Alice's Victory

Back in Lund again. The flight took a long time. First Victoria-Vancouver, then Vancouver-Calgary, then Calgary-London, then London-Copenhagen and finally Copenhagen-Lund. It wasn't that bad, though, since the international transfer in Calgary was low key. Alice, who usually start being sick even before we board the plane, did not throw up at all. What a victory! The Calgary-London flight was only half full so the kids stretched out and slept almost all the way. Now they are focussing on school that starts on Monday.

That's all for this trip.

Driving With the Top Down

On Wednesday we rented a Ford Mustang GT Convertible and drove to the famous Butchart Gardens north of Victoria. The weather was nice so we could drive around with the top down all day. A success with the kids, especially Alice who didn't get car sick. Butchart is an area of old lime quarries that have been converted to gardens. It is Victoria's major tourist trap and almost like a garden Disneyland. Judging by the size of operations they must have thousands of visitors everyday during the season. I'm amazed. It's just a big garden where you move from one drained quarry to the next. Maybe it's the unexpectedness of finding something like that here? 250 varieties of roses, etc. From Buchart we drove on backroads down to the south coast and a small town called Sooke to have lunch. Then up a river to some swimming holes. It was a pleasant spot with some shallow areas for the kids to play in. Back to Victoria and Willows Beach for more swimming and som beach football. Esbjörn is totally absorbed by football but has not been able to touch a ball for more than a week. When the sun was setting we went to visit Helga, whom Anna works with, and her family. Now it's time to back for the dreaded long haul home.

Trapped in Miniature World

Fell into another toursit trap yesterday: Miniature World (http://www.miniatureworld.com). 81 dioramas with everything from Custers last stand to Dickens novels and a recreation of the great Canadian railway looping around the exhibit. There was also a recreation of the enormous P T Barnum Circus that tours North America by their own train. Naturally the kids loved it. In the afternoon they did some more shopping whish is also a tourist pleasure with zillions of similar souvenir shops lining Government St and Wharf St. I walked across the bridge to Esquimalt to visit Phillips Brewery. Lost my way but found a so called Brew on Premises where people make their own beer. You book a time, come around a nd brew 50 litres for CAD 140. Phillips Brewery (http://www.phillipsbrewery.com) is just a small place but turns out 100-200 litres of beer daily. Went swimming after supper.

Vancouver

Not much happening on Sunday. In the morning the kids went swimming and in the afternoon we walked over to the "Children's Farm" in Beacon Hill Park. Unfortunately it was closed due to bad weather. There was a hard rain in the morning but in the afternoon it cleared up and became sunny. By then the staff had gone home.

Yesterday we went to Vancouver. Got up a 5 am to catch the bus and ferry. It takes about 3,5 hrs to get to Vancouver from Victoria. The ferry sailed through an archipelago much like the one outside Stockholm. Wood clad islands in various sizes. In Vancouver I went straight out to University of British Columbia to check out an archive with material about Tibetan refugee settlements in India. I also gave a talk about Baltistan at the Institute of Asian Research. So I didn't get to see much more than a glimpse of the city itself. But at least I could get an overview of its great location. at the ocean and with the high mountains as a backdrop. While I was working the rest of the family went around town. First they went to an aquarium in Stanley Park and later to a Science Museum. Seems like they had a good time. Caught the bus back at 6.45 pm and came in late to Victoria.

Tofino Tour

Tofino is, I guess, a tourist spot on the west side of Vancouver Island. It's situated at the tip of a beach-lined penninsula and surrounded with small, hilly islands covered by original rainforest. It is the home of some of the "first nations" as the Indians are called here. Tofino is a small place - four by four streets and the home of a lot of B & B's, restaurants and outdoor activity operators. Dozens of expensive resorts seems to be hidden in the surrounding pines. It's not too big and actually quite pleasant. People come here for the nature and wildlife, and to surf. There are several kinds of whales in the ocean and grizzly bears in the wood. People get around in boats, mainly open Zodiacs, small, covered motor boats and kayaks. It's one of the better surfing spots in the world and some of the world's best surfer actually come from this place.

The drive from Victoria takes 5,5 hours. A good freeway up to Port Alberni (and a stop at McDonalds)and then a winding highway. The road across the island is scenic, with montains, big forest and rivers. For Alice with her motion sickness, however, it's a nightmare. The Toyota Highlander handled great, so much better than the SAAB at home.

In Tofino we stayed in a family room in the hostel "Whalers on the Point" (http://www.tofinohostel.com/). It's a great place with great views although it gets pretty rambling around dinner time. Alice especially seemed to enjoy being in that environment.

We had booked a whale watching tour in an open Zodiac but the operators called us and persuaded us to go in a covered boat instead. A storm around Hawaii was about to pass some bad and rainy weather on us. The sea was high in the morning as the boat shot around some islets for a look at an eagle's nest, seals and sea lions. Then we started looking for whales. Normally, they are easily spotted by the water shooting up from their breeding hole but with winds and high waves it was difficult. Still, it didn't take long to find a group of three Humpback whales. Lucky for us, they moved into a channel bewtween islands where the sea was a bit calmer and we could get a better look at them. You don't see much of them, though. Only the back rising over the water when they come up to breath. Esbjörn seemed to enjoy it more when the boat jumped off big waves, and after a while Alice started to get seasick. Still, it was a good tour, interpretative, not streamlined, rugged, a good guide/captain. In the evening we walked to one of the sandy beaches. The weather cleared. It was beautiful but it was hardly a time for swimming.

The next day we drove back. A hard rain was falling most of the time but we did stop at a place to take a look at the forest and some really old and big trees.

Touristing Continues

Still waking up early. But I don't mind getting an early start on the day. In the morning ww went back to the Royal Museum for the Titanic exhibition. There were not so many people in line as the day before and we soon got in. At the exhibit entrance they gave us tickets with the name of an original passenger and a small narrative of that person's personal history and reason for travelling on the ship. At the exit there was a big board where we could look up the names to see if we were survivers. Alice was the only one of us that survived. It's a smart idea that entices the visitor's compassion, and it humanizes this otherwise rather technical shipwreck. There were some other exhibits too. One about British Columbia history and one about the "First People" as the Indians are called here. The latter was interesting, I thought. There was a big miniature village display reconstructed after photographs taken in the mid 19th century. Totems were lined up in front of every (large) house and made the whole site look something like a huge wooden temple. The weather is still great and we walked along the harbour to China Town and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. It was a fun place where certain tacit routines and rules seemed to govern the eating. Waiters with trolleys were cirling the room offering various small dishes, pretty much like Spanish Tapas or Gree Mezes. Food was great but the kids only dared to eat rice. After lunch I walked over to Vancouver Island Brewery, a local microbrewery, while the Anna and the kids walked back to check out the tourist double deckers/horse carriages. But it was very expensive and instead they went to some underwater garden on a ship in the inner harbour which turned out to be another tourist trap. Why do kids love that kind of stuff? At the brewery I met the Plant Operations Manager and got to taste this year's Hermannator Icebock, their most famous beer. It's their Christmas beer and it is not finished until November. Before that it has to be iced as well. I continued down the road and through more industrial areas to pick up our rental car for the trip to Tofino. The car is a Toyota Highlander which is a kind of SUV I guess. In the evening we went for a drive along the Marine Drive and up to Oak Bay to watch the seals. But they were not around.

Rare Books and Bugs

Another day waking up at 5 am to enjoy the sunrise over Victoria. With 9 hours of time difference the working day in Lund is in full swing so one can spend a couple of hours before breakfast in email exchange. I planned to check out an archive about Tibetan refugee projects at University of British Columbia but found out that the Rare Books section was closed for renovation. First I felt disappointed but then I emailed the librarian and they promised me access anyway (-:

In the morning we went to see the Titanic exhibit at a museum. But the line was already so long so we decided to drop out. After lunch the kids insisted on buying some kind of overpriced "collectable" teddy bears that were stuffed on the spot. Before they closed it you had to put a wish into it too. Alice chose a Cowboy outfit for hers and Esbjörn a Spiderman outfit. We trotted on to the small China town and then over to Victoria Bug Zoo. A large room only but very authentic. When the woman put our entrance fee in the cash register I noticed a weird bug climbing into it without her knowledge. I didn't say anything. Inside two very knowledgable guys were telling people of the bugs. There was everything from ants to spiders, scorpions and centipeds (that could be tried on as fake eyebrows) as well as a furnished cockroach display. In the evening the kids went swimming in the hotel pool, and finally I found a decent Canadian stout.

Tourist Circuit

The weather here is great. The apartment is on the 9th floor and when I woke up (at 5 am) I could see for miles, snow covered mountains rising to the east. After breakfast I went out to buy packaginf material to send a box of Swedish beers to Ontario as I'm doing a regular beer trade with a guy there. Later we walked up and down the tourist ghetto/shopping streets of Victoria. I have never seen so many grizzlies and mooses dressed up in the uniform of the Canadian mounted police. We walked to the store to buy more groceries and then cooked lunch. In the afternoon we took a small, even diminutive, ferry across the harbour to Songhee. With all the sprawling condos that area actually looks a lot like the western harbour in Malmö - shiny new but kind of desolate. Stopped at the famous Spinnakers (a local micro brewery) but I didn't find the beers I tried more than average. A disappointment. Sitting on the patio we looked at the sea planes landing and taking off and the boats sailing off to the islands. I guess the presence of all the boats and aeroplanes gives the place a Canadian touch. This is a country where most of the land is inaccessible unless you fly or sail there. We continued walking to West Bay and Hidden Harbour where we caught the ferry back across to Fisherman's Wharf. The "authentic" Barb's Fish'n'Chips was crammed with tourists and we walked back to the hotel. The kids went down to swim in the hotel pool but it was too deep for Esbjörn)-: Made burgers for dinner and everyone collapsed from jet lag at nine.

Boring Long Haul

Flying to Victoria is a real killer. We got up at 5 am to take a taxi to the train station and the the train to the airport. The check-in area was one endless line and we barely had time to get some breakfast before boarding. Then a two hour flight to London Heathrow and new lines. That airport is crummy and claustrophobic and should be replaced (I do not dare to say wiped off the face of the earth these days). We had something to eat and Esbjörn bought a Manchester United shirt. London-Vancouver is a long haul of almost 10 hours. And before we could take off we had to spend an hour waiting for our turn on the runway. The flight passed over Scotland and Greenland and continued southwest across Canada. Migration at Vancouver was like a socccer field filled with a long, snaking line. In comparison, the domestic terminal was like paradise, airy, and finnaly a small turbo-prop took us across to Vancouver Island and Victoria. Well, we had to take a 25 km taxi ride to the hotel too. These flights are just too boring and painful. It's not like old time travel when the journey itself was a pleasure. This is just economic mass-transport. We are flying between continents but time does not fly with us. It moves agonizingly slow. That in intself will limit human exchange between this place and the rest of the world until Scotty beams us across. The children were sort of drifting in and out of sleep pecking at food now and then. Alice started vomitting even before we got on the first flight so for her it was the real pits. As we were flying back in time, so to speak, it was only around 7 pm or so when we arrived at the hotel. The time difference to Sweden is 9 hours. Since we are staying in an apartment hotel I had to venture out in the evening to find a grocery store, slugging around the store, trying to identify unfamilliar brands of basic food items. When I got back they were all asleep. I went to bed too. When I woke up this morning I could see that they had been up eating during the night. Nevertheless, we are here.

Getting Ready

Tomoorow morning we're off. It's going to be a looooong trip, especially for the kids. maybe more than 20 hours in all.

Miles Award Science

Next Sunday we are going to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The orderals of flight booking we had to endure for this trip! I wanted to use my Star Alliance miles reward for a free flight and it proved to be a science. The logistics of the trip are advanced. I just hope it will work out.