Amsterdam and Belgium

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We took 5 days to see Amsterdam, Bruges, Gent and Brussels.  It's a few of the places we've had on our list to see since we first arrived in England.  I was impressed by Amsterdam and how once you remove the intense vehicle traffic cities are pretty peaceful places even when there's a lot of people around.   I only wish other cities like London would push more for the biking respect you get in Amsterdam!  All in all our trip went flawlessly and we spent every day getting in as much as we could.  These are great cities filled with culture and history and we're very happy to have seen what we could in our short time there.

Jazz musicians busking in Amsterdam.

Our friend Merlyn

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So this month Susan and I have had an unexpected surprise come and meet us at our back yard door.  She was as skinny as possible, dirty and had a back leg that appeared to have been involved in some sort of recent incident.   At first she showed up briefly during the day to lay in the sun in our back yard which wasn't the first time we've seen cats walking the fences.  Then after a few days she started to come to the patio door and stare in, eventually Suz decided to start putting some food out for her and before you knew it she was in our flat and laying around like she owned the place.  After our first week she started looking a lot more healthy and we began noticing other cat's approaching our porch.  Two big male cats in fact, and literally by the end of the first week Merlyn (her new name) was in heat and howling to go back outside.   Up until this point we had been just leaving her outside during the night since we didn't really have any kitty facilities for her.  However we decided we had to make the commitment and buy some kitty litter and proper cat food as we began taking ownership of our new friend while protecting her from the male forces outdoors.  Another week went by and she finally began coming out of her episodes of morning howls and all was becoming good with our friendship.  So we purchased a cat carrier and a collar so we can make the big trip out to the vet and get her properly fixed.  This all was going as planned except... now she's gone!  Susan let her outside on Friday afternoon while the sun was out (which we've done a few times before)  and she left and has yet to come back.  So now all of a sudden the tables have turned and we have everything we need to own a cat but we're missing the cat!   My hope is still pretty good however that she may still return yet, however it's a pretty crazy world out there for a cat and it's not too far from the imagination to think that something terrible may have happened.   Merlyn's a great little kitty it's amazing how quickly you can become attached to a friend, hopefully all is well with her...

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She's back!! 42 hours later! **whew**

Now we've put a collar on her with a bell. Hope she doesn't do that again!

Exploring the South West of England

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We were running out of time for our March blog entry so Suz and I rented a car and made a weekend of driving around the south west of England.  Surprisingly I've never gone this way before even though it's so close to London!

We started off heading to Chatham for nostalgic reasons to see how it compares to the city we grew up near back in Ontario.  Well it turns out it's right next to Rochester which has an fantastic cathedral and castle along the water so we ended up there for our first stop.  Working our way along the shore we stayed over night in Dover and eventually ended in Brighton to watch the sunset on Sunday evening.  The weekend was much better than we expected for March and we really lucked out as it was the first good weekend of the year.  We found quite a few tourists also out but generally traffic and finding parking was never an issue which when driving in England is never easy.

Nothing like some nice sunshine to renew your spirits! :)

Canterbury Cathedral choir practice

Morocco!

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To be honest Suz and I didn't know what to expect travelling to Morocco.  I've talked to a few people who had advice and comments about it and we tried to plan a trip that would allow us to learn as much as we could while we were there.   What research we did was more about cab fares and costs to expect but regardless Morocco has been hands down the hardest country to keep your money in your pockets.   Of our 7 days away we had daily experiences of being blind sided by con artist merchants or cab drivers trying to squeeze as much out of you as possible.  Of course on top of this most people could only speak Arabic or French and Suz and I were desperately trying to piece together what we could remember of our French classes from school.  We were told that Morocco is suffering from the recession as there is a lot less tourists who can afford to travel than before 2007 and there's no doubt we felt like a target board walking the streets in Agadir or Marrakesh.   Even though nothing bad had really happened I think our plan to get a 2 day private tour from Marrakesh to the other side of the Atlas mountains and back was easily worth the 300£.  It gave us two days in the SUV to talk with the guide and learn about the country.  He showed us some great parts of Morocco along our journey and helped us understand the many unique differences in Moroccan lifestyle from politics and religion to farming and the nomadic people.  Such a large part of Moroccan life revolves around being able to have access to water, it influences everything in their life and is the source of wealth and control.  We also discovered as we travelled to Ouarzazate the Hollywood film industry has a big hand in the local economy.  A surprisingly large number of major films are shot around Ouarzazate for example Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven or even Laurence of Arabia were all made right outside the town and you can still see the props and sets from the films.    Eventually our tour brought us to our inn located in a natural oasis outside of Ouarzazate and we were (not surprisingly) the only tourists in the town for that night.  When we originally read over the description of our tour we never realized it would end up being such a remote journey.  We spent the evening talking to the brother who owned the Inn and in the morning one of the locals gave us a private tour to see the lifestyles of the local residents.  Suz and I really felt out of place, it was quite surreal but also an amazing experience.  Afterwards we drove out to see some of the irrigated farming and got to drive right into the local towns as they carried on with their daily life. The Irrigation is extensive and the  clay like dirt allows them to build deep trenches to pass water throughout the fields.  (I actually really enjoyed seeing that part)   Our tour eventually came to an end and we made our way back to Marrakesh, the next day we headed to Agadir where we spent the next 3 nights at a Resort so we could get some R&R before heading back to England.   All in all our trip went great and Suz and I came back to England with very welcome sunburns and our desire for beach and warmth subdued... for a while longer.  :)

Here's a video of us driving up to our Inn in Flint Oasis. (yes that's the river)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY3eEtayk9E

Here's us exploring the never ending maze of rooms in the Kaspa in Ouarzazate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUD5xGN13gA

New Years on Parliament Hill

Chinese lantern lighting attempt...

The full fireworks show with music.

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Being in Hampstead Heath park may not be as spectacular as being right in front of the London eye but it sure does have have it's advantages.   A beautiful view of the city, celebrating with a modest crowd of people lighting Chinese lanterns and their own fireworks.  I've never seen anyone try and light Chinese lanterns before but you can see them drifting across the city all around.  However it was a bit breezy last night and only about a quarter of them actually made it off successfully, at least the ones near us!   Anyway great night all around, definitely recommended.   :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T68W5XAOkCQ

Lantern attempt.... fail.