When we were planning our first trip to Europe back in 2006, my wife had her mind set on Belgium. I thought that was an odd choice at the time, though looking back in hindsight, it was a stroke of brilliance and made for a wonderful first European adventure. I lobbied for Amsterdam to be a side trip of a few days from our base in Brussels and it too ended up being a memorable part of our first time overseas. The trip was a tale of two distinct approaches… in Brussels, thanks to points, we stayed at an ultra luxurious five star hotel… in Amsterdam, we stayed at a place that had a roof and indoor plumbing. What that place lacked in charm, it made up for with a location that led us to a number of memories we still hold dear.
For me, when I think back on Amsterdam, it is of a spectacularly beautiful city, where every bridge over every canal was a stunning scene the likes I hadn’t ever seen to that point in my life.
Many times the best decisions you make in life sneak up on you.
It was a beautiful late August evening, our last night in Prague. Looking back on this from almost eight years on, it remains one of my favourite travel memories because of what this night ended up meaning to my wife and me. We hadn’t set out with any grand plans… just a way to enjoy the last few hours of what had been a remarkable two weeks in the Czech Republic. We headed up to the Letna Beer Garden with an idea to enjoy the view over the city and for me to spend the rest of our Czech currency on glasses of ice cold pilsner.
Brussels was an odd choice for my girlfriend (now wife) and I as a destination for our first trip to Europe. Looking back on that trip now with fifteen years of experience and hindsight, it was filled with amazing and weird experiences that continues to make us smile. That trip, and in particular the first day, a Sunday in Brussels, fuelled my love for travel and has sent me on a number of life adventures in the years since then. Even with all of the adventures I have been on since that day, it remains my favourite story from my time on the road.
Up until arriving in Brussels, the trip was as one would expect. We left Halifax flying through Newark with no hiccups. The overnight flight was the first red-eye for both of us, and with dinner, we elected to enjoy a glass of wine to help us get a bit of sleep as we flew over the Atlantic. That decision, as we’d learn in a few hours, would make all the difference in how this trip would get started.
We disembarked in Brussels and headed to passport control. As we were nearing the lineup to have our documents inspected, my wife uttered words that stopped us both on the spot… “I can’t find my passport”. We were stuck – no turning back to the gate at which we arrived and no way through customs. We disclosed the missing passport to the border agent and that led to police being summoned and the two of us being escorted into a holding area in the police station in the airport. Not only was my wife’s passport sitting back on our plane, but so was about 200 euros from when she paid for those two glasses of wine on our flight. She let the police know our seat numbers and that she now remembered she had “temporarily” stashed the cash and her passport in the pouch in the seat in front of her….. and we waited, and waited, and waited.
Our first venturing off our continent, and here we were on a Sunday morning being questioned by police in Brussels. We figured her passport and the money were on their way back to Newark and we’d be in limbo until we could speak with someone from the Canadian embassy on Monday. Luckily, after about two hours, word made its way back to us that a cleaner had found the passport (and money!) and we’d be reunited. After what seemed like an eternity, my wife was reunited with her passport and we boarded a train for Brussels Central, massively jet lagged, but relieved. This remains to this day one of my favourite pictures – the first I ever took in Europe.
Now more than a year without so much as a glance at airline seat sales, let alone the feeling of waking up jetlagged in a foreign country, there are early glimmers of hope for traveling in 2021. It is likely that traveling for me, this year, will be about reuniting with family out east, some western Canadian road trip adventures, and maybe, just maybe, a flight to a Canadian city later this year for some big city fun (eating in restaurants! going to bars!). Something holding me over until safer days ahead, and something that helped me hold it together in 2020, was the simple pleasure of hanging out on my back deck.
In the early pandemic days of 2020, my deck became a bit of an escape…an oasis really. A place for my wife and I to separate from our suddenly home office-focused work weeks.
This past October, I took a needed week off of work, but due to rising pandemic case counts, my travel options were severely limited. I’m normally the type of person who wouldn’t dream of spending a handful of vacation days in my own city. I’ve always felt that a proper vacation needs a hotel and a plane ticket (or at worst, a very, very long road trip). 2020 threw up a lot of constraints for planning a proper week off, so I embraced the idea of a staycation to shake me out of the doldrums of what was a year of too much sameness for my restless spirit. So here’s my Saskatoon (and extended area) staycation in five parts.
Part 1 – An afternoon of mural exploration
I drove downtown, parked the car, and armed with nothing more than a list of interesting murals on my phone, wandered around my city as I might do when visiting a new place. This simple act made for a lovely afternoon and helped me see parts of Saskatoon through a fresh lens. I spent most of my afternoon wandering around the Riversdale neighbourhood where there is a wealth of vibrant public art in the form of murals. Here’s a small selection of what I explored.
Knowing myself to be a restless soul, once my wife booked our secluded cottage just south of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, I started looking around for what kind of trouble I could get myself into within a one hour drive. Don’t get me wrong… a cottage in the middle of nowhere sounded great, but sometimes when things are too quiet, I need an escape valve for a short diversion to give myself the ability to enjoy some more peace and quiet. Maybe a touch odd, but it has been working for me on my travels for years now.
Sylvan Lake popped up through my searching as meeting my criteria for a fun half-day excursion. My wife elected to stay back at the cottage, so I hopped in the car, popped open the sunroof, turned up the stereo and hit the arrow-straight highway east for about 45 minutes. My first stop was Sylvan Lake Brewing Company located on the east end of the town. I had visited far too few breweries in 2020, and sadly this would end up being the only “new to me” craft brewery I got to visit in the entire year. Sigh.
When we left Banff National Park driving east into central Alberta, the sun was shining, the sky got bluer as the mountains receded, and my wife and I, while sad to leave the Rockies behind, were looking forward to a few days of serious down time at a cabin about twenty kilometres south of Rocky Mountain House. For all intents and purposes, we were going to the middle of nowhere to simply relax.
On a fortunate tip from a co-worker of my wife, we rented a gorgeous cabin at the Prairie Creek Inn that was the perfect mix of seclusion and luxurious comfort. For three nights this was our corner of the universe and both of us couldn’t have been happier with where we were.
For the first time since 1992 I didn’t take a single flight in a calendar year. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and 2020 has me looking ahead with excitement to eight hour layovers, canceled flights, middle seats at the back of the plane by the washrooms… seriously. Travel took a back seat this year, but with safety and my natural restlessness pushing me, I managed to have a few adventures “on the road” to keep my spirits high. In no particular order, here is a list of my favourite travel experiences from 2020 – a year of making the best of it.
(1) The smell of salt water – I hit the road for the 90 minute drive to Manitou Beach and shortly after arriving took a walk along the water’s edge. Standing at this point, the breeze in my face, I could smell salt water. I closed my eyes and it felt like I could be standing along the water in Halifax on a peaceful morning. In a turbulent year, it was a true moment of feeling centred.
Our last day in the mountains in Alberta marked the midway point of our short, late summer vacation. We only had loose plans for the day – check out of our Banff hotel, pick up coffees for the road, then explore the Icefields Parkway before heading east toward a cabin we had booked for the rest of our vacation near Rocky Mountain House. This would be my second time driving the parkway, and I don’t think this drive will ever fail to wow me.
Having already explored Lake Louise a couple of days earlier, we passed that by on the highway and headed straight for the parkway. The post Labour Day roads were fairly deserted, the Tim’s coffee was tasting good (obviously helped out by the scenery), and our driving day was off to a great start. It would be a day of a lot of pulling off the road, including this first stop where the highway is elevated above Bow Lake.
Bluenose Traveler 