound their sin, they included “Brown Shirt” in the name of two other nearby pistes.   I’m shocked and stunned.  I’ve decided to call it “Hidden Valley” instead.

Random photo from the top of the Goat’s Eye region of the Sunshine Village ski area

Anyway, we also enjoyed skiing the long pistes located on Goat’s Eye Mountain at Sunshine Village.  These weren’t as remote as Lake Louise’s Back Bowls, but they were still off the beaten path for many of the skiers at Sunshine Village.  We were largely free to roam the wide open pistes in search of untouched snow. 

Temperatures are supposed to drop again tomorrow for our last day of skiing.  After a brief respite from the polar vortex, will we be able to handle it?

 

Posts from the road

My Coldest Skiing Ever?

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(Canmore, Alberta, Canada)

I have now been skiing for two days in the Canadian Rockies.  Winter is ending in a few weeks, and it was reasonable to assume that temperatures would not be significantly lower than what I usually encounter during my March ski trips.  But that would be wrong.

-29’C on the car dashboard, en route to Lake Louise for skiing

Thanks to a Polar Vortex situation, the temperature en route to the Lake Louise ski resort (see photo at top of this post) reached an incredible -29’C.  While I know that it can often be much colder than that in Canada, it is not the kind of temperature commonly associated with sustainable ski resorts.  They even issued a frostbite warning!

Me and the distant Mt. Assiniboine (in British Columbia!), while skiing at Sunshine

Maybe it was just a one-off?  Well, it warmed up the next day to a relatively balmy -27’C on the way to the Sunshine (Banff) ski resort.  In fact, that day was probably more challenging: it felt even colder (perhaps due to the altitude) than it did at Lake Louise, and I had to return to the lodge after only two runs.  As the day progressed, I was generally able to complete three runs in a row before I had to restore some warmth to my frozen hands and face.

One of the “Back Bowls” at Lake Louise ski resort

But!  This is not a story of icy gloom!  It is, instead, a story of ingenuity and survival against the odds.  Yes, I have discovered an easy way to continue skiing, even in the most frigid temperatures.

Entering the Back Bowls at Lake Louise

Thanks to the automatic hand dryer, found in most public washrooms, you too can restore at least some temporary warmth to your hands and mitts (I don’t recommend this technique with feet, boots, or faces).  Simply find a washroom with an automatic hand dryer, and forego the unnecessary preliminaries of actually using the washroom or washing your hands.  Just let the toasty hand dryer work its magic, and you’ll be ready to face the elements once again. Trust me, it works!

Back Bowls at Lake Louise

Of course, this places some limits on your ski itinerary.  My hands also feel very dried out right now.  But desperate times call for desperate measures!

Lake Louise summit

Around 1:00 p.m. or so, on both days, the overhead sun did help out quite a bit.  And I’m certainly not complaining about the crowds: lift lines were non-existent, and we often had huge pistes all to ourselves.  But I do have to admit that unconditional alpine enjoyment took a bit of a hit over the past two days.

Empty pistes in the middle of the day at Sunshine (Banff)

Fortunately, temperatures are expected to rise for the next two days of skiing, so I hope to provide some substantive commentary on these two beautifully situated ski areas in my subsequent blog entries.  And, just in case, I will also be buying a couple of “Hot Shots” (hand warmers that I haven’t used since the 1990s) to put in my mitts on the last day of skiing…temperatures are expected to plunge once again by then.

Near the summit of Lake Louise

Canadian skiing isn’t always like this. Stay tuned to find out what it’s really like when the weather is not so much of a factor.

Posts from the road

Ready to Ski in the Canadian Rockies

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(Canmore, Alberta, Canada)

I wasn’t able to cross the Atlantic for skiing this year…but when one door closes, another one opens.  I am now in the Canadian Rockies for a week of skiing in and around Banff and Lake Louise!

For a mere C$12,500.00, this samurai armour and sword can be yours from a Banff souvenir shop

It is a trip of “firsts”.  I have never been to Calgary, Banff, or Lake Louise.  I have never been skiing in Alberta.  And I have a feeling that I am also going attain some other “firsts” on the slopes…at least from a ski conditions perspective!

Bow River Waterfalls. near Banff, Alberta

I believe that Alberta is currently in the midst of a “Polar Vortex” weather system.  Whatever the reason, it is VERY cold here for late February.  We actually decided not to ski today, as the overnight low was -28’C and the windchill this morning was a nippy -30’C.  However, I still had the chance to explore this spectacular setting, in preparation for our debut on the slopes tomorrow.  

The Banff Springs Hotel, as seen from the (mostly) frozen Bow River

 We started off by visiting some hot springs and then the famous Banff Springs Hotel (see photo at the top of this post):  another one of the iconic Canadian Pacific hotels that sprang up across Canada approximately 100 years ago. I’ve been to a few of these recently: you may recall my posts on the Manoir Richelieu and the Chateau Montebello in Quebec. 

It’s -20’C outside, but they are called hot springs for a reason

The Banff Springs setting is amazing, but so is the interior.  The architect must have had a great time designing the hotel, given the disorienting maze of hallways and rooms.   The exterior also lives up to the castle motif shared by many other CP hotels.  After our dizzying self-guided tour, we came across some very unconcerned deer on our way to the Bow River waterfalls.

Wild but totally unconcerned deer near the Banff Springs Hotel

For lunch, we agreed that a huge bowl of Thai soup would be an appropriate way to recuperate from the cold.  We then visited a famous destination that will eventually get its own post, and finished up our non-skiing day by exploring some of the sights around Canmore. 

Canmore Nordic Centre, venue for biathlon and cross-country skiing events at the 1988 Winter Olympics

Canmore is a former mining town that has made the transition to a sport and resort centre.  Our first stop was the Canmore Nordic Centre, home of the cross-country skiing and biathlon events at the 1988 Calgary Olympics.  It looked much hillier than it does on TV, and the hardy warriors on the trails were emerging with incredible icicle formations on their faces. And yet, they seemed happy enough to be there.

Ha Ling Peak, near Canmore, Alberta

We finished by exploring a little bit of the hinterland that was apparently the preferred site of the Canmore Nordic Centre, but building an Olympic-standard road to that location would simply have been too difficult and expensive.  Believe me, it was quite an experience being in such rugged terrain only a few kilometres outside of Canmore.

Spray Lakes, near Canmore, Alberta

I’m now fully acclimatized and ready to hit the slopes. Stay tuned for our Polar Vortex skiing debut!

Posts from Base Camp

5th Anniversary!

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

You may recognize the above photo…it’s the very same cover photo that I used on my very first blog post exactly five years ago!  It was taken at Goðafoss in northern Iceland during the summer of 2008.

It’s hard to believe that five years (and 318 posts) have passed since I started this blog…and even harder to believe that it’s been 11 years since I was at Goðafoss!  

Today’s post is not very long, nor are there any other pictures, because I think it would be more fun to jump into the archived posts at random.  Pick a month on the left side of the screen, and see where you end up!  You could also do a search (top left of each blog page) on a random word, and click on the first search result that appears.

Or, if you want a bit more direction, check out this “referral” post from 2017: it lists some of the places I had visited up to that point and provides links to them.

Going forward: it’s almost time to go skiing!  This post shows where we went last year…stay tuned for a series of posts from my mysterious new ski destination!

 

Posts from Base Camp

Looking ahead to 2019’s trips

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

The beginning of the year is always a time to reflect on past trips and think about the ones to come. Looking back to the beginning of 2018, I had some summer destinations in mind but nothing concrete (click here for the surprising resolution in early February of 2018).

View of Regenboldshorn, from Metschstand (Lenk/Adelboden, Switzerland)

In the end, my main 2018 trips were for skiing in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland, an extended summer trip to northern France, and a spontaneous road trip to New Jersey in November.  I’ve taken my favourite photos from those trips and reposted them in today’s blog entry.

The ski posse is getting a little tired by this point…we ended up skiing a total of 71 km that day! (Lenk, Switzerland)

But you probably already know all about those trips.  What’s in store for 2019?

Bayeux’s Cathedral at 11:00 p.m. (France)

For me, it looks like 2019 is going to be a year of sports travel.  In less than a month, I will be skiing for a week in a completely new (for me) ski region.  It definitely falls into that “how come I never went here before?” category:  like London (U.K.), I somehow managed to avoid this part of the world for a very long time.  The big reveal is coming up in a few weeks!

Lots of choices, high above Lenk and Adelboden (Switzerland)

As for my traditional summer trip…it’s all up to the sporting gods.  I’ll be entering a number of competitions this year and I’ll just have to see how they all work out.  I don’t even know where most of these events will take place:  I just know roughly when they will occur.  They could be local, somewhere in the province of Ontario, somewhere in Canada, or even international!

Precariously leaning house in Rouen (France)

So far, my experience with sports travel has been excellent.  Of course, skiing is always a great experience. However, that is purely recreational and it is not all that difficult to stumble upon alpine highlights.  In contrast, participating in competitions brings you into contact with people and places that you would never see as a “regular” tourist.

Vitré (France)

My 2014 hockey tour of Eastern Europe was predictably unforgettable.  But I also participated in a provincial championship in another sport in Sarnia, Ontario, last summer…and had a great time, even though I had never thought of visiting there as a “regular” tourist.  You just never know!

The Arc de Triomphe, overlooking l’avenue des Champs-Élysées (right before France’s victory parade for winning the 2018 World Cup!)

And if things don’t go too well on the competitive front this summer, I will probably have some vacation time left over in the fall.  That’s a great time of year to have some leftover vacation days!  As readers of this blog know, last-minute trips are often the very best kind.

Competing in the Novice Singles playoffs at the Ontario Lawn Bowling Association provincial championships in Ottawa, Ontario (September 2018)

Whatever happens, 2019 promises to be a very interesting travel year.

Posts from the road

Celebrities and the Jersey Shore

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(West Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S.A.)

One of the interesting parts of the New Jersey conference was interacting with people whose names I knew…but whom I had never actually seen or met.

As this was an academic conference, many of the attendees and presenters were authors.  I brought along a few books for signing, as it appeared that time would be available to meet the authors.  In each case, the authors were unfailingly polite and it was abundantly clear that they were also big fans of the music.

The Jersey Shore

There was another attendee who might be a little more famous (by work, if not by name) to those outside of the Beatles’ world.  He has a very significant Beatles connection, but he has also reached the pinnacle of his profession through his work with other musicians.  However, he rarely attends events like this…and I wondered if he might not be too thrilled to meet “fans”. 

Science Hall at Monmouth University

While I did obtain his autograph and briefly speak to him, I was most struck by his keen interest in the conference.  Although he was a featured guest, he did not just zip in and out of the conference for his assigned slot.  He arrived early and stayed for several days (and these were long days)…perhaps even longer than I did!   And it was evident that he was just as polite with, and considerate of, other “fans” as he was when I met him.  

Woodrow Wilson Hall, Monmouth University, Long Branch, New Jersey

This made me ponder the whole idea of celebrity.  If I were famous and pursuing one of my interests, my patience with being approached by strangers might eventually get worn down.  Imagine  having to deal with that all of the time!  And so, given the grace with which this person was handling things, I have decided not to name him or post a picture.

Bey Hall, Monmouth University

Almost exactly four years ago, I came across a similar issue when I visited the Abbey Road recording studio in London, England.  The building (and the pedestrian crossing outside of it) are, of course, iconic in the Beatles world.  I readily accepted a stranger’s offer to take my picture while I walked across Abbey Road.  However, one of the most famous musicians of all time also lives quite close to that studio…only a few minutes’ walk away.

I had to take a look, as I was curious about the style in which this musician lived.  I thought about taking a picture and posting it on this blog.  In the end, however, I decided that posting a photograph would just contribute to the “siege” that this musician must often feel.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania…on the way back home

As a result, rather than posting “celebrity” photos, I have decided to illustrate this post with some more travel-oriented photos of the conference trip.  The final stop was a  brief visit to the nearby Jersey Shore (see photo at the very top of this post), which I had heard about but never actually seen.  After taking some final pictures and ceremonially touching the chilly Atlantic Ocean, it was time to begin the long journey back home.