Tranquility in Kamakura

March 1, 2020March 1, 2020 / Greg / 1 Comment

With any trip I take, the urge to do a day trip within the trip is strong. In many ways, I find it can be an indulgent mini-vacation from my vacation. When I visited Tokyo, planning a day trip also came with the idea of escaping the crowds of the city to seek out a bit of tranquility. In reality, I didn’t ever find Tokyo too crowded or busy, but I did enjoy a slower pace and quieter day when I visited Kamakura.

A little over an hour after leaving Tokyo in the morning aboard a crammed train, I arrived in sunny Kamakura. About a ten minute walk from the train station, I made my way to Tsuruoka Hachimangu, the most important Shinto shrine in the city. With my early start, I beat most of the tourists here.

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How far away is Kamloops?

November 5, 2017 / Greg / 1 Comment

We woke up in Kelowna on an August Sunday morning without a firm idea of what we were going to do that day. Over a coffee at the hotel, the plan started to form around the idea of having brunch in Kamloops. My wife had found a really interesting place with a number of delicious sounding gluten-free menu items, and since I drag her to enough sandwich and beer places on our travels, I was 100% in on this one.

We built a loose idea of an itinerary before hitting the road. There was no debate on stop one – the Kangaroo Creek Farm was less than twenty minutes up the highway and was a bargain at $5 to roam around and play with animals. I mean, how could anyone not want to cuddle baby ‘roos?

I got to hold a baby wallaroo named Huggy Bear who was less than four months old. So cute, I almost wanted to carry him back to the car and drive off with a new member of our family.

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Day trip to Córdoba

April 23, 2016April 23, 2016 / Greg / Leave a comment

I have a bit of a compulsion to include a few day trips on any of the longer trips I take. If I’m within a two hour train ride of somewhere interesting, I always feel a pull to loop in one extra place or one more location to explore. On our trip to Spain last fall, we had all kinds of options for day trips out of both Madrid and Seville. Consciously, we decided to ease up on the day trips so we could kick back a bit more than on previous trips. For me, there was one day trip that couldn’t be sacrificed – a visit to Córdoba while we were staying in Seville.

The pull to Córdoba was to visit the Mezquita – the religious site that has switched back and forth over the last 1300 years from a Catholic basilica, to a half mosque half basilica, to a full mosque and now to a Roman Catholic church. A straightforward morning train ride from Seville had us in beautiful Córdoba in under an hour. We made our way to the Mezquita as our first stop and entered the Patio de los Naranjos, the inner courtyard of the site.

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A road trip to recharge

June 28, 2015June 28, 2015 / Greg / 2 Comments

On my trip out west back in April, one of the things I was most looking forward to was a day long road trip around the southern part of Vancouver Island. All added up, I put about 350km on my rental car on a journey from downtown Victoria to Duncan and Chemanius along the east side of the island, then across the interior to Port Renfrew, before heading down the west coast to Sooke, before heading back to Victoria. My main concern leading up to the road trip day was the weather – the forecast had been calling for very heavy rain. But as I pulled out of Victoria early in the morning and made my way toward Duncan, the skies were almost perfectly blue. My first stop was at Malahat Lookout, about 30km outside Victoria to take in this outstanding view. Not a bad place to enjoy an early morning coffee.

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The ruins at Tulum

February 3, 2014 / Greg / 1 Comment

Work commitments and plans for other summer and fall trips have seen me toughing out the entire Canadian winter without a southern respite these past three years (that might have to change in 2015). Each winter I end up going back over pictures of trips to Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Mexico to find a desktop image to at least warm my heart during the coldest months. Doing that this year reminded me of a great day trip I took the last time I was south.

The trip to Mexico a couple of years ago was perfectly timed. I had started a new job and I was getting worn down during the last few months as a part-time student on the path to completing my CMA. For those reasons, a week at a resort with ample margaritas close at hand was ideal, even if not my usual travel approach. Part way through that week, it was time to explore some off resort sights, and the ruins at Tulum were only about a thirty minute drive away:

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A sombre day in Terezin

November 19, 2013March 7, 2014 / Greg / Leave a comment

Shortly after booking our trip to the Czech Republic, we knew we’d be setting aside a day for a trip to Terezin. Located about an hour’s drive north of Prague, we decided to do this trip on our own. With a bit of digging around, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out the logistics via public transit. We arrived in Terezin under cloudy skies and light drizzle which set an appropriate tone for the day.

We knew this would be a sombre visit. Terezin, originally built as a walled garrison town in the late 1700s, was adapted by the Germans during WWII as a concentration camp. The first stop on our trip was for a tour of the Small Fortress, about a ten minute walk from the town square. Just outside the entrance gate is the National Cemetery holding over 2,300 individually marked graves along with the remains of more than 10,000 who died in the Small Fortress, the Terezin Ghetto, in forced labour camps in Litomerice and in the post WWII death marches and transports.

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Pilgrimage to Plzen

September 24, 2013September 24, 2013 / Greg / 4 Comments

You won’t see a description for a day trip to Plzen in your Frommers guide to the Czech Republic, and that’s a bloody shame. For the beer lover, I would argue it’s almost a necessary visit. This quaint city gave birth to beautiful thing in 1842: a beer that has stood the test of time – pilsner.

For me, the day trip to Plzen this was a true pilgrimage. There was no way I was coming to the Czech Republic without visiting where my favourite style of beer was created. Only a short 90 minute train ride from Prague, the Pilsner Urquell brewery is located just outside of the city centre. When you arrive, you are greeted by the original gates of the brewery:

On our way into the brewery we got to see a morning delivery loading up. Each day, the brewery delivers beer to bars in the city by horse, keeping alive a long-standing tradition. I momentarily thought about taking the reins and making away with a few kegs of the good stuff:

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A day trip to El Yunque

August 2, 2013 / Greg / 1 Comment

When we picked Puerto Rico as our honeymoon destination, it was with the idea of having a lazy kind of trip. The plan: five days away, a small area in Old San Juan to explore, some good food and drink, and some general relaxation at our hotel with its rooftop pool, interesting bars and secluded spaces to sit and read. The one exception to this was a day trip we planned to El Yunque, a tropical rainforest.

Normally we’d have done this ourselves by renting a car, but as it was a lazy trip, we booked a tour to pick us up and drop us off at the hotel and take care of guiding us around. A relatively peaceful 50 minute drive outside San Juan had us in lush, tropical surroundings. After a brief stop at El Yunque’s main entrance and interpretive site, we started up the mountain. A very narrow road wound itself further and further up:

Our first stop was at Coca Falls, right beside the main road up the mountain. The falls have about a 60 foot drop (you can see some perspective with the people standing part way up on the left):

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Day trip to Whistler

June 9, 2013May 3, 2015 / Greg / 2 Comments

With our body clocks saying it was noon, we picked up the rental car in downtown Vancouver on Sunday morning at 8am feeling fresh and ready to head up into the mountains. A couple of outstanding coffees acquired (conveniently right next door to Avis), we pulled out of the city in a sexy Fiat 500 with a sunroof. Fifteen minutes outside Vancouver, we’re on to the Sea to Sky Highway and more than an hour of views like this:

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A day trip for the ages – Iceland’s Golden Circle

September 29, 2012May 5, 2013 / Greg / 5 Comments

Normally toward the end of a two week trip, my energy is starting to fade just a bit. Not so on the second to last day of this trip. I’m awake early, and among the first to grab breakfast in the dining room of our Reykjavik hotel. I can’t get to the car rental place fast enough. Today we’re doing a driving tour of Iceland’s “Golden Circle”

Leaving Reykjavik, there are clouds in the sky with a forecast promising a sunny day a few hours ahead. With no trouble at all, we find our way out of the city and onto highway 36 to make our way to Þingvellir National Park. We decided on the self-tour/rental car approach so we could do this trip at our own pace. About 10-15 minutes after turning onto highway 36, we’re glad we did. We pull off the highway for the first of what would be a few stops like this. There is an open vista and a field of balanced rock sculptures done by visitors: