A day in Vancouver!

John and I really enjoyed our day trip from Squamish to Vancouver over the summer holiday.  The weather was perfect and we had our great friends Will and Angela as tour guides!

If anyone has only 1 day in Vancouver like us, I'd recommend one site in particular which you can spend hours upon hours at:  Stanley Park!

Stanley Park is HUGE.  It is 1001 acres of land.  In 2014 TripAdvisor named it the top park in the WORLD.  There are tons of huge trees there and some lovely walking paths.  We had a picnic in the park and enjoyed a fun game of bocce ball.  There were lots of families there enjoying the beautiful summer day.  This place is a great spot that is not to be missed!

Stanley Park is also home to the famous Vancouver Seawall which is also HUGE.  The Seawall was built around Stanley Park to help prevent erosion, but is a popular place for bikers, joggers, roller bladers, and walkers.  The Seawall also passes by beaches, so it's easy to stop for a quick swim or to lay out on the sand and soak in the sun's rays.

The Seawall loop is around 9 km long.  The views are absolutely beautiful!  I was snapping photos around every corner.  While walking along the Seawall you get a great view of the Lions Gate Bridge and can even see Mount Washington in the distance.

Vancouver seems like a very active, clean city.  It was great to finally visit there.  I think it would be a fun place to live.  The only down side is the fact that Vancouver has the second most expensive housing market in the world after Hong Kong!  Ouch... I guess beauty comes with a price!

Gondolas galore!

British Columbia has no shortage of gondolas.  No, not the kind in Venice but the kind that takes you to the top of a mountain!  Over the summer holiday we went on two spectacular gondolas.  BC is really a beautiful place that every Canadian should visit at least once in their life.  Although it sometimes costs less to buy a ticket to Europe, BC is definitely worth the splurge.  We flew across the country, literally coast to coast (from PEI to BC), but were able to keep the cost within reason as part of our multi-city journey this summer.

The first gondola we went up this summer was in Squamish where Angela and Will live.  The Sea to Sky gondola is new and worth the cost of around $40.  At the top there is a suspension bridge you can cross, and there are some walking trails to follow so you can see some great viewpoints.

The second gondola we went on was the Peak 2 Peak Gondola in Whistler.  It links Whistler Mountain with Blackcomb Mountain and is around 4.4 km long.  Part of the ride is in an enclosed gondola cabin, and another part is on open-air chair lifts.  The cost was around $50.  The best part is the chair lift since you have an unobstructed view of the mountains around you.  Disclaimer:  if you are afraid of heights, this may not be the best attraction for you.  It's high.  Really, really high!  It really is amazing and one of the best tourist attractions I have ever been to.  At the top of the mountains are some hiking trails, but we did not have time to do them.  Sometimes you can see wildlife including bears while on the gondola, but all we saw at the top were some cute marmots.  Riding the Peak 2 Peak is a great activity for a clear summer day!

Great day for an "Aquaventure" !

Last week the UAE celebrated Eid al-Adha and we got two days off school.  Flights out of the city were quite expensive and even hotels within the country were either booked or charging high rates for the holiday.  We decided to stay in Dubai and relax by spending the day on The Palm - yes, that man-made island shaped like a palm tree!  On The Palm is a huge resort called Atlantis.  Although we did not stay at the hotel, we spent one full day with our friends at the huge water park next door which was called Aquaventure.  On their website they claim to be the #1 water park in the Middle East and Europe.  If you are a resident of the UAE you can get a big discount by showing a piece of civil ID.  I did not take this photo (it's from the booking.com website) but it gives you an idea of what the Atlantis hotel and The Palm island looks like.  In the background the skyline is Dubai Marina, and on the far left you can sort of make out the Burj Khalifa and downtown Dubai.

Despite buying our tickets online in advance, we still had to wait over one hour to receive our wristbands needed for entry.  Luckily the lines at the water slides weren't too long and it was pretty easy to get a raft for the "Lazy River" floating around the park.  The Lazy River wasn't so lazy though, as it had rapids in certain sections and a "Torrent" section with large waves.  John wasn't expecting such a large wave to wash over his tube, and he ended up flipping over!

Aquaventure is right on the beach so you can also swim in the Persian Gulf waters which are very warm and calm.  From the beach there is a great view of Dubai Marina, the monorail connecting Atlantis to the rest of The Palm island, and in the distance you can see Jumeirah Beach, Burj Al Arab (sailboat-shaped building), and the Burj Khalifa downtown.

We brought our GoPro camera to Aquaventure to take some pics and video.  Aquaventure was a lot of fun and we definitely want to go back!

Where the heck is Warnemunde?

One of the last stops of our Baltic cruise was Warnemunde.  If you're wondering where that is (because I sure was!) it's a small district part of the town of Rostock in northern Germany.  I just Googled the population and it was only 8441.  We almost didn't get off the ship at this stop (just like in Kiel) because we had been to a bunch of German cities before and wanted to enjoy life on board the ship while it was in port.  Many people from the ship got off at this port and then headed by train or bus to Berlin which was several hours away.  We just visited Berlin last Christmas vacation so we didn't feel the need to make the long trip there again so soon.  I'll admit that we spent most of our time in Warnemunde at McDonald's using the free wifi, but we did walk around this cute little town to take a few pics and buy some souvenirs.  Most of the restaurants and shops were lined up along the canal going through the town, and there was even a decent beach there, although we decided not to go since the day was quite overcast and rainy.  Despite the weather, Warnemunde was a delightful place to spend an afternoon!

Two summer days in Stockholm

Stockholm, Sweden was another great destination on our Baltic cruise.  The weather was perfect and it was a nice walk from the ship straight into the Old Town (Gamla Stan).

We decided to spend our first day in Stockholm doing a free walking tour of Gamla Stan.  Unlike other Old Towns we have come across in Europe, Stockholm's was quite hilly.  Some of the cobblestone roads were a bit steep!  On our walking tour we came across the Swedish parliament buildings, the city hall where they pass out Nobel Peace Prizes every year, and a lot of grand statues of the many King Gustavs that have ruled Sweden.  Prior to the tour we sat in the square and just people-watched.  Sometimes it's nice just to do nothing but observe a foreign city over a cold drink!

Our second day in Stockholm was spent taking a small ferry boat from the Old Town to Djurgarden (an island 10 minutes away).  This island is home to Grona Lund, an amusement park which we could see from our cruise ship.  We didn't end up going there since I was hoping to visit the Tivoli Gardens amusement park in Copenhagen (which we did a few days later).

On Djurgarden we made our way to Skansen, the first "open-air museum" in Sweden.  Skansen is basically a museum/zoo spread out over a large area.  They have a replica of a 19th century village, but to be honest we didn't feel like doing the historic tour.  We just wanted to see the animals!  They had a variety of Scandinavian animals such as bears, moose, reindeer, seals, and bison.  The ones we enjoyed watching the most were the seals and the bears.  The seals were so fast swimming underwater, and one just sunbathed while perched on a rock.  The bears were play fighting and chasing each other around.  Skansen also has a lovely rose garden overlooking the city.

On our walk back to the ship we had some great views of the skyline.  Stockholm was very lively in the summer with many tourists and a cultural festival going on.  Another cool city visited on our trip!

Blue skies in Helsinki

After spending two full-on days of touring in St. Petersburg, we made our way to Helsinki, Finland for a day.  Helsinki was clean, calm, and cool.  I really liked this city and I think it was John's favourite one that we visited on our trip.  We spent our morning riding street cars and walking around the downtown area.  Our first stop was Temppeliaukio - aka "The Rock Church."  This Lutheran church is a round shape built into solid rock, with skylights and a large domed roof.  It was pretty cool to sit in there and listen to a musician play the piano despite all the people snapping photos around the place.

After finding the Rock Church we walked around town, making our way back towards the harbour.  We passed by this big crane which was holding a table of people in the sky.  It was an attraction aptly named "Dinner in the Sky."  We tried to sign up for it but it was all booked for the day.  Basically you book a time slot and then you get taken up in a crane to have a meal in the sky.  It is so odd but looks like it would be a cool experience.  We were sad that it was booked, but we had no idea that it existed before we stumbled across it.  Maybe we'll find a "Dinner in the Sky" again some day soon!

Later on we eventually found ourselves at Esplanadi, which is an area of the city with a park and streets lined with a bunch of restaurants.  We strolled on through to the waterfront area where we found some type of beer garden and spent a while using their free wifi and drinking a beer called "The Midnight Sun."

Just up the road from there was the huge Helsinki Cathedral which seemed to hover over the waterfront.  This Lutheran cathedral has a huge dome and from the outside is quite impressive.  On the inside it is fairly plain in comparison.  I liked walking up the steps and then looking back at the city.  The sky was so blue that day and the weather was warm and perfect for wandering around outdoors.

The best part about Helsinki was its relaxed vibe.  We found the Market Square near the harbour, bought some souvenirs, and ordered food from one of the stalls.  We tried some roasted potatoes and reindeer meatballs with ligonberry jam (apparently a popular meal in Finland).  It was ok but I'm not a big meat-eater so I didn't love it!  I felt a bit weird eating Prancer!  :(

I would like to visit Helsinki again some day.  It was too bad we didn't get more time in the city, but that's how cruises usually are.  Even though you get to see a lot of places, you have limited time at each port of call.  When we were sailing out of Helsinki the water was so calm and there were so many islands that were part of the Finnish archipelago.  Finland is a lovely country with friendly people.  Hopefully one day we can go back and explore some more places there!

"Venice of the North" - St. Petersburg by boat!

Day #2 of our "Grand Tour" of St. Petersburg started off with a boat trip along the many canals of the city.  This was actually my favourite part of the two days spent in the city.  The weather was sunny, warm, and perfect for a boat ride to admire the many beautiful sites from a water view point.

After a lovely hour on the canals, we got off the boat and made our way to Yusupov Palace, which was the home of a Russian noble family.  This place is famous because Grigori Rasputin, an influential friend of Nicholas II (the last tsar of Russia) was murdered here.  This place is a bit creepy because it contains wax figures depicting the scene of the crime.  Apparently Prince Felix Yusupov tried to give Rasputin tea and dessert laced with poison but in the end he shot Rasputin with his gun.  The palace itself was very elegant but the best thing about it was that there were hardly any tourists there!  Unlike every other tourist attraction in St. Petersburg, Yusupov Palace seemed empty since we got there early (even before opening time).  There was just one other tour group there at the time.

From Yusupov Palace we took a hydrofoil boat to Peterhof Palace, also known as the "Russian Versailles" because of its grandeur, beautiful gardens, and huge fountains.  This palace was created for Peter the Great.  We didn't go inside the palace but we toured the gardens and the fountain area.  At the top of the Grand Cascade fountain was a great view of the garden area.

Our final stop of the tour was one more palace - Catherine Palace, created for Catherine I, the wife of Peter the Great.  Catherine Palace was PACKED.  There were a bunch of tour groups crowding the golden gates at the front, but each tour group had a specific time they were allowed to enter.  We literally had to push and shove to get through the gates, and once we were inside it was a bit better in the sense that you just followed another tour group, and when the tour group left you would then enter the next room.  The best rooms of Catherine Palace were the grand ballroom and the Amber room.  The Amber room was not very big compared to some of the other rooms, but it contained beautiful amber panels on the walls.  This room was actually looted in WWII but restored and re-opened in 2003.  We weren't allowed to take photos inside the room but it seemed like you could sort of get away with it by taking a photo from the doorway of the next room looking in.

After two full days touring St. Petersburg we were super tired, but the city was worth it.  It was a very extravagant place which seemed like a living museum.  Everywhere you turned was something historic and grand.  Two days was really not enough to tour the place, but Alla Tours did a great job giving us a whirlwind tour of this historic city.