Travel Plans

Our travel plans continued on after the wonderful sailing trip to Stewart Island from February for 2 months. Max's second hip replacement in May, with recuperation in our little mountain hut went well. Then in mid July we took off for Canada-Europe-Japan, a 3 and a half month holiday...the longest for many years. 

Canada

Staying with friends makes all the difference! Max's climbing friends from his young days made sure we had a wonderful time and took us to a ski field, even though it was summer, because of the wonderful log lodge there. It was spectacular.

Camping and trekking was also something we all enjoyed. We camped at the badlands with all the dinosaur skeletons etc. .

Trekking in the mountains was wonderful with the alpine flowers just at their most beautiful. Max was just off crutches, so he took it really easy.

A visit to the local annual Pow-wow was quite incredible. In the afternoon there was a rodeo, then in the evening all the costumed first nation people danced and drummed their way in.

The heat wave gave us the refreshing experience of floating down the river for a couple of kilometers with the locals.

Switzerland

More friends of Max's shared unforgetable times with us. We went climbing at Sentis, with the godolas cutting out a good lot of walking, but still leaving us with seemingly never-ending steel ladders going up rock faces. We spent the night at a little cheese making alp farm house, sleeping above the milking shed.

The village of Bergun has fantastic houses. No straight lines, and lovely art work. This is the area where Max first discovered his love of the mountains, so it is extra special for us.

Time with Max's family was very welcome, especially with the 65th Wedding Anniversary of Max's parents.

Hungary 

By now it was autumn, and Rowena's brother who lives in Budapest had organised for us to join in an Esperantist Wine Tour to celebrate the harvest. And what a fantastic experience it was! We visited 6 wine cellars.

Here we had lunch with lots of wine (and stronger!!!) dancing and talking.

Budapest is a beautiful city with some amazing buildings, parks and bridges.

The public transport is the best I've come across, and in no time we were hopping on trams, subways, buses and boats. We had a two week pass, so even for a few stops, used everything, and visited lots of places.

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The building for the market was unlike anything I have ever seen. That and the station building which houses a McDonalds ( surely the most elegant in the world!) were designed by the architect who did the Eiffel Tower.

Japan

This was a precious time for Rowena, as we visited the first puppeteer she trained for Sunset Silhouettes, in her shadow puppet days in Japan.And there was a new life to celebrate, by meeting her daughter face to face for the first time. It didn't take long for the games and stories to make us good friends.

The wonderful world of the Japanese Hot springs...Onsen. This one is beside the sea, and relaxing there at sunset time was absolute bliss. In Otaru we stayed with two sisters who had done Wwoofing with us, a few years ago. They looked after us so well, we have fantastic memories.

The autumn colours are something I love about Japan, and our timing was just right here. The maples, the waterfalls, good company: it was such a wonderful day

Otaru is quite a special city, a port near Sapporo, on the northern island of Hokkaido. It has canals and old storehouses, such as this one.

The seafood is great too!