A Spanish Road Trip

We have now come full circle back to Paris after spending a great two weeks with Brad and Miryam in Spain. We started off by meeting them in Lourdes, a small town in southern France known for being the place where Mary mother of Jesus allegedly appeared to a girl of the town and performed miracles and healings. I'd like to dub this the catholic capital of France because virtually every visitor to the town was a catholic making a pilgrimage to the town. Oddly, it felt more catholic than Vatican City because everyone visiting Lourdes is catholic as opposed to the Vatican where most people are tourists. We walked around the town and attended an international mass. It was interesting comparing our own faith with that of the catholics, it made you question what you believe and why. After walking around for awhile I quenched my thirst from some healing water and we headed off to see the fantastic castle that dominates the town from atop a cliff. We spent two days in Lourdes and afterwards headed off to northern Spain, where Miryam's descendants originally emigrated from. We got to see the house that Miryam's ancestors use to own which was really neat. On the way we used a GPS I had purchased in Britain to get from Lourdes to Northern Spain. We were a bit confused as to why there were no highways nearby and why we were driving the "quickest" way on roads that twisted so much it made you sick. The next day before we set off I discovered that the avoid highway filter was on….duh. We also did some spelunking in some great caves on the french-spanish border. I have come to realize. I love caves. 

Northern Spain was a bit drab over all, other than seeing Miryam's house, but in another day we were headed to the capital, Madrid. Madrid was a great city with lots to do and lots of atmosphere. At night everyone and their dog is out walking, shopping, eating, it's a vibrant city for sure. We even got to see a legitimate eurocrisis/austerity protest. Check that off my to-do-list. One day we took a hop on hop off bus tour and got to see the whole city. I brushed up on my spainish history and really enjoyed the whole thing. After spending two nights in Madrid we headed south to Toledo, which is a fantastic city. Mostly for two reasons: One, there was a vending machine that dispensed hot sandwiches (I'm considering buying one and placing it at a university). Brad has to get one and it was actually pretty good, despite the doubts I know you have right now. Two, one of the stores had a legit Gladiator helmet on sale! I considered buying it but decided that customs would frown upon me entering the U.K. with a battle helmet strapped to my rucksack…..Next we headed to Sevilla, another great city with beautiful streets and awesome cathedrals. Miryam's favourite city because of the great architecture and atmosphere. 

Early the next morning we got up early and headed for the coast for our day trip into Africa. We ended up taking a tour included in our ferry ticket to Tangier. As Brad predicted, the tour was essentially the guide taking us to all his buddy's shops in the old town but it was still very interesting. We started off getting an opportunity to ride a camel so me and Sophie jumped on and had the 3 minute experience, this was Sophie's favourite part of the day and we will definitely have to do it again on a legitimate trek. Then we headed into the old City where we were instantly barraged by people trying to sell us everything from bongo drums, to fake rolexes to purses etc. We then started our "tour" which was going from store to store mostly. The tour lasted a few hours and there was really no escape from the street vendors since they really knew our itinerary better than us and probably go on the "tour" everyday. It was really neat to see some of the muslim culture and people though. We got to the hear the call to prayer echo throughout the city and had a great moroccan lunch at one of the local restaurants. For those that enjoy bartering, Morocco is for you. I wouldn't go back to Tangiers again but would definitely like to head back to Morocco to see the other cities and Sahara desert someday. That evening we headed to Gibraltar for the night and the next day explored that strange piece of Britain on the Mediterranean. A very fascinating place with lots of history and cool war tunnels. They also have "cute" apes that uniquely live on the rock that Sophie adored. 

Next was Grenada where we visited a Moorish palace that was used first by the moors and then by Spanish kings. It was really neat because you could see the islamic influence in the architecture and design of the palace and it was much different then any of the other European castles or palaces we have been to. The city at night was also a favourite because of the narrow streets with all sorts of outdoor shopping and lots of restaurants that made a great atmosphere. 

After more driving along the south coast of Span we finally arrived in Barcelona. The first day there was definitely one of my favourite days of the trip. To start off we hopped on some segways and did a tour of the city which was just a blast. Definitely worth trying, if anyone ever has a chance to go on a segway do it! We got to see the whole city and had a great time doing it. In the evening Brad, Sophie and I went to the local Barcelona football match and watched some true european football. It  was fantastic listening to the crowd cheering and just seeing the atmosphere of the stadium. 

In the end we started our long drive back to Lourdes to conclude our trip. On the way we got to travel through the small country of Andorra through the mountains and got to see some fantastic scenery and add another country to our list of "been there" countries. After spending the night in Lourdes and taking the high speed train back to Paris we had come full circle from where we first landed on continental Europe two months before. What a great trip! Now we are headed back to London to look for a job for the winter and save some more cash for the next leg!  

The Cinque Terre and the Long Journey Through France

Looking down on our town in the Cinque Terre

After the long journey from southern Italy to the Cinque Terre in the north we finally arrived at our destination, Corniglia. The Cinque Terre is actually a region made up of 5 coastal villages, Corniglia being the one in the middle where we were staying. We ended up renting a whole apartment for our three day stay in the village that had a balcony overlooking the small town, which was fantastic. One thing that we did not know before arriving at our village was that between the train station and the actual village (situated on a cliff) are 400 stairs. I wouldn't have minded this too much except after arriving at our nice apartment we realized that our next train trip to Toulouse would actually not get us to Toulouse at the right time for pick up by our next helpx host that we were meeting…..and the only internet in town was at the train station……800 steps later I was able to contact our host and move our pick up to the next day. Over the next few days we hiked in between the five villages on some awesome trails through vineyards and hills. The villages were really nice and all had their unique differences. Of course we had to try the gelato in all the villages in case their was a difference between any of their methods. It was great living in a small village on a cliff overtop of the aqua coloured water for a few nights, definitely one of the nicest places in Italy. 

After a few days in our nice village we got up at 6:00am and descended 400 stairs to catch the first of five trains to Toulouse. At the station before we left I asked if we needed a reservation on the french train we were going to take, because the last time we took a french train we ended up having to pay 300 dollars extra because we failed to make a reservation on time. After asking five different ticket and info people they all said that we didn't need a reservation to use our eurail pass so we decided that they couldn't all be wrong. After the first three trains we arrived on the french border to find that the french trains were on strike until 3:00pm!!! The worst part was that if we didn't get to Nice by 3:00pm we would miss the last train to Toulouse for the day. If we didn't catch that train we would not arrive in Toulouse until 4:00am the next morning! Luckily we ended up meeting a South African girl and a french girl that spoke english, italian and french! Thanks to the trilingual european we figured out there were no buses to Nice and no trains until 3:00pm. We then met up with a Canadian girl who was living in France and she joined our group of stranded travellers, she suggested we split a taxi to Nice. This was brilliant because it was 120 euros but split between five people it was much cheaper!  It was a bit stressful being stranded by the strike but it was definitely all part of the experience because we got to meet a bunch of different people and make some new friends. The Canadian ended up paying for our lunches in Nice because she felt bad for us poor travellers and she had a sweet job on a yacht. She invited us to come over to her house if we ever needed a place to stay or to see another part of France. She told us all about her job, she works as a chef on a 100 million dollar yacht for some super rich guy. Apparently there are 17 staff and it costs one hundred thousand euros a month just in wages to run the yacht. The worst part is the guy only comes a few times a summer to use the thing! 

The long train ride from Nice to Toulouse

Finally we boarded our last train for the final seven hour train ride from Nice to Toulouse. But we did not have a reservation on the train (reservations are optional) so we just had to find a seat that no one was sitting in and sit there. But because there were so many stops we would often get kicked out by people who had reservations and have to move around or just sit on the floor sometimes. Sophie was stressed for lots of the trip because she was constantly worried we were sitting in someone else's seat, but unlike in Canada, people don't care if your sitting in their seat as long as you get out when they come.  After a few hours on the train the conductor came around and checked tickets. Despite what the five people said in Italy we actually needed a reservation on this train because we were using the eurail pass and apparently if you use that kind of pass you actually do need a reservation! Crazy french and their stupid reservation policies! He said he would let it slide this time. However four hours later when new conductors got on the train they just charged us 10 euros each for the imaginary reservation we should have got. The bottom line being we should have just got a reservation because then we would have had a permanent seat and had a comfortable ride for the seven hours!! After a very long day we finally arrived in Toulouse at our hotel. I booked it last minute a few days before and when we arrived the sign was lit up in neon green and it looked really scummy. Sophie was not impressed. Luckily the inside was 10x better and we had a great stay!

Chateau De Bramtourte

The next day we took our last train the final leg to get picked up by our hosts Alison and Paul. We have now spent the last two weeks in the awesome Chateau De Bramtourte from the 12th century. It feels legitimately like living in a castle because of the winding staircase, multiple huge fireplaces and everything is stone. It's always cold inside because of the stone, we couldn't imagine living here in the winter. It's probably why our hosts winter in Australia and leave the running of the Chateau to a frenchman. Our hosts our British so we can communicate no problem. Our jobs have been mostly taking care of the B&B and getting the Chateau ready for the winter. We were pretty exhausted after travelling for a month straight so it has been really nice to stay in one spot for the last two weeks. After we finish our five hours of work in the day we literally do nothing but read and just relax around the chateau which is so nice. The temperature is still in the mid 20s so I have went swimming in the pool a few times which was really great. The chateau has an orchard with lots of apples so Sophie has been baking a new apple dish virtually every day. So far she has baked apple crisp, apple muffins, apple bread, apple snicker doodle and apple dumplings! So delicious, but now everyone is a bit tired of apples and cinnamon. Now we are fully rested and ready for our next leg of the trip with Brad and Miryam, we will be meeting them in Lourdes to set out into Spain for two weeks!

Verse of the Week:
The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
    -Proverbs 16:9

Italy Means Pizza!

After Florence we finally arrived in Rome the beating heart of the Roman Empire and capital of Italia. So exciting! We had booked 5 nights in Rome to give us plenty of time to see all the sights. Ever since we starting travelling through Italy we have been using a website called Airbnb to book our accommodation. This site connects people like us with people who have a spare apartment or room that they want to rent out for a short period of time. We decide to use this site for when we were in Italy because we found that the hostels here are expensive, low quality and don't have kitchens so we would have had to eat out for every meal. For the same price as a hostel we get a kitchen and our own room which is sweet. The only down side is when you first arrive, trying to find where the place is. We took the metro from downtown to the outside of town where the apartment was and then because it was sunday we had to walk from the metro to the apartment, instead of taking the bus. Once we got there and settled in, we realized that because it was sunday all the grocery stores were closed, so I guess we have to go out for pizza! Our host/guy we were renting from, recommended a local pizza place and we went down all the locals were hanging around folding boxes (I wondered if you got a discount if you folded your own box or something because everyone was doing it). We grabbed a menu and tried to decipher the Italian to figure out what we would like. I determined the salami was pepperoni so I figured that was safe bet and Sophie went for what she thought would be a good pizza. She ended up getting a no sauce pizza where they mix the cheese with an egg and then put bacon and pepper on it. We weren't expecting to get that sort of toppings but it actually turned out to be delicious!

The next day we started our Rome tours and did the Colisseum and the Roman Forum. We've discovered some free audio guides online so we download them onto the iPod and listen to them as we walk around which is great because you actually get some information about what you are seeing. It took us the whole day to do those two things. The next day we did the Pantheon which was really cool. The Pantheon was a temple to all the Roman gods and has a dome that inspired St. Peter's Basilica and all the other church domes around Italy, it was impressive. Sophie had to buy a painting for her collection so after an hour of looking at different paintings and deliberating in the piazza we bought a painting of a door…..at least the door has a sign beside it saying Piazza Navona to remind me that it was in Rome that we bought it. 

The next day we went to the Vatican Museums which was very interesting. The popes have pretty much been collecting art and antiquities for the last 500 years so they have an impressive collection.I personally liked the statues and old Roman things that they had picked up over the years. The Sistine Chapel at the end was fantastic and you end up coming out with a sore neck at the end. After the Museums we went into St. Peter's Basilica, which is huge.  We learned that they have tonnes of different odd traditions, such as bricking up this one door and only opening it on Christmas eve every 25 years. I'm sure there is some sort of reasoning behind it but I don't quite get it. They also like to rub things. This one poor statue had his foot almost rubbed entirely off by pilgrims. It was definitely very interesting and unique. There is really nothing like Vatican in the whole world. 

 I would say Rome is one of my favourite cities so far because there is just so much to see and lots of ruins to check out.  But after a few more days of walking around Rome we headed off to Naples. Now Naples was Sophie's least favourite city on this trip so far. Mostly because there are so many mopeds zipping around that she constantly felt like she was going to be killed via moped. In my opinion the city was alright as soon as you can get use to playing chicken with cars and mopeds crossing the street or just walking around in general. The city is really dirty and not that touristy, most people just use it as a cheap base to go to Sorrento, Pompeii and the Amalfi coast. Which is what we did. However, Naples is known for having the best pizza in a country known for pizza. We ended up going to a place that is so good is only makes two kinds: Marinara (Sauce, Oil, Oregano) and Margarita (Sauce, Cheese, Basil). They claim that any other toppings "pollute" true pizza. When we arrived they were busy, and we arrived simultaneously with an Austrian couple. The waiter communicated through hand gestures asking us if we wanted to sit all together at the same table. So we ended up having some pizza with some Austrians who has been sailing in the Mediterranean all summer and had just wintered their boat in Rome before heading back to Vienna for the winter. Sophie loved it, we imagined what it would be like if in Canada you arrived at Swiss Chalet and they were busy and the waiter asked if you would like to sit with another couple and have dinner together! We like the Italian way better as you get to make more friends. When we arrived back at our apartment we got to meet our apartment mates for the week. They were from Pakistan and were motorcycling around Europe together. They actually shipped their bike and have been in Europe cruising around for the last four months. Now I know what we will do next time we come to Europe…haha. 

The next day we hopped on the train to what we thought was pompeii but was actually an entirely different line to led to i'm not sure where. Luckily we were easily identified as tourists by the conductor who this probably happens to all the time. He asked where we were doing and he told us we were on the wrong train and had to hop off, go back to where we started and take a different train. Oh well, fortunately he was nice enough to tell us to get off before we reached the end of the line and wasted half the day. Pompeii was fantastic and armed with our free Rick Steves audio guide we really learned a tonne about the Romans and Pompeii. Everything is so intact that you can actually visualize and imagine what it would have been like to live 2000 years ago in town. I was also struck by some of the genius inventions and the creativity the Romans had. For example, building arches in different parts of the town, for decoration, but also with hidden cisterns to provide constant water pressure to every area of the town, brilliant. There was tonnes to see in Pompeii and we spent the whole day there. The next day we headed to Sorrento and then took the bus down the Amalfi coast to Almalfi, which ended up being over four house of travel one way! It was a lot, but definitely worth it as the coast is really beautiful and we got to have a nice beach afternoon. Our first of the summer…. On the way back the bus was so ridiculously hot, i'm pretty sure the bus driver had the heater on or something, brutal. Now as a write this we are leaving Naples behind and taking the long winding train to another beautiful coast line, the Cinque Terre. Looking forward to doing some great hiking and seeing some great scenery! 

Canada meets Germany

So we met our long lost German friend Judit in Basel Swizerland last weekend, which was fantastic! It was so great to meet up with a friend, especially after not seeing her for the last year and a half. After the hugs etc. Judit drove us down to the waterfront and showed us how the Germans really drive! Swerving through traffic, cutting people off etc…. But no actually Judit was a great driver. She showed us all around the city and paid for us to take a ferry a crossed the Rhine. It was an exciting moment for me because all I could think about was, how many armies have crossed the Rhine in the last 2500 years? So sweet. Judit then took us via the autobahn (speed limit 120km/h) to her little German village where she grew up, which was super cool. We got to meet her family who all spoke great English, were really hospitable and fed us a great German meal. The next day we headed through the black forest and did some hiking on the way to Freiburg, where Judit is going to University. After our hike we were really tired and decided to go swimming. In true European fashion Judit took us to a nudist beach! Haha, not really. In her defence she thought it was the clothes mandatory part of the lake, but the reality is that the clothes were optional where we ended up…. Oh well swim with your eyes down I guess. 

Judit and Sophie along the Rhine in Basel Swizerland

That night we headed out on the town and had some more German food like Schnitzel and other German foods that have long names that I won't try and spell. We got some gelato and joined the locals in the town square where everyone just sits in circles and drinks and socializes. Half the street was blocked but everyone just sits there in the street socializing. It was pretty interesting and fun! 

The next day we went to Judit's church where half the songs were english and the sermon was translated into english as well which was great. More gelato afterwards of course and then some Chinese food, German style. 

Dinner in Venice courtesy of Nelly

On Monday we were back in Basel catching the train to Milan and then Venice. We booked all our trains in advanced, as it is mandatory to do so in Italy. However we soon learned that Swiss trains are always onetime and Italian train are always late. Our train from Switzerland to Milan was late and as we were running to transfer train in Milan we got there just in time to watch our train pull out. Oh well, we got fixed up with the next train on the next hour out to venice and got to sit around in the train station for a bit, just part of travelling. Finally arrived in Venice. All of the guidebooks say you are going to get lost in Venice no matter what. I took this as a personal challenge. I got us right to the address ( we were renting a room in someones flat for two nights) and then realized that the address said 1138 and that on this street there was 1138A, 1138B,….1138R etc. Dang. I gave our hosts a call and they came out on the balcony to wave us to the right door. We had a great room with a beautiful view over the city and onto a canal. Unfortunately it was a busy canal with lots boat traffic so it was a bit hard to sleep but it was worth it still. 

Instead of challenging the guidebook and trying not to get lost I decided to embrace the confusion and just wander our way around Venice the next day. It was great, we got to see lots of back alleys and canals, it really is a maze. But in the end we found our way out towards some of the main attractions. Venice is beautiful and definitely worth a visit. But it is choked with tourists and sometimes you have to fight through crowds in the small alleys. 

Looking statuesque

After two days in Venice we hopped on the train to Florence. We ended up sitting beside this 80 year old italian man and his son. After offering them some of our Milka chocolate (courtesy of Judit), the old man became very friendly and talked to me in heavily accented english for a large part of the trip. It was funny because he starting talking about Obama and how he is the best president the U.S. has ever had and then talked about how the latest Italian president was just a gangster. His poor son, who didn't speak english, was getting embarrassed because his dad was just talking about politics in front of the whole train. He wrote down directions to the 'best cafe in Napoli' for us as well.

Now we are here in Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance! The place we are staying has no wifi, just a computer to use. We have spent our time leisurely walking through all the sights. I am becoming quite the art connoisseur and have impressed Sophie with my limited knowledge of art haha! Florence apparently has the best gelato in the country so tonight Sophie is making me buy her a huge cone! After Florence we are off to Rome! 

From London to the Schilthorn!

Now spending two days back on London with my parents was anything but boring but actually more fun than before, since when me and Sophie first went to London it was the end of the Jubilee and Buckingham was shut down and there were so many people! This time we decided to use the underground, which was surprisingly easy to use, instead of walking 10 plus kilometres a day. Went on a walking tour around Tower bridge and mom and dad went in the Tower of London. We also arrogantly attempted to do the British museum in 2 hours which is just impossible because there are so many great exhibits of ancient Rome, Greece, Assyria and Egypt. Dad and I also did the Churchill war rooms which were awesome, while Sophie and mom took a nap on the lawn in front of Westminster Abbey. After two days in London we woke up at 4:45am to catch the underground (which wasn't even open yet) to go to the international train station to catch the chunnel to Paris. Dad said it was "the only one available." When we arrived at the station the screen said that the security check in for the chunnel was being closed so we rushed to go through. When Sophie and I were travelling around the UK I really missed having a knife to cut cheese and bread and things, so I got my parents to bring one over when they came and of course you are not allowed a knife on the chunnel. So my whole bag had to be emptied and swiped for bomb making material, Mom almost ran up to lay on the tracks to hold the train for me! But I quickly repacked everything and jumped on the train before it left. 

We arrived in Paris and I think Sophie was the only who actually liked the city. Dad didn't like it because people there don't speak English (I know, shocking). Mom didn't like it because a bunch of people tried to pickpocket us when we were trying to buy metro tickets and I didn't like it because it's dirty and generally smells of urine. And you can't blame people for going on the streets, I considered it myself because there are virtually no public washrooms in the city! But it wasn't really too bad once you got over those things, we did lots of walking around and did a river cruise. The highlight of Paris would definitely have to be the crepes. Banana and nutella, so delicious! We all went up the Eiiffel Tower and got to see the whole thing lit up and night which was awesome. The funniest part about Paris was in the same day we almost missed our chunnel train, mom jumped on a metro train just as the doors were closing and got her backpack stuck in the door. Then later when we were waiting for a train, it arrived and everyone got off, we all jumped on and then next thing you know the doors closed, the lights turned off and a frenchman was frantically indicating through hand signals that we should not be on the train. So we all start pounding on the doors to try and get off, luckily Sophie found and button to open the doors and we got off. I thought we were going to end up in some train depot or something haha! 

After two days in Paris we headed to Interlaken, Switzerland for the last three days of mom and dads trip. Switzerland was fantastic and so beautiful. We stayed in a nice hostel that had an amazing view out towards the valley and a cascading waterfall. Our first full day in the valley we hiked over to Trummelbach falls which is a waterfall that has eroded through the mountain and you can climb though it and see it flowing through the mountain. It feeds off the snow of some of the largest mountains in Europe and you can feel the glacial cold coming off it as it flows by. When we returned to the hostel dad suddenly decided he wanted to do some paragliding! We had been trying to get him and mom to do it for their 30th anniversary, but mom wasn't convinced so I took her place instead. We booked it last minute for the same day and were picked up by one of pilots. They were both really funny and eased some of the nervous tension. We went up two gondolas to a hill and launched from there. The beginning was the worst part because your in the air and then suddenly your approaching this huge 1000m drop into the valley. A bit scary but really fun, we got to fly over the top of Trummelbach falls and see where water comes from, it was great. My pilot let me steer for a bit which was great and then did a few tricks where we dropped really quick. Dad kissed the ground after he landed but I was proud of him for even doing it in the first place. 

The second day we took 3 gondolas and a train to the top of the Schilthorn which was incredible to see. Words can't describe the view so I won't bother trying. We had some tea in the revolving restaurant and then headed back down through the clouds to Murren which is still pretty high in the mountain. Mom and Dad walked in the footsteps of their hero Rick Steves and Sophie and I walked back down to the valley past a bunch of amazing waterfalls and met them back at the hostel. The next day we said goodbye to mom and dad as they headed back to North America. It was great seeing some familiar faces and doing some travelling with them! Now off to Germany for the weekend!   

Through England and Beyond!

Family under the Roman Arch

We are now full circle back with my parents in London where we started three months ago. We have had a great whirlwind tour of England starting from the North and working our way down. Met my parents and Glasgow and then the fun of driving on the left hand side began. Dad had to drive the whole time because it would cost extra for insurance if I drove, this was bad, not because my dad is a bad driver but because he is/was so excited and wanted to see everything that his head was swivelling around trying to take it all in and the car was swerving off the road….We managed to survive leaving Glasgow with me giving dad an on the go lesson in traffic circles. We drove down through southern Scotland and in the evening arrived a nice B&B near Hadrians Wall (after a few castle stops along the way of course). In the morning when we were leaving Dad apparently saw an interesting sign and, without stopping the car, had to read it. Scrape! Car meets a historic stone farm wall. 

York Walls

Dad's Mishap

O well, didn't let is spoil our trip. Hardrians wall was awesome and my dads favourite part to far. We walked along the best preserved parts of the wall for about 3 miles and then toured a roman fort. Next stop was York where we spent two days touring through the small city. Small, but really neat as it has some old medieval walls you can walk around and Yorkminster abbey was a beauty. My parents paid for a tour. Sophie and I went with the free option of gaining entrance to the abbey by attending an anglican evensong where the was a choir and everything. Interesting service and of course had a look around afterwards. Not sure if it is immoral to pull one over on the church or not but….16 pounds…how can us peasants ever gain entry otherwise? After York we headed to the Cotswolds which is a nice area of England where the rich own lots of houses and its very picturesque. Kind of like our Muskoka. 

Did some hiking in the fields  in between the villages. We were suppose to do a one way hike and then take the bus back but of course we ended up hiking on a statutory holiday when there was no bus service…..oh well. My parents had their first hostel experience in the cotswolds and it was actually pretty nice. Apparently had their best sleep so far on their trip there and we had a kitchen and a bathroom that we didn't really share with anyone else. It was actually better than this two star hotel we are staying at in London haha. After the cotswolds we headed towards london and along the way stumbled upon an awesome (free) Roman town site with an ruined amphitheatre and old walls. It was great! When on the outside of London we stayed with some of Dad's relatives Tom and Avril and they were very hospitable and told us a lot about our family history in England and everything which was awesome.

Roman Ampitheatre

 Took a day trip from their house to Bath and the sun was shining when we woke up so we all put on out shorts and were prepared for a pleasant day. By the time we arrived in Bath it was pouring rain non stop and so we pretty much did a 2 hour tour of the city in the rain, got frozen, toured the abbey and drove back for some warm pub food. What I saw through the rain and from under my umbrella looked great, we will definitely have to make a return trip. Today we turned our car in and came back to London where we will be for the next two days before we finally hit the continent. Been have lots of fun and it is nice to see a familiar face. Dad has been keeping us in stitches with his version of the english towns Newton-Upon-the-Tyne (Newcastle-Upon the Tyne) Bourbon on the Water (Burton on the water) and Stow on the Go (Stow on the Wold) amongst others! Lots of fun still to be had!

To The Mainland!

We are currently sitting at a McDonalds in Perth waiting for our bus to Glasgow to meet Nathan's parents at the airport so I will fill you in on our activities these past 3 weeks. 

Home sweet home

On the right the Tea Garden, On the left reception

Living at the croft we were finally close enough to a town to be able to get to a church, Crieff Baptist to be exact. Our options were either  a 2 hour walk, 45 minute bike ride or 5 minute bus ride to get there and me not wanting to be all sweaty and being cheap opted for the 2 hour walk into Crieff. We left at 8:30 in the morning thinking it was ample time to get there, but as time quickly passed we realized we really had to hustle. Fortunately we just made it in time and we were welcomed very warmly into the church. After the service we were invited to their annual church bbq and we did not want to be rude and refuse their offer were given a ride to the farm of one of the couples in the church. It was fabulous not only to be in fellowship with believers again but the food was amazing! Desserts especially. We later found out that the farm couple were also the parents of Andrew, the owner of Comrie Croft. And since we had not met Andrew yet, we got to introduce ourselves later on and tell the story of spending the day with his parents at their house, which was ironic seeing as we  met his parents before we met him.

Looking out from the Tea Garden 

At the croft we have continued to be busy cycling and hiking around the area, my legs are beginning to  see muscle, which is definitely a change for them. Nathan has definitely been doing some more cycling than me, since I opt out of most excursions that include cycling up hill. He took a trip to Innerpeffray Library, the first library in Scotland, and was given his own private tour since it was not exactly a popular attraction among most non-history nerds. He was able to flip the pages of a book on Roman History written in 1604, he was quite excited! At night we are able to go up into the campground and have campfires with our caravan neighbour George, cooking up burgers, potatoes and of course banana boats and apples. 

It has not all been fun and games though, we have definitely been busy working on that games room some more. We were not able to see it to completion but definitely got them well on their way. Most days we were busy painting the walls with some days in there spent organizing their shed and clearing cement. 

Just said goodbye to all our friends at the Croft today and started our journey to meet Nathan's parents. We are off to Glasgow to see some Canadian faces and start our journey to the Continent! 

Comrie Croft

So we are now staying at a place called Comrie Croft which is, you guessed it, near Comrie. That's just north a bit of Stirling and Edinburgh. Comrie Croft is a hostel/campground and they also rent bikes and have a tea garden. They usually have large groups come into the hostel so last week we had a Baptist Church group here and this week we have a German school group. Our accommodation is in large caravan that has a living room and everything so we have a lot of room to ourselves.

 This helpx job is a bit different as we are making all our own food and just get an allowance from Comrie Croft for food. We only have to work about four hours a day which leaves a tonne of time for us to do lots of our own things. Since they rent out lots of bikes we can take bikes out and cycle around the countryside anytime we want. They even have a tandem bicycle, which is something fun and different to go out on. 

One day we got a tip from Martin the maintenance guy that works here that there was a ginormous raspberry patch only a mile cycle ride away so we went and picked a few pounds of fresh wild raspberries, so good!

For work we are working on creating a new games room that will have a pool table and table tennis in it. So far we have moved all the rental bikes out of the room into their new places and disassembled the old bike racks. After that we sealed the walls so that the new paint will stick on the old mortar walls. I'm using all the handy man skills that my dad tried to teach me, but that I never quite paid enough attention too…. 

We've had lots of really sunny days for once which is really nice for biking and hiking around. One night had a fire and made some banana boats which made us feel like we were right at home camping in Algonquin. It's even been hot enough to go swimming, so i've taken a dip or two in the campground pond thingy. Ice cold! No chance of Sophie going in. Overall this helpx is quite a bit different because we keep more to ourselves and on our time off we can just go and do whatever we like so we spend a lot more time together and just have a lot of down time. 

From Farm To Croft

So today we said good bye to our hosts Jamie and Morag and our animal friends and headed off to Crieff to work for the next three weeks. We really enjoyed working at Barndromin farm. We learned a lot about farming and sheep, did lots of hiking in the highlands and just had tonnes of fun hanging out on the farm. 

Last Thursday we got a day off and went down to the coast to take a boat tour of the local area. Jamie generously paid for us in return for all the extra work we were doing and we got a great 2 hour tour of the coast. We went and saw the third largest whirlpool in the world and saw lots of wildlife including some seals and a minke whale! Topped the day off with some classic fish and chips in Oban and had a great day off. 

Jamie and Morag have been great and took us along to one of their many dinner parties that they have regularly with their friends. This party was at one of their friends' that live on an island which makes the party a bit more interesting. To get over you have to get to the ferry (first come first serve) and line up, the ferry can only take a few cars but they just squeeze them all on and once were over the ferryman kind of deploys the ramp and revs the engine to keep the ramp on the pier to prevent the ferry from drifting away while you drive off…..crazy Scots. Had a great dinner and met lots of their travelling friends. As soon as around 10:15 rolls around everyone jumps up and once and races a crossed the island to try and catch the last ferry back….needless to say if this was in Canada the Van Bergeyk family would always be stuck on the island. 

Yesterday on our last day at the farm Jamie, some friends and I got up at 6:30am and headed up to Glencoe to hike the anakeigan ridge. It was awesome! Bright sunny morning, a great view and a challenging ridge to climb, what more could I ask for? Apparently it was a grade 3 hike which means that it's the steepest kind of mountain climbing you can do without equipment. So fun. After we got back all of us went out in Jamie and Morag's boat for the afternoon. Did some mackerel fishing, I can honestly say that it's my new favourite kind of fishing. I put the line in for literally 5 seconds and had 5 fish on my line, amazing! Sophie caught a whole bunch too. 

We will be missing the farm life, feeding the chickens, shearing, crogging, driving the quad etc. But now we are making some new friends in Crieff. We're at a place called the Comrie Croft which has a hostel, tea garden, camp ground and bike track. They also rent bikes so Sophie and I can use them and bike around the country side for the next few weeks. Should be lots of fun, we only have to work four hours a day and get two days off. We also cook for ourselves and get a small allowance for food  so it's a bit different from our other jobs. As usual there is lots to do around the area and we will get to check out a new part of Scotland!

Nathan Crogging

For those of you who do not have Facebook, we thought we would post this video of Nathan crogging. This was only his second day, he has improved much since then!

A Week at a Glance

Well some of you might be wondering why it has been so long since our last blog. I could make excuses like we're too busy exploring and seeing the sights etc. But the truth is our host has an excellent book collection that just so happens to have some of my favourite genres...only two weeks left to read them all so...

Last weekend we went hiking with our hosts and some of their friends near Ben Nevis (the largest mountain in Britain) to the Ring of Steall. It was great because we hiked up a picturesque valley to this waterfall and the sun was shining and the mountains were all in the background, it was awesome. After a few hours we hiked to the top of first munro and had an spectacular view of Ben Nevis and the surrounding area. We were pretty tired, we had some lunch and then most people headed back to the vehicles while 4 of us wanted to do the whole ring, which includes 4 munros. So we headed off and it wasn't too bad because once your done the first one your higher and you can just follow the ridge line and you only have to hike up and down…..less. The best part was walking along the narrow parts of the ridge where it was a steep slope on both sides, you really feel like your mouton liming then! The worst  part was the way down on the last one because you have to descend like 3,000 feet and your knees feel like jelly by the time you reach the bottom. So that was on last friday. 

The rest of the weekend we headed off back to Edinburgh to help our hosts paint and fix up their flat that they rent out. Did some painting and some cleaning. Morag took us out for a nice italian dinner so that was very nice of her. Other than that this week has been pretty normal just doing some more shearing, I've got the technique down now so i'm not as sore anymore. 

On thursday we went to the Isle of Mull for the Tobermory Highland Games. Took the ferry and then the bus to a small but pretty town on the north part of the island. Experiencing the highland games was tonnes of fun, all kinds of cool events and strength contests. Highland dancing, pipers and foot races. Of course I had to participate in the open 440 yard foot race. Didn't win, but I did get a small consolation bottle of Tobermory whiskey haha. The set up was great because where all the events took place was beside a hill where everyone could just sit in the grass and watch the whole event. 

Yesterday we went and did some shearing at one of Jamie's neighbours' farms. Lots of hard work but he is going to pay us for the help that we gave him. Also our hosts have paid us some money already for all the extra help and work we have put in on the farm which is awesome and unexpected. Only a week and a half until we head off to our next job. But we will be really sad to leave the farm. I think we enjoy the farm life!

Barndromin Farm

We are finally settled again but this time on a beautiful sheep farm/B&B in Oban. This family, just like the last, has welcomed us with open arms and has so far made our stay very comfortable. It actually reminds me a lot of home, it is as though we have just joined the family and are carrying on with the family chores. Without these families or this entire HelpX experience I am not sure I would have made it this far without considering the option of going home. When Nate and I are living in scummy hostels and trying to find a place to eat our dinner that is not the side of the road it really makes me miss my bed and my family. But thankfully that is not the case most of the time (and yes I do realize that those scummy hostels and road side dining is our choice), we have been blessed with these people who took us in not having a clue who we were and gave us a bed and fed us and have so far treated us as more than strangers.
So for a change Nate and I are for the most part working separate most of the time. I tend to stay within the home and/or Bed and Breakfast changing over rooms, ironing, cooking and just general cleaning. While as Nate spends his days out in the fields tending to his flock.


Like Sophie has said things have been great here on the farm and we are enjoying our time here. I spend most of the time helping Jamie do a variety of things with the sheep like dosing, organizing them for culling and spraying them down for flies etc. Today we started sheering, my job is to basically wrestle the sheep out of the pen and toss them on their bums so he can grab them right away. It's tough! Especially as the beginning when I didn't have clue what I was doing. Now I have the technique down though and it's a bit easier but wow I will be sore tomorrow! I usually just work all day with Jamie so in compensation for all the extra work we are doing our hosts are going to pay for a trip to the Isle of Mull for us, which is fantastic.

On Sunday we had a day off and went with our host to hike up a munro to see some rare flowers (He is  quite the flower enthusiast). A munro is anything over 3,000 feet in Scotland.....I said to myself 3,000 feet can't be that high. Big Mistake! So we headed off on this day trip with our bikes, first we biked 6km to the mountain and then hiked all the way up it. Brutal, my legs were trembling on the way down to say the least. Lots of fun and Sophie is basically a mountain girl now.




Didn't have an amazing view cause we were in the clouds but still some great scenery and a great experience! Definitely the highest mountain I've ever climbed. Tomorrow we will be out shearing again (my poor arms!) and then on Thursday we will probably be taking our trip to the Isle of Mull, our hosts our farmers so we don't really work around the weekend but more the weather. Lots of fun and learning  tonnes!

Highland Fling - Day 4/5

Day 4

Headed out to see Loch Ness first thing today. Lots of people took a boat cruise on the Loch last night to find Nessie and see the lake. Call me an unbeliever but I didn't want to spend the 12 pounds to tour a lake. This morning we stopped and did the "Nessie Haka". Which is basically a dance our guide made up to summon Nessie from the lake, based on the New Zealand Haka of course! We all had fun trying to summon Nessie from the lake. Afterward I climbed up the Nessie model and almost knocked the neck/head from the giant Nessie….ops. 

Next we went to the site of the Battle of Culloden which took place in 1746 the Jacobites versus the Red Coats. Long story short some of the highlanders wanted the old scottish king back on the throne and led by their candidate almost reached London to overthrow the current king. Initially they were quite successful but in this battle their were essentially slaughtered. After this battle the English began doing the "Highland Clearances", this cleared a lot of Highlanders off their land and resulted in many Scots migrating to places like Canada. The battlefield was very sobering, but very well laid out with flags denoting the locations of both forces so you could imagine what it was like for the highlanders to charge the redcoats. After the battle the English behaved badly and would let no one bury the dead. They also went about the countryside killing anyone who they thought was a jacobite and burning all kinds of houses. Our guide says that the British army will come and visit the battlefield to teach soldiers how not to behave after a battle which I would quite interesting. 

After the battlefield we headed off to see some old burial mounds that are well over 3000 years old. Very interesting because there are all these standing stones and then these big piles of stones with a little path in the middle. Apparently the standing stones used in the structure were quarried miles away, so they would have had to carry or drag the stones miles because the wheel hadn't been invented yet! 

Then we headed off to see this odd well. Sophie calls it the creepy well and I tend to agree with her, it's really called the cloth well though. Apparently people believe that the well has healing properties and that if they take a piece of clothing of a relative or sick person and tie it to a tree nearby the well their relative will be healed. At first I thought it was stupid, but then I just felt sad for people that believe that this spring of water can heal their loved ones…..

Our tour then headed off for a whiskey distillery tour! I wouldn't mind learning how whiskey is made, but I didn't want to pay the eight pounds for the tour. So our great bus driver Don drove us to the local town where me and Sophie just walked around and saw an old abbey which was pretty cool in itself. 

Went back to the same hostel we were at the night before and cooked up so yummy fajitas in the kitchen, it was nice to have a self cooked meal again. At the pub that night we had some live entertainment, a one man band who played the harmonica, guitar and had a foot drum and foot tambourine. He was pretty good and would play any song requested!

Day 5

Now we're headed back to Edinburgh! Mixed feelings as we are looking forward to the sheep farm but also going to miss our new friends we made on our tour. First stop we made on the way back was to a Commando monument which commemorates all the commandos who trained and lost their lives in WWII. The area we were in is where all the commandos did their training. The commandos were raised in 1940 when the war was at it's lowest for England. The best men from British regiments were taken and given special training to conduct extremely dangerous and important missions. They served everywhere from North Africa to mainland Europe and over 1700 commandos died during the War. 

The other neat thing we saw on the way back to Edinburgh was a Cathedral in Dunkeld. Nothing to special just an old cathedral but inside were these white haired elderly ladies who are bell soloists! They just play hand bells to old hymns like 'How Great Thou Art', they were great. They do it to raise money to completely restore the old church. The other cool thing they had in the church were old colours that had been taken into battle by British soldiers in the Crimean War and Northern India rebellions and looked super old and battle worn. So awesome! 

That was our last stop for the day, after which we drove to Edinburgh and said good bye to some new friends and our bus driver Don. Now we are back to hosteling until tomorrow!

Isle Of Skye - Day 3

Today we woke up on the Isle of Skye after a night of watching a beautiful sunset over the island and watching Italy get ruined in the euro cup. Also spoke to some of our fellow travellers and got some advice about where to go in Italy and all their adventures. It's really neat talking to all the different people on our bus, where they've been what they've been doing or where they are going to go. The one fellow on our tour is part time in the Australian Air Force, Infantry trained and has done a tour in Iraq so it's been interesting talking to him and others on our tour. 

It's hard to keep track of everything we do in a day because you just see so many castles and hills and monuments but I will try and remember accurately all the names and places we went to. First off we headed to a place with glorious view of the surrounding hills and our guide told us a story about faeries and after the story we all had to dip our faces in the river so that the faeries could make us even more good looking then we already were, so that really woke us up! 

After that we headed north to the Old Man of Storr, which was just a large hill with some interesting rocks at the top that gave us an amazing view of the mainland and surrounding hill. You could literally just sit there all day and appreciate the view! It was quite the climb and our guide says he has only gone to the top twice with other groups. It was cool seeing all the sheep in the hills around us and they just climb around no problem. 

Then we headed off, exhausted to some cliffs and other look outs, all gorgeous and giving us just great views. We stopped at an old 2000 year old ruin that some old vikings had built and that archaeologists can only guess at what it use to look like. It's neat just walking through their rock ruins imagining what it was like over 2000 years ago.

After we finished there we headed off to Fort Augustus near Loch Ness, where we are staying to the next two nights as we travel the surrounding area. These hostels have been great because they actually have kitchens with pots/pans etc. where we can cook our own meals at night, which cuts down on a lot of cost as don't have to go out every night. Tonight we bought stuffed crust pizza from the grocery store! So cool! You can buy stuffed crust pizza here it's awesome. They also have lots of quick meals that aren't make of crap and that don't have lots of preservatives in them so those have been great too. 

Tomorrow we will be off touring around loch ness and inverness which will be lots of fun. Super exhausted from that big hike up the Old Man of Storr though. The Isle of Skye kind of reminded me and Sophie of the West coast meets the East coast of Canada because of the fishing villages and all the mountains nearby. Anyways lots of fun ahead, Cheers!

Canada Day! - Day 2

Nathan has been hogging this blog lately, for someone who did not want to have one at all he sure seems to be avid about keeping everyone in the know. But I thought it about time to share a little about our life from my perspective. As Nathan has already mentioned we have left our wonderful family in Aberfoyle and moved on to a tour of Northern Scotland. 

Scotland is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and words nor pictures seem to capture its beauty. Today we officially began driving through the Highlands and they are even more magical than I described the forests in Aberfoyle. This is the place for Nathan and I, there are waterfalls coming out of every crack and I mean every crack, you can stand in one spot and be able to see 5 waterfalls. And the mountains are just majestic! We had a short stop over in a village called Glencoe which was the home of the Glencoe massacre if you want to look it up it is quite an interesting historical read, and were able to go for a wee hike up the mountains over a river and passed a waterfall it was incredible! The mountains are definitely a glimpse into the powerful God we serve! Then we continued throughout the day just winding in and out and up and down around the mountains, it actually was at times making me car sick and I never get car sick but its constant S turns. We stopped over and saw many monuments and castles and historically significant things that Nathan loved to both read and climb. He is beginning to get a reputation among our fellow tour mates as a monkey man, because he literally hops up and climbs anything remotely climbable. We had a slight pull over to view a very a Canadian sight, which was relevant since it was Canada Day! One the side of this one mountain these Italians come up and build like hundreds of inukshuk every year, they all get knocked down and blown over when winter comes but they keep coming back to build them every spring! It was an interesting site we were able to share a little Canadian culture, although I could not really answer many of the questions since I do not know the meaning or purpose of them, does anyone?

And as a side note Nathan forgot to post my favourite part about yesterday so I get to show you instead. This is Hamish. He is a highland cow, and they are just the cutest things I have ever seen. They are furry like dogs but look like a cow and have this bright bright red hair! I just loved them! And there were baby ones too! I think we should import some and have them on the farm they would make a good tourist attraction since Caledonia does mean Scotland-it would not be a stretch. 

And as of now we are sitting on the Isle of Skye which so far is turning out to be a amazing mix of the east and west coast, with the feel of a small fishing village but yet with mountain ranges that go on forever! But this trip is definitely an adventure, Nathan and I are beginning to finish each others sentences which has never happened before but that just goes to show how much time we spend together…but it is a wonderful blessing!