Chris does Canterbury

This definitely felt like a fun town to explore

The main reason for the stopover in England is that for Chris’ 40th birthday, he really wanted to see the tomb of the Black Prince.  If that isn’t your first choice of birthday destination, I can’t imagine why not ;-P.   Lol anyways, it’s a historic figure from the time period C is super interested in who died young, before he had the chance to ruin his reputation.  

Canterbury Cathedral

He is resting permanently at Canterbury Cathedral, and while churches aren’t my thing, English is and, well, Canterbury Tales ;). So I was just as happy to tag along as well.

Randomness inside the Cathedral - was actually really interesting to explore

The first challenge was getting there.  Not an insane challenge given public transit availability, but we didn’t realize the tap on / tap off part only works in London proper.   So when they came to check tickets on the train we tried to tap and that definitely didn’t work.    Fortunately the fare checker is clearly used to tourists and was super kind and polite - no snarkiness or fines or anything for what was legitimately an honest mistake.  Just sold us the round trip tickets so we don’t even have to figure it out to come back.

Chaucer Statue

Train ride itself quickly took us from city-London to farmland that felt very much like farmland at home.  When we got to Canterbury, almost the first thing was saw was the city gates that definitely looked appropriately castle-esque ;) 

Probably wouldn't have been nearly as charming if we were an invading army ;)

I had a Let’s Roam for Canterbury (well two actually lol), one of which referenced the Black Prince’s tomb, so we started with that one and found the start - on the way there, passing a statue of Chaucer. But the Let’s Roam wasn’t great and when we got to the Cathedral we realized they weren’t being precious about going in only when your assigned time was (we had tickets that were for later) so we prioritized that and went in to explore the Cathedral.   Some parts we could take photos, others (such as the Crypt) we could not.  Very cool and almost incomprehensible to consider how much history has happened in that one spot.

Chris meets his idol

After Chris finished his visit with the prince, we toured the rest of the Cathedral (there’s a library here too!  Alas, we couldn’t go in), and then continued on our Let’s Roam (which did not get any better - was super disappointed actually).   

View from the City Jail

The old city jail is in the tower entrance, so we went and visited it - some interesting history and good view of the city from the top.  Mildly amused that they have a plaque documenting the two people who escaped - one by attaching a rope and climbing down, and one by jumping into a passing hay wagon ;).  They also, amusingly, have an escape room which we did not attempt.

The leaning house amused me; it has a bookstore inside it

We explored the town for a while - like many places, most shops and touristy stuff was in one area, but the really cool old buildings / architecture / streets / etc.  We had lunch at the Old Weavers House - like really old.  1500.  Like a couple *hundread* years older than our country.  

We had lunch at the building on the left

Then we had time to kill before our train so we went for a walk along this really lovely trail we’d found earlier until it was time to head back to the station.

The trail followed the river, and these boats were ferrying tourists along...

Such a cool little town with so much history.  I’m really glad we got to see it.

History marks the spot where Thomas Beckett was murdered

At the foot of the Black Prince.   Couldn't have been all bad ;)

London Day 1 - Afternoon Wanders

 After the British Museum we truly embraced the role of Tourist and walked over to the London Eye.   It’s about a half-hour ride, although it didn’t feel that long.  It was a minor challenge to figure out where to purchase tickets lol. But we did find them and were good to go.   Got through the line and there were about 15 of us in the cab - more people than seats but certainly everyone had lots of space, and this isn’t the kind of thing that you need, or even necessarily want, a seat for.   A sunny day with perfect weather, it gave us great views around the city and of the Thames.  Have to admit the Uber boat made me laugh — I learned later they’re essentially commuter boats.

Around we go :)

After hopping off the eye we went exploring - just walking wherever looked interesting.  Multiple roads were closed, making it super convenient to be a pedestrian ;).  

Empty roads

In not this order at all, we wandered through the calvary yard, up to the palace (right down the street since it was closed), to Trinity square, through a park that I have no idea what it was, but it was lovely, past the “Canada Monument”.

Things I've seen a million times, but never in person

I was impressed by how much green space there was everywhere, and how much it was being used.  Not as a tourist attraction, just by people hanging out enjoying the summer.  

Randomness on our wanders that made me smile

For dinner we tested out a pub - we’d been told to try the Sunday Roast…. Alas, it was sold out.   Still though, great day overall.  Lots of walking and saw way more than I’d expected.  Fun to just wander around and see what we see with no real plan.

Disappointed Chris

Some random extra photos with random unrelated thoughts from our time so far (that still hold after the end of the trip!):

Green space.  So much greenery and so many trees.  I love it.

Green spaces are communal and appear to be well used by locals and tourists.  My guess is if very few people have yards, shared parks become more precious.   Along the same lines - way more trees and green spaces than I was expecting.  Those who know me will be aware how much that means.

Just liked this.

Along with green spaces, are far more cyclists than I’d expected.  And for some reason while I could figure out which way the cars would come from I never really remembered to look for cyclists.  This didn’t always go well ;)

View from the Eye

So I knew in my head there wasn’t much in the way of AC here, but I didn’t realize how much I’m conditioned to that expect it 🤷‍♀️.   Like when it’s hot and I get in a cab, I expect it to be cool in the car.  It was not.  Any time.  Despite all of the cars having the option.  Not an issue but just surprised me.  Similarly subway, museums, most of the pubs we tried, etc - all toasty.  Had to reset the baseline a bit.  Although our room now has extremely good AC so sleep was not an issue.   That being said, 30 deg in UK is not as hot as 30 deg at home.  Less humidity or something - idk what exactly but the issue is more that without having ubiquitous AC, there was no easy escape from it.  So we were very glad for our hotel room when we got home from our adventures.   The eye, fortunately, DID have AC as otherwise riding around in a glass bubble in the sun for half an hour would've been less than enjoyable.

Not sure who she is, but reasonably certain I don't want to make her angry.

The buildings are pretty but the sameness of the row houses would get to me.  Conversely, I love that the roads are not a grid - they go off on weird angles, are made of a variety of surfaces, and occasionally randomly stop.  Gives it a lot more character.

Dragon paws

Subway is fast and efficient and goes everywhere for cheap.   Most lines are not air conditioned.  Some of them branch off at different points and you have to make sure you pick the right one.  Often the stops on the printed map are reverse of the train’s direction of travel.

Some, but not all, restaurants and pubs work like they did when I was in Australia - they seat you, but then you go up to the bar or counter to order, then they bring food out when it’s ready.   Tipping isn’t really a thing here which is lovely.

?????

It makes me laugh to put this blurb between these two pictures.  People dress better in general here than at home - even though I am the opposite of fashion conscious 😂 I did appreciate it.  Obv not everybody - there are people who are always well put together at home and there are slobs here (maybe tourists ;-P) but, in general, people as a whole seemed better dressed.

Empty roads were creepy and awesome simultaneously

London Day 1 - British Museum

Gratuitous statue pic cause it's sitting the way Coco does and that made me smile

We fit So Much in today.   Wow.   

Impressive Curb Appeal ;)

We started with the British Museum — Google Maps gave us subway directions and we found it easily.  Lots of signs around warning about pick pockets, but we luckily didn’t have any issues.    Entry is free, and we got there right as it opened which had the significant advantage of not being packed yet.

Fascinated by how clear it is after thousands of years

The main thing on my list was the Rosetta Stone - which is, conveniently, right at the entrance.  And by being there first, we had a good chance to see it without a crowd.   It was significantly bigger than I had in mind - that was the main thing that surprised me.  😂 I have no idea why I didn’t clue into that, but here we are.

Seriously - how do you bring this home?

Following that we hit up the Egypt section - partially cause it was there, and partially cause it was on both our lists :)   Again, the surprise here to me was the size of things.   Now it turns out we were in the first of two Egyptian sections, specifically the sculpture collection.  So yes - we started big :).  Things that got me were: what incredible condition they were in after thousands of years, and how were they ever brought to the museum?!?!  Lol I honestly couldn’t get past that - it’s not just some jewelry or papyrus they helped themselves too, but sculptures and pillars, and GATES (okay those weren’t from Egypt, but same concept) - in some cases taller than my house.   I just can’t imagine the logistics to relocating some of this, esp with pre-modern transformation options.

Not the most comfortable pillow I can imagaine

The follow up Egypt section had all sorts of interesting things as well - including multiple coffins, the book of the dead, and a number of “everyday life” items (well, life if you were rich anyways!).  The one that got me was the neck rest — apparently they slept on their sides.  I really have a hard time understanding how those were comfortable.  Maybe they were packed w fabric ;)

Fascinated by these

The museum itself is not air conditioned.  There were fans in almost every room - often w people standing or sitting to take advantage of them.  This resulted in this gem of the statue heads lecturing their modern audience.  I was impressed I managed to get the photo discretely and in a way that didn’t show faces or obvious identifying features.   Lol   

This amused me more than it probably should have.

Both C and I found something completely unexpected that caught our attention.  For me it was the library, for Chris it was the clock room ;)

My squirrel moment

While my item of focus was the Rosetta Stone, Chris’ was the Sutton Hoo helmet, so he was pretty happy when we found it before we even started actively looking for it.

We also found out the middle area is actually a library?   I kinda love that.   Overall, great experience.  And free - I'm still amazed by that.

First night in London

Staircase of our first hotel

So arriving at the UK went well; extremely efficient entry process and called an Uber (for which they had a specific and clearly signed location).   Arrive at hotel and go to sign in, only to be told that they can see the room has been paid for but they haven’t received the money so they need to put a hold on my card, and I should call the travel agent.  🤔 

In Kensington Gardens

So we do that and then learn we can’t check in yet anyways, so we leave our bags w them (along w many other people) and go exploring.  We found Kensington Gardens v near by and had a gorgeous walk exploring that and found some food.  Messaged travel agent, who’s also a friend of Chris’, and she told us to leave it w her.  Awesome.  We get back and check out our room - it is *hot*.  The main reason we chose this hotel was the AC, so that was a bit of a surprise, but maybe just wasn’t turned on.  So Chris pushed some buttons, and we got organized.  The room was clean and okay but tiny - like so tiny it was not actually possible to open both suitcases fully without moving furniture and / or blocking either the mini fridge or the safe.  Double bed lol so would be cozy, but overall - as long as the AC brought the temp down, would be all good.

More Travels

Go out for more exploring and travel agent calls us back - the $ should’ve been sent directly months ago when we actually paid so this is very odd, but they were going to try and fix.  Apparently there’s been lots of back and forth and idea is we’ll just pay for the room and Expedia would pay us back.  Then we don’t have to move and all is good.   So she tries to talk to the reception lady and that…. Did not go well.   Definitely a high level of frustration there and a lack or understanding or a disinterest in understanding- not sure which.  Either way, left unresolved, agent says leave it w her, so we go exploring again.   Calls back in a little while and says Expedia will arrange for an equivalent hotel on the other side of the park and cover the price differential.   Since by this point the room still hadn’t cooled off either (which we hadn’t mentioned to anybody yet), we were okay w this.   So packed up, got the hold for the room cancelled, checked out, and ordered an uber.   Chris mentioned about the AC as a courtesy so they'd at least be aware and was told “oh, the whole second floor is out” ummmm and you didn’t think to mention that when we checked in?  Ah well.  Decided to count ourselves lucky and relocated.

We even walked by the Natural History Museum 

The next hotel we went to check in, they had our reservation, asked for our payment….  Definitely had a "not again" moment.  But when I mentioned it should already be paid they double checked and “oh yes, no problem - it just came through.  Looks like the booking was today?”  😂 fair - it’s been less than an hour ;).  

We went back and forth through this park a few times in our travels tonight

We were directed to floor "minus 1" which made me laugh, but was a stunning room.  Easily 4x the size of the first.  And w a nice cool AC temp.   Win!   Over the stay we were increasingly happy with this one.  There was a garden out back where we spent most evenings after finishing our travels.  One area even had a little fountain.   Just all round lovely.  Potentially the nicest place we’ve stayed.  Definitely in the top 2.   So yeah - minor hassle, dealt w by travel agent, resulting in excellent upgrade.  Worth the minor hassle of a reshuffle for sure.

Where we ended up :)
5/5 stars.  100% recommend.

Plot Twist - July Chaos

Happy Canada Day!

So.  Three distinct areas of exciting stuff going on.  A good way to deal with this is to be well rested and eat healthy things.  I can't remember the last time I slept past 6am (those who know me will understand.... lol) and that's definitely not inspired by something as reasonable as "going to bed early".   And healthy...   Well - clearly I need the sugar boost to keep me going with the lack of sleep.  BUT.   Fun things.   Here we go, grab some popcorn and settle in - this is what's on the list for this month.    And keep in mind said lack of sleep - I do not guarantee coherence!

*Plan is definitely add a new puppy pic here later today - once we meet them*

Today is Canada Day; we are spending it by going to visit our New Puppy!!!!   Yes, you read that correctly, we're getting a puppy, will come home likely the last wknd of July.  Said puppy is a border collie (may the odds be ever in our favour!) that I hope will some day grow to be a star at agility (since I've never done agility beyond intro-to level, this is doubtful, but through no fault of said puppy!).  We think puppy's name will be Luxor, but we don't know yet which puppy will be ours as they're assigned by the breeder after they do personality testing.   I found the breeder because I met a dog while hiking up in Lions Head that I just adored and his owner told me about her.  The website is - questionable lol. Dog people and horse people are pretty generally in the same category there.  But what little info was there was good, and communicating with her was solid.   We went out to visit parent dogs and were happy with that so here we are...

Tomorrow, July 2, will be my last day of work at RBC.  The reasons I'm leaving my current role are nuanced, the reason I'm leaving RBC after 11.5 years is simple: return to office.  It takes me 2h-2h15min to commute in in the am, and between 2-3h to commute home in a lovely combo of train + stop&go traffic.   Neither C and I enjoy living in the city so would rather not move (not to mention he works out here!), and, well - work life balance is actually important (see above New Puppy! notification ;)).  They've allowed me to come in once/week for now, but only because there's not enough space in the office yet.  Once there's more space, the expectation is 4-5 days in office and, well, I'd rather not spend my life that way.   So I'm on a new adventure - almost exactly the same role, but for a health tech company.  Will be working w Imaging tech so very excited to learn that business cause, literally, life changing.  Role is fully remote with occasional "fly everyone together" type relationship building - I believe most of my team is in Vancouver.   Some huge green flags here that make me really think I've made the right decision, including that when my boss sent me some pre-read material (at my request), the org chart had already been updated to include me.  It's a little thing, but the little things matter.   

Not even kidding.

So tomorrow is my last day commuting to the office - at least for this chapter.  Then Friday we leave for our vacation to London and then Egypt!!!   Neither of us have been to either, so that'll be exciting.  London is so that C can have his 40th Bday wish of visiting the Black Prince -- or at least what little remains of him; it's also a convenient extended layover to address jet lag before Egypt.   Egypt is cause, well, Egypt!   lol Egypt in July is going to be a degree of hot I don't think C and I can even really fathom right now, but plus side, that brought ticket prices down as it's their offseason.   The same is not true in London ;) 

So when we get back from vacation it unwinds - get home, start new job, bring home puppy.   The only downside is I won't get to go to cottage week this year which is about my favourite week of the year, but not really reasonable 3 days after starting a new job and I'd like a weekend to get to know said puppy before having to manage him/her while working full time.  

So yeah - that's the current chaos.   All good chaos.  And given the heat wave, we're even getting in acclimatization for Egypt temps ;).  Three significant things in one month.  Anybody surprised by that?  Anybody? ;-P

Sydenham: Young St To Dawson Rd

I love these sections

Made use of the Trail Angel service for the first time today.  Really does make this possible for solo hikers who don't live near here since there are no cabs or uber and I really didn't want to walk double the distance!  lol these are volunteers, they meet you where you're leaving your car as an end point and drive you to your starting point.  

Today was So. Much. Road.  At least pretty and quiet but a lot.   Some great mossy-rock paths.  Perfect weather and bug spray did it's job.  No real terrain challenges here.  Such a gorgeous day.

Stats:

Distance: 28.4 km 
Elevation Gain: 551m 
Weather: 5-18 deg and sunny
Duration: 6h 28 min

Sydenham - Owen Sound Loop

There were a number of people in this immediate area

Great waterfall day today!   Mostly next to parking lots 😂 so tended to be a number of people around them (and, wonderfully, clean washrooms!  Such luxury.)  Fairly easy hiking for most of the trip - only one technical section of course right at the end.  Very buggy but wind saved the day.   

Location: Young St to Hwy 6/10
Distance: 18.9 km 
Elevation Gain: 560m 
Weather: Mid teens and overcast
Pace: 16'00