a giant leap
in recent weeks we had become accustomed to moving seamlessly from country to country: Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, Belgium, England etc. with barely a pause in our perambulations. But a few days ago daughter L and I made a giant leap across a very big ditch and ended up in Ottawa, Canada. (reason for the visit: for daughter – to visit an old school friend. For me ; because I wanted to do the trans-Canadian rail trip)
We are being looked after by Linda’s long-time college friend, and in turn by the friend’s parents. Such a gracious, hospitable family – we are being overwhelmed with kindness. And I find myself allocated to a huge bedroom with en suite all to myself!
The arrival in Canada was routine until I went to pass through Customs. “excuse me sir, would you mind taking the left lane please?” I was happy to oblige, thinking that would be the ‘nothing to declare’ lane. Wrong! I had been ‘randomly selected’ for the full customs search procedure. Half an hour later I was declared clean and allowed to trail out to a deserted arrival lounge! Well it is all Experience I suppose, but I am beginning to think I must have a criminal appearance.
Back in Bangkok I was apprehended by the USA military after I took an innocent picture of their Embassy. On that occasion I was detained while they checked out my passport and made sure I deleted the picture from my digital camera. Now here in Ottawa I am again treated as an undesirable. But wait-there’s more. The following day, after the airport incident I was again pounced on by security in Ottawa’s Art Museum.
My crime this time was to be carrying a small plastic bag into the gallery. This had to be deposited in the secure locker section. (as it happened, daughter came to the rescue and offered to carry the offending bag in her capacious handbag, which was apparently acceptable. Logic???)
So what is it about me? The beetling eyebrows? the scruffy clothes? the worried look as I try to decipher noises around me and turn them into sentences? Who knows = the fact is I am a marked man.
But as usual, I digress. Here we are in Ottawa Canada and ready to see and taste another country, another culture. Canada is rather similar to NZ in that it was populated by an indigenous people many hundreds of years ago, and subsequently ‘settled’ by Westerners much later – with all the accompanying historic baggage that goes with the process. And like NZ they are still dealing with grievances. But the settling of Canada happened a few hundred years earlier than NZ and so the Capital does not have the raw edge that NZ has. There are many gracious old buildings and the city has many fine buildings to give it an air of permanence and prosperity.
The city was a delight to discover with majestic parliament buildings,
character-filled streets, a beautiful river with impressive bridges
and an intriguing mix of French and English cultures.
Across the river lies the province of Quebec – that fiercely independent region that insists on observing its French heritage.
Here we saw toffee-apples de-luxe,
and sampled ‘beaver tails’ – an elongated pancake with an endless variety of fillings and flavours.
We also had Frittes (chips) French style – mixed with clotted cheese and topped with brown gravy. An interesting blend, but I confess to preferring my chips ‘straight’ with plenty of salt.
The Museum of Canadian Civilization was a magnificent structure, and the displays and artifacts it contained, equally impressive.
I found the Art Gallery of equal interest and was rather surprised to find myself really enjoying the experience, ( however, my host and I found that we shared the saame attention span disorder: after about 2 hours in a museum the eyes start to get a glazed-over appearance, and it becomes more and more difficult to discreetly hide a jaw-cracking yawn)
We are being hosted by my daughter’s friend’s family and again I am struck by the good fortune that keeps following us. We have been hosted by some incredibly generous people and have been fortunate to stay in some superb places. The generosity of people continues to amaze me, and fills me with a desire to return the good favours we have received. I feel a little guilty in this respect because I am aware that not too many people will be dashing off to NZ and even if they do, our part of West Auckland is not the easiest area to reach.
Our hosts then left the parents home and took us on to an Aunts ‘sea-side cottage’ which turned out to be a genuine mansion set in rolling countryside overlooking Lake Huron. But more of that in a later blog. On the way to the cottage (about a 250km drive, I suspect) we drove through magniicent countryside – woods laced with hundreds of lakes. We stopped off to stretch legs and take in the peace and tranquility of this enormous country.
Earlier we had stopped off at a church serving a Polish community – again an oasis of tranquility , seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Set high on rolling hills, it had a commanding view over the surrounding countryside.
more later……..
Tags: Family, Observations, Transport, Travel, Tag Index
kiwijoe
July 10th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Definitely the bushy eyebrows methinks. Shady as anything.
Good to see you are getting a few days of pampering! Take care RnR