Art Battle

Rob wrote:

In her usual fearless way, Judy decided to sign up for an Art Battle at the Great Hall in Toronto last evening, something she's never done before. It goes like this: 2 rounds of 8 painters on a stage with 20 minutes to paint. Crowds (about 200 people) watch the proceedings and vote after each round. The 2 with the most votes after each round go to a final round of 4 painters. All the art is auctioned online and sold before the evening is over.
It goes like this: 2 rounds of 8 painters on a stage with 20 minutes to paint. Crowds (about 200 people) watch the proceedings and vote after each round. The 2 with the most votes after each round go to a final round of 4 painters. All the art is auctioned online and sold before the evening is over.
Judith made the final, but was edged out by a friend. It's more about the fun of it all and challenging oneself to paint something reasonable in a very short timeframe. A lot of great artists participate and it's truly amazing to see what they create.

Round 1

Final Round

Cataract Surgery

Pre-OP

Post-OP

Denise and I are indebted to Ernie (Denise) and Dave (Jock) for taking us to the hospital, waiting through the pre-operation procedures, and aiding leaving the hospital and into our home.

Cataract surgery is a minor operation, but Denise and I are recovering very slowly, presumably due to our advanced age. Denise was operated on Oct 19 and I on Oct 25.

Four Mile Lake Construction Started

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Happy Birthday Dave!

Family Hike

Birthday on Thanksgiving Day

Pat and Judy have the same taste in birthday cards.

Happy Birthday Julie!

Part 4 London

We had fine weather at Skagen and the sea was calm. While sailing to Southampton we encountered quite a few other ships on the water but as we entered the North Sea on our way to Southampton, the sea became quite crowded with both ships and oil platforms. Also, as we came closer to England, the weather became cloudy and rain welcomed us to Southampton.

Clearing Customs was easy as we were able to do that the day before at sea as the British Authorities boarded the ship while in Danish waters. Our driver was there at the Southampton Terminal waiting to drive us to our London hotel. The drive took all of three hours as the roads at the port were clogged with large trucks transporting freight (from this busy port) to various parts of England. Once we made it to main highway called "M3", we just sailed along at speeds up to 100 miles per hour. The Brits use Imperial measure for distance and speed but use Celsius (Metric) for temperature. 

Our hotel, the Apex Temple Court Hotel (a four-star hotel) couldn't be better located for walking distance. It was located near where Strand changes to Fleet Street. The hotel was a four-sided building seven stories high and built around a courtyard. Everything was ultra modern with marble floors and counters in the reception room, bar, dining room  as well as the bathrooms in the suites. It was very comfortable after our small cabin on the ship.

                    

Our first day (afternoon) we just explored a bit, by walking up Fleet

Canada House

Street to Trafalgar Square. The pigeons were not as plentiful as the last time I visited the Square due to the fact that the authorities started to use hawks to control the pigeon population. The usual large crowds were there taking camera shots at the various statues and monuments. Canada House was visited but there was no admittance that day. Afterwards we looked for a good Pub where we could have a light lunch and a beer. It was a crummy Pub at the best. Afterward we searched for a decent place to have dinner and we were not that lucky either. Again the place was crummy. It was the worst meal we ever had. I made a mistake and pointed out the wrong item on the menu. I sometimes do these dumb things. My travel companion was not pleased. To make up for my faux-pas, I treated her and myself to two fine glasses of French wine at our hotel before turning-in.                                                                 

The second day (full day in London), we bought passes for a Hop-on Hop-off bus to tour London. We caught the bus at St Paul's Cathedral and proceeded towards Tower Bridge and London Tower. At London Tower, we boarded a Thames River boat and traveled upstream passing the HMS Belfast, a World War II cruiser anchored in the middle of the Thames which is now a floating museum. Our boat ride ended at Westminster Pier near Westminster Bridge. From there we walked up the Mall to Buckingham Palace.    

HMS Belfast

As Changing-of-the Guard takes place only  on Monday, Tuesday and Friday at 11'oclock in the morning, we wanted to make sure we knew our way to the palace for the Changing-of-the-Guard the following day as that would be our only chance to see this spectacle.

Now it was time for lunch and we lucked in at a very fine restaurant near the palace. In fact, at this restaurant, a photographer was taking pictures of various dishes that were offered at the place just a few seats from us for their menu. We watched as she took various shots and when she finished taking shots of two lovely desserts the head waiter offered these to us gratis. We did not refuse. The desserts were very sumptuous. 

After our late lunch we walked up Buckingham Palace Road for a bit and then boarded another Hop-on Hop-off bus that took us all around the city. It happened to be the wrong bus as we should have waited for the "Red Route" bus instead I chose the "Blue Route". We were on that bus for two hours before we got to the our right destination. (Again my travel companion was not too pleased with me for making such a boner.)

That evening we took in the show "Lion King" at the Lyceum Theatre. It was quite a production. I would not rate the show equal to Andrew Lloyd Weber 's "Cats" as Cats had beautiful music. The costumes in the Lion King were very original and took a lot of imagination.  

The following day was good and bad. First of all, we caught a bus at the front of St Paul's Cathedral and for the next twenty-five minutes we traveled the distance of 200 metres to the back of St Paul's because of the heavy traffic that caused a traffic jam. We could see that we would miss the Changing-of-the-Guard if we stayed on the bus, so we got off and proceeded to walk to the palace at distance of 2.5 kilometres. We did arrive at the Palace in time enough to see the Guard's Band with their mascot dog and a Troop of the Guard march to the Palace grounds. Had we walked there in the first place instead of wasting time on the bus, we would have arrived at the Palace earlier and had a better place at the Palace fence to view the Changing-of-the-Guard. 

Westminster Abbey

Afterward we walked down Birdcage Walk adjacent to St James's Park to Whitehall and Westminster. We passed by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament but didn't go into any of the buildings. We did  take some pictures though. As we walked further, passing Trafalgar Square, we found a great restaurant Caffe Concerto an Italian restaurant. The décor, food and service were great. It was the best place we had encountered in the three days spent in London.

Big Ben

Regarding the heavy traffic problem in London, the authorities tried to eliminate the congestion by charging a fee for vehicles to enter the city. It probably helped somewhat, but the congestion still exists. I for one, would change some of the main thoroughfares to one-way streets. It seems to me that having two lanes of heavy traffic traveling in opposite directions on the same roadway slows traffic down especially when both lanes on either side can make a turn out or receive a turn in.  For instance, Whitehall, Strand, Fleet Street, Ludgate Hill, and Cannon (all one street but with five names) from Westminster to the Tower Bridge could be in the west east direction and Victoria Embankment, Upper Thames and Lower Thames Street (all one street) could be made a one-way in the other direction. This would give four lanes of traffic all traveling in the same direction and when there is a "turn in or turn out"  it only affects the outside lanes leaving the other two lanes free to keep going like an expressway. London has to do something as it is very costly having traffic jams as in the present case.    

Because of the heavy traffic which as mentioned comes to a halt often, many people in London jaywalk sometimes with dire results. While walking to our hotel after viewing the changing of the guard, we witnessed one individual lying in the street with medics attending to him as he was hit by a fast moving motorcycle. From the looks of things, I don't think he survived.  

 After all that walking, we were pretty well played out when we got to our hotel. That evening we dined at our hotel and turned in early as we had to get up a 4:45 am to travel to Heathrow Airport to make our flight to Vancouver and then to Victoria. We were tired on arriving home and hungry. The food on Air Canada for an international flight, I would be ashamed to serve it to a anyone. My next trip will be on a different airline.

                                                               Finis

David L McKay

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Vacation in Italy

Village of Orvieto with it's narrow streets
 and gothic Duomo cathedral built in 1290.

Vatican

Rialto Bridge in Venice.

Town of Assisi, Umbria
Birthplace of St. Francis.

Positano on the Amalfi Coast

Mont-Tremblant

Part 3 Tallinn, Warnemunde, Copenhagen & Skagen

Tallinn, Estonia

Our ship made a very short stop in Tallinn Estonia where we took a shuttle bus to the Old Town. That part was built on a high rise of land and was at one time surrounded by a wall for protection. The streets of the Old Town are paved with Cobblestones which made it  difficult to walk on especially for ladies wearing high-heeled shoes.

                           
Tallinn founded in 1154, is the capital of Estonia. The Old Town has not changed in the past 600 years; however, the main part of town is thoroughly modern. Tallinn has become a very important trading centre in the Baltic. Much of Estonia's history and development has been a result of occupation, first by Demark (1219-1346) who developed the streets of Tallinn, then by Sweden (1561-1710) who advanced its trade and next by Russia (1710-1918) influencing its architecture. It became an independent democracy in 1918. World War II saw the country occupied by Germany and later at war's end it was part of Russia until the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Some of the attractions are the Kadriorg Palace built by Peter the Great in 1718,Toompea Castle built in1773 which houses the parliament, Alexander Nevski Cathedral with onion domes built in 1773, Niguliste Church (St Nicholas Church) built in 1230 honouring the patron saint of seaman.

When talking to our shuttle bus driver, I asked if the Estonian language was similar to that of Finnish. He said it may sound like Finnish but "No" is a distinct language. He said some words in Estonian are spelt the same way but mean something different. For example, the word "poulin" (like chicken in French) means "marriage" in Estonian, but in Finn it means "trouble".


Warnemunde, Germany

After a full day at sea where one could rest, our next port-o'-call was Warnemunde, Germany. This is a small town of about 15,000 souls but is minutes away from a larger centre like Rostock with a population of 200,000. Both Rostock and Warnemunde are considered one of the country's main shipping centers. The sandy beaches of Warnemunde stretching two miles in length are the largest on the German Baltic Coast and are a popular tourist destination.

Warnemunde is the jumping off place for cruise passengers to travel to Berlin. The trip to Berlin is three hours both ways. To say the least, we were not up to rushing off there and getting back to the ship in the short time that we were docked in Warnemunde. Some folks took a train to Rostock instead of bussing it to Berlin and back. I wish we had done that too. Instead we walked around the downtown area of the little city and browsed around the various shops there. I bought a brown woven belt. I needed one, so I bought one.

We didn't stay on shore very long as it appeared that it might rain...it didn't.


Copenhagen, Denmark

The next city visited was Copenhagen, with a population of one million making it the largest city in Scandinavia. It is the home of the "Little Mermaid" as depicted in the story by Hans Christian Andersen. The Little Mermaid Statue has been sitting on a rock in the harbour for 100 years now and according to the story must remain there for 300 years before she becomes human, therefore; she will be an attraction for 200 more years.


Instead of walking into the city we purchased day passes for the "Hop-on-Hop-off" bus which gives one a good tour (one and a half hours) all around the city downtown. The route passed the Admiral Hotel that I had stayed at some 35 years ago which is close to the Royal Palace where we got off to view the 12 o'clock changing of the guard. My expectations might have been too high as I was hoping to see something like the pomp and circumstance of the British production. It didn't happen.

After the changing of the guard we again hopped on the bus to the site of the Little Mermaid. It was hard to get near the statue as the huge crowd was trying to do the same. I was surprised the statue was so close to shore as all the pictures gives one the impression that it is somewhat out in the harbour further. Another thing that surprised me was the lack of toilet facilities especially when this is a such popular tourist site. Fortunately our bus was still nearby which took us to our ship pronto.

 Map of the Tivoli Gardens and Theme Park

 After lunch on our ship, we again took the Hop-on-Hop-off bus to Tivoli Gardens. This is a famous garden located at the center of the city. It is not only a garden but also a theme park where located are such rides as a ferries wheel, classic carousel, dragon boat, roller coaster, etc. In fact there are 28 different rides. There are also 38 eateries plus 23 candy and ice cream parlours. There is a pantomime theatre, open air stage featuring all kinds of music, concert hall, aquarium, as well as other attractions. We only saw part of the park as it is so extensive that it would take a full day to take in all that was offered. It is said that Walt Disney got the idea of Disneyland after visiting the Tivoli.

After leaving the Tivoli, I got a bit mixed up as to the directions back to catch the Hop-on-Hop-off bus. Estelle said she knew the way but, I being chauvinistic wouldn't believe that she knew her way back and therefore continued to study my map of Copenhagen. Finally in disgust she marched off so I followed her thinking that she would get lost but low-and-behold she was right all the time.

We had to hurry back to our ship as we didn't want to miss "White Night" where all the passengers dressed up in white and dined on deck around the pool. This was another fun night where the crew put on a barbeque. Everything one can imagine that was so delicious to eat was served. I went for the barbequed lobster tails. I passed on the steak and multitude of desserts even though everything looked delicious.

Skagen, Denmark

Following Copenhagen was the cruise up the east coast to the top of Denmark to the small town of Skagen (pronounced Skane). The main industry in the town is fishing but supplemented by the tourist industry. Many artists are attracted here by the rare light and landscape. There is a very long sand spit stretching out into the sea that changes in shape and size. The most northerly end of this spit is called Grenen at the very tip of Denmark.

According to archaeologists, Skagen had human occupation in and around 12,000 years ago. The Romans apparently occupied this area 2000 years ago as well. Skagen was only reachable by sea until the completion of the railway in the 1870s and from there it became a popular spot for artists because of the shifting sand dunes that made for a changing landscape.

Getting back to the town of Skagen, the streets are all well kept and clean. The house exteriors apparently in the old days were all white washed but now they are all painted a creamy yellow. Obviously a mistake was made in the paint shipment to Skagen, instead of whitewash, the shipment was a creamy yellow paint. The creamy colour gives the town something very unique.

While exploring the city, a concert band performed in the city square and gave a very professional concert. The band had a good balance, that is; it had the right number of tenor, bass and alto sections.  Many bands have the tenor and bass sections but are short of the middle section which includes the French horns, trombones and alto horns. I love the tone of the French horn. Our visit to Skagen ended with us taking the shuttle bus back to our ship. But before that, I again made the wrong turn and had to be corrected by Estelle to get to our bus stop.