by Jim Bellomo | Aug 28, 2019 | Uncategorized
Can’t believe it. Today Kathleen and I are celebrating 20 years of marriage by taking a two day trip to Vancouver, BC. We have visited here many times in those 20 years as it is one of our favorite cities. We were here last in 2017 with our British buddies Paul and Gail. Before that my brother Steve, his wonderful wife Jamie and our niece Cassie were here in 2015. We used to come here a lot more often before 2006 when we switched out British Columbia focus from Vancouver to Chilliwack because we always had so much more fun with Bob and Judy.
We drove up yesterday (Tuesday) and had a wonderful dinner at Edible Canada on Granville Island and then saw an improv show at Vancouver TheatreSports League (VTSL). We have been going to VTSL for almost as long as we have been married. It’s an awesome improv spot that has in its founding members Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles of Whose Line Is It Anyway? The show was outstanding. We laughed our asses off.
This morning I went out for one of my early morning photo walks. I have done a bunch in Vancouver and it never disappoints. Saw a couple of cruise ships (one Princess and one Holland America’s Volendam) and thousands of teenage girls line up at 5:45 am for a huge warehouse sale. Just crazy.
After breakfast at our hotel (the Wedgewood—where we have never stayed but we LOVE it) we went to see the Vancouver Aquarium. We can’t believe we have come to YVR so many times and never seen it. It is truly amazing. Then it was a nice drive around the Stanley Park, stopped at Prospect Point to take pictures of the Lions Gate Bridge and have lunch at a superb little bar and grille place there.
Back to our room so I could process photos and take a short nap (we are kind of old, you know) and then dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in the world, CinCin. We have had so many great dinners there since we first went with some of our Martini Mates back in 2005. Tonight was no exception. Truly wonderful Italian food and wine.
More tomorrow when I plan to walk the sea wall all the way around Stanley Park as my early morning photo walk, but in the meantime, here’s some pics I really like from today’s walk and our visit to the Aquarium.
Downtown Vancouver from my early morning photo walk
Downtown Vancouver from my early morning photo walk
Canada Place
This shot has NO post production. Strait out of my camera.
I love that early morning light
The convention center.
Canada Place
The people you see are in line for the big warehouse sale
More sale folks
I loved these silhouettes
I loved these silhouettes
I loved these silhouettes
I loved these silhouettes
Three cool houseboats
Volendam arrives
I loved these silhouettes
I loved these silhouettes
I loved these silhouettes
Near Stanley Park
On Robson Street
In the Amazon exhibit at the Aquarium
In the Amazon exhibit at the Aquarium
In the Amazon exhibit at the Aquarium
Jellyfish at the Aquarium
Jellyfish at the Aquarium
Helen the white-sided dolphin
Helen the white-sided dolphin
Helen the white-sided dolphin
Helen the white-sided dolphin
Looking down at the Lion’s Gate Bridge
One of the Lions
We even saw our buddy Bob
The Lion’s Gate Bridge
The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they’re right if you love to be with them all the time. —Julia Child
by Jim Bellomo | Aug 15, 2019 | Uncategorized
You know how we hate to sleep in our own beds so with that in mind we grabbed our next door neighbors and good friends Jayesh and Lisa and took off on a quick three day jaunt to the Walla Walla wine country. We left early Wednesday morning for what is usually a 4+ hour drive that due to my choice of route (through Leavenworth, Cashmere and Wenatchee) and typical Washington summer road construction, plus a stop for some great barbecue for lunch turned into a seven-hour trip.
We arrived in Walla Walla around 4:00 and since this is Washington’s wine country and we like wine, the first stop was the first wine tasting place we saw on the highway. After trying some really great reds and a superb white (we ended up buying the white—I know our friends who drink wine are shocked) we were off…to the winery next door. This one was in a historic school house. I thought their wines were just fine but we didn’t buy any here because nothing screamed...I AM WONDERFUL! BUY ME!
That was enough tasting to start the trip so we made our way into the downtown core of Walla Walla to the AirBnB we had rented. This may be the nicest AirBnB we have stayed in (Click here to see the listing). Just gorgeous. Tons of rooms for all four of us (actually room for eight). A great kitchen (not that we are cooking) and close to everything. We have never been here before but Jayesh and Lisa come on a regular basis so they know all the good wineries and more importantly, the great restaurants. Last night we started with dinner at a superb Mediterranean restaurant called Saffron. If you come here—go there. Excellent food and great service. Plus when you are with good friends, you always have a good time.
This morning I was up and shooting photos around 5:30 on my five mile walk to try and wear off some of dinner and what turned out to be an amazing breakfast of chilaquiles. No matter where I go, if they have chilaquiles, I have to try them. Today’s were about a 7 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the ones I had in Santa Fe and the ones in Las Vegas being a 9.5.
At any rate, I am writing this while we are killing time waiting for the wineries to open up so I will add some photos from yesterday and my pre-dawn walk and see you tomorrow.
Our first winery
Jayesh can’t resist the school bell.
L’Ecole winery is in an old school house
Just gorgeous inside
I love this old piece
The Presbyterian church across the street from our AirBnB
There are some amazing old homes in Walla Walla
Just gorgeous
This one is law offices
Another
Loved this sculpure
And this fence
And these flowers
And this sign!!!
And this door
And these flowers which were as big as a paper plate
And beautiful
They come in white and red but we aren’t sure what they are.
A drive thru sub shop that’s open at 6:00 am
On the Whitman College campus
A driftwood sculpture
On the Whitman College campus
Walla Walla’s Stonehenge
An old theater downtown
An old clock in downtown Walla Walla
Walla Walla City Hall
The restaurant we are eating in tonight
The county building
Saffron, where we ate last night
St. Patrick’s Catholic Church
From the other side
A very cool old garage with great signs
The garage!
Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure, making the music sound sweeter, the wine taste richer, the laughter ring louder because they are there. —Judith Viorst
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 22, 2019 | Uncategorized
I was glad we had come back a little early from our first day tour so I could be up at what would be dawn at home (5:30 am) to see old town Akureyri and I got lucky and had a great walk. I didn’t get rained on but the by the time I got back it had really started coming down. I will leave it at that and you can see what I saw in my photos. Later on, some of the group went into town but Kathleen was wiped out so we stayed on board and the whole gang was back for a late lunch at The Porch (a Reflection alternative seafood restaurant) and it was wonderful. A great lunch. Some super fresh seafood and some of the best sangria I have ever had. Drank way too much of it. We sailed out late in the day and it was a beautiful sail out up the fjord. This was followed by two sea days before we would dock in Cobh, Ireland. More about that coming on Sunday.
But it has cool doors
Reflection in Akureyri
Straight on at Reflection
A very cool sculpture that would have looked better in sunshine
Found this great statue in old town Akureyri
The harbor in Akureyri
Another boat on the shore in old town Akureyri
Old town Akureyri at 5:30 am
This is the oldest house in Akureyri. It dates to the late 1700s
We couldn’t believe these people were going whale watching like this. It was freezing!
Akureyri has a big church as well but not as big as Reykjavik
And this one
And a red and white boat
Here’s the 10:45 from Reykjavik
Our crazy gang having lunch at The Porch
And this family of swans
I got off the ship to mail some postcards and found these trolls
This ship is a Ponant Cruise ship. They are a French cruise line that sails small (100-200 people) cruise ships.
The Akureyri Airport was right off our verandah
When I prepare, I am not messing around. I find the right places, the right people, and the right environment. Iceland is one of those places. —Conor McGregor
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 20, 2019 | Uncategorized
After what seemed like a very short night we sailed down an incredible fjord into Akureyri, Iceland’s most important northern city. It’s small town (a population of only around 27,000) but it is the gateway to some pretty amazing natural wonders. The day started with beautiful weather and the sail-in made for some great photos.
I almost forgot to mention that before we got to Akureyri the captain of Reflection decided to make us all what my friend Bob (a long-time Navy guy) calls “Bluenose Sailors” which I am sure means we have been inside the Arctic Circle. He sailed the entire ship north of where he needed to so we could say we had been inside the Arctic Circle. What a guy! We even got a certificate. Kind of the like the one we got when we crossed the Equator many years ago on our SouthEast Asia cruise.
Sailing into Akureyri takes you up a long fjord that has amazing views
Eyjafjörður fjord
Eyjafjörður fjord
Eyjafjörður fjord
Eyjafjörður fjord
Then we saw whales
Whales
Whales
And more whales
Eyjafjörður fjord
Eyjafjörður fjord
You know how I love pilot boats
Along Eyjafjörður fjord
Pilot boat!
Goodbye pilot boat
Our first glimpse of Akureyri
Akureyri
Akureyri
A beautiful waterfall
We were met by our guide Auðun of No.17 Tours. He had been recommended by the god of shore excursions, my buddy Mike Preisman. Mike had used the services of Auðun a few years ago on their Icelandic cruise and had spoken highly of him. He was right. I should point out that Auðun told us his company used to be Taxi 17 because when it wasn’t touring season, he would drive a taxi but now the government says he is too old to do that. He can drive a bus, a truck and a tour van but at 76 he can’t drive a taxi. Who would have thought. He is an amazing guy who really knew the area he was showing us. Plus he had some great stories from his 27 years as the skipper of a fishing trawler.
We set out a little earlier in Akureyri as the ship was docked and let us off by 10:30. Auðun was ready for us and we were off to see the northern waterfalls, stand with both my feet in different continents and see some other amazing geological wonders as well as two versions of the Blue Lagoon. And we finally got to see puffins. We had missed them before on previous trips to places where they live but this time we got to see a bunch. Check out the photos for all the sights we saw.
Even though we had gone out earlier than we had in Reykjavik, the weather had turned both cold and gray and by the time we had seen the puffins and the waterfalls, we were wiped out so we asked Auðun to just head us home and we were off to the ship were we pretty much caught a late dinner and collapsed. But we did have a super day and the Icelandic landscape is even more amazing up north.
The brand new 9K tunnel that saved us more than 20 minutes more than the tours used to take.
Godafoss
Godafoss
Godafoss
Godafoss
Godafoss
Godafoss
Godafoss
Sorry, I just couldn’t stop taking pics of Godafoss
On the way to the Lake Myvatn area
These two mountains stand next to each other, one peaked and one with a flat top
Couldn’t resist this shot
Dimmuborgir an area of lava
Dimmuborgir an area of lava
The right side of this photo is in North America, the left in Europe. I stood with my foot on each one.
A smaller and cleaner northern version of the Blue Lagoon
Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe
Dettifoss
Dettifoss
The other end of Dettifoss
A very cool horseshoe falls
Dettifoss
Puffins on the northern coast
More puffins
And more puffins
Northern Coast house
One more Blue Lagoon wanna be, the best yet!
I still don’t know why, exactly, but I do think people can have a spiritual connection to landscape, and I certainly did in Iceland. —Hannah Kent
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 18, 2019 | Uncategorized
Most everyone else in our party slept in a little bit after getting back at almost midnight from our Golden Circle tour with Birkir. I on the other hand, love it when a ship overnights in a port so that I can get up early the next day and walk through the city. (One of my best photo walks ever was in Québec last October when we overnighted on Summit). More and more cruise lines are doing this (overnighting in cities) and you can get off and on whenever you want all night long. This was a good day to do that but I really missed that early morning golden light I had when we were in Edinburgh and Dublin.
I got up at 5:00 am and headed out to walk the seaside walkway into downtown Reykjavik but the light outside was already like 10:30 in the morning as you can see from my pics. I got some decent stuff and then headed back to the ship to shower and meet Kathleen and others in our group to take a taxi back into downtown to see some more of the city. My pics and their captions will pretty much tell the tale on that. Don’t forget to click on the first one and view them as a slide show. And if you want to see more, check them out on Flickr by clicking here.
We were back on the ship by 2:00 pm and Reflection set sail for Akureyri at 3:00. It was a pretty great day considering how little sleep was involved. Thursday, I will post all about our travels in Akureyri, in the north. And we cross the Arctic Circle!
Hallgrímskirkja—this church dominates the Reykjavik skyline
Sun Voyager—Huge 1990 stainless-steel sculpture of a boat by Jón Gunnar Árnason, set on granite beside the sea.
Reykjavik’s version of the bridge in Paris
The green lock kind of drew my lens like a magnet
Harpa Concert Hall
Noticed this ship coming in. Not sure what it was.
Turned out to be a small cruise ship. We met some people who were onboard later at coffee.
Sun Voyager from a different angle
A sculpture along the walkway. Looked different on every side
See what I mean?
Viking Sky coming into the harbor. This is the ship that had the engine failiure earlier this year.
The Hofdi House built in 1909, the home of Icelandic poet Einar Benediktsson also hosted an iconic political summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbatsjov
The lupine was everywhere and in full bloom
The end of my walk. Almost back to the ship.
Out later with Kathleen saw this photo shoot in front of Hallgrímskirkja
Hallgrímskirkja up close
Inside Hallgrímskirkja we found a small chamber orchestra rehearsing
Inside Hallgrímskirkja Cassie and Jamie look at the ceiling of this magnificent church
Above the altar in Hallgrímskirkja
I love taking photos of artists as work.
Such great expressions
See what I mean
Outside of Hallgrímskirkja is this incredible statue of Leif Erickson
Kathleen found a friend. Hey, I have to take these tourist photos once in a while.
Great street decoration
This is a real place. Seriously.
I never did find out who these statues represent.
A closeup of Harpa Concert Hall to end our stay. We went inside but the photos didn’t come out as well as I would have liked.