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Posts from Kingston, Ontario, Canada

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Travel Flashback: 1974 trip to Europe

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

I recently wrote about my 1983 trip to Hinton, Alberta, which was my first “independent” travel experience. Today, I’m going back even farther…to my 1974 trip to Europe with my parents. While I have some souvenirs from that trip, most of these pictures were taken on subsequent trips.

The front cover of our menu – April 1974 Swissair flight from Montreal to Zürich

Travel was different then. Even in economy class, there was an element of elegance and style. You had to wear your “Sunday best”. Check out the menu from our flight…you’d never see this much fuss about a meal in economy class now!

Pages two and three of the in-flight menu

My mother put together an album of our trip, so it is easy to recall exactly what happened. We flew from Montreal to Zürich on SwissAir flight SR161, a DC-10 that covered the distance in 7 hours and 10 minutes.

My grandfather’s chalet (straight ahead) in Weissenbach, Switzerland (August 2006)

For the Swiss part of our trip, we stayed mostly in my grandfather’s chalet. It is located in the quiet Simmental village of Weissenbach; my uncle still owns it today. I loved being in the mountains, even before I had ever tried downhill skiing.

Skiing above Zweisimmen (March 2018)

We also stayed in the nearby town of Zweisimmen, where I have been skiing on many occasions since then. From there, we drove up to the Bühlberg mountain restaurant above the village of Lenk…where I went skiing (see also the photo at the top of this post) with my cousin 44 years later!

My cousin and her family – at the summit of “Lavey” between Lenk and Adelboden, Switzerland (March 2018)

From Zweisimmen, it was on to Montreux on Lake Geneva. The climate was much milder here; it almost felt tropical compared to the mountains we had just left. From Montreux, we moved on to my uncle’s house in the Basel suburb of Riehen. Now owned by another cousin, I also stayed here in 2011 en route to a ski week in Wengen.

Benny, my uncle’s dachshund (May 1991)

We then left Switzerland and spent a couple of days in Frankfurt, (West) Germany. Once again, there was a family connection: we stayed with my mother’s cousin.

The beach at ‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands (August 2014)

The last couple of weeks of the trip were spent in the Netherlands. We made our way by train from Frankfurt to Hoek Van Holland (via Mainz and Köln). We then stayed at my aunt’s house in ‘s-Gravenzande…I stayed there many times over the years, and it was also the “base camp” for my extended 1991 backpacking trip through Europe. Although it is no longer in the family, I did take a picture of it in 2014 during my even-more-extended travel odyssey.

“Our” house on the Monsterseweg in ‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands (August 2014)

We visited Delft, Rotterdam, and The Hague, just like I did with my wife 40 years later in 2014. I really enjoyed a day trip to the Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam…one of the few “sights” that I haven’t returned to in the intervening 49 years.

Market Square in Delft, the Netherlands (August 2014)

A lasting impression was how great Dutch breakfasts could be. Of course, being not yet 6 years old, this assessment was based mostly on the ubiquitous availability of chocolate hagelslag (sprinkles) and chocolate vlokken (flakes). Actually, chocolate was a common theme on my childhood European trips. If I eat too much of it now, I can trace it back to those formative experiences!

Me and my friend, the skiing “Milka chocolate” cow (March 2020)

We flew back to Montreal from Amsterdam on KLM flight 0671. This time, the plane was a DC-8 and it wasn’t as comfortable as the outbound flight.

Maassluis, the Netherlands (two of my cousins live here) – August 2014

It would be another 5 years before we were able to return to Europe, despite all of our family connections there. My international travel, at least for a little while, would consist only of brief trips across the U.S. border to northern New York state. But European trips were major events, and my memories of the 1979 trip are much more vivid.

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Travel Regrets

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

[An explanation for the photos appears at the bottom of this post.]

I recently asked myself whether I have ever regretted traveling anywhere. Was there any place that I wished I had never seen or experienced?

“The Grapes” pub on Mathew Street in Liverpool, England. The Beatles hung out here. Photographer’s finger was not requested.

I have certainly had unfortunate travel experiences. I discovered that part of my luggage had gone missing upon arriving in France in August 2014. A couple of years before that, *all* of my checked luggage disappeared on the way back from San Antonio, Texas. We were turned back from the Argentina border in 2016 because of a visa problem. It’s been nearly nine years since I tried to get to Memphis…and I still haven’t made it there. Going to the hospital in Glasgow due to food poisoning wasn’t a whole lot of fun.

Captivating landscape near Hinton, Alberta

I’ve been to places that were not very welcoming…sometimes in general, and sometimes just to particular people. The recent surge of nationalism is unfortunately nothing new either. I was happy to move on from two particularly intolerant parts of Europe.

The famous “Lion of Ifrane” in Ifrane, Morocco. And a finger.

There are certainly a few places to which I will never (purposely) return. But any true regrets? I don’t think I have any.

???

Every experience, good or bad, has been revealing. Sometimes about the place we are visiting, but also sometimes about me or my fellow travelers. While seeing extreme intolerance made me sad, it also reinforced the importance of tolerance. And dealing with some lost luggage is really not that catastrophic in the big picture.

Laundromat in Prague, Czech Republic

In fact, some of the unfortunate travel experiences become the most vivid stories and memories. Although it happened more than 20 years ago, we still remember the miserable pelting rain we experienced on arrival in Kirkwall (Orkney Islands). It was almost horizontal due to the high winds, and we were drenched by the time we arrived at our B&B. To this day, we describe such weather conditions as simply “Kirkwall”.

Hospoda U Beníšků (obviously), Mělník, Czech Republic

So, how about these photos? They are all travel photos, but I think it’s safe to describe them as somewhat regrettable. Most are from the pre-digital era, when you didn’t realize a photo was bad until you picked up the prints at the shop. The photo at the very top is from Aberystwyth, Wales, and was apparently taken at the end of the roll.

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Travel Flashback: 1983 Kingston/Hinton High School Exchange

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(Kingston, Ontario. Canada)

I’ve been travelling independently for a long time. But it was still a bit of a shock to realize that my first independent trip was 40 years ago!

Surprisingly, this was the Edmonton Youth Hostel

When I was attending Bayridge Secondary School in Kingston (Ontario), my geography teacher enrolled our school in a program called “Open House Canada”. In short: for the princely sum of $10.00, you could go on an exchange with 40 of your schoolmates to another part of Canada. And then, a couple of months later (in early 1984), your new friends would visit Kingston. Having already been to Europe twice with my parents, I thought this would be great.

Wildlife on the side of the Icefields Parkway

Our school was matched with a similarly sized school in Hinton, Alberta. But our communities didn’t seem to have too much in common. Kingston was much larger and older than Hinton: Kingston was Canada’s capital many decades before Hinton even existed. Hinton’s economy was resource-based (I especially remember the smell of the paper mill), while Kingston has long been known as a government town. And Hinton was in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, while Kingston’s geography was…a little less spectacular.

Rescuing a classmate who slipped on the Athabasca Glacier

And yet, despite all the differences, there ended up being quite a bit of common ground. We played lots of volleyball. We seemed to listen to much of the same music: Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” and Van Halen’s “Jump” seemed to be mutual favourites. And I think almost everyone appreciated the opportunity to see a completely different way of life, if only for a week or two.

My first ever visit to British Columbia (October 1983)

About half of the trip was spent living in your billet’s home (and going to school with them each day). My billet’s father was a park ranger, so I got to live in a remote village called “Old Entrance”. It apparently used to be the entrance to Jasper National Park. There were only three or four other houses in the village. Each morning, we had to hike up a very steep and winding gravel road for 15 minutes just to get to the school bus stop (which still had to travel some distance to get to Hinton). This was quite different from my leisurely 10-minute suburban walk to school in Kingston.

My billet, in his backyard

Once we were at school, we did day trips to notable area landmarks. Such local trips included a huge coal mine, a tract of commercially-harvested forest and the Cadomin Caves. Other destinations on the trip included Sunwapta Falls, the Athabasca Glacier, the summit of “The Whistlers” (high above Jasper), Mount Robson (see photo at the top of this post)…and the West Edmonton Mall!

Nearing the summit of “The Whistlers”, high above Jasper

Looking back on it now, it’s hard to believe that there was actually some peer pressure to *not* go on the exchange. While some parts were challenging (I vaguely remember some issue with the Jasper hostel, but the details are now lost in the mists of time), I don’t think anyone regretted their participation. I suspect that, for many of us, it was only the beginning of an appreciation for travel and for discovering places that were different from home.

The path down from the summit of The Whistlers

This reminds me of a famous Mark Twain quote, from his book The Innocents Abroad. It might be a little harsh, but I think there is some underlying truth to it:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Jasper as seen from The Whistlers

I hope you enjoy some of these ancient photographs…all were taken by me using a very rectangular (and very non-digital) Vivitar camera. These are the original prints!

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Flashback to Argentina

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

The 2022 World Cup ended last week, with Argentina winning the final over France. While I have mixed feelings about the tournament, the final match was highly entertaining.

The Arc de Triomphe, overlooking l’avenue des Champs-Élysées, after France won the 2018 World Cup

As I was in Paris in 2018 when France won the previous World Cup, I thought it might be nice to take a look back at our 2016 trip to Argentina.

We finally made it to the Argentinian border!

Argentina is a huge country, so our brief visit barely scratched the surface. And we were there in the middle of the Argentinian winter, which meant snow around Bariloche and lots of cool temperatures and fog in Buenos Aires. We did not get the feeling that this was high season for tourism. But we nearly didn’t get there at all!

A winter rose in front of the customs office in Puerto Frias, Argentina

We were travelling with a small group, and approached the Argentinian border on a complicated bus & boat route through the Chilean Andes. Alas, due to a missing bar code for my wife’s visa, we were left behind at a remote hotel while the rest of the group crossed the border without incident. We didn’t get clearance to proceed until the next day, and even that was a near-miracle.

View of Puerto Blest, Chile, from across the lake

Anyway, despite all that, we really enjoyed the lakes and mountains around the Argentina-Chile border. And with the benefit of six intervening years (not to mention a worldwide pandemic), even the border hassle doesn’t seem that bad now.

San Telmo by night, just outside the tango venue

We spent most of our Argentina time in the capital, Buenos Aires. My lasting impression is how European it looked: the buildings looked very Parisian, and there was an Italian vibe everywhere. I guess this shouldn’t be surprising: many Argentinians (including current soccer hero Lionel Messi) have Italian ancestry.

Teatro Colón, in the heart of Buenos Aires

We saw a lot of the major sights: Recoleta Cemetery, the Eva Peron (“Evita”) Museum, the San Telmo Market, the Teatro Colón…and even went to a spectacular tango show.

View from “our” box at the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

We stayed in Buenos Aires for a few extra days after our group dispersed. We also covered a lot of terrain on foot, and enjoyed a number of unexpected surprises. For example, we really enjoyed a billiards cafe, which is not something we would seek out (or find) here in Canada. We found an outstanding bookstore that used to be an opulent theatre. And we found a great local restaurant that did *not* specialize in obscene amounts of grilled meat.

Locro at La Cumana (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Despite our jam-packed itinerary, there are still a few things that we weren’t able to do. We didn’t make it to a soccer game, as it was out of season. This was unfortunate, as going to soccer games is often a part of our international travels. I still haven’t been to one in Latin America.

The German Shepherd “sat” on the bench with his owner for at least 15 minutes (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

And we didn’t make it to Uruguay. We had hoped to make a day trip to Colonia del Sacramento, a historic Uruguayan city that was only about an hour away by boat. But our potential travel day was very rainy and cold, and we thought it might be better to focus on urban (and indoor) things that day.

Inside Los 36 Billares, a billiards cafe in Buenos Aires

But that’s one of the cardinal rules of travel: don’t try to do everything in one trip. Assume you will return one day, and you’ll already have a head start on that future itinerary.

1st floor of El Ateneo bookshop on Avenida Santa Fe, Buenos Aires

Speaking of future itineraries…I have been thinking about this a lot lately. It’s complicated, there are many competing considerations. But what would I do if I suddenly had an open calendar and no restrictions? Stay tuned for lots of interesting content as we move into 2023!

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Changes in my ancestral DNA

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Six months ago, I published a post about the surprising results of my ancestral DNA test. You can find it by clicking here. At that time, I expressed surprise about my significant Swedish/Danish ancestry and the lesser but still unexpected Norwegian ancestry. Although those two regions only accounted for 8% of me, it was much more Scandinavia than I was expecting. But the remaining 92% was also a surprise. I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be far more “Northwestern Europe/England” than “Germanic Europe”.

View from the Christiansborg (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Well, DNA knowledge and technology changes quickly. A mere month after posting those results, I learned that there had been substantial changes. My DNA hadn’t changed, but there had been refinements in assigning regional ancestry in several parts of Europe. As a result, I learned that my original results were no longer accurate. Just when I was getting used to my distant past, I had to deal with another new reality!

Tivoli Gardens (Copenhagen, Denmark)

So while I likely still have some Norwegian DNA kicking around, it is now too small to be significant. However, my Swedish/Danish ancestry has remained at the same level. To acknowledge that, I have illustrated this post with images from my 2016 trip to Denmark. I felt at home there too…so maybe those are my true Scandinavian roots?

You can’t have too many pictures of Nyhavn in Copenhagen!

As for the even larger (now around 94%) remainder of my ancestry, the majority of it is now in fact Germanic Europe. A slightly smaller, but still significant, portion is traceable to “Northwest Europe and England”.

The Wish Tree Garden on Papirøen, Copenhagen (my collaboration with Yoko Ono)

As some other friends and family members have tried this testing too, I have also learned just how random this DNA business can be. Even siblings can have significantly different outcomes. You almost certainly won’t get the same 50% from each parent that your brother or sister did. And of course 50% is lost with each generation.

The Fish Kiss Spa in downtown Copenhagen

What now? I will certainly be checking in from time to time, to see if my results have been refined further. I now know there are some other regions in my family’s past, and I’m curious to see if they will appear for me too.

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The DNA Test – Travel through time

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Today’s post is a little different, but still very much in the spirit of travel.

Although I had been thinking about it for a while, I finally got around to requesting an “Ancestry DNA” test this spring. And the results have now arrived.

Getting caught by the waves at the same beach where my father played as a child (‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands)

On the surface, the expectation was simple. With one Swiss parent and one Dutch parent, one would expect the results to be 50% from each country. But I also heard some other distant echoes from the past.

My ancestors lived in Maassluis, the Netherlands, many centuries ago

Over time, family stories become almost accepted as fact. And one of my family stories was that we had some Spanish ancestry, due to the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands in the 16th century. With respect to the Swiss side of my family, I wondered if there might be some Italian influence, given the fairly close proximity of Italy to my ancestral place of origin. And I also wondered what other interesting connections may have been forgotten in the mists of time.

A church in Lenk (Switzerland) – I wonder what important family events took place here?

I was pretty excited when the results finally arrived. When I clicked on the link, I discovered something very interesting. Switzerland and the Netherlands each belong to the same two broader groups: “Germanic Europe” and “England and Northwestern Europe”. And I had almost complete (92%) ancestry in those two regions.

Lots of choices, high above Lenk and Adelboden (Switzerland)

I found the “England and Northwestern Europe” region interesting. Consisting mostly of England, Belgium, the southern Netherlands, Northeast France and Switzerland, I had never really considered that DNA from England would be connected to both of my countries of origin. This region even contributed more to me than the anticipated “Germanic Europe” region.

Mårten Trotzigs gränd – the narrowest street in Sweden (Stockholm)

And what about the other 8%? The stories and guesses were, in a word, wrong. No Italy. No Spain. As it turns out, most of my other ancestry was from Sweden/Denmark, with a smaller part from Norway. I had always been looking south, but it appears that I should have been looking north.

Terminus of the railway to Flam (Norway)

I know that these tests are not 100% accurate, and of course some ancestry is lost with each passing generation. But way back in 2012, I felt very comfortable in Stockholm (see photo at the very top of this post). I thought it was a place in which I could live. It makes you wonder why I had that feeling.

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Travel Flashback – Summer Trip to Switzerland (2006) – Part Three

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Today, I finally pulled the plug on my planned February 2022 ski trip to Zermatt, Switzerland. While I had been expecting this for some time, it was still kind of sad to cancel the Zermatt hotel room that would have formed the base for most of my trip. However, even with three COVID vaccinations so far, I couldn’t justify the costs and complications of international travel at this particular time. Perhaps to compensate, I’ve decided to finally write the final post from my summer 2006 trip to Switzerland. The first part is here, while the second part is here.

Italy! Domodossola’s old town (August 11, 2006)

As we had a Swisspass allowing unlimited travel on the Swiss transportation system, we were highly motivated to stay within Switzerland. However, certain cross-border trips were covered. One of them was to the northern Italian town of Domodossola. It was a nice change of pace, and we really enjoyed having a relaxed lunch on an outdoor patio.

Zermatt’s new town, with the Matterhorn struggling to emerge in the background (August 11, 2006)

While it would have been nice to stay longer, we had to return to Switzerland. In fact, our next stop was…Zermatt! A big part of Zermatt’s appeal is, of course, the Matterhorn. Alas, the grim weather that characterized much of this trip continued. We could barely see the Matterhorn from the village. And as you can see from the photo above, I had to put the jacket back on even though this was early August.

Zermatt’s old town (after many failed Matterhorn photos)…August 11, 2006

While we saw little of the Matterhorn, the trip to Zermatt was still memorable. I didn’t have a digital camera yet, but the views from the train were still stunning enough to attempt some pictures from the train window.

Crossing a bridge by train, and looking at other bridges (August 11, 2006) – near Stalden, Switzerland.

The next day, we explored the popular Swiss city of Luzern. It was much more crowded than our base in rural Hondrich. Once again, however, we used our SwissPass to see something totally unexpected: the Bourbaki Panorama. The Panorama is a very large round room, and it contains a very unusual thing: a circular painting! It is 377 feet long and 32 feet high, but each end is connected to the other. It depicts the French army retreating through Switzerland during the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War. It’s a very long story – you can read more about it here.

My ticket to the Bourbaki Panorama in Luzern, Switzerland (August 12, 2006)

We took a walk on top of Luzern’s old city walls (the photo at the top of this post was taken from the top of the walls), saw some other typical Luzern sights, such as the old Kapellbrücke (chapel bridge) and the “Lion of Lucerne”, and then returned to Hondrich for one final night at the farmhouse.

At one end of Luzern’s ancient Kapellbrücke – August 12, 2006.

Writing this post has been another reminder of how much we took for granted in the past. Imagine making spontaneous decisions to hop on a train to visit another country! I remain hopeful that international travel will become a part of my life again soon, even if won’t be this winter.

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2021 (Re-) Discoveries, Part 2

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Following up on my Boxing Day post, here are some more things that I appreciated musically in 2021. Today’s focus is on music with a connection to this travel blog.

In 2018, I went to a music conference in New Jersey. We saw a great band called the Weeklings: you can read more about it here. A couple of the songs they debuted at that conference (see photo at the top of this post) have since made it onto their 3rd studio album (logically, called “3”). I think the above cover of “Baby You’re a Rich Man” improves considerably on the Beatles’ original version…which is not something I say very often!

But I also like the Weeklings’ original music. “In the Moment”, “Running Away”, and the title track from “3” may not sound like 21st century recordings: hearing them is like finding previously unreleased power pop gems from the last century. And what’s wrong with that?

Another vinyl compilation I picked up in 2021 was Stevie Wonder’s “Original Musiquarium I”. This double album collects some of his best 1970s tracks along with a handful of new recordings from the 1980s. It’s hard to imagine a better sequence of music than the beginning of side 3: “Higher Ground”, “Sir Duke”, “Master Blaster (Jammin’)”, and “Boogie on Reggae Woman”.

An urgent live version of “Higher Ground”

But Side 1’s opening comes close: “Superstition”, “You Haven’t Done Nothin'”, and “Living for the City”. Despite being quite a distance from the stage, seeing Stevie Wonder a few years ago in Toronto is one of our fondest concert memories. Here’s a link to that post.

…and an urgent live version of “Superstition”, from the same 1974 German TV appearance

2021 saw me listen to a lot of Marshall Crenshaw’s music again. We saw him perform in upstate New York in 2013, and I managed to get him to sign my copy of his self-titled 1982 debut album (the original vinyl pressing, of course). He was happy to hear that I played his music on my radio program at CFRC-FM.

My signed copy of Marshall Crenshaw’s debut album

That album remains a great blast of fresh air, but I also like playing his lesser-known 1996 Miracle of Science LP. It was recently reissued on vinyl, and included a bonus single with a Michel Pagliaro cover!

Someday, Someway is from Marshall’s debut album

Michel Pagliaro may not be well-remembered, but this Quebec singer wrote and performed “Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy”. The title is rubbish, but musically it has more hooks than almost any other single ever released. When we saw the Trans-Canada Highwaymen perform at the Grand Theatre in Kingston a few years ago, they performed this song as an encore. An absolute highlight! Pagliaro is still performing in Quebec to this day; maybe we’ll get a chance to see him soon.

Music has been an important part of our travels. While the pandemic is crushing any travel ideas right now, I’m hopeful that in a few months we’ll be journeying and listening to live music again.

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2021 (Re-) Discoveries

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

This post was going to be about the difficulty of planning travel during a pandemic. But my heart just wasn’t in it: we already read enough about isolation, quarantines, cancellations, and those dreaded words “tentatively scheduled”. I also appreciate that leisure travel cannot be prioritized over more serious concerns. Instead, I’ve decided to write about some of the music I discovered (or re-discovered) in 2021.

You’ll probably be seeing some of this at the 2022 Grammy awards

Music has continued to be a wonderful refuge from the pandemic. Most of my music purchases this year were on vinyl: at home, it is very easy to enjoy the ritual and warmer sound of vinyl records.

“I Need You”, by Jon Batiste

Some records were new to me. One of my favourites was “We Are”, by Jon Batiste. I first saw him as the bandleader for Stephen Colbert, but that is only a small part of his career. While loosely based on the music of New Orleans, “We Are” ranges from jazz, swing, and old-school R&B to hip-hop and gospel. And it is nice to see that it was released on the legendary Verve record label. I wasn’t surprised to see that it has just received a bunch of Grammy nominations. I’ve included a couple of video links – these are probably the most “commercial” of the tracks.

“Freedom”, by Jon Batiste

Another record that was “new” to me was actually released in 1978: Earth Wind & Fire’s “Greatest Hits, Volume 1”. I knew some of the songs beforehand, but I enjoyed practically everything on it. It seems to be from the sweet spot of vinyl: it sounded absolutely spectacular on my turntable. Sometimes these compilations would have a token new song that didn’t measure up to the rest. In this case, however, the token new song was “September”: it may well be their best song.

“September”, by Earth Wind & Fire

I took a chance on an LP called “Al Zman Saib”, by long-dead Moroccan singer Fadoul. The first track is called “Sid Redad”…but it is actually a startling Moroccan Arabic version of James Brown’s “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”. While the LP contains a couple of other covers, even the original songs ae fascinating. Unpolished, to be sure, but the musicians do seem to be having a lot of fun.

Sid Redad (Paps’s Got A Brand New Bag)

The year also saw me rediscover some albums that I originally owned on CD. I’ll be mentioning some of those in a future post, but I’ll focus on one for now: The Beatles’ 1966 “Revolver” LP.

Tomorrow Never Knows – truly without precedent

Many people consider it the best album of the modern era, and the songs are of a uniformly high quality despite being incredibly diverse. It’s hard to believe that the Beatles recorded this LP less than 4 years after “Love Me Do”. But even though I’ve heard “Revolver” hundreds of times, listening to again on new vinyl was a revelation. I heard things I had never heard before. Whenever I want a quick jolt of the sound of innovation, nothing does the trick quite like “Revolver”.

Got to Get You Into My Life – by the Beatles
It’s hard to top the Beatles’ original version, but Earth Wind & Fire gave it a good shot!

If you enjoyed this post chronicling travel of a different sort, stay tuned. I’ll be posting some more music discoveries soon!

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A cautious return to travel: Western Ontario

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

It’s been quiet on the blog for the past couple of months. But, after 17 months of pandemic restrictions…we were finally able to travel! I had some tournaments in the Toronto area, followed by a couple more in Western Ontario, marking the first times that I had been more than one hour from Kingston since March 2020. So, what was it like?

Our first out-of-town restaurant meal in ages: Thai cuisine from the Thai Coconut in Burlington, Ontario

In a word, “normal”. Yes, I had to wear a mask every time I went inside. And yes, I had to complete health declarations to compete in the tournaments. And many restaurants were still restricted to take-out only. But those restrictions seem almost normal too now.

Picked up some 45s at this record shop in Acton, Ontario.

The first trip was to a tournament in Burlington, followed by one the next day in East York. Booking the hotel was just like old times. However, I must admit that it was strange walking into a hotel again. Even though we are now being encouraged to “travel local”, there was still a lingering feeling of not having enough of a justification to be there. But being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 helped deal with that, and I soon forgot about it. As this first trip only took us away from home for two nights, we weren’t away for long enough to be totally disoriented.

Old mill in St. Jacobs, Ontario

After being home for a few days, it was time for the main trip to tournaments in Windsor and Woodstock. These were multi-day tournaments and took us about as far as we could go in southern Ontario without crossing a border. In fact, Windsor is so far from Kingston that we decided to stay overnight in Waterloo before making the final push on to Windsor.

Main Street in St. Jacob’s, Ontario

Once in Waterloo, we visited a nearby village (St. Jacobs) that we had never seen before…yes, a completely discretionary trip! ! The next day, we took a break from our drive to have lunch in the town of Tilbury…again, no special reason to go, it just happened to be there. We picked up some food from the grocery store and ate it on the lawn of the local library.

The Public Library in Tilbury, Ontario: our lunch spot

We reached Windsor in the mid-afternoon. We wanted to get some practice in before the start of the tournament the next morning. It was brutally hot, but we rewarded ourselves with dinner at a Mexican restaurant called “Palenque”.

Palenque Mexican Restaurant in Windsor, Ontario

So far, so good. After dinner, we took a walk along the nearby Detroit River. The park was filled with unusual plant sculptures. But the “Wow” moment was across the river. Across the Detroit River from Windsor is the (larger) American city of Detroit…and seeing a city from another country (see photo at the very top of this post) seemed very surreal after the last 17 months. True, we couldn’t go across the border (the U.S. land border is still not open to non-essential travel, even though their COVID-19 infection rate is far higher than Canada’s), but it was a taste of what we hope to experience again before too long.

My “Gringas” at Palenque

After a very brief period of adjustment, it wasn’t hard to get used to new things again. Stay tuned for more about our Western Ontario odyssey!