What are we planning on packing for our 24 night stay in Egypt over Christmas Break? Packing light is key given airline baggage restrictions on domestic flights, the fact that we will be on the move throughout Egypt and, needless to say, our ageing backs. To pack light, you have to pack smart. Our challenge: Have enough room for souvenirs when we only plan on taking one 22x16 suitcase and day pack for each Travelling Canuck! Guidelines for Packing Here are some guidelines that the Travelling Canucks are using to pack smart: Consider weather, destinati [View Full Entry]

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Find out what precautions we plan on taking and how we are handling booking private tour guides and tipping. For our itinerary, travel and accommodation plans, check out our previous blogs! Travel Safety With food and fuel prices rising over the past year and the ever deteriorating state of the economy, there have been protests and increasing security concerns. Being aware of the political, cultural, and economic environment and what's happening when in Egypt and always being vigilant is important in keeping safe. In addition to avoiding demonstrations and staying away [View Full Entry]

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After spending hours studying travel guides, searching the web, and reading travelers' reviews on Trip Advisor, here is how we plan to spend our 24 days in Egypt! While we are sharing some of our tips on planning our itinerary and booking hotels as well as our picks for hotel accommodation and Nile cruise before we head off to Egypt, check back to see whether our picks met expectations. Check out hotel reviews on Trip Advisor in January 2009 by Vancouver Mukluk! Our Itinerary Here is the Travelling Canucks' itinerary: City of Alexandria on the Mediterranean co [View Full Entry]

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10 weeks and counting....and we will be heading off on our Egyptian adventure over Christmas break! Touring around Egypt, immersing ourselves in Egyptian history and experiencing Egyptian culture are definitely going to be a highlight of 2008. Not to say that 2008 hasn't been an interesting year so far! Thankfully, Papa Canuck's gall bladder won't be a problem because he doesn't have one anymore! We are just hoping for a full and speedy recovery since he is in charge of baggage handling when he takes a short leave of absence from his new and electrifying job! Mama Canuck can't wait to [View Full Entry]

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At last, the Travelling Canucks are back home in Vancouver, Canada after a 4 week trip over Spring Break to the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco from March 14, 2007 to April 9, 2007. Now, it's time to reflect before it's time to return to work and school, get our visa bill in the mail, and our vacation becomes a distant memory. Thankfully, over 2000 photographs were taken by the Travelling Canucks to enjoy. We have selected some of our favorites to share with our friends and over 1000 visitors to our travel blog to date! As you have followed our journey [View Full Entry]

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Arrived at Madrid Barajas Airport, one of the bigger airports we have flown into on Tuesday afternoon. Terminals T4 & T4S , which are celebrating their first anniversary, are very impressive! Older terminals, T1, T2 and T3 are drab. Took the metro to our hotel, Hotel Room Mate Mario, a trendy Spanish hotel chain with reasonable room rates for Madrid, centrally located near Plaza de Oriente , Teatro Real and Palacio Real. The Madrid metro is cheap and efficient; however, carrying luggage up and down stairs is a definite negative! We ended the day by hitting our favorite tapas bar at [View Full Entry]

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Taking the 30 minute AVE train without any stops made the day trip from Madrid to Toledo doable after over three weeks of travelling with exhaustion setting in! Toledo, the spiritual and intellectual capital of Spain, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. By taxi, we drove past Puerta de Alcantara, the town's oldest bridge dating back to Roman times, as we headed from the train station to the walled town of Toledo, with Roman and Moorish architectural influences. We started our self-guided tour of Toledo at the Alcazar, which is unfortunately closed for renovations, since it is at the h [View Full Entry]

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For our first day-trip out of Madrid, we took the picturesque train ride from Madrid to Segovia. As the train approached Segovia, the temperature had dropped from 8C to below 0C and it was snowing in April! So it doesn´t only mainly rain on the plain in Spain, it snows! We were freezing cold and Segovia was tourist-free! Having left Madrid at 8:ooam without breakfast, we headed off to the first open coffee shop at 10:00am! After 4 lattes, 1 orange juice, and 5 croissants between us, we finally could feel our toes and hands again (short-lived)! Although Mama Canuck was [View Full Entry]

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After a 3 hour train trip from Fes, we rocked the Kasbah in Rabat! Release of a New Mukluk Music Video will hopefully be premiered in Madrid! Come back to Rabat Blog for private screening! We entered the Kasbah by the Bab Oudaia, gate of the Kasbah, and toured the walled Kasbah with a self-appointed guide (100 dirhams later, we were thankfully ceremoniously dropped off at the Andalusian Gardens). The Bab Oudaia, which is considered to be the most beautiful in the Moorish World, lived up to expectations, although the gate was closed (along with most other tourist sights across Morocco) [View Full Entry]

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We took the train from Marrakech (southern city) to Fez (northern city) and saw the cities of Casablanca, Rabat (capital city), Menkes from afar, arid regions, lush countryside, farms fenced in by cactus, glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean, more satellite dishes than we could count, and two camels! A time to relax before visiting Morocco's first Imperial City, Fez, the ancient capital and centre of religious and cultural life in Morocco. The city with a hat named after it! Not completely unexpected, the trip took much longer than anticipated. Due to the Prophet's birthday, the Mouloud, which i [View Full Entry]

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