Germany and Austria Family Visit

Boat Cruise down the Rhine River

See the rest of the photo's here!!
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So with my parents down in England we had our opportunity to finally visit some of our relatives and friends back in Germany.   Thankfully my Mom is good at speaking German and most of the people we visited are pretty fluent in English so we were able to have a great time meeting all these people I've never met before!
Each day was packed with things to do as we were shown around the local towns and countryside.
Overall our impression of Germany has changed significantly for the better.  You really start to see a different side of things when you have an opportunity like this to stay with the people living there.
Hopefully another trip back to Germany will happen in the near future to reunite with all the new friends Suz and I have made. :)

Paralympics 2012!

Ping Pong

Weight Lifting

Sitting Volleyball

Judo

Goalball

Wheelchair Basketball

Velodrome (Cycling)

Aquatics (Swimming)

Athletics (Track and Field)

Equestrian (Dressage)

See the rest of the photos here!!
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Four jam packed days of events with lots of exciting competitions and achievements witnessed.   It was nice to have my parents there to explore and enjoy it with.  Some of the events we've never seen before or knew they even existed!  I put together a 10 min video with a bit of each event which hopefully brings some insight into what we experienced!

Paralympic compilation 2012

London Olympics 2012

Women's Cycling in Richmond Park on their final stretch around.

Trailing cycler's followed by one of the many rider's support cars. 

After the race we headed out to check out Richmond park which we've never seen before. (It has wild deer!)

Later in the week Ace and Dionne trek out with us to our Olympic event at the Lee Valley Park.  (They were hoping to get tickets somehow but it wasn't happening so they continued off to see Cambridge instead)

We brought our Canadian flag but there were no Canadians who made it to the finals . :(

Womens Kayaking finals were also taking place with the men's Canoe Slalom.

England surprised everyone and won Gold and Silver which made crowds go crazy! (our hands and throats were very sore by the end :D)

On Sunday we went to watch the Women's marathon. (Again no Canadians to cheer for :( )

Here's the camera truck that drives just ahead of the leaders.

Leader pack passing through on their last lap!

Then we headed up the fire of London tower to see some city landscapes

Getting photos with the mascot by the fire tower.

We wandered over to Tower bridge and watched Andy Murray win his Gold with the crowd!

Later in the day we headed to Hyde Park to watch the Athletic events (including the 100m sprint) in  the same Venue we watched Sound Garden! (Woodchips included)

Yaay we had some Canadians to cheer finally! (It happened at least once I swear...)

Here's a video of the Canoe Slalom where England made the fastest time around the course to win Gold! (They were first up so nobody knew yet they were going to win gold)
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So the Olympics are over and I thought I'd share some of the photos we took.  As a last minute surprise Ace and Dionne came out with us for a few days as they stopped by from a trip around various Scandinavia countries.   We attended a handful of free events and made it to our only ticketed event at the White Water park in Lee Valley. Our canoe slalom turned out to be a lot more fun then we expected as Britain won Gold and Silver and the fans went crazy as nobody really expected any medals from them. :)
 The expectations of the city being overcrowded ended up being not a problem at all, apparently if you were in line with an event it was busy however my commute everyday seemed almost quieter then usual.  However we experienced a lot of frustration trying to land some last minute tickets for Ace and Dionne.  We wasted hours going through the site trying to get something from the long lists of "available" tickets.  In the end we managed to secure two women's football tickets for them but it was all the way in Cardiff.  (not a bad deal for them since it's a new city to explore)

All in all it's been fun watching the events unravel in London and we still have the paralympics coming!  This time my parents will be down and we have tickets so we can actually see these venues that are just down the road from us!

Spanish Road Trip!

See the rest of the pictures here!

See a Google map of the route we took here.

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This time we went somewhere warm!  It's been almost 3 years now since we've experienced temperatures anywhere above the low 30's and this summer England has seen more cold and rain then it's fair share.   We were a little nervous with this trip as we were driving in a non English speaking country through cities that were built well before cars were invented.  It turns out Spain is fantastic! It's also quite easy to drive in assuming you have your handy GPS close by.   Usually after a week of travelling Suz and I start getting tired and begin looking forward to going back home where day to day life is simpler but this time we didn't want leave!  The people in Spain are friendly and welcoming even if most of them don't speak English.  We also felt safe on the streets even at night since families are still out eating dinner and playing on the streets until well after 11 pm.  It's hard to find any faults with Spain, everything is inexpensive clean and well kept and there are plenty of things to see and do within close distances.  Hopefully Spain can find a solution to there looming economic problems which are leaking out into the streets and they manage to maintain their reputation of being a great country to experience!