Locks and radio active baths

Nice to be here before the Russians return.

Budapest's Terror museum makes one realize that Hungary lived through 50 years of oppression. First the Nazis and then the Soviets . It was only in 2000 that the last Hungarian returned from forced labor in Russia. However, this superb museum ignores the question of why the Nazis managed to kill so many jews in the one year when they occupied Hungary

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Three and a half hours by train and 4 hours by bus just to so Marilyn can see a fence covered with locks



Jehova Witnesses and now this



Massive hot spring lake famous for its sulpher and radio activity
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Dark Knight stinks

What a strange place. Canada is an intelligent, friendly country but with a nasty streak that seems out of kilter. While we were there an English family were sent back to the UK because they had the nerve to bring their disabled daughter on holiday with them. You listen to the news and think that was just a miserable git at the airport and it will be put right. But no ,all the officials immediately support the original and obviously unjust decision.

Then a guy gets knifed and decapitated on a Greyhound bus!! Doubly unfortunate for the bus company because they had just finished a 'why do you never hear about bus rage' campaign

Canada is still completely unspoilt, the towns beautiful and Montreal's streets full of bars seem to have no police and no drunken people

But the thing that amused us and says so much about Canada is the Wall Mart closed for the weekend but with tents, chairs and other stuff left outside in the car park with full confidence that they will still be there on Monday.

Think this hotel should have thought more carefully about this logo


Even IMAX couldn't save Dark Knight. It is a horribly violent film with a confused, illogical story. The producers had no problem in making violence real and happen to real people but couldn't be bothered to deal with the big holes in the plot


No comment!!

Best teeshirt - real geeky looking guy at the cinema wearing a tee shirt saying '' I'm only here because my server is down''

Whales and disaster

10 days of continuous rain can take the edge of even the most beautiful place. The Tadoussac tourist publiscits say it is impossible not to see whales in the summer waters. We managed it for 4 days running but on the 5th the sun came out along with the whales.

They feed on the krill that grows where the Atlantic meets the water from the Canadian lakes. You can sit on the shore and watch them in the St Lawrence or go out on a boat to be amongst them.


the man mountain who thought it ok to stand all the time and block the few from people on our side of the Zodiac



A fascinating museum records the loss of the Empress of Ireland. A collision in fog, with a coal ship led to the deaths of 1022 people . Worst sea disaster after the Titanic but was quickly forgotten because it was 1914 and soon after everyone had other things on their minds

If you believe the captains' stories they were both stationary at the time it happened

This is a strange aspect of the disaster

The ship's cat Emmy, A loyal orange tabby who had never once missed a voyage, repeatedly tried to escape the ship near departure on May 28, 1914. The crew could not coax her aboard and the Empress departed without her. It was reported that Emmy watched the ship sail away from Quebec City sitting on the roof of the shed at Pier 27, which would later become a place for the dead pulled from the river.

Religious Bears

A viewing platform in the middle of the forest and we.at last see bears. We turned up at the couples house on the off chance that they would be going to see bears that night. They were but we didn't have time to find our campsite or buy food so they let us pitch in their garden and invited us for dinner and breakfast.

The couple were very welcoming and even invited us to join them in prayer and their daily bible reading! They are Jehovah Witnesses

Illigal Celidhs

Very sad to leave Prince Edward Island. A beautiful place, live music in every village, great sea food and very friendly people. And of course potatos

2008 Year of the PotatoOnly problem being a strange attitude to alcohol. How can you have a packed Ceilidh with exhilarating fiddle music and only serve up coffee and strawberry ice cream. There must be a Irish law against dry Ceilidhs

If you are going to camp you do not want to rough it

WallE - brilliant

Me cooking

Marilyn's Day

The McCartney concert, the international blues festival and the fireworks competition were all things I wanted to do. So it was only fair that Marilyn had her day.





First off was Potato World. A museum devoted to all, and I mean all, aspects of the potato and its production. Its in Florenceville ''Potato Fry Capital of the World''. The best bit was the restuarant devoted to potato dishes. This resturant is in the potato state, in the potato museum and next door to the McCain potato factory. When we started to choose one of the potato delights off the menu the waiteress told us they had run out of potatoes..... but could offer a Ceaser Salad

Next up was the longest covered bridge in the world. As the tourist blurb says this is not just the longest covered bridge but the longest covered bridge ''by some distance''

Then a trip for the sea view


Followed by a trip to the wood carving museum in a town devoted to wood carving


Unfortuantly because I was driving too fast and we missed the turning for Nackawic ''Home of the biggest axe in the world''



That night I got drunk

Quebec gets better and better

What a great time to visit Quebec. Caught the opening night of Montreal's 'Just For Laughs' festival with streets full of music, dance and monster insects. Then onto to Tremblant for the last night of the International Blues Festival. To top it all we saw the start of the international fireworks competition and the McCartney concert in Quebec.

Australia opened the fireworks festival with a stunning music synchronised display with 50000 fireworks. The only trouble being that there was no wind and after 10 minutes you could see nothing but smoke which changed colour very prettily as massive fireworks exploded above. Three times they stopped the show and waited for the air to clear only for it to become opaque again a few minutes later.

Neither of us was particularly excited about seeing McCartney and Marilyn had to be dragged along screaming. Quebec was packed but we stumbled across an campsite with space on the other side of the Saint Lawrence river. The concert was fantastic and free. McCartney did a storming 2.5 hours session of 36 songs. He was obviously loving every second as was the quarter million audience

The papers even two days later are full of the concert with pages of pictures and rave reviews.
Sometimes the screen can be cruel

If you are really important you have to be in contact at ALL times

Canot Camping in bon Quebec

Protecting our food from non-existant wolves and bears
Marilyn enjoying two days camping in the rain



The real French define their nationality by their language. Many of them speak English but choose not to. The lure of the tourist euro often overcomes this French nationalism. They will even speak in English to the arrogant tourist who assumes its OK to walk in a bar without as much as a 'bonjour' and demand 'full English breakfast'

We know that Quebec has a problem with federal Canada and that its French heritage is so very important. We can of course understand why they are so upset that Englishman Paul McCartney is playing for free and worse singing in English to celebrate Quebec's 400 year anniversary on the Plains of Abraham - where they got beat by the Brits. But they are a minority in an English speaking nation and next door to the biggest (quasi) English speaking nation on earth. So we assumed everyone in Quebec spoke English even if like the French they choose not. But its not the case. Finding a person who can speak good English is rare. Even in the tourist industry people have no or only rudimentary English.

Language apart its wonderful to find a 'European' attitude and culture in this North American desert. Especially after spending time in uptight Toronto where booze is treated like a hard drug and can only be bought from official government sanctioned drug dealers.





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Camping in Canada

Ignoring the major impact on global warming two extended families and various friends descended on Toronto for two weeks to attend the wedding of the year. Mark's (my son) and Shiva's wedding was perfect from the school buses to take us to the outskirts to the superb meal presented by a 'celebrity' chef

Escaping from the intensity of the wedding week we picked up our 'economy' car (compulsory upgrade to this grotesque red fire truck because everyone else had taken the fuel efficient ones) and tent and headed for the hills. We pay $33 to camp in a car park but it was a 4 star one!
When the rather strange looking guy in the tent next to us got an enormous axe out of his car we made unsettling connections with the show we had seen on the previous night - Evil Dead (the musical).



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French Love Bikes

Cycling from Otley, Suffolk to Normandy seemed an interesting thing to do. Over 400 miles in a week. Not too bad once your bum has hardened up

Suffolk is soft and the drivers reasonable until you get closer to Essex

Essex drivers take pride in going as fast and close to cyclists as possible. As you get closer to the Thames the properties all have a flat bed truck, a couple of white vans and several rotting cars all protected by large dogs. The sort of places to quote our friend Lynn that you expect a chest freezer in the back yard to keep the bodies in

Kent has lots of magnificent oak tree and lots of exhausting hills

New Haven in Sussex is trying desperately to be a new Brighton. The usual
apartments looking over the docks have been built but the pedestrianised centre still has its fair share of charity shops and a cafe that is closed ' due o the fire bombing'

But New Haven has 5 great, proper pubs. The night I was there one had a pool evening - proper kit for the teams with their names on the back such as 'killer' and the 'Inn keeper'. A boxing style commentator, music and grand entrances for the players through dry ice. A brilliant evening


Cross the channel and you enter bicycle heaven. Instead of being a target you become
something revered. Stop at a junction to try and work out which way to go and cars will stop you to let you across even if you don't want to. Lay your bike down so you can pee into the hedge and cars stop to see if you are ok.

In England people look at you and register a guy with a bike. In Franco you can see them assessing your bike and whether it is an object of desire or not

In Le Harve the dock workers were protesting. They had lit two enormous fires in an office
car park out of tyres. They blocked all the junctions only letting certain cars through - I guess it was the management being stopped. They had beer and very noisy fireworks. All this without a single policeman in sight. In England we would have had riot and armed police swarming over them in case they were a terrorist threat

Got to Normandy at the same time as as the June 6 celebrations. Very moving to see these old guys still so strong.










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