Hello, Pittsburgh!

We slept in a little bit this morning. All that driving and then all that socializing made for a long day yesterday. But we sure did have fun with Connie and Barry in the short time that we were there.

Hyatt Place Pittsburgh - North Shore

The Hyatt Place Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh is fairly new. It opened it's doors in December of 2010, so it's less than two years old. If you're visiting downtown Pittsburgh for any reason, it's all about location!

Beavertown, Pennsylvania

Well it was a long driving day, but we arrived at our destination. And have been having a blast ever since! You'll notice that we're a little late posting the days events, but at least it's being done. Better late than never!

Road trip!

This will be the last time you hear from us until Monday evening. I think that for the next couple of weeks we're going to try and post the blog in the evening rather than in the morning so that we can get an early start each day.

Two more sleeps!

Almost ready to go. Got a few more things done yesterday. Had a great day with our son Alex, played some pool and watched some playoff baseball. Not sure when we're going to see each other again because we may not make it back to the Ottawa area next spring. Good thing for video over the internet!

Fantastic Cruise Deal

Just happened across this fantastic deal and thought I would mention it just in case anybody can take advantage. There are thousands of Canadians who go to Florida for the winter and I'm sure many of them fly. Here's a great way to get down there a little differently...

Getting ready to go...

We arrived here in Galetta, Ontario on Monday evening. So that gave us only about six full days to see all of our friends and relatives in the area as well as prepare the little blue car for the long journey into Mexico. We head out of here this coming Monday morning, October 22.

Montreal Walking Tour

We purposely planned our VIA Rail trip from Halifax to Ottawa so that we would have a stopover for the day in Montreal. We had such a short time, but we made the most of it and we were lucky that it didn't rain so we were able to be outside pretty much the whole time.

VIA Rail Part 2

When we left you in yesterday's post, it was Sunday night and we were on the VIA Rail train somewhere between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Montreal, Quebec and we were just going to sleep. The beds were comfortable enough and we both agreed that the pillows were really good.

VIA Rail Part 1

Lindsey and Justin and Cameron drove us to Halifax yesterday morning so that we could catch our 12:15pm train “The Ocean” which runs from Halifax to Montreal. It was a Sunday, so there was very little traffic on the roads and we made it with lots of time to spare. There’s a big grocery store right beside the Halifax VIA Rail station so Ruth went over there to get some snacks for the train ride while I went in the station to collect our tickets that had been reserved in advance.

The Pumpkin People of Kentville

A nice fall day yesterday, but with a bit of a nip in the air. In fact, it felt colder here than when we were in Iceland! Mid October is definitely the time of year you want to be getting out of Canada if you don't like the cold. Winter is on it's way, and I heard from both my mother and my son yesterday that they had snow flurries in Ottawa yesterday morning!

Which hotel in Reykjavik?

We did something a little different for accommodation during our five days in Iceland. We stayed in five different hotels! A different one each night.

Sometimes you have to relax!

And that's just what we're doing right now. This is our week off from traveling so we're simply enjoying spending time with our daughter Lindsey and her family. The weather has been just "okay" here in the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, so we haven't really been going out that much.

Heys ePac17 Roller Backpack Review

We just spent four months traveling Europe using these relatively small backpacks as our only luggage, so this is as good a time as any to tell you what we think of them so far. First, we'll bring you back to June 7, 2012 when we received these laptop backpacks so that you can have a look at our first impressions.

Iceland - Things You May Not Know

We learned a few things during our five days to Iceland. Some facts we were already aware of,  and some were a surprise. But it's an interesting country to visit and we thought we would share some of the things that we thought you may not know of.

CenterHotel Thingholt

Our last night in Reykjavik was spent at CenterHotel Thingholt. The hotel is located on a side street in the central core and the building that houses it is a fairly drab looking concrete building. On the outside.

Goodbye Iceland, Hello Canada.

We took time to relax yesterday morning, something we haven't done for the last five days. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Iceland, but because we were only there for five days we kept going all the time to see as much as we could in that short period of time. So we had no firm plans yesterday, other than our flight to Canada which was scheduled to leave at 6:40pm last night.

Iceland Golden Circle Tour

We were up early again yesterday because Reykjavik Excursions was picking us up at our hotel at 8:30am for the Golden Circle day tour. This is one of their most popular tours, and if you only have a short time in Iceland then it's a good way to see some interesting sights that are fairly close by.

CenterHotel Plaza

We made our way over to the CenterHotel Plaza on Friday evening. Due to the timing of our tours, we weren't able to spend much time in the hotel...just sleeping and a quick breakfast in the morning.

The Wonders of Snaefellsnes

This morning we were up bright and early and Reykjavik Excursions picked us up at our hotel just after 7:30am. We had to get an early start because we were headed out for a twelve hour tour!

Reykjavik Grand Excursion

We were going to spend most of the afternoon on a tour bus, so we figured we had better get some exercise this morning. You can't go to Iceland without experiencing their local thermal pools, and there are five such pools in Reykjavik alone.

CenterHotel Arnarhvoll

Our second night in Reykjavik was spent at the CenterHotel Arnarvholl, a slightly more upscale hotel in the Reykjavik downtown area.

Wandering around Reykjavik

I know you've already seen pics from our Elding whale watching tour but we had to tell you how the rest of our day went as well! We woke up to a mostly sunny sky, and it stayed that way pretty much all day. Temperature was a bit warmer, maybe 10C (50F), but still very windy.

Whale Watching in Iceland

We signed up with Elding Whale Watching this afternoon for an adventure at sea! They picked us up at our hotel at about 12:45pm and it was only a short drive over to the marina here in Reykjavik. But when we got there, we were told we were going for a longer bus drive.

CenterHotel Klopp

Here in downtown Reykjavik, CenterHotels operates 5 different buildings and we're going to give you a profile of each one! Our first night was at the Centerhotel Klopp.

Iceland update

We're going to be pretty active over the next four days so you'll probably see more than one post per day from us. That being the case, our regular readers might want to back up a post or two and make sure you haven't missed something!

Hello, Iceland!

We were up at 6:00am this morning, and our hosts in England drove us to Hereford train station. Our train arrived and departed right on time, and by 8:00am we were watching the green English countryside wizz by.

Last day in England.

Well, today is our last day in merry old England. You're not going to see another post here until we actually arrive in Reykjavik, Iceland and get settled in at the CenterHotel Klopp.

Five years worth of financial expenses.

We started keeping detailed track of our financial expenses in October 2007. That was the month we sold our house and started living full time in our motorhome.

Well that was a productive day!

You have to love it when a plan comes together. We had a lot of things we wanted to accomplish on our day trip to the city of Hereford and we got all of them done without a hitch!

More Trip Planning

We're getting spoiled with a continuous source of quality internet access! So I've been making the most of it and doing a lot of planning for the next five weeks. Of course you all know that we're headed for Iceland next week, but the rest of October is going to be busy as well!

House Sitting

Well, only a couple of days left in our current house sitting assignment. This is the first time we've looked after a pet as part of the job, and we really enjoyed it. Have you considered house sitting? We thought we'd tell you how we got into it, and what our experiences have been like.

Want to save on car insurance?

It's actually pretty easy and most people could pocket at least a couple of hundred dollars a year by making a few simple phone calls.

Bond...James Bond

Well it's been raining on and off here for the last three days. I don't think it ever stopped on Monday, and then right through the night. We have managed to get out with Harvey though, even twice yesterday. But it's wet and muddy up on the common.

Slovakia on $43 a day.

When we think of Slovakia now, we think of hiking. Slovakia is a hiker's paradise! We were in Slovakia between August 14 and September 3 for a total of 21 days and we went hiking on 13 of those days. A beautiful country, and we will return someday!

Czech Republic on $28 a day.

Reflecting on our six and a half weeks in Central Europe. We arrived in Prague July 23, and departed from Budapest September 7. We spent three weeks in Czech Republic, three weeks in Slovakia and four days in Budapest, Hungary.

The Top of Sugar Loaf Mountain

It was only a short 5 mile (8 km) hike yesterday, but it took us to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain which gave us some beautiful panoramic views. With the wind it was still a bit chilly, but we were lucky that it was a nice sunny day for the most part.

Another Border Hike

Last Tuesday we went for a hike along the Wales/England border in the Black Mountains. Yesterday, we headed about an hour south of here to do another border walk along the River Wye near the village of Tintern, Wales.

An Interesting and Productive Day

Started off with a haircut yesterday. For those of you who don't know, Ruth used to be a licensed hairstylist. In fact, that is how we met...she cut my hair! But of course all of her haircutting supplies were left inside Sherman (our motorhome) when we left Mexico in May.

Bought a new coat!

When we came on this trip across the pond, we only brought the necessities, and we figured it was summer anyhow. So I only had a light sweater and a light jacket. But it's starting to get cool here. Highs now are only around 16C (61F), and if there's a wind or we're out hiking at higher altitudes it gets chilly!

100 Meters Underground

We had a busy day yesterday. After taking the dogs for a walk, we headed into the city of Abergavenny, Wales. It's a small city, with a population of around 15,000 and Tuesday's are market days.

The leaning church of Cwmyoy!

Our hike yesterday started off in the village of Llanthony, Wales. There's a public car park at the Llanthony Priory, a ruined monastery dating to the 1100's. It was about a half hour drive to get there, and it was about 11:00am when we set off.

Castles in Wales

The official Wales website says that there are over 600 castles in Wales. That is more per square mile than any other country in the world. When you figure that Wales is about the size of the state of Massachusetts, that's a lot of castles!

Where we are staying is less than two miles from the border of Wales, and we visited there yesterday.

Iceland?

You may have noticed that we are going to Iceland! I don't know why, but I've always wanted to go to Iceland. It's not really a place that you make a point of going to though. But we were trying to figure a way back to Canada, and this interesting deal came up.

Harvey has a friend!

We did our normal morning and afternoon walks with Harvey. Still exploring different trails from the house, so we don't have any need to go any further afield yet. I got the hoover (vacuum) out and did some housework. Ruth did the bathrooms and got the other bedroom ready for Tony and Helen. And she baked some chocolate chip cookies!

A visit to Dore Abbey

Dore Abbey is near the village of Abbey Dore. It's only about 1.5 miles from the village of Ewyas Harold where we are staying, so yesterday morning's walk with Harvey the dog took us over the common area and down to the Abbey.

Tipping

Three months ago today, we arrived in England. Since then, we've also been in Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. And, we've eaten in more restaurants in the last three months than we have in the last three years!

Three ponies and a pig!

First of all, thanks for all of your thoughtful and helpful comments regarding yesterday's blog post. There sure is a lot of tugging back and forth sometimes between your heart and your head!

$500 and counting...

How much would you pay to fix a 20 year old cat? Many of our regular readers will remember that when we set off motorhoming five years ago, we gave our cat Molly to my sister Elaine. Molly was already 15 years old at the time, and we didn't think she would readily accept the transition to living in a motorhome.

Our flight with Jet2.com

We had the opportunity to fly with Jet2.com for our recent trip from Budapest, Hungary to Manchester, UK. There are a lot of discount airlines buzzing around the UK and Europe, so it's interesting to try one out first hand to see what some are doing differently from others. Here's our review.