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The Royal Yacht Britannia was the personal yacht of Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family. Built in Scotland, it was christened in 1953 and decommissioned in 1997. It sailed all over the world and served as the queen’s lodgings in ports of call. The yacht also served as the vessel for several honeymoons in the Royal Family, and it was a favorite locale for Royal Family gatherings. They especially enjoyed summer holidays among the islands off Scotland’s west coast.

Britannia is now permanently docked in Edinburgh and is open for public tours. We enjoyed seeing this large and lavish yacht and getting a glimpse into how the Royal Family lives. Britannia had a staff of over two hundred, including a Royal Marine Band who served double duty as divers to check the hull for explosives in foreign ports. Everything had to be perfect for the Royal Family. For example, the dining silver was polished every day, fresh flowers were always on display throughout the ship, and cleaning and repairs were completed before 8 AM each day so as not to disturb the Royal Family.

The tour is comprehensive so we got to see all parts of the ship, including the royal residences, the kitchen, the staff quarters, and the engine room. The yacht even had its own rather large laundry so that every piece of fabric and clothing would be clean and pressed each day. Part of the ship has been converted into a restaurant so we had our lunch onboard.

On one of our first days in the city we took a walk around New Town, the heart of contemporary Edinburgh. New Town was a planned community designed to accommodate Edinburgh’s increasing population. It was built in stages between about 1770 and 1850, and the streets generally follow a grid, unlike Old Town which meanders down the hill from the old castle. The streets of New Town were laid out to provide sweeping views of the magnificent buildings on the hill in Old Town. New Town retains much of its original Georgian period architecture.

New Town is filled with shops and pubs so we enjoyed strolling and window shopping. We stopped outside the Queens Arms Pub to peruse the posted menu and an older Scottish lady stopped and asked if we were looking for a good pub. She recommended a couple of her favorites and we chatted for awhile. The Scottish people seem very warm and friendly. On several occasions people have stopped to chat or to ask where we’re from.

We ate at the pubs that the lady recommended and we went back to the Queens Arms for their Sunday roast, which includes roasted meat (usually beef) plus all the trimmings, including Yorkshire pudding. Sunday roast is an afternoon pub tradition throughout the UK. One of the pubs we tried on the lady’s recommendation was the Bailie Bar in Stockbridge, a neighborhood just to the northwest of New Town. It turned out to be a wonderful crowded neighborhood pub, and the food was good. The waitresses had very thick Scottish accents and we could barely understand what they were telling us. We somehow ordered some beers but we’re not sure what they were.

We took the train to Edinburgh from London, a pleasant five hour trip through the green English countryside and then along the southeast coast of Scotland. Edinburgh is an old city with a medieval castle dominating the downtown skyline, high on the top of a volcanic crag. We’ll talk more about the old city in a subsequent blog post but this post covers our new neighborhood and some of the things we have discovered there. As always in our travels, the most interesting things are the little things.

As the population of Edinburgh expanded in the 18th century the leaders planned a new section of the city to the north of the castle called New Town. Beautiful Georgian architecture and small parks dominate New Town, and many people consider it to be the most beautiful part of the city. Our apartment is in the northern part of the new area, on Elm Row in the Leith Walk district just to the north of Calton Hill (for those of you who may know Edinburgh). Our building was built around 1820 and, of course, has been remodeled with all the modern conveniences such as indoor plumbing and wifi.

Our apartment is below street level, with a small courtyard at the entrance and another small courtyard in the back. Semi-basement apartments are common in older buildings throughout the UK, and they are very pleasant. Our location is perfect – off the beaten tourist path but close to anything we might want to see. About a dozen bus lines stop right at our corner.

We have enjoyed exploring our neighborhood and seeing how things are done in Scotland. The photos below show some scenes in our neighborhood. Click on the first photo to begin the slide show.

On our way to our next apartment in Edinburgh, Scotland, we flew to London and spent five days there as tourists. We had never been to London so it was an adventure to explore this beautiful city. Our hotel was in the borough of Islington, to the north of central London and not far from the Kings Cross Railway Station of Harry Potter fame. Islington is a trendy neighborhood with lots of good restaurants, which we enjoyed. Coincidentally, it is also home to a yarn store that Carrie wanted to visit. Our midwinter visit to London was like springtime, with sunny days and high temperatures around 60F. The locals were out in the parks enjoying the weather. One day toward the end of our visit registered the highest wintertime temperature ever recorded in the UK, 20.6C in Wales. The record was broken the very next day!

On our first day in London we were a little bit tired and jet lagged so we opted for an easy day and a boat cruise down the Thames to Greenwich. It was a warm and sunny day so we sat on the top deck and enjoyed seeing the sights of London from the river. Lunch was street food from a Thai food vendor in the Greenwich Market.

On another day we took a bus tour of London. Our stay was brief and London is huge so a bus tour allowed us to sample many parts of the city in a single day. London is indeed a spectacular city.

We spent a day at the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, about a 30 minute train ride outside of London. Originally a royal palace garden, Kew has been a public botanical garden for almost two centuries. It has beautiful landscaping and several large conservatories (greenhouses) that house exotic plants that would not be able to survive the harsh English climate. The gardens are a short walk from the train station through the village of Kew, and along the way we passed a small bakery selling their baked goods at an open air stall. We couldn’t resist a couple of English meat pies so we bought them and had them for our lunch as we were enjoying the gardens.

We spent one day in Westminster, near the Parliament buildings. We especially enjoyed a tour of the Churchill War Rooms, an underground bunker beneath one of the government buildings that was used for six years during the German bombing of London during WWII. The bunker had everything needed to run the government, including office space, a map room for charting the course of the war, and eating and sleeping accommodations. There is also a small museum dedicated to the life of Winston Churchill. After lunch we toured Westminster Abbey, which houses the graves of many famous British figures. Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018, is buried next to Isaac Newton. Hawking’s most famed equation describing the black hole is inscribed on his gravestone. Westminster Abbey is often crowded with tourists but we were fortunate to be there on a decidedly uncrowded day. It was a midwinter weekday, plus there was a taxi strike demonstration in the adjacent Parliament Square so the tour buses could not get near.

On our final day in London we visited the Tower of London, almost a thousand years old. It was the center of old London. During its history it has served as a royal residence, the Royal Mint, the London Zoo, a prison, and the site of many famous executions. It also houses the Crown Jewels, which are very impressive. Beefeaters in full costume provide entertaining tours of the tower grounds. Legend holds that ravens provide good luck to the tower, and a small group of ravens lives on site, with one wing clipped to allow them to fly only short distances to perch. The ravens seem accustomed to people and will perch close by. They have a distinctive guttural call.

We chose to spend the winter in sunny California. We began with a couple of weeks in the Sacramento area, which allowed us to do some chores (appointments, visiting our storage unit, etc.) and to celebrate Andy’s December birthday. We rented a house in Orangevale, across Lake Natoma from the historic Gold Rush city of Folsom. We enjoyed walks along the lakefront and we even saw bald eagles nesting in a tree not far from our house. We also had a chance to see beautiful Christmas decorations on a stroll through the upscale “Fabulous Forties” neighborhood in Sacramento. The neighborhood association goes all-out to decorate the entire neighborhood for the holidays.

We spent Christmas with our family in Camarillo. We rented a small house in Silver Strand, a half block from the beach in Oxnard, and Andy joined us there for a few days. We took along Christmas stockings and some of our decorations to make the place look like home for the holidays.

We spent January in San Diego. Carrie’s cousin lives in Las Vegas and she and her husband have a condo in San Diego that they generously let us use for a month. We drove to Las Vegas to have a short family visit and to pick up the keys, and then we were off to San Diego. The condo is on the edge of downtown so we had an urban experience, which was very pleasant considering that San Diego bills itself as “America’s Finest City.” We enjoyed the shorts-and-t-shirt weather, making it seem more like spring than winter.

We took long walks almost every day. One of our first treks was to the Tijuana River Estuary, a wildlife sanctuary at the ocean, just north of the Mexican border. The river begins in Mexico and flows northward into the US, where it empties into the Pacific. The delta wetlands are a natural bird refuge, but we didn’t see many birds on our visit. The nearby hills of Tijuana form an urban backdrop to the idyllic wildlife preserve.

We walked in La Jolla several times. There is a long walkway along the ocean front at the top of the cliffs. We looked down on sea lions and birds at the beach.

We took a day trip out to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, about a two hour drive east of San Diego. We had never been to this park so we wanted to take advantage of it while we were in San Diego. The park preserves a beautiful piece of California desert land. It seemed like the Palm Springs area might have been before development took over. We enjoyed an orientation at the visitor center followed by a desert hike after lunch.

We had never been on campus at San Diego State University (SDSU) so we decided to take a walk there on a weekend when it wasn’t crowded with students. We were very impressed with the beautiful campus. SDSU is over a hundred years old and it features a number of old buildings built in the mission architectural style. Beautiful southwestern gardens are interspersed among the buildings.

Our friends Sue and Leo came to San Diego to visit Sue’s college friend, Mary, and we all spent the day at the San Diego Zoo, one of the finest zoos in the world. We had not been to the zoo in many years so it was fun to return. We also enjoyed several of our daily walks in Balboa Park, the home of the zoo. Balboa Park hosted the Panama-California Exposition in 1915 to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, and most of the exposition buildings remain. It was a treat to walk through the park and see these magnificent old buildings.

***Please note that WordPress has created a new format for adding images. They can now be added between paragraphs, and not just at the end of the text. So be sure to scroll all the way down to see all the text and photos for this entry. To view larger photos in a slideshow, click on the gallery. Happy viewing!

We left Quebec in mid-October to begin our cross-country drive back to California, and just in time, too. A few days before we left the snow removal contractors began placing their metal stakes at the entrances to driveways that they had been paid to plow after each snowstorm. The stakes are about four feet tall! It seemed like a perfect time to head south.

Our first stop was Rhinebeck, New York, about a hundred miles up the Hudson River from New York City. Rhinebeck is the home of the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, the highlight of the North American knitting calendar and the main reason for our trip to the Northeast. We spent a full weekend at the festival, blessed by crisp fall weather and beautiful fall colors. We saw hundreds of vendors’ exhibits, a sheep dog demonstration, and lots of sheep, alpacas, and rabbits. Carrie was in heaven and was able to reconnect with some knitting friends and make some new ones. She hopes to see some of these folks again at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March. Charlie, not a knitter but always a naturally curious person, found the festival to be fascinating and would like to return sometime.

On our return trip to California we stopped for a few hours in Kettering, Ohio, just outside Dayton, to explore the neighborhood where Carrie lived as a child. Her old house is still there and is in good shape but the neighborhood looked very different. It was a new development 60 years ago with no tall trees, only new saplings. Now those saplings are mature shade trees.

We made good time driving across country so we could arrive in California in time to housesit (and catsit) for our friends Sue and Leo while they were on vacation. Their house is far outside of town near Paso Robles so we enjoyed the peace and quiet. Carrie especially enjoyed living with a cat again.

Next we drove north for a quick visit with Andy and then we headed south again to spend a couple of days in Palm Springs. We hadn’t been there in many years and we wanted to see it again. We enjoyed seeing all of the well-preserved mid-century architecture, a feature of Palm Springs.

Then we were off to Ojai for another round of housesitting and catsitting for our friends Betsy and Bob. Their house is quiet and serene, with birdfeeders off the patio to attract a variety of birds. Unfortunately, we thought we were being helpful visitors when we threw the old Thanksgiving turkey carcass into the trash can outside after several days in the kitchen trash. But, a local bear must have smelled it and raided the can, strewing trash all over the driveway. You’re welcome, bear!

After our visit to Ojai, we made a quick stop in Santa Barbara and then traveled back north to Paso Robles for a Christmas party with our dear friends from Food Group. Purrkins was happy for all the extra attention.

One of the highlights of our stay was watching the L.A. Kings hockey team play in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. Hockey is huge in eastern Canada so it was a treat to experience it.

We began with a Thursday evening game at the Bell Centre in Montreal, the epicenter of hockey (although folks in Toronto would dispute that claim). The Montreal Canadiens have won 24 Stanley cups, more than any other team, and their banners hang all across the ceiling of the arena. In their pregame show they project team photos of all 24 winners on the ice. Our game was the season home opener for the Canadiens so they had special ceremonies for that, and they also honored the 1993 team on the 25th anniversary of their Stanley Cup. Kind of hard to believe it’s been 25 years since the Cup was in Canada.

A game in Montreal is unique because most of the announcements are in French, with English translations thrown in here and there. The national anthem singer sang the first stanza of “O Canada” in French and the second in English. You hear French all around you in the stands.

On Saturday we drove over to Ottawa for the Kings’ afternoon game with the Ottawa Senators. The arena in Ottawa is out in the suburbs, adjacent to the freeway right next to an auto mall. Quite a contrast to Montreal, where the arena is right downtown (we took the Montreal subway to that game). Announcements in Ottawa are also in French and English, since many fans come over from Quebec, but the vibe was more that of English-speaking Canada.

In the parking lot before the game Charlie started chatting with a man wearing a Kings cap. As it turned out, he and his wife are the parents of Tyler Toffoli, one of the Kings’ players. They had driven up to Ottawa from their home in Toronto for the game, and they will attend Monday’s game in Toronto, as well. The Kings have more Canadian players than any other NHL team, most of them from Ontario. Many family members attend the games when the Kings play in eastern Canada. It was a special treat to get a glimpse into the Kings family.

Our third and final game was in Toronto. It’s a five hour drive from Montreal so we made it an overnight trip. We stayed in a downtown hotel so we could walk to the arena, about a mile. Toronto’s downtown is modern, clean, and safe, but no surprise there – it’s Canada!

Like in Montreal, the arena in Toronto is in the center of the city, adjacent to their very busy train station. There is extra excitement in the air when the arena is right downtown. The arena is rather new and very large, and it has an adjoining outdoor plaza where fans gather for big games to watch on a huge big screen TV. The staff that runs the jumbotron in the arena seem to have a good sense of humor. Whenever the Maple Leafs score a goal (which, unfortunately, was four times during our game) they show a few hilarious short clips of movie and TV stars (and cartoon characters) jumping up and down, dancing, hugging, etc.

 

Louise Penny is an author who has written several mystery novels set in the fictional village of Three Pines, inspired by villages in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, about 70 miles southeast of Montreal near the border with Vermont. Carrie is a big Louise Penny fan, as are our visitors, Chris and Reed. We took a day trip to explore the region. We began at a tourist information office in the village of Sutton, about 8 miles north of the Vermont border. They had lots of information on Louise Penny, as her novels have become a focus of tourism in the region. The attendant in the office said we might actually see Louise in our wanderings and that we should say hello, as she is very friendly. Alas, we didn’t see her.

We stopped by a nearby picturesque village church that had been mentioned in the novels, and then we moved on to the village of Knowlton (called Lac-Brome in French) for lunch. After lunch we visited the local book store, Brome Lake Books, which has an entire section devoted to Louise Penny. The bookstore also appears as a fictional setting in the books.

Later in the afternoon we visited the Abbey of Saint-Benoit-Du-Lac, overlooking beautiful Lake Memphremagog. The priests at the abbey specialize in making cheese and we purchased some to have for dinner later that evening. The cheese from here is also served at Gabriel and Olivier’s bistro in Ms. Penny’s books.

We finished the day with a visit to the Domaine Bresee Winery. There are quite a few wineries in the Eastern Townships. Their wines are not great by California standards, but they are quite good considering the harsh winter conditions in the region.

Perhaps most importantly, we enjoyed beautiful crisp and sunny autumn weather, and the fall colors were stunning throughout the day. For a bunch of Californians we experienced the most spectacular fall colors of our lives.

Our friends Chris and Reed came to visit for a few days and one of the highlights was exploring Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal). The city was founded in 1642 and the old original part of the city is preserved in a few blocks along the St. Lawrence River. While walking through the streets one can imagine what life might have been like in those early years (although I doubt that they had souvenir shops back then). We did some strolling and some shopping and we ate lunch in a small cafe.

After lunch we drove to the top of Mount Royal, the highest point in the city and the inspiration for the city’s name. Mount Royal offers a beautiful view of downtown and it has a network of forested walking trails that are heavily used by the locals. There is an old chateau building at the top with a large ballroom-type interior.

The next day we went back to Vieux Montreal, this time by boat. During the summer months a ferry operates from Longueuil to Vieux Montreal. The owner of our rental house told us that the ferry affords a spectacular view of the Montreal skyline and he was right. We were fortunate to catch the ferry on its last weekend of operation before the winter stoppage.

We took a couple of day trips while we were in Montreal, one to Quebec City (the old French colonial center) and one to Ottawa (the national capital of Canada).

Quebec City is very old, dating back to the early 1600s. The old central part of the city is set on a high bluff overlooking the St. Lawrence River, and it has a network of winding, narrow streets. It reminded us of old cities we had seen in France.

We took one of those hop on/hop off bus tours which allowed us to get an overview of the city. We don’t usually take tours, but this one seemed like a good idea because Quebec City has a rather confusing layout, with parts of the city on the bluff and parts near the river (with steep hills to climb!). We enjoyed the tour, even though it was cold sitting outside on the top of the bus. On the first circuit of the tour we found a place we wanted to explore more, the Joan of Arc Garden, so we hopped back on the bus and went there for a longer visit. The garden has an impressive display of flowers but a special highlight was a display of Halloween art throughout the garden. The Joan of Arc Garden is part of a large public park preserving the Plains of Abraham, the site of a decisive 1759 battle between the British and the French that led to British control of Canada.

On another day we traveled to Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. We went out of curiosity and didn’t have any expectations, but as it turned out we were very impressed. Parliament Hill, the center of Canada’s government, consists of a spectacular array of Gothic Revival buildings, built in the 1860s. The buildings are impressive from any angle, but especially as viewed from the bluffs overlooking the Ottawa River.

Adjacent to Parliament Hill is the Rideau Canal and its network of beautiful parks and walkways overlooking the locks. The canal was opened in 1832 to provide Canada with a reliable connection between the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario as a precaution in case of war with the United States. In the winter a section of the canal passing through central Ottawa becomes the worlds largest and second longest skating rink. We don’t intend to return in the cold Canadian winter to check it out.

Also adjacent to Parliament Hill is a large statue commemorating Canada’s fallen veterans in all of its wars over the past hundred-plus years. Canada seems to be very proud of their military, and rightly so. Canadian troops have fought side-by-side with US troops in all of our major wars. Canadians were especially crucial in the battles that led to the end of WWI, a hundred years ago. We were fortunate to be at the statue during the changing of the guard, complete with uniformed Canadian soldiers and a bagpiper in kilts. All of the military commands were issued in both English and French.

We walked past the US Embassy, a massive building reflecting the close relationship between our two countries. The embassy is heavily fortified, with barricades along the street to prevent any sort of car bomb attack. Unfortunately the architecture is very uninspiring, especially in contrast to the spectacular nearby buildings on Parliament Hill.