Panchoy
Barry Kaiser Joined: October 1st 2009
Logged in: November 29th 2011
Logged in: November 29th 2011
In 1989-90, I cycled around the world, where I visited 5 continents, 22 countries, and logged 22,000 km, I thought that would take the travel bug out of me -- not a chance. I have been cycling in different parts of the world nearly every year since.
The one thing has been consistent with my trips has been the developing world. The colour, hospitality, food, and culture (in no particular order) are second to none. For cyclists, there is also the added benefit of so much life on the roads to keep the day's ride that much more enjoyable.
Travel Blog Posts
Basilique du Sacré-Cœur
After my trip to London this summer, everything was just a bit easier this time. The real highlight of this trip was Paris though. It has been over 22 years since I was there, so it seemed like a new city to me. We stayed in the Montmartre neighbourhood which had a Bohemian feel to it with cobblestone streets, cafes, restaurants, and shops. Space, as defined by the distance between two tables at a restaurant or cafe, is certainly smaller here. At a number of restaurants, tables would be moved in and out for a person. It did make for some interesting conversations though, because you almost felt you were at the same table with other patrons… I now have a new appreciation for French cuisine. All of our lunches and dinners were fabulous! There were ... read more
Borough Market
It had been 12 years since I was last in London, so this trip felt like I was visiting a new city again. You know you are getting old when you have to revisit cities because you have forgotten the original experience... I'm visiting London this year, because Shauna has been transferred here with work until the end of January. She found a flat in Chelsea in between the Holland Park tube station and Westfield Shopping Mall. I guess years of scoping out the hotels paid off with this search. The only problem is that she is right on a busy street, so the traffic can be a bit disturbing especially on her huge patio (I swear it is as big as her flat...). The first day was spent walking around the neighbourhood and checking out ... read more
Architecture - Old and New
We choose Barcelona because of what Shauna had heard from friends and colleagues in London. I hadn't been to Spain before and I knew it would have at least some flamenco to watch. After a quick two-hour flight we had arrived in Barcelona. It is amazing how close everything is in Europe. No wonder there are so many Brits that vacation here. Easyjet (UK's version of WestJet) had flights to all kinds of places in Spain that I have never heard of before. Talking about Easyjet, they have some interesting rules. For one, there is only ONE piece of hand luggage that can be carried on. It doesn't matter how much it weighs, but it has to be no bigger than the standard carry-on size. That included things like purses! Those had to be stored in ... read more
Stag's Leap Vineyard
Another fluffy trip... This will be the third in the last year... Shauna is getting her way too much. We headed right to Napa upon arrival in San Francisco. I'm not sure how renting a car in the US could be any easier or cheaper. I was able to rent a car for $15/day with unlimited miles... I could barely get downtown in a cab for that price. The drive out to Napa took us a little over an hour, but it was a nice drive after we left greater San Francisco. Yountville is small and quaint, but it is right in the middle of wine country. If one loves food and wine, this is the place to be. The culinary side reminded me in some ways of Antigua with a combination of great produce and ... read more
We spent Saturday in Houston. The car rental experience was fabulous and it was still cheaper than taking the bus into and back from town. We even rented a GPS, which was a great idea. The freeway system is fantastic here. Outside of breakfast and lunch we shopped at The Galleria (the West Edmonton Mall of Houston). Shauna got a second wind and went a bit nuts with her Christmas shopping. On our way back to the airport, we stopped at Pappasito's Cantina, which was recommended by someone at our cooking school in Rio. Portions of food and drinks were huge, but the service was fantastic. Even the manager came over to apologize for how long our meals were taking, which is unheard of by Edmonton standards.... read more
Botanical Gardends
Friday was travel day. We had an hour flight to Rio. Unfortuntaley, we had to go back to the international airport, which meant a more expensive cab ride. This airport is tired looking, as it was built in the mid 80's. Airline competition is alive and well in Brazil. A number of discount airlines compete with the national airline TAM. We went with an airline called Webjet, which was partially owned by Ryan Air out of Ireland. A funny thing occurred before we took off. A young lady boarded the plane towards the end. After she had a bit of difficulty finding room for her oversized handbag, the stewardess put her in the cockpit for the remainder of the flight! She must of have been an employee or relative of one of the pilots -- I ... read more
Sunday Market
We arrived in Sao Paulo Saturday morning with low expectations. I knew that unless the food was over the top, we would likely be disappointed with the city, as I hadn't heard anything overly positive about it. One thing became apparent very quickly and that was how expensive it is here. We actually found it more expensive in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro than we did in Tokyo last year... I'm not sure if that is more indicitive of how bad things are in Japan or how good they are in Brazil. On first impression, Sao Paulo didn't have that boom feel to it like a typical Chinese city does these days. I really didn't even see a construciton crane in the sky... Most of the buildings looked like they were built from the 1950's ... read more
Church
We couldn't have asked for better weather for our last three days here in Sofia. Temperatues reached the high teens and overnight temperatures were warmer than the they have been since Alexandroupolis. The rain even stayed away. I was able to where my shorts on Friday eventhough I was probably the one person in the city doing so. We spent Thursday doing most of our sightseeing. Because Sofia is so small, almost all of the major attractions were very central. We really lucked out this time, because our hotel was close to the tourist attractions and shopping. We may have lost out on the souvenier shopping in Istanbul, but we had a better shopping experience for clothes here in Sofia (we changed our trip from Istanbul to Sofia because of the prevailing winds in Western Turkey). ... read more
Village Scene
Total Distance Cycled: 854km over 9 cycling days The forecast for Tuesday and the rest of the week was suppose to be nice, but overnight and into the morning there was no sign of that. I'm not sure if we had even seen the sun since a week ago Sunday. We took our time until there was some confirmation that the weather was starting to break. It finally did, and we were off by 9:30! We found a side road for the first 25km that avoided the main highway that had driven Shauna bit nuts the other day. The road was VERY quiet, but the it reflected that, as in places it wasn't in great shape. We did get a chance to go through some small villages, though, and it was certainly a better experience than ... read more
Cyprus
Total Distance Cycled: 672km We seemed to had a window to cycle on Saturday. It was warm and overcast, but no rain, so we went for it. Other than climbing out of the hole we had in Kavala (on the coast, but totally surrounded by hills), the ride was pretty good and we did have the aid of the wind for most of the day (that makes three in a row now :-)). This was certainly our second best bike day of the trip so far. Just like the other day from Komotini to Xanthi, we spent most of the day riding along the hills of Northern Greece, but just high enough that we get a good view of the countryside below, but with little traffic so we could actually enjoy the ride. Serres was our ... read more
