Home » Articles posted by ygtravellers (Page 9)

Author Archives: ygtravellers

Day 5 October 10

Posted on by | Leave a comment

What A Royal Day!

We toured London seeing the highlights from the bus. Many of the highlights shown had royal significance. We ended that tour at Buckingham Palace with the witnessing of the Changing of the Guard. Pretty impressive when you realize how serious the guards are taking their role. The Queen was in residence today at Buckingham Palace.

Upon finishing that tour, we travelled via bus to Windsor. We had lunch in the little town with a tour of the castle which I thoroughly enjoyed. The place was jumping with activity in preparation for Princess Eugenie’s wedding on Friday. (Prince Andrew’s daughter). We were told that the Queen was expected at anytime, but she didn’t show while we were there. Darn!

We saw the chapel where Harry and Meghan tied the knot and the place where Charles and Camilla were allowed to have their civil service.

Just a lovely royal day!

Tonight we will return our Oyster card (subway cards) for a refund and prepare for our train ride to Edinburgh tomorrow. London is a favourite of mine. I just love to drink up all the “Royalness” and history. The similarities between Canada and the UK is so obvious. We really are just an infant country in terms of our pasts. Infant or child to the mother country. I know, mom, you think I’m weird for loving the history of it all, but I just love it!

As we drove back to the hotel today, we saw many dogs in the parks. I always marvel at how many people here have dogs, let them off leash and the dogs just come back to them. My Sophie, the Jack Russell and avid “hunter” would be gone for days I’m afraid if we let her off leash in these massive parks.

I’ve also decided that as much as some of you know I am a huge Darian Durant fan, multiply it by 100 times for the Royal family.

Day 4 October 9

Posted on by | 1 Comment

Today was a wonderfully relaxing day! We debated between going to Greenwich and Warner Brothers Studio to see the making of the Harry Potter movies. Neither won out. We jumped on the tube, went to Westminster and strolled down the banks of the River Thames in the Queen’s Walk. We stopped for hot chocolate and hot whisky, saw Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and Tower of London, walked across London Bridge, jumped back on the tube to Covent Gardens for a late lunch and met up with our tour group for supper. Tomorrow we visit Windsor Castle! It has been a delightful way to celebrate 25 years of wedded bliss (you can’t see Allen rolling his eyes ). Interesting observations:

British people are quite slim and trim, but eavesdropping on conversations on the tube, they can swear like sailors.

The sea air must cause humidity, because my hair is totally having a mind of its own over here. 🤪.

Lots of school groups of all ages around. Seeing the little ones with their smart uniforms makes them all seem so refined. Saw lots of older ones being dragged into the Globe Theatre looking tortured. Pretty much the same look on YGS students’ faces when we would read Shakespeare’s pieces.

Did our Griswald pic of Big Ben Parliament, but Big Ben is shrouded in scaffolding for repair until 2021 then Parliament is supposed to be fixed. They may not be seen “naked” together for a long time.

Upon walking under London Bridge there was a restaurant playing “London Bridge is Falling Down”. That could probably be considered torture to the employees.

Day 3 October 8

Posted on by | Leave a comment

Happy 52nd wedding anniversary to Allen’s parents, Rod and Faye!

Today we toured St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. Informational and interesting in-depth explanation of both beautiful places. I still get chills seeing the giant doors of St Paul’s and have memories of Lady Diana going in and coming out Princess Diana. I also noticed a statue within that instantly reminded me of my BIL Dean. 😊. The Abbey was quite impressive with the explanation of coronations of kings and queens. Good thing I have watched “The Crown” in such detail.

Had a good English pub lunch with more fish and chips and ale.

Churchill War Rooms were on the agenda for the afternoon. Windstorm was quite an icon who could be a little cankerous when he wanted.

After having our fill of history for the day, we strolled down to Buckingham Palace. I just love it! I’m not sure if it is infatuation with the royal family or what, but I just love it!

We navigated the tube on our own to return to the hotel. “Mind the gap”!

Day 2 October 7

Posted on by | 1 Comment

Whew! We arrived around 630 this morning. Our chauffeur was waiting for us, swept us to the hotel where we could check in immediately. A quick shower and we were off with great enthusiasm. “Just a short walk” to Kensington Palace had us rethinking our plans 🤪. We eventually got there, toured the birthplace of Queen Victoria, the former home of Princess Diana and visited the dress exhibit of Diana’s gowns. Allen was a a great sport and allowed me to read every placard and gaze at every dress. It was awesome!!! We saw the “sunken garden” that supposedly Diana loved, the playground created in her honour and the round pond outside of the palace. I was in heaven. Too bad I was so tired that the end became a little blurry. They sold jewellery in the gift shop and I thought maybe that would be a good keepsake until I saw the price tags. $500 items were not what I had I had in mind.

We marched back to the hotel, Shepherds Bush, found some fish and chips and beer, had a nap and went to Jamie Oliver’s restaurant for a light supper. There is a theatre next door to our hotel and Three Day Grace is playing there tonight. Great first day! Tomorrow we tour Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s.

Pics:

  1. Funny masks you can buy with royal faces. They are everywhere
  2. Bulldogs EVERYWHERE in the Kensington park.
  3. The sunken garden. Very pretty
  4. Me in front of Kensington Palace. I didn’t have the patience for the crowd to disappear for perfect pic
  5. Funny ad for flu “jabs”
  6. Good pic of gates
  7. Commemorative stone in honour of Diana
  8. Fun with English phonebooths
  9. More phone booths
  10. Entrance to Kensington area

Day 1 October 6, 2018

Posted on by | Leave a comment

Fly to London! Our first day consisted of flying into Heathrow via Regina and Toronto. I don’t mean to sound like a commercial for Air Canada but the premium economy seats on the flight and the maple leaf lounge in Toronto are pretty awesome. A little wider seats and a lot more leg room made the flight quite enjoyable. The quiet lounge has a buffet and an open bar with comfy chairs, charging outlets and TVs. We will be landing in London around 630 am London time and starting our day! I’m thinking big city bus tour and a visit to Buckingham Palace might be all we accomplish today. Our hotel is close (on the map anyways) to Kensington Palace. Perhaps we will pop in on Will, Kate, Harry and Meaghan. Cheerio until tomorrow!

April 20, 2017 Day 8

Posted on by | 2 Comments

Today was a day of craziness. We have had a couple bouts with altitude sickness that make you realize that living in good ole flat Saskatchewan is pretty darn awesome. Most of the time 😜

One last outing before we left Cusco was a stroll through the meat market where many variety of raw meat were seen. Items such as fish, chickens, whole pigs, pig heads, guinea pig, and beef. Noah was disgusted by the smell of the raw meat sonkich he held hand sanitizer in his hand and smelled it instead of the stench of whole, dead carcasses. 

We flew out of Cusco around 1 and landed in Lima around 215ish. We spent the day visiting the beach, watching the sunset, and enjoying a water fountain park. 

Our flights home continue at 345 am with a small stop over in San Salvador before continuing to Toronto and hopefully landing around 3pm Friday afternoon. We are scheduled to be in Regina around 11 pm Friday night. 

The week has been pretty incredible with many different new ideas being witnessed and reenforcing the idea that travelling opens ones eyes to the world around you, but home is a wonderful thing. 

Top moments for:

Noah indulged himself by drinking himself silly with Inca Cola – the South American treat! 

Marshall thoroughly enjoyed going up Macchu Picchu holding hands with fellow travel mates 😜. We were told to stare at rock and then turn around and have our first viewing of the ruins. It was awesome!!!

Paris thought that climbing Macchu Picchu was pretty incredible as not that many people get to say that they did that!

Cara loved the water fountain in Lima as she just kept getting more and more soaked. 

Kaycee loves hiking up to the sun temple at Macchu Picchu and making a new friend in our tour director, Diego. 😘

Torri loved seeing the animals everywhere – dogs, cats, puma, condors, monkeys, llamas, alpacas, bears, and of course, the giinea pigs! 

Danna enjoyed Macchu Picchu followed by seeing the Pacific Ocean.

Felecia loved Macchu Picchu and conquering her fear of heights! 

Pam Jr loved the hike of Macchu Picchu, being at the summit and gazing at the beautiful Peruvian mountains. 

Leslie loved the Sacred Valley, Macchu Picchu and the beautiful hotel created by the Frenchmen. 

Kathleen😜 loved the Sacred Valley and the school activity. It was just so cool! Kathleen is also going to appreciate cleaning her toilet and flushing toilet paper 😷💩🚽

Leah’s top moment was a tie between Macchu Picchu and the school. MP was a mountain that was huge and one can hardly imagine what it would have been like to build the structures hundreds of years ago and still have it retain its beauty. The school was inspiring because you realize that one can make a difference in others lives with volunteering. You make a difference in others lives, but the feeling you get from the experience is almost more powerful than what you have done. 

Myself- Pam Sr. Being part of a Noah Sandwich with Pam bread😜  Not many aunts get to experience two continents with a wonderful nephew and a great sister in law who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. I also need to hurry home and meet my very first grand-niece that joined our family while I was in Peru. Family is awesome! 

The visit to the school was as awe inspiring as Macchu Picchu for me. School is obviously important to me as it provides so many opportunities for people. I have been able to travel with friends and learn along with the travellers. I also love the fact that I have been able to travel with a student turned teacher and, equally important, a friend with Leah on three tours. She is a remarkable young woman who is a true treasure. Shane and Judith have done a fine job raising her. All of us on our tour are/were so lucky to have her as our leader. 
The final countdown for our 9 day trip.
9 days of planes, trains and automobiles and godforsaken hours. 😳

8 dogs who always seemed to find us in the steeets of Peru. 

7 days of exploring Peru, meeting new friends from Barrie, Ontario and our tour director, Diego. 

6 students who made travelling fun and provided many new experiences, such as salsa dancing, in-grown toenails, and realizing that we actually learn on these trips. We don’t just laugh and do cool things. 

5 moms who joined our trip to help make the “Peru Mommas” a competitive force in all aspects, especially hoolahooping, frisbee throwing and skipping. 

4 x1000 meters above sea level

3 Three YG travellers trips are in the books: London, Paris and Barcelona in 2013 and then Rome, Florence, Verona, Innsbruck and Munich in 2015 and then Lima, Cusco, and Sacred Valley, Peru in 2017.  Where to next in 2019???

2 teachers who logged over 100000 steps each. OMG. No wonder we are tired and have buns of steel! 😜

1 more continent visited with wonderful YG people who happily represented the Saskatchewan Roughriders 13th Man on the top of Macchu Picchu, but forgot our YG Wheat King shirts. Until 2019, ciao! 

April 19, 2017 Day 7

Posted on by | 2 Comments

Today was incredible. We started the day going to a children’s day centre in a less than fortunate neighbourhood. They showed us what they do with the children that attend – some daily, some not- and the facility that they use. We went to an outdoor area where we played games with each other and some of the students. The Peru Mommas rocked the competition and were victorious! 😊. We then went to a local store and purchased items to provide a lunch for the children. Danna had brought her Texas peanut butter with her – a whole honking big jar in her purse 😳 and donated it to the kids. We made peanut butter sandwiches, bought bananas and oranges and juice boxes. The kids were thrilled. Some of us gave what we had in our bags – gum, chocolate bars, granola bars, Canadian pins and received huge hugs. What an incredibly moving and emotional morning. We are so fortunate to have won the lottery by being born Canadian in the best country on earth. Best experience of my life. 

We had a delicious lunch at McDonald’s in the square in Cusco.  Everyone loved it! 

We spent the afternoon shopping for alpaca goodies and other items. Then the kids and adults had a scavenger hunt where they needed to ask people questions about Cuzco! 

Felecia has experienced some sand fly bites that are enjoying making her ankles swell a little. That is an understatement, but she is a trooper and carries on. 

For the night in Cusco, salsa dancing is on the menu. Pictures of that soon to come! â€‹

​

April 18, 2017 Day 6

Posted on by | 1 Comment

Today was awesome!!  We left Macchu Picchu on the train and then jumped on our bus for the trip to Cusco. Along the way, we stopped and visited many little areas. We stopped at a little market for lunch and to buy little trinkets and lovely items. There many interesting items that even the Romans would have loved with the phallic items. 😳. We toodled on to an alpaca/llama farm where we were allowed to feed the animals with fresh hay. The kids loved it!  We then stopped at a small zoo that had rescue animals in it that would be released to the wild eventually. They had bears, a leopard, alpacas, a puma (Canadian cougar), monkeys and beautiful condors that swooped over us for a spectacular view. Oh ya. We also forgot to tell you. We had the option to stop and try guinea pig today!  Pam, Felecia, Danna, Kathy, Pam, Noah and Marshall were the brave ones to buy a whole guinea pig and share it!  The skin was like pork rinds and the meat was pork like. I’m not sure if we would order again, but we tried it! Marshall and Felecia held up the Watson name as the other Watson whiners were too chicken to try the pig. I don’t know what their beef really was with it. Leah’s words – “I’m very particular about my meat”. Noah’s quote – “Mom, you are really digging in there!”

We are enjoying a fine meal in Cusco tonight and then tomorrow we will find new adventures in Cusco. 



April 17, 2017 Day 5

Posted on by | 3 Comments

Our day started early with our 4 am wake up call to catch the train to go up to Macchu Picchu today. Once taking a bus from the train we began our march along the Inca trail. We climbed 1000 ft ascent in 55 minutes.  There was a lot of puffing and maybe a little swearing and a LOT of sweating, but we ALL made it up Macchu Picchu!!  Once we came down for lunch, we toured the ancient ruins that make it so famous. Pretty incredible day and a definitely a reason to visit Peru!  

Interesting observation. Some in our group watched a prom proposal and a wedding proposal in Macchu Picchu today. Pretty sweet. 

Over 20000 steps today, 263 flights of stairs, and almost 9 miles. Wow. Our rears are looking awesome! 

We had an awesome meal of chicken and the best mashed potatoes ever! 

The wifi is really sporadic and not strong. We are really sorry you are not experiencing our travels with pics. 

Interesting facts from our guides today:

Southern cross is the South American constellation for telling direction as they cant see the North Star. 

Oooramba river. Main river at Macchu Picchu. Flows into amazon. 

Milky river comes from milk chocolate coming off Hercules face. Inca called it crazy constellation river. 

Macchu Picchu is actually in shape of bird (condor) if you were to go top a look down. 



April 16, 2017 Day 4

Posted on by | 2 Comments

Happy Easter! 

Today started with a beautiful awakening at our incredible hotel. It has been created by a Frenchman and his family who have created it from scratch or bare ground. He wants us to believe that this is our home while in the Sacred Valley. It is absolutely stunning and so comfortable. The breakfast was delicious with scrambled eggs, little banana pancakes, fruit, yogurt, pastries and  beverages. 

We left there to travel to Ollantaytambuto which was an ancient religious and military place. We climbed to the top of it which had about 300 steps to it. We were told it was training for Macchu Picchu tomorrow. Yikes. There were many stops going up as our flat prairie bodies are not used to inclines like that and the altitude that we are now experiencing . It makes one appreciate just how flat Saskatchewan is 😊

We toured a small pottery making facility where we could “miraculously” also purchase some pieces to take home with us. Very wonderful items here. 

Tried some alpaca meat today. Tastes a lot like beef. 

We visited a little shop where they did weaving of alpaca and sheep wool. They showed us how they wash the greasy sheep wool, dye all wool and then weave it. Super cool demonstration. Paris, Cara and Torri were in on the dying of the wool. It was really really interesting!  We may have come away with a few treasures from there – scarves, gloves, toques, table runners, and even socks! Danna felt that the whole experience felt we were on “The Amazing Race” getting another aspect of their culture. 

We have noticed some different ranching techniques. While Canadian ranchers spend a lot of money creating fences, some of the Peruvians just put all their animals on leashes or tethers to clean up the ditches and pastures – cattle, donkeys, sheep, pigs, alpacas, and llamas. They are everywhere. It has been developed into a passion of mine looking for the perfect picture of a pig on a leash. 😜 I’m sure Leah is eager to find a new seat mate for the bus. 

We also noticed that some ranchers build a few fences with dirt and then plant cactus on the top of their fence. That would deter someone from climbing over, under or through it. Ouch. 

Spanish words we are hearing lots:  Chico- boys, chica- girls. 

We visited the salt mines late this afternoon. It was crazy high as the little dirt road getting to the mine was very similar to the road to Hana on Maui or the road on the northwest of Maui. Our bus driver certainly earned his tip today getting us all there safely. Whew!  The excitement doesn’t end on this trip. 

Tomorrow  will early as we have a wake up call at 4 am for our train ride to Macchu Picchu. Good night. Sorry for zero pictures as the wifi just isn’t strong enough to post them.