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Return to the K&P Trail

June 6, 2015 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Last year, one of my posts was about hiking on the K&P Trail north of Kingston. This old railway line has been converted to a recreational trail and we are continuing our attempt to hike its entire length.

We’ve managed to cover two more segments of the trial since my previous post. We have now walked all the way from Kingston to the northern edge of the village of Verona (and back).

View of the K&P Trail from Boyce's Road in Hartington — View of the K&P Trail from Boyce’s Road in Hartington

We had low expectations for the portion leading north from Hartington. However, after a not-very-tranquil segment near Highway 38, the trail plunged into wilderness. Following a dramatic rock cut, we began to see all kinds of interesting wildlife. First up was an active beaver population: I didn’t act quickly enough to get a photo of a diving beaver, but I then spotted the unmistakable evidence of very recent beaver activity (see photo at the top of this post). From then on, our eyes were furiously scanning for signs of wildlife.

Many turtles on a log, as seen from the K&P Trail south of Verona

While we didn’t see any other beavers, we did see lots of gnawed trees….and a lot of turtles. We saw massive lines of turtles sunning themselves on fallen trees. Once, we even saw an unusual turtle-snake interaction…eventually, the snake gave up and left the turtle alone. Although they never got too close, birds of prey were also circling above us with rather unnerving frequency.

Mysterious Christmas tree, north of Hartington

There was the occasional sign of human interaction here: for reasons unknown, somebody decided to put Christmas ornaments on a tree beside the trial. We almost walked right past the tree without noticing. Since then, however, we have been speculating about why this happened. If anybody knows the story (the tree was no more than 30 minutes’ walk north of Hartington), let me know.

Our second segment took us from just south of Bellrock Road to just north of the village of Verona. It was quite hot and we didn’t feel like pushing ourselves too much. As part of the trail is actually on one of the streets of Verona, it also didn’t have quite the same ruggedness as the previous segment.

However, one of the advantages of traveling through a village is that you can take refuge from the hot weather. After finishing our walk, we stopped in at a local trail-side restaurant called “Martha’s Place” (which we used to know as the “Bravo Restaurant”). Pulled pork appeared in several different forms on the menu, so I figured that it must be a specialty. I enjoyed the pulled pork sandwich very much, even though it was one of the messiest things I have ever eaten. There was sauce everywhere: I nearly got some in my eyes.

View of Hardwood Creek from the K&P Trail, just south of Verona

While Verona is nowhere near the size of the “real” Verona (which is coming up soon in one of my Travel Flashbacks!) in Italy, it is also the last major settlement on the currently developed portion of the K&P Trail. Everything from this point forward will be much more remote.

Stay tuned for more Travel Flashbacks, local travel stories, and our exciting international trip in July! We’re really going off the beaten path for this one…I’ll have some hints for you as the trip gets closer.

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Journey to the Arctic Circle 2008

May 30, 2015 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Despite its wintry name, all of Iceland lies south of the Arctic Circle…except one tiny island called Grímsey. The Arctic Circle passes right through the island: the only settlement on the island is south of the Arctic Circle but a 15-minute walk north takes you to the Circle itself.

Grímsey is beyond remote: it is 40km north of the coast of “mainland” Iceland and is about 3 hours ferry from the already remote port of Dalvik. Only 86 people live on Grímsey and we had previously heard all sorts of “grim” stories about death and depopulation on this island with an area of just 2 square miles.

The starkly beautiful coast of northern Iceland

We were staying in the northern Iceland town of Akureyri and thought that it would be a shame to be so close to the Arctic Circle and not actually cross it. So we took a bus to Dalvik and then hopped on what looked like a calm and efficient ferry for the journey to Grímsey. After a few hours on Grímsey, we would catch the ferry back to Dalvik. It was the middle of the summer; surely we could look forward to a pleasant day on the water and on the exotic island.

When we boarded the ferry in Dalvik, we staked out a couple of window seats in the indoor lounge, thinking it would be warmer and more comfortable. We enjoyed sailing past the towering cliffs of northern Iceland and looked forward to the rest of the crossing. Once we hit open water, however, something very bad happened. Despite traveling quite fast for a ferry, the boat began churning and lurching violently from side-to-side and from back-to-front. This lasted for hours.

Thinking we were safer inside, we soon both noticed that we weren’t feeling so well. I’m really not sure how much detail I should go into here. Is it enough to say that even the crew was seeking out paper bags for personal use and that one of us spent two hours in a bathroom stall? Do I need to mention what the indoor lounge smelled like?

Anyway, we eventually arrived on Grímsey and spent some time in the island’s restaurant in order to rehydrate. Colour eventually returned to our faces and, feeling less horrible than we did on arrival, we set out for our northward walk to the Arctic Circle.

We passed the circle without incident (right on the Circle, there’s a tiny bridge with a “M*A*S*H*”-style signpost pointing to various international destinations) and found ourselves on a remote path near the top of a cliff. A puffin briefly landed right beside us with a mouthful of capelin. Around the next corner was a sheer cliff housing thousands upon thousands of seabirds. We mostly noticed the interestingly-beaked puffins, of course, but there were birds of every description. There are apparently one million seabirds on the island altogether.

One of many puffins we saw north of the Arctic Circle

The winds were blowing, the land was bleak…and the grass was a vivid green. There were no trees but it wasn’t quite as barren as one would expect north of the Arctic Circle. Still, we felt like we were at the end of the world and felt some pride for having overcome considerable adversity to get here.

On the way back to the ferry (pictured at the top of this post), we understandably began wondering how we were ever going to survive the return journey. We overheard that staying outside on the deck was actually the best way of dealing with the lurching boat. Apparently, being inside with fixed straight lines (windows, walls, doors, etc.) accentuates your disorientation and makes seasickness worse. We resolved to bundle up and test this theory: the alternative was simply too grim to contemplate.

Leaving Grímsey behind on our journey back to the mainland

Eschewing the indoor cabin (which still wasn’t very fresh), we took our places on the exposed outer deck of the ferry. It was cold and windy and soon enough the boat was churning almost as much as on the way out to Grímsey. But we never felt sick! Feeling like a couple of wise old salts, we happily disembarked in Dalvik and reminisced almost fondly about our epic Arctic journey. However, as you might appreciate, we didn’t take any more boats for the rest of our holiday in Iceland.

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The other Pierre van der Hout

May 23, 2015 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Today’s genealogical post is a little different…but there is still a travel element.

I had long assumed that I was the first and only “Pierre Vanderhout” in the world, as our family’s genealogy has been documented in book form back to the mid-1500s and there wasn’t any other Vanderhout (usually written as “van der Hout” in Dutch) named Pierre. However, it appears that I am not the first person to bear this name.

On February 26, 1678, Guillaume van der Hout was christened in Leiden, the Netherlands. The parents were Pierre van der Hout and Caterine Pierre. The witnesses were Elizabeth van Danne and Gregoire Cresson. This event was recorded by the “RK Kerk de Zon” in Leiden; the document can be found here (the relevant entry is numbered “9005”).

Typical intersection in Delft, the Netherlands

This was only the beginning of an unusual story. I couldn’t find any other genealogical information on these names: there was nothing on the direct descendants of Guillaume van der Hout nor on the direct ancestors of this other Pierre van der Hout. All I had to go on was the name of the church. “Kerk” means “church” in Dutch, while “de Zon” means “the sun”. I didn’t pay much attention to the “RK”; I had assumed it was a reference to the Reformed Church (a Protestant church that is quite prominent in the Netherlands).

However, some further research revealed an unusual twist. “RK” was actually a short form for “Rooms Katholiek”, the Dutch words for “Roman Catholic”. So, the “Sun Church” in Leiden was actually a Catholic church. That was a surprise, as the genealogy suggested that the first few centuries of van der Houts were all Protestant.

"De Spaansche Vloot" (The Spanish Fleet), a nearly 400-year-old restaurant in 's-Gravenzande, the Netherlands — “De Spaansche Vloot” (The Spanish Fleet), a nearly 400-year-old restaurant in ‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands

When we were in the Netherlands last summer, we visited some churches that dated back 800 years. I decided to find out if the “Sun Church” was still around, as it would be interesting on a future visit to see where this other Pierre van der Hout had once been. This led to another surprise: the Kerk de Zon was a secret church!

While the Netherlands was a tolerant country even in the 17th century (attracting persecuted religious groups from all over Europe), tolerance was a relative concept. Non-Protestants were free to practice their own religion as long as they did not draw too much attention to themselves. This meant that their places of worship could not be outwardly identifiable as such; they also could not enter and leave en masse.

Nearly deserted beach near 's-Gravenzande, the Netherlands — Nearly deserted beach near ‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands

So, was the 17th-century Pierre van der Hout somehow written out of the family tree because of religion? The multiple French names in the records of the Kerk de Zon provide a more likely answer.

Pierre van der Hout (or his ancestors) probably came from a French-speaking part of Europe and had a different surname. However, as they continued living in the Netherlands, it was common to adopt a Dutch surname to help assimilate into Dutch society.

Pierre’s family may have picked “van der Hout” simply because it was a common surname in that part of the Netherlands. However, picking a new name was often very literal. As “van der Hout” means “from the forest”, Pierre’s original French surname may well have been something like Desbois or LaForest.

Distant view of Grote Kerk in Maassluis, the Netherlands. This is the church where my ancestor Isaack Adriaensz van der Hout (born in 1580) placed the keystone

While I could not find any other references to the 17th-century Pierre or Guillaume van der Hout, I suspect that the family’s descendants were around for a long time. Why? I managed to find a person named “Guillaume Pierre Johann van der Hout” – he was born in 1874 in Delft, the Netherlands (see photo at the top of this post) and is the only other “Guillaume van der Hout” I could locate.

Here, finally, is the travel angle…the only record I could find for Guillaume Pierre Johann van der Hout was an immigration record kept by the police of Antwerp, Belgium. For reasons unknown, he left Delft to live in another country. On this page, at number 97.416, you can see how this unusual story continued into at least the late 19th-century. I hope to investigate this further; in the meantime, it seems that anybody with my name is destined to move around!

[The photos in today’s post are all close to where my namesakes lived in the Netherlands.]

Posts from the road

Small Town Ontario

May 16, 2015 pierrev 4 Comments

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Last weekend, we decided to take a short drive to some nearby small communities. We were only gone for a couple of hours but it was time well spent: we ended up making some important decisions about our summer holidays. More on that later.

We started out in Inverary, a village about 15 minutes north of Kingston. The photo at the top of the post shows the main intersection: of course, it has long been home to a general store. Not long ago, almost every village had one of these. However, this store, like many others, has now closed.

Inverary United Church...and our car — Inverary United Church…and our car

Our next stop was in the larger village of Sydenham. It’s just a bit farther from Kingston and is able to sustain more local businesses. In the warmer months, it probably also helps that a lot of cottages and outdoor attractions (Frontenac Provincial Park, Gould Lake Conservation Area) are nearby.

Saturday afternoon football on the shores of Sydenham Lake

When we arrived, we stopped by the local soccer/football field. It’s got a great location right on the shores of Sydenham Lake. I used to play minor soccer and high school soccer games here from time to time and always enjoyed the setting. It was good to see the field in use: on this weekend afternoon, a minor football game was in progress. It seemed like everyone in the village had come out to watch.

As it was unseasonably warm, we decided to visit Ronnie’s restaurant for some ice cream. We had never eaten here before; in fact, we didn’t even know about it before arriving. However, we thought it would be nice to patronize a truly local business and the ice cream was just what I needed.

As we left, we made an important decision about our summer travels: as much as possible, we are going to try to avoid chains and eat at/patronize locally-owned businesses. Visiting the “Milky Way” and the other local businesses in Regina was fun…who knows what other local treasures we will find this summer?

Location of the (former) mill in Sydenham, Ontario

I suppose this flows from my recent experience with Record Store Day and its emphasis on independent record shops. It’s not always easy to take this approach in our busy day-to-day lives but it is something we can definitely do while on vacation. If we stumble across local events (fairs, pancake breakfasts, spaghetti dinners, etc.) held in community halls, we’ll wander in and see what happens!

This is what post offices should look like! The post office in Sydenham, Ontario

A stroll down Sydenham’s main street also revealed some interesting buildings and photos. It’s difficult to identify potential pictures when you are in a car…but opportunities abound when you are walking around. In fact, we sometimes get out and go for a walk in a small town even if nothing looks interesting. It almost always works for us. I say “almost” because my wife was stung by a bee (and promptly discovered her previously unknown bee allergy) while we were walking down the main street of Claremont, New Hampshire, a few years ago. We now have a new appreciation for those blue “Hospital” signs: when you are someplace unfamiliar and are having a medical emergency, it really helps to be able to locate a hospital quickly.

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: The Fjords of Norway 2010

May 9, 2015 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Our 2008 trip to Iceland was so much fun that we decided to continue our Northern theme and visit Norway in 2010. Once again, we braced ourselves for high Scandinavian prices…and found them! Our trip began in the coastal city of Bergen and ended in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. In between: lots and lots of fjords!

Hiking above Balestrand and the Sognefjord

From Bergen, we took a relatively high-speed boat up the Sognefjord to the resort village of Balestrand. The scenery along the way was impressive but not astounding: near the ocean, the Sognefjord is too wide to make you feel completely surrounded. Balestrand was still a very pleasant base for our exploration of the area, however, and we were able to explore a number of the narrower (and more dramatic) fjords from here. We stayed in a characterful hotel overlooking the Sognefjord and had a delightful al fresco dinner in an orchard just down the street.

The boat we took from XXXX back to Balestrand — The boat we took from Fjærland back to Balestrand

Balestrand also had an interesting aquarium with an even more interesting promotion: a ticket to the aquarium came with a free canoe rental. Well, we just had to take advantage of that! While it certainly wasn’t part of our plan, we can now say that we have been canoeing in the fjords of Norway!

Stave church at Vik, Norway. — Hopperstad stave church at Vik, Norway.

We took two interesting trips from Balestrand. The first was to the Hopperstad stave church at Vik. These wooden churches are obviously very vulnerable to fire, so there are only a few surviving examples. This one is approximately 900 years old and is built on the ruins of an even older church. Internal photos are not allowed but I can tell you that it is very dark inside.

The second trip was a “Glacier Tour”to Fjærland. The boat trip to Mundal (the village in Fjærland) was amazing: the fjords looked like the ones in all the tourist brochures. The photo at the top of this post was taken on the way. Alas, the Glacier Tour itself was rather underwhelming. We didn’t get very close to the glacier itself, as it has been retreating for a number of years but the tour infrastructure (road, glacier museum, etc.) has naturally remained in the same place. It was a pleasant day but we will definitely be more selective about glacier tours in the future.

Terminus of the railway to Flam — Myrdal, Norway: terminus of the Flamsbana railway from Flåm

After a few days in Balestrand, we made the long journey by boat and train to Oslo. We took the Flamsbana from Flåm to Myrdal; it is advertised as the most scenic train ride in the world. While it is undeniably beautiful, it is perhaps a little overdeveloped for tourism. For evidence, see the photograph below. The train stopped for photographs at a dramatic waterfall and, on cue, a collection of mystical maidens suddenly emerged to the musical accompaniment of a stirring symphony and re-enacted a folk tale. Very cheesy.

Mystical maidens emerge from the mist on the Flamsbana railway

Actually, we shouldn’t have been surprised. The Flamsbana is part of the “Norway in a Nutshell” tour: it is a highly coordinated (and choreographed) route designed to show some of Norway’s greatest natural highlights. While it would be fine for somebody who only had a day to see the fjords and mountains, we felt somewhat “herded” on this part of our journey. We preferred spending a few days in the fjords and exploring on our own. Norway is a beautiful country and it doesn’t need to rely on gimmicks to impress.

Stay tuned for more flashbacks and other travel surprises!

Posts from the road

Saskatchewan Surprises

May 3, 2015 pierrev Leave a comment

(Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada)

I don’t visit too many museums when I travel. Spending the better part of a year on the road has made me highly selective about the types of museums I’ll visit. When I was researching Regina, I more or less ignored the museums as places to spend my limited time.

On paper, the Royal Saskatchewan Museum didn’t sound terribly appealing. However, it was only 3 blocks away from my B&B and I found out that it opened relatively early in the morning. As I had some free time before the RCMP Heritage Centre opened, and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum only “recommended” a donation, I thought I would give it a quick look.

Another realistic display at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum: you can see the barrier in front of this one.

I was pleasantly surprised: it had a number of extremely realistic 3D wildlife recreations (see the golden eagle at the top of this post) and exhibits on the theme of extinction, as well as extensive exhibits on the First Nations in what is now Saskatchewan. It also had a number of powerful displays at the very end that really made you think about the impact of humans (and their modern lifestyles) on the environment. I won’t spoil the surprise but I can almost guarantee that you will look at urban living much differently after you leave.

After making my donation, I walked downtown and caught a city bus out to the RCMP Heritage Centre. It is a very interesting museum that itself would have been worth the price of admission…but I timed my visit so that I could take the free “Sergeant-Major’s Tour” at 12:30 p.m. This tour was led by a retired RCMP officer and focused on the adjacent RCMP Training Centre where all Canadian RCMP cadets must spend 24 weeks learning their trade. Those who complete the course are then posted to their first assignments.

The RCMP’s “paramilitary” history means that the cadet training program is similar to military basic training in a number of ways. One of the main components is the drill parade. While it may seem outdated for modern-day RCMP officers, it is maintained because it encourages attention to detail and helps immensely with team-building. The cadet band was (perhaps inadvertently) entertaining too: some of the members have no musical training and really only mime their parts. This was the first time I have heard the “reveille” played on saxophone: the cornet players were clearly there just for show!

However, I think the best part of the tour was learning about the course of study and the graduation requirements. Many of us in the legal profession wonder if we could succeed at policing, as we are trained in the principles of criminal law while at law school. Hearing about the graduation requirements (the two most common reasons for failure are the firearms and high-speed driving components) made me realize that police work is probably not for me! It also made me better appreciate the diverse skill set of police officers.

The oldest building in Regina: the Chapel at the RCMP Training Centre

For dinner, I once again chose a local restaurant in Cathedral Village. The Viet Thai restaurant has a very utilitarian name and a no-nonsense environment. However, my sizable masaman curry was enhanced with a lot of fresh vegetables (only some of which are visible in the photograph) so I can’t complain at all.

Dish No. 145 at the Viet Thai restaurant in Regina, Saskatchewan

I’ve been back in Kingston for a few days now but that doesn’t mean that things have been quiet on the travel front. We’re in the process of finalizing our summer plans and we’re both very excited about what’s going to happen. I won’t disclose the location yet but there will be a focus on unique, spontaneous and/or off-the-beaten-path destinations.

Posts from the road

So, this is Saskatchewan…

April 28, 2015 pierrev 2 Comments

(Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada)

At the beginning of my travel year in 2014, I mentioned in this post that I had been to every Canadian province and territory…except Saskatchewan. I obviously hoped to see Saskatchewan at some point but it didn’t quite fit in with the theme of my travel year.

Well, after the craziness of 2014 subsided, I was left with a whole lot of Air Miles and frequent flier points. I noticed that I had a little bit of free time at the end of April and started looking into redeeming some of those points for a quick trip. Alas, it is getting more and more difficult to take advantage of those reward programs and the only candidates ended up being Indianapolis, Minneapolis…and Regina! While I’m sure that the “-polis” places would be interesting, the increasing value of the U.S. dollar made me think that this was finally the time to see Saskatchewan. And now, finally, here I am!

I'm staying at the Dragon's Nest B&B in the Cathedral Village part of Regina — I’m staying at the Dragon’s Nest B&B in the Cathedral Village part of Regina

Of course, as with my trips to the northern territories, it is impossible to say that I have experienced Saskatchewan just because I have been to Regina. With that in mind, here’s what happened on my first day here…

Entrance to the Saskatchewan Legislative Building

I started by exploring Cathedral Village, the neighbourhood where my B&B is located. From there, it was an easy walk to the Saskatchewan Legislature. It’s located on the shores of Wascana Lake (part of which is shown in the photo at the top of this post) and is part of the largest urban park in North America….bigger even than New Yor City’s Central Park, apparently. I went on a rather brief tour of the Legislature building and was able to sit in on Question Period.

Unlike the rather subdued House of Commons I saw in London, England last autumn, Saskatchewan’s provincial parliament was a madhouse. It was clear that the government and the opposition are not terribly fond of each other right now…it looked (and sounded) like a classroom of unruly students. If I have spare time later in the trip, I might return to the Legislature to see some more of the spectacle.

The legendary Milky Way on Victoria Avenue in Regina

Next up was some exploration of downtown – despite a significant number of federal and provincial government offices, it wasn’t quite as busy as I had expected. I did some restaurant scoping and, given the surprisingly warm weather, I decided to make the pilgrimage to the “Milky Way”, a legendary ice cream vendor with a long and illustrious history in Regina. I opted to go local and have a “Saskatoon Sundae”: logically enough, it features saskatoon berries (also known as juneberries). I’ve never had them before but they were quite good with the vanilla soft-serve ice cream. There’s nothing wrong with having dessert before dinner!

The first time I have eaten at a place called "La Cucaracha" (13th Avenue, Cathedral Village, Regina) — The first time I have eaten at a place called “La Cucaracha” (13th Avenue, Cathedral Village, Regina)

Speaking of dinner, I kept the “go local” theme and went to a newly-established Mexican take-out place in Cathedral Village called “La Cucaracha”. It’s not a name I like to associate with food but the ingredients were top quality and they even had imported Mexican soft drinks. It’s been a very long time since I had strawberry soda…it might even have been back in the days of the Pop Shoppe!

For my second day in Regina, I’m hoping to make it out to the RCMP Visitor Centre and (of course) explore the vinyl record offerings in Saskatchewan’s capital city.

Posts from Base Camp

Records on the Road

April 24, 2015 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Last Saturday was “Record Store Day” and we drove to Ottawa to see what was available in the record stores of our nation’s capital. It reminded me of the interesting music I’ve picked up in my travels: each record has its own story, above and beyond the actual music.

The photo at the top of this post is one of my favourite finds. For some unknown reason, the Soviet record label Melodiya decided to release a 4-track EP (7″, 33 rpm) containing seemingly random tracks from Paul and Linda McCartney’s 1971 “Ram” album. When I was “crate-digging” in a Tallinn, Estonia used record store, I found this pressing from Riga (now in Latvia, but then part of the U.S.S.R.). While I can’t speak Russian, I know the sounds of the Cyrillic alphabet and was able to phonetically confirm that this was in fact a release from the former Beatle. I picked up some fascinating Soviet LPs there too…but I’ll keep the focus on 7″ records today, as they are easier to pick up while traveling.

A Czechoslovakian 7" single from Dean Reed, the "Red Elvis" — A Czechoslovakian 7″ single from Dean Reed, the “Red Elvis”

Speaking of the Soviet era, I picked up some fascinating 45s in Prague last September. Some were just Czechoslovakian pressings of hits by Western artists but the Dean Reed 45 pictured above was something I would never find in Canada.

Dean Reed went nowhere in the U.S.A. as a singer and traveled the world in search of fame and revolution. He ended up based in East Germany, where he was proudly paraded by the authorities as a genuine American rock star and revolutionary. He did, in fact, enjoy immense popularity in the Eastern Bloc…at least for a while. His ersatz-Elvis recordings sound rather hokey now but there wasn’t much else available. Alas, he drowned under mysterious circumstances outside of East Berlin in the mid-1980s. If you’re interested in his bizarre story, there is a book (“Comrade Rockstar”, by Reggie Nadelson) about Reed and it has long been rumoured that Tom Hanks would make a movie about this forgotten musician.

Karel Gott's "Beatles" single — Karel Gott’s “Beatles” single

Karel Gott also found success in the Eastern Bloc during the 1970s but, unlike Dean Reed, still enjoys some popularity today. Like many people who lived during that difficult time, he made certain compromises in order to preserve his career in a totalitarian state. The above single does not feature the Beatles, but the A-side is a Czech-language tribute to the Fab Four (although it sounds nothing like them). I found this single in the same grim record store that yielded the Dean Reed record. Both were very cheap: I suspect it is because they come from a time that many people would like to forget.

Johnny Clegg's 1987 "Asimbonanga" single was not attracting attention in Helsinki — Johnny Clegg’s 1987 “Asimbonanga” single was not attracting attention in Helsinki

Johnny Clegg is one of my favourite musicians. Best known in North America for contributing “Scatterlings of Africa” to the Rain Man soundtrack, he bravely led racially-integrated bands during the Apartheid era in South Africa and continues to release genre-crossing and thought-provoking records today. I wrote about Johnny last year in this post. Alas, it doesn’t appear that he is very popular in Finland: I found the above French pressing of his “Asimbonanga” single in the bargain bin of a Helsinki record store.

Reality is stranger than fiction: the Rutles "I Must Be In Love" single — Reality is stranger than fiction: the Rutles “I Must Be In Love” single

I never imagined that the above single could exist. The Rutles were a Beatles parody band created by some Monty Python alumni and eventually were the subject of the brilliant rockumentary “All You Need is Cash”. The soundtrack is also outstanding and highly recommended for Beatles fans. The parody was so well-received in England that I found this single in a London record shop last November. It was an unexpected souvenir of the same trip that took me to Abbey Road and various other Beatles landmarks.

Coming up next week: I’m on the road again! Using some accumulated Air Miles, I’m visiting a place that I somehow overlooked during my year of extended travel. Stay tuned for the big reveal!

Posts from Base Camp

Who Reads This Blog?

April 13, 2015 pierrev 1 Comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Have you ever wondered who else reads this blog? While the blog software doesn’t tell me who specifically is reading the blog, it does tell me in which countries the blog’s readers are located. So don’t worry – I don’t know who you are…unless you post something!

Incredibly, there have been visitors from 97 countries so far! Many of these countries have very few views (it would not be reasonable to expect thousands of hits from Vatican City or Réunion) but the numbers are significant for the first 30 or 40 countries. It should come as no surprise that, by far, the most readers are in Canada.

The Matterhorn, as seen from a small alpine village in the Gornergrat/Sunnegga area — The Matterhorn, as seen from the small alpine hamlet of Findeln in the Sunnegga area

It also probably isn’t surprising that the U.S.A. and the U.K. occupy the second and third positions. Rounding out the all-time Top 20 are Brazil, Germany, Croatia, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Switzerland, France, Italy, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Czech Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Sweden, Peru, Ireland, Poland and Australia.

The rankings definitely change over time. Croatia really spiked during my visit there last spring but has been falling ever since. For 2015, I’ve noticed increases in France, Australia, Thailand and Russia…but decreases in the U.K., Costa Rica and the Czech Republic.

My friends will do anything to take the perfect photo of the Matterhorn — My friends will try any angle to take the perfect photo of the Matterhorn

Most notable, however, is where there are *no* hits at all. Given its large population, it is interesting that not a single person from China has visited my site (other than people in the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, which are tracked separately)…yet I have numerous hits from nearby Vietnam, Taiwan, Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Despite significant numbers across Northern Europe, I also haven’t connected with Latvia yet.

The other side of the Matterhorn (as seen from Italy)

One does have to be careful with interpreting the data. There is an apparently benign but also persistent automated “webcrawler” based in Brazil that is, I believe, exaggerating the numbers in that country.

I can also get information on which “searches” have led to visits to my site. The most popular search that does not include my name has been “London Oxford Street”. But multiple views have also resulted from “Megadisco Machu Picchu”, “schöne bilder von Paul Young 2014”, “van der ley cheese Groningen” and “place d’erlon Reims night”.

Arrival at the Valtournenche ski area above Breuil-Cervinia, Italy (just after crossing over from Zermatt, Switzerland) — Arrival at the Cime Bianche ski area above Valtournenche, Italy (just after crossing over from Zermatt, Switzerland)

There are also many searches that resulted in a solitary visit. Some of my favourites include “abandoned wood bobsled”, “context of the movie Invictus South Africa in 1992-1995”, “gray research sound effects console”, “Inus Mor and rabbits sea lions”, “Budapest hockey and soccer teams jerseys”, and “casado con carne en salsa” (as well as plain old “casado con carne”). If I ever start up another band, I am going to seriously consider calling it “Abandoned Wood Bobsled”. I am really curious about the story behind that search but it will probably remain a mystery forever.

Another view of the Italian side of the Matterhorn (with lots of tiny skiers below)

Today’s photos are from my 2011 visit to Zermatt. I don’t think it would make a lot of sense to do a separate travel flashback for my second visit there…but I did want to share some of these pictures. If you like them, take a look at my previous post for more words and pictures about skiing in the shadow of the Matterhorn.

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Skiing the Matterhorn 2010

April 11, 2015 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

The Matterhorn isn’t like all the other mountains. I had heard that the Matterhorn was special but I didn’t truly appreciate it until I saw the Matterhorn on a cloudless day. This is what the picture above shows – it was taken from above the village of Zermatt and shows just how distinctive the Matterhorn really is.

Straddling the border between Italy and Switzerland, the Matterhorn rises to an elevation of 4,478 meters (14,692 feet). This is very, very high but it is all the more remarkable because none of the neighbouring peaks are anywhere close to that elevation.

This picture was taken just after we skied the closest piste to the Matterhorn. One feels very small when skiing there!

Wherever you go in the village of Zermatt, or wherever you ski in the Sunnegga-Gornergrat-Klein Matterhorn ski region, you constantly find yourself looking up at the Matterhorn. Of all the mountains I’ve seen up close, only Grindelwald’s Eiger (with its sheer rock face of nearly 2 uninterrupted vertical kilometers!) comes remotely close to having such a magnetic effect. I think we all took at least 100 photos of just this one mountain.

It's very cold and desolate as you near the top of the Klein Matterhorn ski area (and the Italian border) — It’s very cold and desolate as you near the top of the Klein Matterhorn ski area (and the Italian border)

Even without the Matterhorn, however, skiing in Zermatt is quite spectacular. The pistes on the Swiss side are extensive and there is an impressive vertical drop of about 2,200 meters (about 7,218 feet). From top to bottom, it can be a 20 km ride! There isn’t much in the way of easy terrain here and it has a reputation of being a real skiers’ resort. But even if you can manage the terrain, you still have to conquer the altitude: the top of the Klein Matterhorn area is a (literally) breathtaking 3,883 meters (12,736 feet) above sea level.

At the top of Klein Matterhorn, just before altitude sickness kicked in!

I was OK with the altitude when I just skied down from the top of the Klein Matterhorn. This is glacial skiing and you don’t have to work too hard. However, on another occasion, we climbed up to the top of a viewing platform for an even higher view. This extra exertion left me feeling listless for the rest of the day: I suspect that I had a minor case of altitude sickness…something I’ve never before had while skiing.

The "Hennu Stall"...we stopped here for not quite apres-ski apres-ski on our way down to Zermatt — The “Hennu Stall”…we stopped here for “après-ski” shortly before finishing our descent to Zermatt

There is another reward for going to the top of Klein Matterhorn: Italy! Yes, the Italian resort of Cervinia is connected at this high alpine saddle and it is possible to ski on the Italian slopes if you bought the “all areas” ski pass in Zermatt. The slopes on the Italian side are sunnier and easier…and the food is a nice change too! The resort of Cervinia has some architectural missteps, to be fair, but it was really fun to end up in another country for a few hours.

Skiing above the clouds! View from the top of Klein Matterhorn — Skiing above the clouds! Looking towards Italy from the top of Klein Matterhorn

The only problem with crossing over to Italy is that you really need to time your return properly. If you don’t make it back to the Klein Matterhorn by the time the upper Italian lifts close, you are stuck on the Italian side. It is a very expensive (hundreds of dollars) taxi ride back to Zermatt, as there is no direct road connection between the two resorts. Somebody said that it would take “a few hours” by road.

One of the creatures we encountered while skiing down to Zermatt

For an intense week of skiing in the Alps, I would certainly put Zermatt at the top of my list. Grindelwald/Wengen/Schilthorn would be close but the presence of other tourist activities (such as the Jungfraujoch cog railway) dilutes the ski atmosphere just a little bit…so it might be a good choice if you have non-skiers in your travel group. Like most Swiss resorts, Zermatt is not cheap but it is possible to find deals if you don’t insist on a private bathroom. After all, you’re there for the skiing! We liked skiing in Zermatt so much that we went back in 2011.

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