Day trip to North Macedonia. Country number 53

There is a monastery complex located just across the border between Albania and North Macedonia that Helen and Tony wanted to see, so we drove the short distance to the border, and walked across. 

We could have driven the rental car across, but we would have had to pay €40 extra for insurance coverage so we didn't feel it was worth it.

It's always good to stop and smell the roses

We were all up early as we looked forward to sitting on our balcony patio to watch the sun come up over the mountains.

Pogradec is a popular beach town in the summer, even though the beach is on a lake and not the sea. Beach season here has pretty much passed though because Pogradec gets a little cooler by October whereas the seaside is still warmer.

We're on holiday for the next two weeks!

Sunday morning, we were up at silly o'clock (3am) for the two and a half hour drive from Tony and Helen's place to London's Gatwick airport in order to make our 9am flight to Tirana, Albania.

What a great day to be leaving England. It rained most of the way to the airport and was pouring down as we got on the plane.

We had a fair bit of travel expenses for the month

Well, another month has gone by and here we are at October 1st!

Just a recap... we started September in Nova Scotia and then flew to Ottawa for a ten day visit. From there, we flew Montreal to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to London. We spent 4 nights in London, then took the bus to Leeds where we bounced around for just over a week. Then took the bus to Bristol and spent a week in the village of Keinton Mandeville.

5 Fun Activities to Do in Ontario During the Fall Season

Summer may be over, but that doesn’t spell the end of great outdoor activities in Ontario. The province boasts plenty of fun things to do that are specific to the fall season. 

Discover a few of the awesome activities autumn in Ontario has to offer!

We love visiting castles!

So with our new English Heritage pass in hand, Helen drove us all over to Old Wardour Castle near Tisbury, England. 

Just to give you some basic history of the building... Old Wardour Castle was built in the 1390's. It was partially destroyed and abandoned during the English Civil War of 1644. 

What's a castle without a moat?

We had been to the town of Sherborne before... when we visited Helen and Tony way back in 1987. But that was 35 years ago! So we wanted to return.

Tony is still working this week, but Helen took us for a drive. Our first stop was the old castle ruins. We have a few photos from when we were there in 1987, and it probably hasn't changed at all, but we like castles.

The cliffs on England's Jurassic Coast

England's Jurassic Coast is a 95 mile (153 km) stretch of cliffs on the south western coast of England. It is so named because of the number of fossils and rock formations that date from the Jurassic period around 150 million years ago.

There are a lot of walking trails in the area, in fact you can walk the entire 95 miles if you wish, staying at accommodation in villages along the way. 

Good news, and glorious views!

We'll get the good news out of the way first! The tax refund credit for our new laptops that we bought in Norway finally came through. 

One of the reasons we bought our laptops in Norway was because we could claim back a credit of the big 25% tax rate there. It turned out that because of the forced involvement of a third party company (Global Blue) that supposedly makes things easier, you only get back a portion of what you should have got back. But it was still enough to make the final purchase price better than what we would have had buying the same items in Canada.

Great food and lots of laughs

Sunday was roast lunch day, so we spent the morning visiting with Helen and Tony and their son Stu and his girlfriend Harriet. Then their daughter Kelly showed up with her boyfriend Wayne.

The roast pork was smelling delicious and we were all hungry when lunch was served!

I had just about given up

On Saturday, we did the long bus ride from Leeds to Bristol. But first, we had to get from the village of Wyke back to the city of Leeds. So at 9:45am we said goodbye to Steve and Glen, and their daughter Claire and her husband Richard. We had a great week, thanks again for having us! We wonder when and where we will meet up again!

Our bus came on time and it was £2 ($2.95 CAD, $2.20 USD) each for the one hour ride back to the Leeds city bus station.

Sights around Halifax, England

The four of us were on the bus just after 9:30am heading east to the small city of Halifax, Yorkshire (pop 88,000).

On the outskirts of Halifax is an estate property called Shibden Hall. The original part of the house was built in 1420, and it was continuously occupied for over 500 years from 1420 to 1933.

Reuniting with Max

It was a rain day yesterday, and I had to work for a couple of hours so we never left the house. Even sat and watched a few trivia game shows on the television in the afternoon! 

But, I also got our trip back to Germany organized.

A good day sightseeing around the city of Bradford, England

We went with Glen and Steve yesterday morning and took the local bus into the city of Bradford. It's £2 per ride, but they have a full day pass for £4.50 ($6.85 CAD, $5.10 USD) each so we bought two day passes with the idea that we might do more than two rides.

We started off with a walk in Peel Park, then a wander around the central downtown area, then lunch out, then a walk up to Lister Park and Cartwright Hall.

You have to watch out for these things

So we're out for another walk yesterday afternoon and a young guy rides up on a bicycle and asks directions to somewhere. He's got no backpack or things with him, so he's obviously local. 

My immediate response was to say "We're not from here, sorry I can't help you". 

But there was no way I was taking my phone out. 

The curry capital of Britain

It was a bit of a drizzly morning here in Wyke, England and with the Queen's funeral taking place it seemed like a good time to do some computer work while glancing up at the television every now and then.

It was interesting watching the procession running through areas where we had been walking only a week or so ago.

Back together with Glen and Steve

Cousin Beryl cooked up a nice English breakfast for us... bacon and sausage and eggs and beans and toast. Nice to set off on a full stomach, and we wouldn't need much lunch. 

Our bus to Leeds left at 10:15am, but that gave us a few minutes where she could drive us around town for a bit of a sightseeing tour before dropping us off at the bus station.

A quick trip to Hull

We took the train from Leeds to Hull yesterday. About an hour ride, and the cost was about £7 ($10.60 CAD, $8 USD) each. Given the choice, we do enjoy the train more than the bus, but the bus is often cheaper. 

We were in Hull to meet up with my mother's cousin Beryl and some of her family. I don't have many relatives on my mother's side of the family since she was an only child, so it's good to keep in touch with the more distant relatives.

This was unexpected...

We had been told of a different kind of walking tour here in Leeds called the Leeds Owl Trail. Apparently there are at least 25 different owls located around the central area in statues and often well hidden in ornamental displays. You can download a map, which I did, but it was difficult to follow, so we stopped by the tourist info office where they sell you a paper one for £1.

So we set off looking for owls.

London to Leeds by bus

I had bought our bus tickets back in mid July. Very often there are some good discounts involved when you buy that far in advance, and that was definitely the case this time. We paid only £7.14 ($10.75 CAD, $8.15 USD) each for the four and a half hour ride with Megabus. And that included £2 each extra for reserved seating so that we were guaranteed to sit together.

Departure time was 11:00am from Victoria Coach Station in downtown London. We left Auntie Nice's house just after 9:30am and that gave us lots of time to get to the bus using train and underground.

The Regent's Park flower gardens and more London architecture

You would think that our legs would be tired from all the walking we've been doing here in London. And you would be correct! But yesterday we set off walking again anyhow, this time towards The Regent's Park to see all the flower gardens.

It had rained much of the morning, but it cleared up nicely after lunch. Which was good news for all the people with the ambition to see the King and his sons walk behind the Queen's casket as it made its way from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall. We had no such ambition. 

The Regent's Canal, and off to the theater

We walked over to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park where the 2012 summer Olympic Games were held in London.

It's an interesting walk to get over there from where Ruth's aunt lives in Hackney because you follow the Regent Canal almost the whole way and there are people living on house boats.

An interesting day in London

Slept like a rock on Sunday night, as was expected after a long travel day and a five hour time change. 

We tried to get out of the house in time to get to Buckingham Palace for the 11:00am changing of the guard ceremony, but it was so busy that we would have probably had to get there at 7:00am in order to get a decent spot to view it. Yes, Buckingham Palace was crazy busy.

Arrived in London, England

Our British Airways flight from Amsterdam to London was right on time. That was the 8th different airplane we've been on since August 5th, and other than a couple of minor delays, they have all gone smoothly. 

So considering the horror stories we all read about with regards to flight delays and cancellations this summer, I guess we were pretty lucky. Especially considering we connected through both Amsterdam and Toronto airports which were two of the worst offenders.

Made it back to Amsterdam

Writing this at Amsterdam airport waiting for our flight to London, England.

When we originally booked these flights back in mid March, we had no idea what we were doing or where we were going upon our return to Europe, so making our way back to Amsterdam left us with a lot of choices. You can get to just about anywhere from Amsterdam. Then of course, we decided to head to England for a few weeks, and needed a little puddle jumper flight from Amsterdam to London, a forty five minute flight.

We are off to London to visit the King

Our vacation to Canada is over, and it's time to get back to our normal life. For most people, that sentence means heading back home and going back to work! But for us, it means heading to a different country, and returning to our life of full time travel.

So, this evening we get on a flight from Montreal to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we have a six hour wait for our 45 minute connecting flight to London City Airport.

Back to the old neighborhood

We headed to the Ottawa suburb of Orleans yesterday afternoon. This is where we lived and brought up our family for about 18 years from 1989 to 2007. We actually lived at three different places during that time, but the most recent and longest one was the house we bought and owned from 1993 to 2007.

But first, we made a stop at the bank.

Bought some tickets to the theater

We had more visitors over for lunch yesterday, but before they came we wanted to get out and do our power walk for the day. They've got one road on our route blocked off for new culvert, so we decided to take a different route for a change. 

But I didn't plan it in advance, we just sort of took off.

Lots to talk about with friends...

We're having great weather here for our visit to Ottawa. Highs of between 24C to 28C (75F to 82F) for the week! We'll take it. The kids may be back in school, but it's still summer for a little while yet.

We're only here until Saturday, and it's been an abnormally short visit to Ottawa since we spent so much time in Nova Scotia. But we've been busy every day seeing friends or family, and sometimes both friends and family.

How we travel long term with carry on luggage only

We belong to a facebook group called Senior Nomads. One of the discussions that often arises is how people travel long term using only carry on luggage. And there are lots of people who manage to do it, but there are still lots of people who travel with what we would consider to be too much stuff.

But of course it's a personal choice, and a lot depends on your travel style. Many people travel long term and stay for a month or more at each location. This means they are not often having to lug all of their stuff around. But when they do have to move, most of them will readily admit that it's a difficult and frustrating thing to do.

Working at McDonald's?

We're not doing anything super exciting, so I've been taking a bit of a break from the daily blog writing. Don't worry though... we will get back to our regular routine of travel in a week or so!

I also haven't been taking many photos. We're just kind of taking it easy and visiting some family and friends here in Ottawa. But there are a few I'd like to show you...

Mexico this winter?

Yesterday we said goodbye to Lindsey and family in Nova Scotia. 

Our flight from Halifax to Ottawa was uneventful. It's only a short flight, about an hour and forty five minutes but we were on an older Bombardier 400 turboprop with 76 seats. Its really not the most comfortable airplane, and it's noisy.

September is here!

Wow, here we are at the start of September. August feels like it just flew by, and September will likely feel the same for us. We have lots of fun stuff planned for September. 

And, our time here in Nova Scotia is up. We've had lots of fun with daughter Lindsey and her family. The grandkids kept us busy. In fact yesterday we went to really cool swimming hole.

August Expenses

As we expected it to be, August was an expensive month. 

We spent $4,729 CAD ($3,602 USD) for the month. And we had predicted that it would be a $4,000 month, but it came in slightly higher than that. 

We started the month near Max's home base of Dulmen, Germany and ended it near Halifax, Nova Scotia. And in between, we were in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Cabri, Saskatchewan, and Calgary, Alberta!

A fun day at Atlantic Splash Adventure

It was granddaughter Sadie's 9th birthday on Monday, so we packed a lunch and drove over to Halifax to the Atlantic Splash Adventure amusement park about 50 minutes away.

The weather for this type of activity was perfect. Sunny, with highs about 26C (79F). Even I went on the waterslides a couple of times, and I'm not much of a water person!

This kept the grandkids busy for a few hours

Ruth and I took the grandkids for the day to give Lindsey and Justin some free time to get the house set up the way they want. We packed a lunch at set off to the Ross Farm Museum.

This was our third visit to Ross Farm. We first came here in May 2011 when we were here for grandson Cameron's birth. That visit was just Ruth and I with our dog Whiskey when we had our motorhome Sherman. 

The highest tides in the world

Yesterday, Ruth and I took a drive up to Hall's Harbour. It's just a tiny fishing village on the north shore of Nova Scotia on the Bay of Fundy.

The Bay of Fundy hosts the highest tides in the world, and they are most evident at Hall's Harbour because of the way the docks are designed. 

The fog lifted, and we had a great hike to Cape Split

Our daughter Lindsey and her friend Tina arrived about 9pm on Wednesday night. At 16 hours, a long drive for them from Ottawa but they both said they felt it went by fairly quickly.

Tina is only staying two nights then she is flying back to Ottawa Friday afternoon. She really only came to keep Lindsey company on the drive. But she still wanted to see some of the area, so we decided to go do the popular Cape Split Trail.

Fun with foreign exchange

Nothing special going on. We're just hanging out in Greenwich, Nova Scotia waiting for our daughter to arrive. She's driving here from Ottawa today. It's a long (15 hours) drive to do in one day, but she's coming with a friend of hers, so they are sharing the driving.

Yesterday we drove to the nearby town of Berwick with granddaughter Sadie. Grandson Cameron went to visit with his other grandfather for the night. 

I think if we lived here I'd buy a season pass!

We were trying to find something different to do with the grandkids. We looked into whale watching, but most of the tours leave from the area west of Digby and it's too long of a drive to do there and back the same day. We also looked at go karts, but the only facility is near Halifax and it's closed for renovations.

Until we came across this...

Trail closed

Son in law Justin took the kids to his sisters place yesterday after lunch, so we had some peace and quiet around the house. It was a warm afternoon, but later in the day we decided to go for a walk on the popular ravine trail in nearby Kentville.

We were surprised when we got there that there was nobody around. 

Off to the beach

We've got some summer weather on the go here in Nova Scotia this weekend. Highs of around 28C (82F) with blue skies and sunshine. 

So yesterday, we took the grandkids to the beach!

I found another great option for travel medical and trip insurance

I've been a big proponent of Heymondo travel insurance for the last couple of years, but that company has recently changed their program so that the plan that we want isn't available to our age group. So I've been shopping around.

They make this stuff so complicated and time consuming to figure out. You have to read through all of the options and then the fine print to know what you're covered for and what you're not. I've spent a lot of time on this, and here's what I found...

Having fun with the grandkids

Took the grandkids to the park yesterday. While we love traveling, we also miss them and are happy to see them. Hopefully this winter they'll be able to visit us wherever we happen to be so that our time apart won't be so long. 

It had been ten months since we last saw them!

Made it to Nova Scotia

Well so far, we've been impressed with the punctuality of our flights. We've been on five different airplanes in the last ten days, and other than our Amsterdam to Montreal flight which was delayed by about an hour, the rest have all been pretty much right on time.

Even our connection flights through Toronto's Pearson Airport went really well yesterday. 

Made it to Ottawa

But we're not staying. 

Writing this at Ottawa airport as an overnight connection. We flew in from Calgary last night, arriving at just after midnight, and our connecting flight to Toronto leaves at 6:45am this morning. Then we have another connecting flight to Halifax later this morning.

Another beautiful drive through the Canadian Rocky Mountains

The boys were all up early, and we had decided to go out for breakfast before we left Jasper. We went back to the same restaurant we had dinner at on Saturday night. Dinner had been overall good, and the reviews said that breakfast was good as well.

Unfortunately, the breakfast was not the same experience. Very average, and our waitress wasn't very good. And at $21.50 CAD ($16.70 USD) for a very average coffee, bacon, eggs, home fries, and toast, it was definitely overpriced. 

3 Excellent Reasons to Have a Destination Event

Everyone enjoys events. Whether it is a birthday, wedding, a get-together of friends, or a company affair, events are celebrations and a chance to enjoy in the company of other guests. An event is even more unique and fun when held in a different location, away from the usual venues. A destination event is something most people look forward to with eager anticipation, an opportunity to experience something new, relax, and have fun.

Fun times in Jasper with the guys

Just to give you some background, I worked at a summer family camp when I was 16 years old in 1978. There was a group of about ten of us guys who worked at that same camp who got along really well, and we were close friends back in the day. 

We have kept in touch over the years, and have attended each others weddings and kept in touch through family events and children and sometimes divorce. 

Drive to Jasper with the guys.

I got on the road at 9'00am with the boys for the drive to Jasper. It's just over five hours from Calgary to Jasper taking the route through the mountains on the Icefields Parkway.

Absolutely spectacular scenery, and of course I love the mountains to begin with. Only one problem... I was doing the driving, so I wasn't taking pictures along the way, so don't have too many to share.