GoneAgain

It was time for a break, so I headed out west where my son and I got to spend some time together AND explore the outdoors of beautiful Banff. My original travel plans took a bit of a u-turn with the threat of a strike by Air Canada. Instead of flying directly from home to Calgary, I spent a day driving to London ON to connect with a Westjet flight. That worked out fine since I have family there so the return home included a stop over and Thanksgiving dinner. Banff is a little over an hour west of Calgary, where my son lives, so this was a very manageable trip. We arrived in Banff on a Tuesday afternoon and got the lay of the land. Wednesday morning saw us up Sulphur mountain via gondola (yes, ... read more

A week in Calgary and the Badlands was a good break, and apparently timed in the midst of some great weather. This was just prior to the start of the Calgary Stampede, and there were some good deals to be had. For the first three nights I stayed in downtown Calgary right near the beautiful Prince's Island Park - a direct result of those great deals - relaxing and pampering myself. One evening we went to Body Works, that travelling display of actual cadavers that have been plasticized for preservation and educational purposes (!) and attended a terrific lecture by an orthopedic specialist afterwards. Another evening we went to Shakespeare in the Park for a unique presentation of Othello by the Mount Royal University College drama department. A day of shopping and then we hit the ... read more

*On our last day in Istanbul, we spent some more time wandering around Sultanahmet, sat in the Blue Mosque for a while, and had a local hot drink made of milk, honey, and a variety of spices. As we were getting ready to head back to our hotel before flying out the next day, the Blue Mosque's muezzin started the call to prayer, and my son got this video. Note the dog near the end, who isn't bothered by the volume at all. Our final day here and we cannot believe how quickly the time has gone (or how much ground we covered in the process!). After a slower start this morning we headed to the Archaeological Museum - and by slower start I mean we weren't at the museum until about 9:45 :). We ... read more

We really enjoyed Canakkale - a small town that was easy to explore, in a beautiful setting. It is southwest of Istanbul (about a 6 hour drive) and located right on the Dardenelle straits which run between the Aegean and Marmara seas. Our first morning we visited the city's fortress which is also the Army and Navy Museum. It was built in the 15th century with 9 foot thick walls in certain sections (ie the officer's quarters....!). The grounds are well maintained and now include a lovely garden area overlooking the mouth of the Dardenelle. The day we were there, a large number of new cadets were being toured around as part of their training - perhaps this is why we were assigned a young officer (well, maybe not an officer) who gave us a guided ... read more

Ephesus was a major trading centre in the pre-Christian era, and on an important trade route. As a port city it offered, in addition to business pursuits, brothels, theaters, temples and one of the world's largest libraries. Plus a huge shopping street (the Arcadian Way) apparently offering goods from throughout the Mediterranean. In pre-Hellenic times it was the cult centre of Cybele, the Anatolian goddess of fertility. Seafaring Ionians arriving in the 10th century BC re-purposed her as Artemis, goddess of the hunt. By the 2nd century BC, Ephesus had become the capital of the Roman province of Asia and Artemis had been renamed Diana. Ephesus eventually became Christian, but of course not without a struggle. My guidebook notes: The Gospel of Luke recounts how the city's silversmiths drove St. Paul out of Ephesus for fear ... read more