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Posts from Base Camp

Flashback to Argentina

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

The 2022 World Cup ended last week, with Argentina winning the final over France. While I have mixed feelings about the tournament, the final match was highly entertaining.

The Arc de Triomphe, overlooking l’avenue des Champs-Élysées, after France won the 2018 World Cup

As I was in Paris in 2018 when France won the previous World Cup, I thought it might be nice to take a look back at our 2016 trip to Argentina.

We finally made it to the Argentinian border!

Argentina is a huge country, so our brief visit barely scratched the surface. And we were there in the middle of the Argentinian winter, which meant snow around Bariloche and lots of cool temperatures and fog in Buenos Aires. We did not get the feeling that this was high season for tourism. But we nearly didn’t get there at all!

A winter rose in front of the customs office in Puerto Frias, Argentina

We were travelling with a small group, and approached the Argentinian border on a complicated bus & boat route through the Chilean Andes. Alas, due to a missing bar code for my wife’s visa, we were left behind at a remote hotel while the rest of the group crossed the border without incident. We didn’t get clearance to proceed until the next day, and even that was a near-miracle.

View of Puerto Blest, Chile, from across the lake

Anyway, despite all that, we really enjoyed the lakes and mountains around the Argentina-Chile border. And with the benefit of six intervening years (not to mention a worldwide pandemic), even the border hassle doesn’t seem that bad now.

San Telmo by night, just outside the tango venue

We spent most of our Argentina time in the capital, Buenos Aires. My lasting impression is how European it looked: the buildings looked very Parisian, and there was an Italian vibe everywhere. I guess this shouldn’t be surprising: many Argentinians (including current soccer hero Lionel Messi) have Italian ancestry.

Teatro Colón, in the heart of Buenos Aires

We saw a lot of the major sights: Recoleta Cemetery, the Eva Peron (“Evita”) Museum, the San Telmo Market, the Teatro Colón…and even went to a spectacular tango show.

View from “our” box at the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

We stayed in Buenos Aires for a few extra days after our group dispersed. We also covered a lot of terrain on foot, and enjoyed a number of unexpected surprises. For example, we really enjoyed a billiards cafe, which is not something we would seek out (or find) here in Canada. We found an outstanding bookstore that used to be an opulent theatre. And we found a great local restaurant that did *not* specialize in obscene amounts of grilled meat.

Locro at La Cumana (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Despite our jam-packed itinerary, there are still a few things that we weren’t able to do. We didn’t make it to a soccer game, as it was out of season. This was unfortunate, as going to soccer games is often a part of our international travels. I still haven’t been to one in Latin America.

The German Shepherd “sat” on the bench with his owner for at least 15 minutes (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

And we didn’t make it to Uruguay. We had hoped to make a day trip to Colonia del Sacramento, a historic Uruguayan city that was only about an hour away by boat. But our potential travel day was very rainy and cold, and we thought it might be better to focus on urban (and indoor) things that day.

Inside Los 36 Billares, a billiards cafe in Buenos Aires

But that’s one of the cardinal rules of travel: don’t try to do everything in one trip. Assume you will return one day, and you’ll already have a head start on that future itinerary.

1st floor of El Ateneo bookshop on Avenida Santa Fe, Buenos Aires

Speaking of future itineraries…I have been thinking about this a lot lately. It’s complicated, there are many competing considerations. But what would I do if I suddenly had an open calendar and no restrictions? Stay tuned for lots of interesting content as we move into 2023!

Posts from Base Camp

Changes in my ancestral DNA

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Six months ago, I published a post about the surprising results of my ancestral DNA test. You can find it by clicking here. At that time, I expressed surprise about my significant Swedish/Danish ancestry and the lesser but still unexpected Norwegian ancestry. Although those two regions only accounted for 8% of me, it was much more Scandinavia than I was expecting. But the remaining 92% was also a surprise. I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be far more “Northwestern Europe/England” than “Germanic Europe”.

View from the Christiansborg (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Well, DNA knowledge and technology changes quickly. A mere month after posting those results, I learned that there had been substantial changes. My DNA hadn’t changed, but there had been refinements in assigning regional ancestry in several parts of Europe. As a result, I learned that my original results were no longer accurate. Just when I was getting used to my distant past, I had to deal with another new reality!

Tivoli Gardens (Copenhagen, Denmark)

So while I likely still have some Norwegian DNA kicking around, it is now too small to be significant. However, my Swedish/Danish ancestry has remained at the same level. To acknowledge that, I have illustrated this post with images from my 2016 trip to Denmark. I felt at home there too…so maybe those are my true Scandinavian roots?

You can’t have too many pictures of Nyhavn in Copenhagen!

As for the even larger (now around 94%) remainder of my ancestry, the majority of it is now in fact Germanic Europe. A slightly smaller, but still significant, portion is traceable to “Northwest Europe and England”.

The Wish Tree Garden on Papirøen, Copenhagen (my collaboration with Yoko Ono)

As some other friends and family members have tried this testing too, I have also learned just how random this DNA business can be. Even siblings can have significantly different outcomes. You almost certainly won’t get the same 50% from each parent that your brother or sister did. And of course 50% is lost with each generation.

The Fish Kiss Spa in downtown Copenhagen

What now? I will certainly be checking in from time to time, to see if my results have been refined further. I now know there are some other regions in my family’s past, and I’m curious to see if they will appear for me too.

Posts from the road

Trip to Vancouver…for sport!

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(Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

I certainly hadn’t planned to visit Vancouver in late October. However, that is precisely where we found ourselves for an extended, and exhausting, 8-day visit.

Our AirBnB, just off Main Street

Around the time that I wrote my previous blog post, my wife and I entered the Provincial Indoor Singles lawn bowling playdowns. To our mutual surprise and delight, we both ended up qualifying to represent Ontario at the National Indoor Singles championship. It was being held at the Pacific Indoor Bowls Club in Vancouver, B.C., so that’s where we found ourselves just 4 weeks later!

Entrance to the Pacific Indoor Bowls Club (Vancouver, B.C.)

The Pacific IBC is located in the Little Mountain neighbourhood. There weren’t any hotels around, so we decided to take a leap of faith and book an AirBnB for the very first time. We found a choice property that was only a 15-minute walk from the club, which took a lot of stress out of getting to/from the competition every day. And we had an entire floor to ourselves, so we had plenty of space to recover from the long days of competition. For a longer stay like this one, it was much better than being cooped up in a hotel room.

Nat Bailey Stadium – home of baseball’s Vancouver Canadians, and right beside the Pacific Indoor Bowls Club

The club was located in a nice recreational cluster. There was a baseball stadium next door, as well as a huge swimming/skating complex. This being the mildest part of Canada, soccer was still being played outdoors too (despite all the rain). My favourite part, however, was the stretch of Main Street near our accommodations.

Sawasdee Thai Restaurant – on Main Street, just around the corner from our accommodations

The Sawasdee Thai Restaurant had superb Tom Kha Gai soup, and was just one of a collection of appealing restaurants within two minutes of “our” place. Other good dining experiences included some very rich Indian cuisine and a restaurant featuring various “Silk Road” cuisines (from Persian to Tibetan). As regular readers of this blog will know, I automatically increase a neighbourhood’s rating when it has a strong independent record store. In this case, that store was Red Cat Records (see photo at the very top of this post).

Kingston Lawn Bowling Club had two competitors at the Nationals!

The competition itself was pretty intense, as it should be at a national event. There are many reasons for this but, in a nutshell, the indoor game is much more challenging for those of us who usually play outdoors. However, our play (and results) improved through the week. We were both quite happy with how we played over the last couple of days, and we hope to compete at this level again soon!

In action for Ontario (vs. Saskatchewan) on the tricky Rink 1 in the men’s competition

As we might start practicing as early as 7:30 a.m. each day, and games continued past 6:00 p.m., we didn’t have much left in the tank at the end of the day. The circumstances forced us to eat, shop, and entertain ourselves in Little Mountain. But this had its upside: we developed some familiarity with our favourite stores, and began to feel at home in our little corner of Vancouver.

Overhead view of Rink 1 – first end of an Ontario-B.C. matchup in the women’s competition

Bottom line: with appropriate research, an AirBnB can be a superb replacement for poorly sited hotels…especially in a city with high prices and with the price of hotels spiraling ever upward. Just like I thought I’d never go on a group tour, I thought I’d never use this kind of accommodation. But it definitely has its place, and I wouldn’t hesitate to go this route again.

Posts from the road

My lawn bowling journey

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(Burlington, Ontario, Canada)

In my last post, I promised that I would explain some of the posting delays on the blog lately. With the easing of the pandemic (or at least the associated restrictions), it would have been reasonable to expect some international travel this summer. After all, this is a travel blog, and international travel has only recently become somewhat accessible again. However, life sometimes takes some unexpected turns. While I still took some vacation days this summer, their purpose was altogether different. Here’s what happened…

Lining up for the bowl and shoe inspection at the National championships in Burlington

During the pandemic, I trained extensively in the sport of lawn bowling. I started lawn bowling in 2017 as a way to bridge the gap between curling seasons. As it turned out, lawn bowling seemed to suit me better than curling. And, as an outdoor and well-spaced activity, it wasn’t hampered by the pandemic as much as my other sports. In late 2019, I was lucky to find some people who were on the same wavelength, so I decided to get much more serious about the game and try to get to the next level.

Opening Ceremonies: the umpires are at the front, with the various provincial teams behind.

My wife devoted countless hours, with a clipboard and tape-measure, to tracking my progress. My coach Blaine provided long-distance advice and support. My pairs partner Bill was equally committed and was always available to discuss strategy, exchange ideas, and try to speed up the learning curve. I threw thousands upon thousands of bowls. I did the analytics and watched the tapes. I was active every single day, in some form, regardless of the weather. Finally, in 2022, I had a real opportunity to put all of the preparation to good use.


Discussing strategy in our game against British Columbia “A”

It happened fast…if you can call 10 matches over 3 days fast! Despite a massive Men’s Pairs Ontario Championship in Agincourt with 31 very strong teams, and with only two Ontario teams qualifying for the subsequent National Championship, Bill and I somehow managed to make it. Sure, we had put in the preparation time. But so did a lot of other teams. It was still a huge surprise that we qualified.

Delivering a bowl against Nova Scotia

Looking back to that event, I remember thinking that it was like being a kid again…when there was always the potential of something special happening. Except now I could fully appreciate the enormity of it.

Instructing Bill against Alberta “A”

If you know anything about my competitive nature, you can imagine that this really took up a lot of my spare time in 2022. And before I knew it, we were wearing our sparkly new Team Ontario shirts and delivering practice bowls at the Nationals in Burlington, Ontario.

Team Ontario (players, coaches, and support).

There were ups and downs at the Nationals. We beat some great teams, and really struggled against others. We didn’t make it to the medal round. But as soon as it was over, we were already talking about trying to qualify again.

Trial bowls against Alberta “A”

I have mostly kept lawn bowling out of this blog. It’s certainly a misunderstood sport. And despite over 100 clubs in Ontario alone, it is still seen as a niche or fringe sport. But now I see that it really is a journey…with a lot of the characteristics that I enjoy about travel. The planning (both strategic and logistical) is something I love to do for regular travel too. My desire for special experiences, rather than just passively observing things, is something I also endorse in regular travel. Pushing myself out of my comfort zone, against very strong competition, is in some ways just like travelling to a country very different from my own…and just as rewarding when it works out. (We did put thousands of kilometers on our car this summer, so there was quite a bit of “traditional” travel too.)

Panorama view of the Burlington Lawn Bowling Club

As in any great trip, there were bumps along the way. I just couldn’t figure out Rink 16 in Burlington. In another game, a badly-timed weather delay probably turned a win into a loss. But sometimes, the objectively disastrous parts of a trip are the most memorable and provide the most opportunities for growth. The learning curve continues, full speed ahead.

(Right:) Calling a shot against British Columbia “A”

So that’s where I’m at. Whatever happens next on this journey, I’m going to continue to push myself and seek out new experiences…whether it is in the context of travel or sports.

Posts from the road

Return to Montreal – Part 2

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(Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

[Somewhat delayed continuation of our April 30-May 2 trip to Montreal – click here for the previous post]

We weren’t looking for a vegan restaurant, but that just happened to be the most interesting option in Hochelaga as Saturday morning gave way to afternoon. Not just vegan burgers, but also vegan bacon!

Lunch at Antidote Bouffe Végane, on Rue Ontario in Hochelaga (Montreal)

Of course, what trip to Montreal would be complete without a visit to the record shops in the Plateau neighbourhood? I do most of my record shopping locally in Kingston, but it’s always interesting to pop into a Montreal shop and see what’s available. And it seemed like the right thing to do, because we were going to a concert that night!

This historic church is on rue Ste-Catherine in the heart of downtown Montreal..it is also a concert venue called Le Balcon!

For our first concert since the pandemic, we attended a “Soul/Motown/Disco” event at Le Balcon. This is a unique concert venue in downtown Montreal…in a church! The female vocalist, Kim Richardson, was outstanding. I must admit that it felt a little strange being in an enclosed space for a concert again, but the Province of Quebec has been quite cautious about re-opening and most people seemed to be on their best behaviour. And the show must have been pretty good – I’ve been listening to a lot of Earth, Wind & Fire since then! The photo at the top of this blog post was taken outside the venue on rue Ste-Catherine, right after the concert ended.

Some of Montreal’s subway stations haven’t been renovated since the 1970s…

On Sunday morning, we continued one of our favourite Montreal pastimes: hopping on the bus or subway and exploring a more-or-less random neighbourhood. Unlike Toronto, Montreal still has a special transit pass that is valid from Friday evening (when we arrived) until early Monday morning. Because every trip after about the 4th is free, you don’t need to worry about making mistakes. Another train or bus will come along in a few minutes!

La Luncheonette (Saint-Henri)

We eventually found ourselves in the “transitioning” neighbourhood of Saint-Henri. We had a peaceful al fresco lunch at the appropriately-named La Luncheonette. I wasn’t necessarily trying to go meat-free this weekend, but the vegetarian chili with corn muffins looked delicious (and indeed it was). I don’t remember what exactly was in my smoothie, but it hit the spot too.

Vegetarian Chili with corn muffins at La Luncheonette

We had “timed-entry” tickets to a special museum later that afternoon, so we had a little bit of free time available. We decided to visit the Marché Atwater, which had a ton of fresh produce (see photo below) but also had a lot of highly specialized shops for cheese, vinegars, olives, etc. We couldn’t really take much with us, but once again it was nice to be in a “bustling” environment after a couple of largely bustle-free years.

Our last stop of the day was at the Musée des Ondes Emile Berliner in Saint-Henri. OK, the name may not mean much to you. But Emile Berliner built a massive gramophone factory here that was later absorbed into the RCA Victor organization. And on this very site, there is now a specialized museum dedicated to gramophones, phonographs, and other entertainment and communication technologies of the 20th century.

Of course, for a vinyl geek like me, this is really fascinating stuff. If you think vinyl turntables are bulky and fussy, look at these beasts! I enjoyed listening to some original shellac records – you really feel like you are listening to ghosts of the past.

But some of the technology goes further back than those brittle shellac discs. How about cylinders? Check out the Edison cylinder player below. A music cylinder is kind of like a flat vinyl record wrapped around a tube, and the stylus (needle) slowly makes its way around and across the cylinder. This technology goes back to 1896!

There were also some displays about radio and television, so I can recommend this to my former colleagues at CFRC-FM. It’s a very small, out-of-the-way place (there were only two other visitors while we were there), but it’s really cool if you have interests in both history and recorded music.

You may be wondering why it took more than 4 months to post this blog entry. Well, there have been some distractions this summer. And my next blog post will explain (almost) everything!

Posts from the road

Return to Montreal

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(Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

On April 30, we took our first real “vacation” together in more than 2 years. Yes, we had taken longer trips in 2021 for sports competitions, but this was travel purely for the sake of travel. And we even left the province of Ontario!

Restaurant Manana on rue St. Denis in Montreal

Masks were still required on the train, as they were in most indoor settings. We also had to provide proof of vaccination before boarding. But, even with our masks on, we found ourselves appreciating the change of scenery more than we expected. After so long in isolation, everything different seemed to have an additional “wow” factor. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to take the Metro in Montreal!

My main course at Restaurant Manana – pollo garnachero

I found a nifty little Mexican restaurant near our hostelry, and we were blown away by the colours even before we sat down. And the service at Restaurant Manana was just as vibrant as the surroundings. I also really appreciated the range of unusual hot sauces I could try with my meal.

Dessert at Restaurant Manana (already in progress)

Once again, we bought a weekend transit pass so that we could zoom around the city without any worries. The next morning, our first stop was the Botanical Gardens in the east end of Montreal. We haven’t spent any significant time in the east end before, but looked forward to some urban green space and what we presumed would be interesting non-touristic neighbourhoods.

We met this (wild) owl at the Montreal Botanical Gardens

The Botanical Gardens were huge. Maybe it wasn’t quite the same as New York City’s Central Park, but it was really interesting to see all of the different botanical regions in one very walkable place. Our favourite was probably the Alpine zone. At the edge was a very impressive (and very chilled-out) owl, who kindly let me and many other amateur photographers snap his picture.

More from the Montreal Botanical Gardens

My wife has pledged to return to the gardens at different times of the year, in order to fully appreciate all it has to offer. It is conveniently located right beside Montreal’s infamous Olympic Stadium (see photo at the very top of this post), which is legendary in Canada for its phenomenal cost overruns. It wasn’t paid off until 30 years after the Olympics ended, as it was over budget by nearly 2000%! Yes, 2000%!

Skateboarding beside Montreal’s Olympic Stadium

I attended my first ever professional baseball game here about 40 years ago, when Montreal still had a major league team (the Expos). I will never forget watching the game in that cavernous concrete beast of a building! Stories about pieces of the concrete roof falling onto the field were not completely fictitious. While the stadium is finally paid off now, most of the action these days is in the skateboard park beside the stadium.

“Boutique Hellvis”: one of many interesting things in Montreal’s Hochelaga district

From the Olympic Stadium, it was only a short walk to the Marché Maisonneuve and then the Hochelaga neighbourhood. Hochelaga definitely wasn’t touristy, and it was a little scruffy in places, but it had a lot of unique attractions for its residents. “Boutique Hellvis” certainly wasn’t the only one. Somehow, Montreal seems to have avoided the corporate creep that has anonymized so many North American cities. So many businesses were independently owned, and they really emphasized their local products. We ended up having lunch in a Hochelaga vegan restaurant…stay tuned for the details on that and our interesting evening out!

Posts from Base Camp

The DNA Test – Travel through time

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Today’s post is a little different, but still very much in the spirit of travel.

Although I had been thinking about it for a while, I finally got around to requesting an “Ancestry DNA” test this spring. And the results have now arrived.

Getting caught by the waves at the same beach where my father played as a child (‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands)

On the surface, the expectation was simple. With one Swiss parent and one Dutch parent, one would expect the results to be 50% from each country. But I also heard some other distant echoes from the past.

My ancestors lived in Maassluis, the Netherlands, many centuries ago

Over time, family stories become almost accepted as fact. And one of my family stories was that we had some Spanish ancestry, due to the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands in the 16th century. With respect to the Swiss side of my family, I wondered if there might be some Italian influence, given the fairly close proximity of Italy to my ancestral place of origin. And I also wondered what other interesting connections may have been forgotten in the mists of time.

A church in Lenk (Switzerland) – I wonder what important family events took place here?

I was pretty excited when the results finally arrived. When I clicked on the link, I discovered something very interesting. Switzerland and the Netherlands each belong to the same two broader groups: “Germanic Europe” and “England and Northwestern Europe”. And I had almost complete (92%) ancestry in those two regions.

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

I found the “England and Northwestern Europe” region interesting. Consisting mostly of England, Belgium, the southern Netherlands, Northeast France and Switzerland, I had never really considered that DNA from England would be connected to both of my countries of origin. This region even contributed more to me than the anticipated “Germanic Europe” region.

MÃ¥rten Trotzigs gränd – the narrowest street in Sweden (Stockholm)

And what about the other 8%? The stories and guesses were, in a word, wrong. No Italy. No Spain. As it turns out, most of my other ancestry was from Sweden/Denmark, with a smaller part from Norway. I had always been looking south, but it appears that I should have been looking north.

Terminus of the railway to Flam (Norway)

I know that these tests are not 100% accurate, and of course some ancestry is lost with each passing generation. But way back in 2012, I felt very comfortable in Stockholm (see photo at the very top of this post). I thought it was a place in which I could live. It makes you wonder why I had that feeling.

Posts from the road

More on Toronto, and looking ahead

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(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

It’s been 30 years since I lived in Toronto, so it is not surprising that much has changed. My old neighbourhood (Avenue Road, near Dupont Street) has become far more expensive and “intensified”, but those changes had been creeping north from Yorkville for many years.

View from my hotel room on Queen’s Quay in downtown Toronto (March 6, 2022)

I was more surprised by the extent of the redevelopment of the waterfront area. When I lived in Toronto, the lands south of Union Station did not really attract much attention (or many people). Now, however, it seems like entirely new neighbourhoods have sprung up and there is a sense of community that I never noticed before. I wouldn’t normally stay in that area but, thanks to an online deal, my hotel was cheaper than even the traditional “budget” hotels near the train station. And it had a meal credit tossed in as well.

The Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome), home of the Toronto Blue Jays

Maybe it was the bright sunshine, but everything seemed to be shiny and new. i doubt that many of the skyscrapers shown in the “cover photo” at the top of this post existed in the early 1990s. With so many people enjoying the weather and being on the waterfront, the energy I found on Kensington Market (see my previous post here) was also apparent in what used to be a nondescript part of the city. And on the first weekend of March, to boot!

Toronto Harbour

All of this made me decide to take advantage of some accumulated loyalty program points and make plans for another big city getaway. Having had a proper glimpse of downtown Toronto for the first time in a couple of years, it was time to visit Montreal!

My Toronto hotel, as seen from the harbour

We went to Montreal at the end of April (8 weeks after Toronto, but just before this post was published – it’s complicated). I’ll have a full report soon!

Posts from the road

Inspiring Stopover in Toronto

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(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

My flight from Calgary to Toronto arrived on Saturday evening, just a bit too late to catch the last train back to Kingston. I decided to stay in Toronto for the night, and then head back to Kingston on Sunday afternoon. This gave me just enough time to visit some old (and new!) haunts in Toronto.

“My Roti” from “My Roti Place” – March 5, 2022 (Toronto, Ontario)

My hotel was downtown on Queen’s Quay, so I assumed that I’d have no problem finding dinner even though it was well past 9:00 p.m. (It took 1 hour and 39 minutes for my luggage to show up on the airport carousel, so not all of the pandemic kinks have been worked out yet!) I started to get worried though: ever since the pandemic, a lot of restaurants stop serving by 9:00 or 9:30 p.m. My first two choices fell into this category. I finally decided to take a chance on something called “My Roti Place”.

My Roti Place (Cameron Street at Queen Street West) – March 6, 2022

This ended up being one of those happy accidents that makes travel so enjoyable. The roti (almost like a rectangular soft tortilla) had an absolutely delicious filling. My filling was Paneer (an Indian cheese) in a curry called “Awesome Tangra Hakka Chilly”, but you could design your own with one of four levels of spiciness. I opted for “medium” (the others are “mild”, “serious” and “stupid”) and it was perfect for me. This wasn’t elegant cuisine by any means, but it “gave me a sense of enormous well-being” (to quote Blur, from their mid-1990s hit Parklife). And just like that, I have another “go-to” place in downtown Toronto.

I did have to check out this venerable record shop (Kops) on Queen Street West

The next day, the temperature eventually rose to an unseasonably warm 16’C. Far too hot for March 6 in Canada, perhaps, but perfect for a wander from Queen’s Quay to Kensington Market. I found some vinyl rarities at Kops on Queen Street West, a store that was around even when I lived in Toronto in the early 1990s. They have an outstanding selection (as in thousands and thousands) of high-quality 45s: you’ll have no trouble finding the song you’re looking for.

On such a warm day, a visit to Dolce Gelato in Kensington Market was almost mandatory

The vibe in Kensington Market was spectacular. I don’t think I’ve seen such a vital streetscape since the pandemic began. The Market can be pretty ramshackle in places, but it remains very low-rise and has largely avoided the creeping corporatization that has hit other parts of downtown Toronto (including parts of Queen Street West). While there’s been a bit of a shift from markets to restaurants, it’s still a great place to go when you are hungry (or plan to be soon).

And when I’m in the Kensington Market, a visit to Jumbo Empanadas is never a bad idea

I had a huge breakfast at the hotel, and wasn’t ready to face a delicious but weighty “pastel de choclo” at Jumbo Empanadas, a place (and delicious specialty) I’ve written about before. But the warm weather made some homemade gelato at Dolce a most satisfactory fall-back option. They have a lot of authentic Italian flavours, and it was wonderful to have some of their gelato again after a pause of several years. I really miss having gelato in Italy, and look forward to doing that again someday.

The “Hungary-Thai” Bar & Eatery in Kensington Market

I’ve written about eating Hungarian food in Toronto before but, oddly enough, it has always been at Hungarian restaurants. But as you can see, Kensington Market now has a “Hungary-Thai” restaurant that features cuisine from both Hungary and Thailand. I still wasn’t hungry enough to justify a visit this time, but I’m glad to see that Kensington Market continues to attract and support unique places like this.

This sunny and vibrant afternoon made me crave more of the energy that you can find in great city neighbourhoods. I’ve already made plans for another city visit…I’ll have some more Toronto photos (and some hints about where I’m going next) in this space soon!

Posts from the road

Last days of skiing in the Banff area

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(Canmore, Alberta, Canada)

For the fourth day of skiing, we went a little further afield to the Lake Louise ski area. I went skiing there in 2019, and was looking forward to revisiting the “Traumpiste” that we found in the area’s back bowls.

My only picture from Lake Louise. And the longest lineup we had for the entire week.

Once again, we had a very intense day of skiing. We were quite tired at the end of it. This was partly due to the amount of skiing we did, but also the conditions. There was a blizzard, so we really had to focus on what we were doing (and keep our knees bent just in case we hit some unexpected bumps).

Richard pauses halfway through some off-piste glade skiing on Goat’s Eye Mountain (Sunshine Village)

I am pleased to report that the Lake Louise resort renamed the “Brown Shirt” piste that I found troubling in 2019. It was such a shame that this great piste had such a dismal name. It is now called “Brown Cow”. Alas, the poor visibility meant that skiing this steep, unmarked and ungroomed piste was somewhat less than ideal. We didn’t return for a second try, despite knowing that all the fresh snow would create amazing conditions once the visibility improved.

And this is where we just skied to get to that spot. Lots of deep snow!

Our favourite itinerary for the day turned out to be a couple of black-rated pistes (#59 and #12) close to the main gondola. The visibility was OK and there wasn’t much traffic on these steep and snowy pistes. Without blizzard conditions, I can see how these could get icy and unpleasant very quickly.

Deep woods right beside the lower part of the Goat’s Eye Mountain chairlift

The drive home was an adventure, as the roads hadn’t been properly cleared. I was glad that we were in a heavy 4WD vehicle,

View of Goat’s Eye Mountain, from Mt. Standish (Sunshine Village). Glade skiing location on far right, just above the denser woods and marked trails.

We intended to return to Lake Louise for the final day of skiing. However, the roads were still dodgy once we approached Banff that morning. Even worse, traffic was getting backed up because of the sheer number of people who wanted to go skiing at Lake Louise (no doubt because of the previous day’s blizzard). We made a quick decision to turn off Highway 1 at Sunshine Village and ski there instead.

“The Great Divide”, as seen from Mount Standish (Sunshine Village)

This turned out to be a great decision. While the skies were once again overcast, Goat’s Eye Mountain was relatively untouched for the entire morning. I can’t say how much mileage we achieved, but it was a lot. And the conditions were really good despite the gray skies. We even managed a bit of glade skiing in the trees (see photos above).

One of Canmore’s many wild rabbits

While the afternoon didn’t quite live up to the morning, I was still pleasantly exhausted at the end of the day. The TP Town lift still had good soul and reggae music, and the heated seats were most welcome as the temperatures dipped to around -8’C.

Looking the opposite way (from the top photo) on “my” street in Canmore, Alberta

I left Alberta the next morning, and of course the sun shone brilliantly in response. But I was still very happy with how the skiing turned out. It’s great to rediscover something that at one time seemed lost forever.

Downtown Calgary in the distance, as seen from the departures area of Calgary’s airport

But that’s not the end of the trip! Stay tuned for the details of a brief but very enjoyable stopover on my way back home!