Off to China

Who knows if you will get to read these real time or if I will only be able to post them when I get back to Europe - but for those of you who don't know, which is probably most of you, I am heading to Beijing, China for a week. I have told a few people about this, mainly my parents, closest friends and my colleagues at work, but I haven't been overly vocal about it. Let's put it this way - I haven't put it on Facebook yet and depending on whether or not I will be able to access Facebook or not, people might not find out until I get back.


I think travelling through Schipol (the airport in Amsterdam) is going to take some adjusting. Now I am a Star Alliance girl, in fact I have my Altitude 100K with Aeroplan (the old Super Elite) and Schipol is a KLM/Sky Miles airport. Fortunately KLM has status matched my Aeroplan so I also have my Flying Blue Gold with them but I digress. I am flying Lufthansa via Frankfurt to go to Beiiing. I had the option of taking the direct KLM flight, however I opted for Lufthansa for a few reasons. #1 - my aeroplan points. I want to hold on to a high level of status with Aeroplan b/c for me, they have the best benefits (upgrade credits and the best baggage allowance). This flight should net me about 10 000 aeroplan points or so. #2 - I wasn't happy with the KLM business class seats when I moved to The Hague - they didn't seem to recline that far. For this flight I could have flown KLM, Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific or Austrian. I researched out each one's business class, as that is the class that I can fly and although I have heard great things about Cathay Pacific, their points are with oneWorld, which is British Airways, American, etc - and I have been status matched with BA to their highest as well, but it just isn't a good program, so why waste good mile accurage on them. Being that this is a KLM hub, the Lufthansa counter was relegated to the back corner and unless you really look, you can't see the dedicated First/Business/Star Alliance Gold check-in. Now I am a bit of a princess when I travel - I know, surprise, surprise, but this is one of the perks that I enjoy - dedicated check-in. I want to go up to a person and I want to see them tag my bag. I don't want to have to go to a kiosk and do it myself. Well I like I said, the dedicated check-in was buried in the back and I almost used a kiosk to check in but at the last minute spotted the dedicated check-in. I had thought that surely there must be check-in for business!

The my next little bit of hell was the security line-up. In Canada I had my Nexus card (oh how I love you) and as a priority member person with aeroplan, you could go in the "quick" line. Imagine my horror as I joined the regular line up today! It was busy and crowded and once again I thought - surely there must be a line for us special people. I kept looking around for someone to ask but couldn't find anyone. After standing in the line for about 2 minutes, I once again spotted a sign up ahead for Priority Members, so I had to make my way out of the line and quickly entered the Priority Line - much, much better and much, much more what I am used to! :-) The only crap thing was there was this little kid who needed a good spanking. He was about 2 1/2 years old and throwing a huge fit, that lasted a good 5 minutes b/c his monther wouldn't carry him. How could she - she also had a set of 5 month old twins in car seats that she was also trying to get through security. Fortunately she did have her dad with her (or at least I hope he was her dad). Even after they go through security and into the main hall, the kid kept on screaming for no apparent reason. Spanking if you ask me!

Now security here - you have to take out EVERYTHING that is electronic, including iPads, phones, cameras, computers and all chargers and plug-ins. Normally it's not a biggy as I pack with my laptop close to the top - easy to get in and out but the rest of it, it was buried here and there. I think to be quick and efficient at security and this time I wasn't as I had to dig through my bag to find everything, and then put it back when I got through. I am going to have to rethink my Schipol security strategy.

Getting back to being the 2nd class citizen in this airport, I am currently sitting in the Serviceair lounge which

Do you like Brussels?

European Union

Church in the fog

I think that Brussels are like brussels sprouts - at first you don't really like them, or as a kid you in fact hate them, but as you get older or over time, you develop an appreciation for them.  In my case, I LOVE brussel sprouts now that have been roasted and topped with parmesan and bacon - yummy!  My impressions of Brussels is that I didn't particularly love it but I think that over time I could come to appreciate it.  I mean, hell it is the head of the European Union so surely that must account for something doesn't it?!

Today I did the Hop On/Hop Off city bus tour of Brussels except that I don't ever get off and just ride around and listen to the little tape and see the sights. I can honestly say that I am getting a better impression of Brussels today.  Over all I would say that it definitely 2 1/2 hours well spent and would probably do it again and actually get off of the bus :-)

Starting a tour in the fog is probably not the best thing but I had to take what Mother Nature was providing me.  I guess it just means that I am going to have to come back here in either the spring or summer, when it is green to get a better appreciation of the city.  After doing the bus trip, I have revised my impression of Brussels - it is less of a hole than I had initially thought but honestly, it still isn't my favourite city.   With that being said, don't think that I won't come back, because I probably will if only for a day trip and to go shopping and maybe to check out more of the sites in the sunshine!

Another thing about Brussels is that I saw a lot of homeless people, beggars and panhandlers.  There seemed to be people on most streets either asking for money or  sleeping in the metro.  There is also a very large North African/middle eastern population here and it is reflected in the culinary choices - you can get a donair on just about every corner.

I thought that I was going to be sick on my train ride from Brussels to Antwerp as the guy across from me spent the better part of the trip mining his nose.  Had I had a kleenex I would have offered it to him as it was really starting to gross me out!  I also learned on the way home that there is indeed a 1st class section - you just have to look for it and it definitely made a difference on the one train as I felt a little like being in India!  For one thing, it had seats and not just benches, it was cleaner, quieter and way less people.  I am still not convinced though that it is worth it b/c I was only able to find it on the one train.

Brussels aren't just sprouts. . .

I know that it has been a long time since I have posted on this blog and I do have to admit that there has been a bit of travel since - my apologies for my negligence on keeping this up.  As I mentioned in my last posting, I have relocated to the Netherlands for work and this is opening up a whole new world of travelling - beginning today with my overnight trip to Brussels, Belgium.  I figured that for my first trip I should try something easy.  . . and it has been anything but!

I booked myself a hotel online - a nice little Sheraton in Brussels - that was easy.  Then I booked my train ticket which also too was easy and I even selected the "print ticket at the station" option as I don't have a printer at home.  Easy enough as I live about 3 minutes from the main train station in The Hague.  When I left this morning, I gave myself ample time - a good 30 minutes extra in case of any issues.  For those of you who have travelled in Europe, the train system here is very precise.  If it says that it is leaving at 8:28am, it leaves at 8:28am.  So back to my tickets.  I went up to the Info Booth to see where I went to print my ticket and she nicely informed me that I would have to go to Rotterdam to print my ticket b/c the international ticket booth was not open until 10am, and I am a 8:28am departure.  Did this set me into panic-mode - no, however it did concern me a tad as my original routing was not taking me through Rotterdam, but who was I to argue.  So I got on the train and headed to Rotterdam, at which point I found the ticket office and the machine to print off my ticket and I was on my way.  Then I had a holy shit momentwhen I was on the train and realized that I was supposed to get off at a specific stop to change trains to Antwerp an thought that I hadn't.  Fortunately, I was at the right spot but there was some instant panic but then I quickly realized that I could probably just get on a different train and go back.

So as you can see, my dreams of easy European travel are not coming to fruition on this trip and this is also why I decided to try a simple trip to Brussels as my first trip rather than something a little more complicated like to Germany or something.  Mind you, maybe I should have started with a day trip to Amsterdam where I know that my OV-Chipkart (my tram/train card) works.  Plus, they speak French in Belgium and I know a little French (ie. more than I know Dutch) and surely, they must speak English right?!  For the most part the trains in the Netherlands are nice - I bought a 1st class ticket and I am not sure why b/c I haven't really seen a first class section and there definitely was no first class on the train b/w Roosendal and Antwerp - I almost felt like I was travelling in 2nd class in India!  Okay - maybe not that bad but they were just bench seats where you faced the others - and I had to travel backwards which I do not like - I like to see where I am going. (the princess in me - it still exists!)

I got off at the Brussels - Central station which somewhat lands you in the heart of Brussels.  My initial reaction was "awe" in the sense of "OMG I can't believe that I am actually here and this can be my life now" but that quickly wore off as I realized that I was dumped in the middle of any urban city.  With no real plan, I decided that I was just going to wander around and go from there.  After about 10 minutes of just wandering down quaint narrow streets filled with lots of kitchy tourist things, I came across a tourism centre where I picked up a map and figured out where I was, and also picked up a brochure for the hop on/hop off bus.  Now I know everyone has an opinion on those however I for one like to go on them to get a quick and dirty overview of where I am but also to get my bearings.  I decided that I would do the bus trip on Sunday morning and that I was going to use the afternoon to just wander around and shop!

One of the things that I have done since I have moved over here is to download a few different travel guide apps for my iPad including one called GuidePal with which you can download offline guides for certain cities including maps.  This trip was the first time I have used this app as they had a guide for Brussels.  For the most part I didn't rely on it too much however it did provide me with some initial information and grounding but also gave me a good recommendation for supper.  One thing that Belgium is famous for are it's brassiere's with their moules et frites (mussels & fries for my non-bilingual friends), so I decided to follow GuidePal's recommendation and went to Au Vieux  Bruxelles

(www.auxvieuxbruxelles.com) for probably the largest pot of mussels that I have ever eaten, along with a small bowl of frites.  The mussels were incredibly fresh and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  The frites on the other hand, they were okay.  I am not a fry conisiouer and could really have lived without them.  With my moules et frites I also sucked back a 1/2 bottle of Sancerre - one of my favourite varietals of French wine, so for my metro ride back to my hotel, I had a good little buzz on :-)

Oh, one thing that I have to mention is the red light district for a lack of a better word in the north end of Brussels.  When I am riding on the train, (or any mode of travel for that matter), I like to look out the window and just take in the scenery whether it be pastoral farmlands or the local architecture.  So as we were going through the north end of Brussels I happened to look up and see women scantily clad in lingerie that left little to the imagination sitting, posing, talking on their cell phones in windows - obviously waiting to share their talents with those who were interested.  Now, I am not a prude, nor am I sheltered and I had heard about the red light district in Amsterdam and how women share their talents but I did not realize that 1) this exists outside of Amsterdam and 2) that it was so obvious!  At least now when I do go to Amsterdam I won't be as shocked and won't walk with my mouth hanging open collecting flies!

Journeys Will Be Changing

Well some major news and changes coming in my life, which hopefully will lend itself to more posts.  I accepted a role within Shell this week (that is who I currently work for) in The Hague.  I start at the beginning of February so the next couple of months are going to be rather chaotic and busy as I prepare for my big move.  Plus, I have a trip to Hawaii in there for Christmas and another trip to Mexico for a friends wedding, the week before I am supposed to start.  So really, I think I only have about 6 weeks or so to really wrap my head around all of this.

By the sounds of it, there will be a fair amount of travel - which I love!  I love getting out and seeing new places, even if it means only going from the airport to an office or a hotel - at least I get to see something and experience something new.  I am also hoping that with being based in Europe that I will have a lot of opportunities for travel.  Mind you, if you know me at all, you will know that I seize just about every opportunity to go somewhere, even if it is only for a short time.  Hell - last weekend, I went  to London, England for 2 days!  I had a business trip to Houston and decided to fly back to Calgary via London and the sad part is that it was a lot cheaper to do it this way than it was to fly directly home!  So between my dad (who also shares my love of travel) and I, we are both plotting where we can go.

So keep checking back b/c I hope to have lots of stories and adventures to share with you over the next 4 years.

Friends Closer to Home

I have always said - I will follow my friends around the world - take advantage of the cool locales that they are living in and this weekend was another one of those adventures. Only this time, it was much closer to home.  My colleague Jeff moved to Anacortes (San Juan Islands) at the end of March, for work - we have a nice big refinery there, and since I wasn't doing anything this weekend, I decided that I would go down for a quick visit.

When Jeff moved to Anacortes, he decided to get a little shack so that when he had friends come down, they would have something a little more than a hovel to stay in.  This shack that he has rented is waterfront, is a mere 6800 sq ft, has 6 bathrooms - yes 6 and 7 fireplaces! It has a an elevator from the walk-out level to the "eagle's nest" - a top floor room with amazing views of the San Juan islands.  Although the garage only has 4 doors, it can easily house 9 vehicles, including either a large RV or a boat (it has a pull-thru).  Every room in the house has spectacular views of the water - and oh, the kitchen has a pizza oven, which Jeff has never used b/c he still hasn't figured it out.  All in all, it is a pretty good little bachelor's pad and guaranteed, I will be going back!

 Anacortes is a cute little town with a lot of charm and character in the downtown and a noted absence of any big box stores aka Walmart or Target.  On the weekend they have a fabulous little farmers market where you can pick up artisan cheeses and butter (which I did - a nice lavender cheese and fresh herb de provence butter - yum!), as well as these gorgeous organic raspberries that tasted like a raspberry should!

After getting my fill of the Farmers Market and Anacortes, we went on a little drive about and went through another great little town with a wonderful downtown called ???  What I have noticed about the places down here is that their downtown cores have been revitalized with cute little shops, which all aren't full of "made in China" kitchy crap like we have in Banff but rather little mom and pop types of stores.  They have also done a great job of restoring the buildings, created great pedestrian areas and there seems to be a real pride in the communities.  With that being said, we didn't stop and shop in these little towns but made our way down the I-5 to the Seattle Premium Outlets where I managed to keep the Washington State economy going for another day.   Jeff, bless his heart, took me shopping and I have to say, his father trained him well!  He always seemed to find a bench near to the store that I was going in, happily looked after my bags, while I power shopped.  In return for this, I only subjected him to 2 hours at the outlet but in that time, I did manage to buy a fair bit, including 5 pairs of shoes :-)

Me & Gabert!

Belize Eats

If it's one thing I have learned from all of the retiree, RVing bloggers out there is that what you eat and where is important and even more important is sharing it with others. Now with that learning, I have decided that on my travels I will try and blog specifically about what and where I ate. See, I am learning from my elders! LOL!

Day One Elvi's - this restaurant came recommended to us my friend Candace who rented us her condo down here on Ambergris Caye. She said that they had really good food and that we were to try their jalapeno poppers - so we followed her advice and we were not disappointed. The poppers were home made and were served with a mango sauce of some sort and to me, they weren't too hot.

We also shared an order of coconut shrimp which came in a coconut cream sauce as opposed to being coated in coconut and fried - it was very yummy as well. As for the main course, Diane had lobster ala Elvi (it is lobster season here) - which was about 3 tails worth with some sort of coconut mushroom cream sauce on it with a side of coconut rice. I opted for the special of the day which was a seafood creole that had snapper, shrimp, lobster (1 whole tail), calamari, scallops and conch in a tomato type broth served with coconut rice as well. It was way more than enough food! Elvi's is a definite hit and would recommend.

Day Two Capricorn - we asked our dive master what his favourite restaurant was and at this end of the island, it was a place called Capricorn, which was about a 15 minute walk down the beach from our resort. It had a nice dining patio however the food was so-so. Upon talking with others, it has a reputation for being hit or miss and I think we got a miss day. The meal wasn't bad but it wasn't great. I ordered the conche ceviche for an appy - very yummy! Diane had a lobster cake with a roasted red pepper sauce - it was rather pricy for what you got. For mains, I had the catch of the day which was snapper - I love snapper. It was served pan fried with an olive tapanade and another sauce that I can't remember. The fish was a little overdone - okay a lot, but nonetheless edible. It was also served with this horrid squash that I thought was sauteed pears or apples - it got spit out. Diane ordered the grouper in some sort of sauce and it too was overcooked. Like I said, the dinner wasn't horrible however it wasn't great.

Day Three Waruguma - this was another recommendation from Candace and once again, did not let us down. Now Warugama is one of these hole-in-the-wall type of places that has absolutely nothing when it comes to atmosphere. It has plastic table clothes and plastic lawn chairs but damn the food was good! They made pupusas - which for those of you who don't know are a central american type of dish. Essentially you take some filling, in this case I had pork and cheese, about the size of a baseball worth and you coat it with a cornmeal dough of some sort, so you have an even bigger baseball and then you flatten it and fry it on a griddle. Here they were served with a nice little slaw and some tomato juice ttype of sauce - oh so yummy - and that was just the appetizer.

Lobster burrito

I ordered the lobster burrito - I know - not a traditional burrito filling but it was so good! There were at least 3 tails worth of meat in this burrito - which was huge! They say that they can feed 2 people and they can. I brought most of mine home and had it for lunch the next day. Diane ordered the fish tacos - made with snapper, and that too was a massive portion. It came with this innocuous looking salsa that just happened to have a piece of habernaro pepper in it that could strip your taste buds! Definitely a go to again place - and cheap!

Day Four Captain Morgan's - now this is a resort that is located on Ambergris that happens to have the casino and where the TV show Temptation Island was shot. It is also only a 10 minute walk down the beach from our resort, so after a day of diving for Diane, we decided to go there as she didn't want to take the water taxi into town. I had to admit that my hopes for Captain Morgan's weren't very high especially when we got there and found out that it was going to be a buffet of Belizian food :-( Not that I don't like buffets, but usually only if they have Chinese or Indian food in them and I am always a little cautious of "national foods" - I don't want to be eating goat or anything like that. Well boy was I ever surprised - it was delicious! They had chicken tamales, stewed pork, sweet and sour plantains, beef fajitas, rice and beans and a couple of kinds of salsa and to finish it all off, key lime pie! Yum!

Day Five Rendezvous - can't remember anything else now because it is over a year later when I am posting this :-)  however I have figured out how to back date my posts so they show up in the right place.  I think this is where we had the pork taquitos :-)

Where Have the Days Gone

Wow! Hard to believe it is Friday and the work week is almost over - that means I will be heading back to the salt mines on Monday :-(. Normally by now I have my next vacation in the works, this time - not really. I would like to head back down to the Baja to see my friends Brian & Kim (see last year's posts) but they are only there for a month and I don't think I can swing it due to some work obligations (yes, I do work). I am heading to Houston at the end of March for some meetings so was thinking of tacking on a week of holidays to that - need to give that some more thought. But until then, I will continue to enjoy my last couple of days here in Belize. My plan for today was to go diving this morning with Ecologic Divers however the weather is not cooperating. They came and picked me up at my dock at 8:15am as arranged and we went into San Pedro and the weather, mainly the wind, got worse. Inside the reef, the chop wasn't too bad but outside the reef, where we were to go diving, there were 8-9ft swells, making it too dangerous to go diving. So after waiting for about an hour, the decision was made by Ecologic to cancel the dives for this morning. It was too bad, however it was the right decision - safety first! Unfortunately I can't go with them tomorrow as I fly out on Sunday morning and my decompression time would most likely be too tight. As for what we are going to do today, not sure. Diane is writing her final exam for her Open Water Certification and then we might take the water taxi into town and do some souvenir shopping - need to keep the economy going. The nice thing about Belize, even when it is overcast, it is still about 80F - so still warm. Yesterday was a rest day for me and a diving day for Diane. She did her last 2 open water dives towards her certification. I had contemplated going with her but decided to take a day off. I went for a nice walk up island along the beach checking out the other places to stay. What is interesting about Ambergris Caye is that there are very few cars as everyone gets around in a golf cart with 4x4 wheels on them, so all of the "roads" and I use that term loosely are more like dirt lane ways. In some places, the road is replaced by the beach. The other way that a lot of people get around is on bicycles - which they also ride on the beach. We haven't done either yet - maybe today. AFter my walk, I just lazed around the pool for most of the day reading my book. Although it was fairly overcast, I managed to get some good colour and that is when I realized that I need Botox! I must furrow my brow when I am reading as I have these 2 lovely little white stripes on my otherwise tanned face! Late afternoon it pissed down rain for about 30 minutes, the water was really choppy and my thoughts of taking the water taxi into town were quickly fading, however when we did decide to go into San Pedro, it was as smooth as glass. We had a lovely meal at Wild Mango (I will be posting a specific