Monthly Archives: October 2016

Posts from Base Camp

And the next destination is…

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

In my last post, I mentioned that I will soon be taking a very spontaneous and brief overseas holiday.  This was done using some frequent flyer points that I needed to use.   Read on for the big reveal!

Part of the fortifications at Suomenlinna (Finland)
Part of the fortifications at Suomenlinna (Finland)

I usually try to visit places during the “shoulder season”:  this ensures that at least some sights are open but also means that the crowds aren’t too bad and the prices aren’t too high.  Visiting Ireland in early June of 2014 was a prime example of smart shoulder season traveling.  However, for a November holiday in the northern hemisphere, pretty much everything is “off-season”.  Nonetheless, I am determined to make this work.

It won’t be easy.  Firstly, I am actually traveling even further north than my base camp of Kingston, Ontario.  This means that the days will be very short…I’m counting on darkness by 4:00 p.m.

Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland
Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland

Secondly, I’m quite sure the weather will be dreadful.  With temperatures probably hovering around 5’C, it will be cold enough to be uncomfortable (especially with the anticipated dampness) but not cold enough to have a delightful dusting of snow.

View from the top of the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki
View from the top of the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki

Thirdly, many of the sights (especially in the smaller towns) are closed for the season or have drastically reduced hours.  I found one that is only open from 11:00 to 2:00 p.m. each day!  This will require some serious planning and a lot of creativity.

Helsinki's waterfront
Helsinki’s waterfront

My arrival destination is something new and different for me:  despite having been to 30 European countries, I have never been to this one.  In fact, it is the only “western” European country (other than a few micro-states) that I’ve never visited.

So, despite some formidable obstacles, I am very excited to announce that my next destination is…Copenhagen, Denmark!  I’ve got some ideas to make the trip special; I’ve already got a ticket to a sporting event (in nearby Sweden) and will take advantage of the fact that Christmas is a pretty big deal in that part of the world.

Helsinki Cathedral
Helsinki Cathedral

Feel free to send me a private message (or post a comment on the blog) if you have any specific recommendations for this trip.  There’s nothing wrong with a little crowd-sourcing!  And don’t forget to check back here soon – it will soon be time for my Danish adventure!  In the meantime, this post is accomapnied by some previously unpublished photos from our 2012 trip to Helsinki, Finland.

Posts from the road

Wildlife Encounter on the K&P Trail

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(Godfrey, Ontario, Canada)

While I have not posted for a few weeks, there have certainly been some travel-related developments.

Long-time readers of this blog might recall that I intended to visit Memphis, Tennessee at the beginning of my 2014 year of travel.  However, an unexpected ice storm in Tennessee prevented me from taking my connecting flight from Chicago.  From time to time since then, I have thought about trying to visit Memphis again.

Abandoned farm north of Godfrey
Abandoned farm north of Godfrey

Those efforts intensified recently and I was trying to use some Air France/KLM (“Flying Blue”) frequent flyer points to make the trip for free on one of their associated airlines.  I got as far as selecting the flights but unfortunately a technical issue prevented me from making the booking online. Before calling the customer service line, I noticed that Flying Blue had some promotional offers for international flights from Montreal:  for a very limited time, the number of frequent flyer points required was reduced by 30%!  As a result, I had enough for an overseas trip this fall!

This is roughly where we heard the loud and unexplained noise
This is roughly where we heard the loud and unexplained noise

I had to make a very quick decision – within 3 minutes, I had selected where I was going and when I could fit it into my schedule.   It’s quite exciting to have an adventure take shape so quickly and spontaneously.  You will be reading more about this mystery destination in the very near future!

In the meantime, we recently spent some time back on the K&P Trail.  We are slowly making our way by foot from Kingston to Sharbot Lake on this former railway line:  I first wrote about it in a 2014 post and revisited it in a 2015 post.

the Godfrey Social Club, in "downtown" Godfrey
The Godfrey Social Club, in “downtown” Godfrey

On this occasion, we started just south of the hamlet of Godfrey and, after passing through that crossroads, made our way through some increasingly remote terrain.  At one point, we heard a very loud and sudden noise that sounded like it was about 20 meters away.   At first, my wife thought it sounded like an extremely very large bird taking off from thick underbrush…but we did not see anything flying away and there are certainly no condors in this part of the world.  We decided that something very large must have fallen, just out of view but very close by.

Close-up of the Godfrey Social Club
Close-up of the Godfrey Social Club

On our way back to our car, a cyclist stopped to tell us something:  he was a regular trail user and, in the last week, he had two encounters with a mother bear and her cubs in that very spot.  He said that he made a lot of noise and the bears did not bother him.  Needless to say, we were slightly rattled by realizing that we might have just passed by a protective bear in the wild.  Just in case, we grabbed some large sticks and walked back to Godfrey at a noticeably quicker (and louder) pace!

We decided to chill out with some ice cream at the Godfrey Social Club.  We told ourselves it was just to cool off after walking in the hot sun, but it probably was also a reaction to our unintended close encounter with wildlife.