Happy Holidays 2006

ENGLAND, WALES AND SCOTLAND:

I set off for Europe on October 8^th, arrived in London, and stayed with my friend David. He lives in Waddon, about a 30-minute train ride from Victoria Station where I spent several days seeing the sites around London and, of course, went to the theater one night and saw Momma Mia, a musical featuring the music of Abba. 

After a few days exploring London, he drove me to Wales, passing through the beautiful Cotswold countryside and the tiny village of St. Briavels where my great, great grandmother was born.  I did some family history research in England and Wales and spent many hours at the county records office in both Gloucester and Cwmbran coming up with all kinds of information about my great great grandparents and their parents.  It is amazing to actually handle the old books that have the hand-written details of your ancestors on their pages.  A lot of the records were on microfiche, which is a time-consuming, blinding job, but it is like a treasure hunt with one clue leading to another - so easy to get caught up in it.  

Then I took to the countryside and traveled to Bath, where I visited the home of Jane Austin.  Bath is a picturesque city steeped in history with Roman Baths being what they were noted for. 

From there I took the bus to visit my friend Jane in the tiny village of Godney near Glastonbury. She was good enough to take me to see the sites throughout Somerset like Stonehenge and Avebury where you can walk amongst the standing stones. 

I continued on to Cornwall where I stayed in St. Austell so I could visit the famous Lost Gardens of Heligan http://www.heligan.com/flash_intro.html  Forgotten after falling into decay when the gardeners went off to war, it was rediscovered many decades later and gradually is being brought back to its original glory.  You can also watch the wildlife going about their daily lives through live cameras hidden in their habitat.  

 

Another day I spent at the Eden Project, an amazing project where they have created three climate zones in huge biomes, which are gigantic greenhouses. Its focus is man’s dependence on plants and the importance of sustainability. It is a fascinating place where you can spend the whole day.  http://www.eden-project.co.uk/   

Wherever I was I tried to make it home for Thursday night, which was Pub Night. David and I would meet up with his brother Michael and his wife Marion sometimes would join us. 

 

I also went south to Bishop Stone to stay with their cousin Roger and his family.  I spent a day in Brighton, and visited the famous Brighton Pier. Roger & Vicki were great tour guides and took me on a wonderful hike over the Seven Sisters, which are beautiful chalk cliffs, along the order of the White Cliffs of Dover.  Their daughter Laura also came to Seattle to visit me in September for a couple of weeks, which was great. 

 

After four months on the continent I returned to London, took the bus up to Aberdeen in Scotland and did more family research on the other great great grandparents. I stayed in the tiny village of Meldrum where the records were kept and spent four days on the research and a day touring around the tiny villages where my ancestors lived until the 1880s. And this past summer I was able to connect with distant cousins that I found through my research when I spent some time in Winnipeg, my home town.  It’s been an amazing experience and a lot of fun.

FRANCE AND ITALY:

I took the ferry from New Haven in England over to Dieppe in France.  Dieppe of course is a very famous town where the Second World War began to turn in favor of the Allies.  Walking along the beach and reading all the memorials is a sobering experience.  Then on to my favorite place in France, which was Mount St. Michel. This medieval village with the Abbey at its summit can be completely surrounded by water at high tide.

 

Paris is an amazing city and the best way to see it is to walk. I walked for hours and hours for four days. Along the Seine River to Notre Dame Cathedral with its beautiful stained glass windows, then the Eiffel Tower, which is incredible day or night – at night there are lights that make the whole structure shimmer.  Standing underneath it gives you an idea of the structural ingenuity of it. I spent one whole day at The Louvre – you could spend a month – it is overwhelming. And was up and down the Champs d’ Elysee several times to see everything I could pack into a few days. 

  

After two weeks in France I headed for Italy where I visited with friends in the tiny village of Casinalbo, near Modena. It was wonderful to be able to use their home as the central point for side trips.  Although it snowed when I was there we had a great time.  The food is incredible, especially the pasta and the Parmesan cheese, you haven’t tasted pasta until you have eaten in Italy. Their village is also famous for the Ferrari Factory and Museum and also the track where they test the Formula One racing cars. They have a friend who is an engineer for the racing cars and it was fun to meet him and hear more about the Ferraris. 

We took a weekend trip together to Cinque Terra where there are five tiny colorful villages that cling to the hillsides along the ocean.  The five villages are linked by train and we had fun hoping on and off the train and visiting all of them. 

Then I set off on my own to visit Pisa, Siena and Florence.  The architecture is so fantastic – you just can’t describe how breathtakingly beautiful it is.  The Leaning Tower of course is a wonder and the architecture so decorative it looks like frosting on a giant cake.  Siena gave me access to a trip into Tuscany and I loved the countryside there.

 

 

Florence is incomparable when it comes to beautiful buildings, statues and museums.

Venice and Rome were also magical.  You can easily get lost in the labyrinth of canals in Venice but every time you turn a corner there is another picturesque scene to feast your eyes on.  St. Marks Square, the Murano Glass, the gondoliers, the museums, and the shopping leaves your head spinning.

                    

Then on to Rome and all the history that you can sense enveloping you.  The old Roman Coliseum exudes the spirits of all those who perished there and walking through the surrounding ruins of the old Roman City is amazing.  One night I was laying in bed and thinking that it is just so hard to believe I was sleeping about 10 blocks from where Julius Cesar lived and about 20 blocks from The Vatican where Popes have lived for centuries.  It is hard to take it all in. 

TURKEY:

For the month of December I headed to Turkey to see Ozgur and his family.  As you will remember Ozgur lived with me in Seattle for 3 ½ years while he was getting his Master’s Degree and he now works in Istanbul for The British Consulate.  It was fun to be there during December and to spend Christmas with my ‘other’ family.  

Even though they don’t celebrate Christmas they had presents for me Christmas Day and I made Christmas stockings for them.  We stayed over at a Hotel for the New Year’s Eve Celebrations.  

I spent two weeks in Istanbul with Ozgur seeing all his favorite places and getting to experience Istanbul with a native before heading for Antalya where his mom, dad and sister live.  We had dinner one night with Erkan and another night he invited us to his home for a wonderful home cooked dinner.  For those of you who know Erkan, he was the friend that came to Seattle for the summer of 1998 with Ozgur and they stayed with me for three months.  He is married now and I met his wife, saw his nice apartment and heard all about what is happening in his life.  (In March they had their first baby).

I also was in Istanbul for the Christmas Party at the British Consulate so that was really fun.  I got to meet the woman who is the British Consul and several of the people Ozgur works with.  It was so interesting to talk to the career diplomats and hear about their lives and their postings around the world. As the evening got going and the music turned to Turkish music everyone was up dancing and we danced our feet off. 

It was so strange to see things decorated for Christmas in a country where they don’t officially celebrate Christmas.  I guess it is mostly for the tourists but the shopping malls are as decorated as anything you would ever find here.  

One day Ozgur took me over to one of the offshore islands and we spent the day at Buyukada Island.  It is a weekend get-a-way where the wealthy have beautiful villas.  There are no cars allowed on the island, only horse-drawn carriages.  It is a charming place and we spent the whole day, walked totally around the island and explored some of the more remote areas.   

Since Ozgur was working while I was there I also explored several areas on my own around Istanbul, saw the touristy places, like the mosques, palaces and markets and usually met him after work for dinner and more exploring.  

 

Since Rahime, his mom, had been here in Seattle with us for three and a half months one time and another for a month, along with Leman, his sister, I felt like I was staying with family. In Antalya, Rahime had a busy schedule planned for me.  She took me to meet her friends, her family, her prayer meetings, and to see the points of interest around Antalya. 

Then we headed for Isparta, where her mother, Ayse and her mom’s sister, Dondu and her sisters and brother live. We also visited some of Halil’s family.  The culture is so different from what I am used to that I found everything so interesting.  Their traditions, their food, and all the little things that make up their normal daily life were fascinating.  We had so many funny things happen since Rahime speaks only a little English and I was constantly trying to figure out what was really going on. And when we went to Isparta only one of her sisters, Sebahat, spoke English so the whole family turned out to see me but had to wait until she arrived to be able to talk to me. 

On one of our excursions Rahime and Leman took me to a beautiful waterfall and another interesting place we went was Mt. Olympus where the ground is actually on fire.  There are underground gases trapped, which combust so that all over the mountain there are continual flames.  It is said that the Olympic torch originated there.  Another day Rahime and I went to a Turkish Bath. Ozgur came to Antalya over Christmas for a week so that was fun and we were all able to communicate much better with our interpreter in residence. 

SPAIN AND THE CANARY ISLANDS:

I spent a month in Spain, including a side trip to Morocco, and another month in the Canary Islands, which is still part of Spain.  My main reason for going to Spain was to see my Spanish friends again.  I stayed almost three weeks with Juan Carlos and his girlfriend Claudia just outside Madrid, and had a wonderful time.  I arrived just in time to celebrate ‘The Three Kings Day’ with Juan Carlos and his family.  We went to a big parade the night before and then arrived early at his mom’s next morning for a cream-filled traditional pastry called roscon which is a big part of the celebrations.  There were three such huge pastries for breakfast with hot chocolate that was so thick you could almost stand your spoon up in it.  Delicious but a real sugar rush to start the day.  After breakfast which is strictly the pastry and hot chocolate, followed by more pastry and chocolate, we watched as Juan Carlos’ little nephew, Felix, opened presents.  In the evening we went to another party with more delicious food and more pastry and I got to see another couple of my friends from when I walked The Camino.

 

Juan Carlos wanted to take me to see more of Spain so he and Claudia took time off work to take me to Chincon, Toledo, Talavera and to the place they are building a home in the country which was fun to see.  

Another weekend we went to visit Jose, another Camino friend, and met his wife Sylvia and daughter Aitana. We stayed the first night in a beautiful condo owned by Sylvia’s parents overlooking the water, had a wonderful dinner, and a great visit.  Next day Jose showed us around Elche where he and Sylvia live, took us to a terrific spot for lunch and then back to his apartment for more visiting.  At night we made our way to Juan Carlos’ parents home in Alicante.  They live part time in Alcorcon (outside Madrid) but also spend time in Alicante. This is a photo of old pilgrims and recent pilgrims. 

I also took some time to visit my friends in Salamanca, Laura and Arbekoa.  I had stayed with them when I went to school in the study abroad program in 1997 and both Arbe and her sister Ainara, who was working at a resort up in the Pyrenees and wasn’t at home this time, have been to Seattle to visit me. I always try to spend a bit of time with them whenever I am in Spain.  

I met my friend Judy in Tenerife, in The Canary Islands, where we spent a month.  We had a beautiful hotel just minutes from the beach, great shopping and lots to do on the island of Tenerife.  The weather wasn’t as warm as we would have liked so there wasn’t too much sunbathing, although if you could find shelter you could soak up the rays during the day.  Tenerife is full of great restaurants and has a beautiful setting.  We also rented a car for a few days so we could explore the other parts of the island.

After spending a couple of weeks on Tenerife we set off for Lanzarote, another one of the islands.  It was totally different but really interesting.  We took lots of tours there.  The main focus of Lanzarote is the volcano, which is still very active.  The tour we took to Timanfaya was amazing, they had dug down about six feet and you could see where it was so hot underground that it was actually on fire.  The restaurant cooks all its food on a barbeque pit.  They don’t have to build a fire because the ground is naturally on fire down in the pit all the time.  The tour up through the craters was stark but beautiful colors to the land and big open craters, which you can see as you climb to the top of the mountain. 

We also went underground to some of the grottos, saw blind crabs that don’t need eyes because they live in total darkness for their entire lives, explored the caves, and took in some of the tourist shows. Then I was back to Spain and in a few days back to London. 

MOROCCO:

I’ve always wanted to go to Morocco and since I was in Spain and had some extra time I decided the time was right.  I joined a tour, which was organized from Madrid so everything was in Spanish.  It was a bit of a challenge but I met Maria and her father, Raphael and they helped me whenever I couldn’t understand what was going on. We had a great time together and saw quite a bit of Morocco in the eight days we were there. 

The tour began in Marrakech.  It is an amazing place, the market is full of colorful sights, sounds, smells and everything has an exotic flavor.   After a full day of sightseeing we went to Che Ali, for a traditional dinner inside a huge, beautiful tent.  The tents are decorated with comfy cushioned benches and the food was delicious.  After the dinner we went outside where we gathered around an arena for the ‘espectaculo’.  We were entertained with traditional music, dancing, fireworks and demonstrations of horsemanship.

Next day we were off early to Casablanca to see the magnificent Mesquita de Hassan II and then on to Rabat, the capital city where we had lunch and visited the Royal Palace.  After a full day of sightseeing we stayed in Fes.  Next morning we were up early for our full day tour of Fes.  We began by climbing the hill to overlook the city, which was capital of Morocco for four hundred years.  Under the French control it was preserved against modern development and is the oldest and largest medieval city in the world. We visited the areas where they dye the leathers; tried on beautiful kaftans, saw craftsman hand tooling beautiful plates, the ceramic factory, weaving shops and carpet sellers. 

At night we went to a nightclub featuring belly dancing and entertainment and found that we were part of the entertainment.  It was fun to watch everyone trying to belly dance.  Part way through the evening they brought out costumes and everyone dressed up.  We all had a great time and I got some good footage of everyone on my video camera.

Next day we climbed through the mountain pass and before long were into the snow.  We couldn’t believe there could be so much snow in Morocco.  You always think of it as being in the Sahara Desert. We spent another interesting day making our way through the mountains, stopping at a huge oasis, learning about the Berber people and experiencing another part of Morocco. 

The following morning we were up at 4:45 am with half an hour to get ready for our trip out into the Sahara Desert for the sunrise.  We drove for an hour in a 4 x 4 jeep.  There was no road, just sand as far as the headlights reached.  Every once in awhile the driver would turn off the headlights completely and we figured that somehow he was getting his bearings.  I don’t know if the sky was brightening in one direction or he was navigating by the stars but we finally arrived to find our camels awaiting us.  We rode our camels out into the sand dunes for about 20 minutes and then dismounted and climbed to the top of a sand dune to watch the sunrise.  The desert is so quiet and peaceful.  The sand is as soft as silk and there is nothing but sand for as far as your eye can see.  I loved it. 

We spent the next couple of days touring around more of the countryside from Erfoud to Rissani and then to Quarzazate before heading back over the mountains to Marrakech.  It was a wonderful tour and I learned a great deal about the country and its people even though everything was in Spanish.

SUMMER, SEATTLE AND FRIENDS:

 

My friend Renee was here for five weeks this summer.  She is writing a book about our walk across Spain on The Camino de Santiago and I am one of the people who is reading the manuscript for corrections so that is really fun.  The whole experience comes alive again as you read what we did each day and see The Camino through her eyes.  My Camino friends are all still very much in my life and we are planning a Reunion in Europe in May so I am hoping that will materialize and if so I will try and arrange some other travel destinations around the Reunion.

Also while Renee was here she helped me buy my new MAC and editing program because she knows a lot about video editing.  She made a five-minute documentary about our trip to Mount St. Helens on my new equipment.  In the photos you will see her interviewing Lyn, the friend that looked after my house for six months while I was gone, with Mt. St. Helens in the background.  The mountain is active again and has built another dome and while we were there it was actually smoking.  We also went to Sequim to see the Lavender Farms.

Andrea, Cheryl and I went to the Bainbridge Island Garden Tour  and  saw some incredible gardens.  

On one of my visits to Winnipeg I was able to track down and meet some of my relatives that I have uncovered from my family history research.  You will see a photo of my grandmother’s cousin, Ivy, who will be 100 years old on January 6, 2007.  It was so special to be able to meet her. She was able to confirm a lot of the family history I have uncovered and add some to it.

I also got together with three of my girlfriends from way back when and they have decided to come visit me next April so I am really thrilled about that.  It is so much fun to keep in touch and have these reunions.

I spent a fun week in September with my friend Barb.  She is also a friend from The Camino and she got married on the beach, in the full moon, and asked me to video her wedding.  We had a lot of fun as we all stayed at her brother and sister-in-law’s bed and breakfast in Comox, B.C.  They were the best hosts. Leonard makes his own wine and Gladys is the world’s best cook so we thoroughly enjoyed our time together there.

One of the people that I am going to miss a lot is my aerobics instructor Sean.  It is thanks to him and his workouts that I have been able to climb the mountains in Peru, bike across Cuba, walk across Spain and any number of adventures I have had during the past twenty-five years that I have been attending his classes.  He is off to New York to find his fame and fortune and although I’m trying to replace his workouts with something else I doubt keeping fit will ever be the same. 

And finally you will see four friends who have shared ‘Forty-Years of Friendship’.  They are my former (never use the word ‘old’) roommates and we got together to celebrate this year at the Semiahmoo Resort near Blaine, Washington.  I put together a DVD of photos of our friendship over the years from the send off at the CPR Train Station in Winnipeg in 1966 through our years of sharing an apartment, skiing at Mt. Baker, husbands, children, trips together and all the reunions we have had over the years.  

Friendships are the treasures we build up over our lives and I am happy to say that my treasure chest is FULL.  So I wish you all, friends and family, the best for the coming year and look forward to the times our lives touch in the coming year.