Back at home

we are back at home. thanks to everyone for reading this.

I keep forgetting to say this

to whom it may concern/interest: the night before we entered Spain, we met Maggie, Peter and Co. in Mont-St-Micheal. they were travelling around france for two weeks.

Kimberly's birthday-Paris

as you have probably guessed from the title, it is Kimberly's birthday, and we are staying near Paris. the hotel is pretty fancy, in fact it is a chateau, or castle. it is the "holiday home" of Louis the 14th. check it out here: Chateau du val

I must go now, as we are leaving the hotel for the final leg of our trip, to brussels.

some thoughts

sorry for the absence, but finding internet has been difficult in Spain. now that we are back in France I again have access. anyways...

on our first night in spain we were in san sebastien. we were looking for a room, and the tourist bureau quickly found one. we asked her whether it would be quiet, and she quickly replied "Si. es muy tranquilo." we decided to take it. Sure enough, the next day, this was coming up the road:

Soon after wards, there came a marching band:

yes, it certainly seems tranquilo now, doesn't it?

I am sorry I have been unable to post more, but I have three other people who need to check their email. in a few days I should be able to put up much more.

Spain-Bilbao

just wanted to let everyone know that we are in the city Bilbao in Spain. I have not been able to get internet until now, and will get some Spanish stuff up soon. I think I will skip the rest of France for now, because I don't have time to get it all up before the trip ends.

Vimy Ridge Memorial

A few days ago when we were in Vimy, we visited the famous Vimy ridge memorial, twice. We did this so that as well as seeing it in the bright daylight, we saw it in the dark. One of the tour guides told us that it had won an award for it's lighting, so we decided that we might as well go and see it:

At night, from a distance:

At Night, from the other side:

A little closer, still at night:

In the above picture you can see people at the top, if I remember correctly those are angels, and at the bottom there are soldiers, if I remember correctly.

this statue, looking out over the lands, represents the mother Canada, mourning for her lost children.

this is the monument from the other side.

I have too many short notes

Yet another short note to say that we got into Spain today. were staying in a place called San Sebastien, and this is my first wifi access point for a while. expect Vimy ridge info today or tomorrow.

oh, and to whom it may concern: in Mont St. Michel last night, we encountered Maggie/ Peter & Co, travelling in the France area for two weeks. No pictures, sorry.

Harry William Wilson

When we first started looking for uncle Harry, we were in a small town called Arras. We discovered that he was in a cemetery called Tilloy-Les-Cambris, in the northern area of Normandy, about an hour from where we were staying. So we booted up the GPS, and programmed it for Cambris. It then proceeded to take us down this road:

Fun. 

Anyways, in the picture you can see a bunch of trees in the distance on the right. just to the right of those trees is The Tilloy-Les-Cambris Cemetery:

It's not that easy to see in this picture, but along the back wall of the cemetery are eight graves. Harry is the farthest one along on the right. 

This is part of a plaque in the cemetery. The last paragraph is about the air crew.

of these eight graves, Harry is the one on the far right, and the second one in on either side are the British air men. All the other graves in the cemetery are from WW I.
Directly after this picture was taken, we made bouquets of flowers for each of the airmen, and a miniature rose bush for Harry.

This is the marker at the entrance of the cemetery, with the rose (on it's side) and the other flowers on top of it.

above the graves there is the white cross with a bronze sword, the cross symbolizing faith and the sword the military nature of the cemetery. This symbol is known as the "cross of sacrifice."

this is us planting the rose, before laying out the flowers. I felt a little uneasy digging the small hole that we planted it in, especially when a security guard drove by!

This has been a long post, and taken quite a while to create! If you want to view the pictures in higher resolution, just click on them. I am uploading them at full quality (ssshhhh! little secret!) against advice from a certain person so that they can be viewed properly. Hopefully I can get photos up more regularly from now on.

another short note

sorry for the temporary absence, in the time i've had access to the computer i've been working on a certain post...

hopefully out in a day or 3.

You know you're in Europe when...

Bikes outnumber cars 3-1

everything is glass

the benches might just bite you

there are 4 of these in the hotel room

there's a LOT of beer

this is a regular church, and the "small" town has 8 or 9 of them

stay tuned for information regarding a certain grave...

just a short note

hello everyone, this is just a short note to say that we are now in france, in vimy. we are freeloading off someone else's internet, but we have been unable to access the internet until now. Hopefully I will be able to get some more pictures up soon.

pictures now that I have better internet

the peace tower & the eternal flame

the view from our balcony

just after arriving in ottawa and getting off the train

Montreal Olympic Stadium and Biodome

More to come.

Ottawa-First real post!

I am posting this from our hotel in ottawa, just to get some of the pictures up:

well, I would be, if the hotel internet wasn't so slow. I'll try to upload some as soon as I have better internet.

Travel Books

Today we got several Lonely Planet guide books, one about Brittany and Normandy, and one about Spain. These should help when travelling.

First post- Day -1.5

This is the first post that will be made on this blog.