aaron smith75

We decided to do all of our highland sightseeing in one day so we headed up to see Loch Ness and then drove over to the west coast through the spectacular highland scenery to Elain Donan castle. We then headed south toward Oban and ended up staying at a B&B that was right on the banks of a loch and had a pub that served great food but the midges were after our blood and we couldn't enjoy the view of the loch as long as we would have liked. ... read more

Since farewelling Phan's family in Canada we have visited the Altimiras in London, seen the sights there and caught up with some of our friends living in and around the city. We went to have a look at Buckingham Palace and there watched the guards do their march back and forth as they do every 5 minutes or so but one of the guard's front foot slipped forward on the pebbles but he just managed to recover himself before he ended up on the ground. He looked very embarrassed. There was a bit of activity inside the gates with people driving in and out of the palace we walked up toward the gates and overheard a policeman tell a little girl that if she waited 10minutes she would see the queen leave. That got Yary ... read more

Belfast was an interesting place to visit. The city was dead after 7 in the evening (legacy of the troubles??) Took a black cab tour of the divided catholic and protestant communities and Phan and I went back later and wandered the catholic area and looked at some murals the tour didn't go past and I got a haircut on Falls Road. Seeing the "peace wall" with the houses along it with plastic windows and explosive deflecting cages was disturbing. So was seeing the cage windowed pre-school of the next generation who will grow up with this physical seperation from their neighbors which will only reinforce the differences and hatred surely. We spent 2 days looking around Belfast and one day driving up to the giants causeway and visiting Derry. The northern coastline was pretty and ... read more

Downtown Vancouver Caught the Skyway into Vancouver and when we arrived at Waterfront Station headed down to Gastown precinct, known for its eateries and art sellers the brochure enthused. Walking along just out of station noticed a lot of homeless people around the place. Window shopped down the street and ended up at the statue of the Gassman some local pioneer character named for his storytelling, decided to keep walking to Chinatown. Passing a LOT of homeless along the street, next street I could see ahead that the homeless were in even greater numbers crowding the sidewalk. We quickened our pace with Phan clinging to her Aunt and me hoping they would just keep up without me having to yell “Lets get out of here, run for it!”. OK, next street has to be better...no it ... read more