Home

It's 8 a.m. on Tuesday, and I've been up since 5. Not bad for the second morning home, I guess. And the advantage of still being on a time somewhat east of us is that we get to watch the glorious sunrise light our wonderful mountains. Driving home from Calgary Sunday evening we were both struck by the beauty of our own part of the world: the mountains in the evening light with scattered patches of rain equalled anything we had seen on this or any trip. Prince Christian Sound in Greenland comes close, but only close.

The flight home followed the great circle route, of course, which meant we flew over Greenland. We've done that many times before, but this time we had some sense of what we were passing over, and it was lovely. We also got a good look at Baffin Is., which a lecturer on the cruise had talked about quite a bit, and we could see what had moved and excited him - huge mountains with deep U-shaped valleys, barren and beautiful. I for one want to see that from the ground. It might even beat the scenery around Canmore.

One thing about Europe that I miss here is the efficient and convenient public transit. In Amsterdam in particular - and also London - I was struck by the small number of private cars cluttering up the city centre. Of course it's expensive and inconvenient to drive downtown there, but it's also quite practical not to. Amsterdam has the advantage of being flat, so bicycles are a practical alternative, but there are buses and trams everywhere. You don't have to walk more than a couple of blocks or wait more than 5 minutes to get where you're going. For out-of-town travel there are trains every hour or less going just about anywhere. Why can't we do that here? I know we don't have the population density and people are attached to their cars, but this is a rich province in a rich country - build it and they will come. It particularly annoys me that Canmore has a major railway line going right past our house, but no train station and no way of using the train to get to and from Calgary. What would it take? harumph.

Anyway, it's nice being home. Our apartment and our cats were well taken care of while we were gone, and it's so great curling up in the comfy chair with a couple of purring cats.