Home at last

I'm writing this curled up in my comfy chair in Canmore, home at last. A lot has happened since the last post - sorry! I'll summarize our travels quickly now, and probably over the next few weeks tell random stories as i remember them.

I left off as we were sailing out of Stockholm harbour. From there we went to Warnemünde, Germany, the port for Rostock. Several hundred of the passengers went on a day-long tour to Berlin, but we stayed behind and enjoyed exploring this beautiful resort town. It has a long, lovely sandy beach, a scenic lighthouse, and a private museum unlike any I've ever seen before - a collection of souvenirs picked up by an adventurer who has been around the world 42 times. Eclectic and eccentric are two words that occurred to us.

Then off to Århus, Denmark, another lovely smaller place. We took a bus trip to a recreated Viking village, then walked around the city - another place worth spending more than a few hours visiting.

Across the Kattegatt to Oslo, Norway. We could have used a week or two there, but managed to get to the Kon Tiki museum and do a bit of exploring downtown. We cruised back out to the open sea through spectacular Howe Sound (BC)-like scenery, then spent a day crossing the North Sea to Harwich, England. It was odd seeing the occasional oil rig loom out of the mist and rain seeimingly in the middle of nowhere.

We got to Heathrow in plenty of time to catch our plane to Toronto, and didn't even hate the experience of going through security there too much. The evening trip wasn't too bad, and we landed before midnight. I think that's the best timing to minimize jet lag - we got up the next morning at a reasonable hour and were even able to function more or less normally.

A few days spent wandering around southern Ontario visiting dear friends, and then it was time to meet Begüm on her way back to school. We explored Niagara Falls and Toronto with her - it was great having an excuse to be tourists there.

Took the train to Ottawa (sharing a car with the lovely and friendly Luba Goy) and settled into our B&B in preparation for Evan and Anna's wedding. Rachel, Evan and his best man Steve stayed there, too - felt just like home.

The day of the wedding dawned bright and cool, and everything got done in time (except for unlocking the church doors, which was not our problem). And the most lovely wedding in the world happened without a hitch but with lots of joyous tears. Great reception, too. So the kids are truly and properly married, and are now touring South Africa.

The next day we flew to Nanaimo with Begüm and spent a couple of days helping her and Mallory get settled in their apartment. Two days driving across BC, and we were finally home.

We don't have any great plans or aspirations for further travels just now. We need a few months or more to get settled and a figure out where home is. So far the best things about Canmore have been the temperatures below 30C and the mountains - the best ones we've seen so far. Oh joy! What a place to call home!