"Caledonia is the Latin name given by the Romans to the land in today's Scotland north of their province of Britannia, beyond the frontier of their empire. Modern use is as a romantic or poetic name for Scotland, as a whole." - Wikipedia When the weather forecast is given on BBC radio, one of the locations in the UK that is mentioned is The Butt of Lewis. Now you would think that the Butt would be at the bottom, wouldn't you? But no, it is the northernmost tip of the Outer Hebrides, on the Isle of Lewis. I suppose if you [View Full Entry]

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There are supposedly 284 peaks in Scotland that are over 3000 feet above sea level. Sir Hugh Munro was the first to publish a list of them, in 1891. Since then, people have been climbing or "bagging" Munroes. There are people who have bagged them all...and it is becoming very popular these days to make it a life goal. So we picked out one that is in the top ten, at 1214 m (3983 feet), from which we were told on a clear day you could see both coasts - the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. Three and a half [View Full Entry]

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We are planning to go to Scotland in August! It's only a 15 day trip so we are not sure whether we'll do a travelblog - that depends if we have any interest from you! If you want one, we'd like to hear form you. Just hit the comment button.... In the meantime if you'd like to learn about how to save money or live greener, check out our other blog at: http://thecanadiangreencoach.wordpress.com/ [View Full Entry]

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Plymouth Rock is tiny! It could fit under a picnic table. We were told that we would be surprised how small the Mayflower was. We weren't - mainly because we had seen the Hector (see previous blog) and the Mayflower is no smaller. But the rock surprised us. It has worn away over the past almost 400 years and is estimated to be about a third of the size it was when Degory Priest et al jumped out on to it. Bill has confirmed that Degory Priest is a ancestor from his maternal grandmother's side. Degory Priest died during that first [View Full Entry]

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The Hector is the little ship that brought 189 Scots to Nova Scotia in 1773, forming the first Scottish settlement in "New Scotland". The Mayflower, most of you will know, was the slightly larger ship that brought 102 people to Massachusetts from England (actually 2 were from the Isle of Man - Myles Standish and his wife). Just as the replica of the Mayflower can be seen and boarded in Plymouth, the replica of the Hector can be seen and boarded in Pictou, Nova Scotia. For those of us who are Canadians of Scottish descent, our own pilgrimage to Pictou can [View Full Entry]

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It's hard to say where the St Lawrence River ends, and the ocean, in the form of the Gulf of St Lawrence, begins. In the whole world, this may be the river for which this question is the most contentious. We're told the water becomes noticeably salty as far inland as Ile d'Orleans but many locals will tell you they consider it a river all the way to Cap-Gaspe, right at the end of the peninsula. Presumably it is even more difficult to decide on a precise spot on the North Shore as there is no convenient and arbitrary peninsula on [View Full Entry]

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The family MacCallum have been Habitants too long! We will be taking the teepee down this weekend and returning to our Voyageur nature. Destination: Ocean. West side of the North Atlantic to be precise. Down the St. Lawrence Valley, around the Gaspe Peninsula, across New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia (Latin for New Scotland) for over a week . Then, after a day-trip to Prince Edward's beautiful isle, we will head south along the coast through New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Little Rhody and Connecticut before turning inland for the trip home. Looking forward to lobst [View Full Entry]

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Visited Countries Map Arrived in the land of Leprechauns on Sunday July 17th. Met up with Grandma Joan who arrived from Montreal an hour or so before, picked up the rental car and drove south down the coast to Arklow. After a few minutes of going around in circles, we found the cottage we had rented on the internet back in December. Turned out to be a fully functional three bedroom bungalow in a little subdivision just 10 minutes walk from the ocean beach. The beach was very nice but the Irish Se [View Full Entry]

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We have now felt a good cross-section of the summer weather the Swiss Alps can throw at you, from barely above freezing blustery rainy days, to clear skies with highs above 30 C. Uncle Thierry and Aunt Helen’s chalet is in Gryon, half way up an Alp in the Dents du Midi range in the south-west of the country near the Italian border and even closer to the French border. The majority of the Swiss in this area speak French, although the signs are usually multilingual. Most products you buy have trilingual labels - French, German and Italian. Some signs, especially [View Full Entry]

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Ah, the cool breeze that hit us when we got off the plane in Stockholm made us feel at home right away. All the coniferous trees, lakes and familiar wildflowers that we saw a few minutes later just confirmed our feeling that Canada was somewhere right around the corner. Not that any of us was really homesick, it was just that it felt so energizing to unexpectedly feel at home so quickly. Landed in Stockholm on June 22 via Frankfurt, Germany. The flight from Hong Kong was fine and the hop from Frankfurt was spartan but speedy. We were whisked away [View Full Entry]

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