This will be an abridged version, I'm using a mini keypad - aagh!!!!

Firstly, how exciting to discover that Kirt and /butch are engaged - pity we were almost as far away as it is possible to be - is there a message in that?

We have had an incredible time on our Arctic expedition - our tour leaders threatend physical violence if we referred to it as a "cruise".

After a VERY long day arriving in Resolute - pretty much all day to get there....  Our first few hours were spent in a "hotel" eating plastic cakes and drinking the usual hideous coffee.  Then we had our introduction to Arctic life - we were piled on a Zodiac for the first, and ferried out to the ship.  

Very comfortable ship, and we started off with amazing warm weather - blue skies, and sunshine.  The meals were very good, and plentiful, although we were amused to note that they didn't encourage you to linger after dinner - the food was whisked away pronto, and if you wanted cheese after dinner, you had to get it with your soup!!  We got used to it.

The tour leader was an Aussie guy from Melbourne, and amazingly, he and the Leiths were the only Aussies on board.  Pretty much dominated by Americans and Canadians, with a fair smattering of Brits.  Many of the Canadians were of English origin too, recent immigrants!!

The scenery was incredible - very bare, absolutely no vegetation.  We stopped at various places, and each time, it was on with the Arctic parka, thick socks, hats, gloves, etc. etc. and onto the zodiac.  We needed waterproof pants too, as it was always a wet landing, and we had to step out into ankle deep, or slightly deeper, water.  Although the weather was brilliant, the wind, when there was any, was chilling.

We called into an Inuit settlement in Canada - a pathetic, depressing place, and we felt so sorry for the poor buggers who have to live there.   They were moved there some years ago, in order to establish Canada's sovereignty over this godforsaken part of the world.  There are no doubt valuable assets in the ground there.

The houses were okay - just, but the whole place was depressing.  Nothing for anyone to do, and I can't imagine what life must be like during the long dark winter months.  They certainly didn't spend their time creating wonderful handcrafts - there was nothing to buy.  We had taken money over hoping to be able to leave them a bit of a bonus, but unless we wanted to simply hand over cash, there was nothing to purchase!

We wandered on - spending much time up on the top deck, just gazing out over the amazing lanscape - seascape..  We finally caught up with some pack ice - millions of acres of it, and we were hoping to see a big Polar Bear lazing about on board.  No so..

We also visited another Inuit settlement in the northern part of Greenland, this is indeed the most northern inhabited settlement in the world!!  Obviously this settlement is supported generously and seriously by Denmark (Greenland's 'parent') and they seem to have most of the modern amenities needed to stop you from going insane!!  All was neat and tidy, and they do go hunting in the winter as well, so live a lot like their ancestors - wear seal skin boots, and make amazing, very practical clothing to wear.  Their supermarkets are stocked with all the usual canned food too, and I suppose that shouldn't be surprising.  They can't hunt in the summer, so god knows what they would eat otherwise.

We did finally see three polar bears, and that was a huge bonus, as I personally wasn't expecting to see any.  One was actually just floating along, using the current, not even paddling - he looked like a big floating white blanket!!  The other two were on land, and we had to spend about 2 hours, freezing to death (almost) in our small zodiacs, to see them.  They are all practically starving at this time of the year as there is not much ice, and they can't hunt seals without ice, so they're hanging around, sleeping most of the time, waiting for the big freeze so they can eat again.  They did move away from us when they became aware of us, but they certainly don't rush!!  Wow, they're enormous.  We also saw five walrus, hanging about, brilliant.

We visited the area where the last major polar expedition of the 19th century went missing - dozens of men and two ships vanished, and they have still never been found.  Kinda spooky.

Quite  a fun bunch on the ship, and we usually found ourselves with the same lot in the bar!!  Alcohol was very cheap on board actually - not sure whether that was good or bad...

We managed to matchmake another little liaison on the ship too, but she is from Germany and he is from Canada, so it's not going anywhere, but it made us smile!!

Got back to Boston a couple of days ago, and the weather has been brilliant here too.  We've walked for hours and hours, and they say Boston is a walkable city - they're right.  Wish I'd been wearing my pedometer!!!  It's a very sane, happy, prosperous, family-friendly city, with nice parks, very well used by the citizens.  We also had the dubious pleasure of lining up with the locals yesterday for a couple of hours, waiting for the late, lamented Teddy Kennedy to drive past on his way to lie in state at the JFK Library.  Chatted to locals too, and had a very nice time actually - we'd been walking for about 6 hours, so it was good to rest awhile...

Our accommodation is in the Back Bay area of Boston - very nice, middle-class area, and very civilised little parks and gardens dotted about.  Very different from NYC - no local Diners as such, and very few street vendors of food and drink.  We have had lovely food here, and today had a sandwich made with gorgeous bread.  So far, I have had two brilliant cafe lattes as well - cappuccino machines are a rarity in this city, so I dive on one when I see it!!  We walked to the "Knob Hill" part of Boston today - Beacon Hill....  This is a truly delightful part of town, and is indeed built on the only hill in Boston.  The rich people certainly live here, and in one delightful cul de sac, all the gas lanterns are on all day and night, and parking is definitely only for the locals - no permits, I reckon when they buy in, they buy street parking space, and probably only one!!

We're doing all the domestic chores this afternoon (washing actually) - tomorrow, Saturday, we are boarding our positively obscenely enormous cruise ship to cruise up the New England coast to Quebec City. For the second week-end in a row, there is a huge storm approaching, and the sea will probably be very rough for the first 24 or 36 hours.  We don't care!!  We've been upgraded to a lovely verandah suite, so I'm guessing we'll be okay!!

One day on our Arctic trip, we had force 8 gales, and survived brilliantly - of course some of our fellow travellers were barely seen for 24 hours, and there was much food left over in the dining room!!

We caught up on a couple of the footy scores today - Arch was amused to note that North had beaten St. Kilda!

We're missing everybody, particularly missing our on the Engagement celebrations - it will be kinda old hat by the time we get back!

Cheers,

A&A

 

Noo York

Well, have survived our 5 days in New York. After an uneventful flight over, sadly not on the promised Qantas A380, we hit the ground running. We were staying in a perfectly positioned Inn on the Upper West Side of New York - brilliant position, very close to a subway, and close also to Central Park and the Museum of Natural History. We walked through the lower section of Central Park for an hour or two - it really is amazing, and no doubt the lungs of NYC. Finally, we decided to have a 30 minute ride with a young Croation fella who rode around with us on the back of his bike. Everyone in Manhattan is from somewhere else, and everyone is out to make a dollar. There are so many vendors selling food from incredibly portable 'kitchens', and people appear out of nowhere with eskies full of ice and cold water - they sell it for $1 a bottle, others for up to $3!!!
That evening, we went on a dinner cruise around the harbour. This left port about half an hour before dusk, so we saw all the lights of Manhattan and New Jersey come on as we sailed about the harbour. We could hardly sit still in the dining room long enough to eat dinner, which was remarkably good(!) - we took our drinks up on deck to suck it all in. Truly a stunning view, and we also visited the lady herself "The Statue of Liberty" in all her lighted glory. The evening was beautiful - very warm, so everyone was in a very festive mood. I may have had one too many drinks, because when we left the boat, I left my cardigan on the back of a chair - never to be seen again. Bugger... The DJ on the boat was an Aussie - we recognised him pretty quickly - when he first talked to the crowd, he tried to say Noo York, but kinda slipped into Aussie, and gave up trying to sound American. There was also an Aussie girl waitressing/singing on the boat too, and they were all loving NYC.
Went out for our first real American breakfast at our neighbourhood diner. We did the right thing and had eggs etc. etc.. It was okay, but of the course the coffee was undrinkable. I tried to order a cappuccino, but they had sprinkled about a dessertspoon of cinnamon over the top - omigod.....
Once again, made our way onto the subway - this runs like a dream, a train comes every couple of minutes, they are clean, the air conditioning works, and their ticketing system is infallible. Why can't we do something in Melbourne.
We joined a hop-on-hop-off bus tour for a look around Manhattan - good way to get an idea of the layout of the place. The tiny island has the population of Melbourne crammed into her wee self - everyone living on top of everyone else. They told us that an extra 3.5 million tourists were in town for the week-end... We believed them.
Times Square really has to be seen to be believed - it is a stunning, pulsating, shiny, ever-changing sight for sore eyes. The local Police were out in force, but mostly posing for photo's with tourists, although there were 3 or 4 big blokes, not there for fun, toting very big, automatic rifle type weapons - scanning the crowds. Reality check I guess.
The weather has been brilliant, not as hot and humid as usual, and very pleasant to walk around, which we have done miles of..
On Saturday night we went to see the Neville Brothers at the BBKing Blues and Jazz Club, right in Times Square, on 42nd Street. Great show, they still sound brilliant - not sure Arthur liked it too much, but I loved it.
We caught the subway down to Greenwich Village - the 60's are definitely over!!! All very clean and middle-class we thought. Barely a lentil in sight..
On Monday we caught the train down to the bottom of Manhattan to do the trip out to see the Statue of Liberty. We were on an early ferry, and on arrival, only had about a 45 minute wait to get into the Statue. The queues can be up to 4 hours - for the ferry, and for the Statue!!! Can't think I would've waited that long!! Anyway, they don't let too many people in at once, so the experience is really very pleasant, you are not rushed, and not pushed about. All in all, well worth doing we thought.
We had booked a helicopter sightseeing flight over Manhattan for the afternoon, and after a bit of a marathon, arrived at the heliport, only to be told that flights had been cancelled for now, and they couldn't tell us when they would be going again. Unfortunately, on Saturday afternoon, a sightseeing helicopter with 4 passengers had crashed into a light aircraft over the Hudson, and 8 people came to a sticky end!!! We figured they might have the safety issued okay by the time we flew, but it seems they were hauling bodies out of the water at the time, so thought it best not to keep flying!! Bugger. Hope we get on several hundred dollars back!!
Last real day in New York Monday - so we went back into the madness of Times Square in the evening for a night time view from the top of the Rockefeller Centre - "The Top of the Rock". Once again, well worth doing, and another gorgeous evening.
Tuesday, we were up at the crack of dawn to catch a bus to Washington DC for the day. There were four buses going on this trip, and we were on the only English speaking one. The other three were Spanish speaking..... Every second person seems to speak Spanish!! It was an absolute marathon of a day - about 4 1/2 hours there, and back, and a couple of hours in Washington itself. Saw the absolute 'musts' The White House, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Smithsonian, and all the War Memorials - Vietnam, Korea included. There is a nut case of a woman camped outside the White House, she is protesting about nuclear weapons, and has been there, without a break, for TWENTY EIGHT YEARS.... Her shelter is a kinda plastic lean-to, not a tent, can't imagine what that's like sitting there 24/7 in three feet of snow in Winter. They have changed the laws because of her, and now nobody can stay there protesting for more than six hours. Her husband can come and relieve her for a wee while, but if the camp is ever without an occupant, it will be removed forever. Bizarre..... We were absolutely knackered by the time we got home - could barely walk up our stairs, which were only one flight!!
Wednesday, out to the airport, and flew to Ottawa. Thursday morning (today) walked about Ottawa... Arch had forgotten to bring some medication with him (of course, I didn't arrange it for him), so we had to trudge about to find a doctor. Ended up in a surgery in a less than salubrious part of town, and I think most of the 'patients' were druggies waiting for their daily dose of Methadone. At least the entertainment was good whilst we were waiting.
Took one of the ever-present hop-on-hop-off buses around town, and packed our bags again - leaving as much as possible here at the hotel - we're off on our Arctic Cruise tomorrow - back in Ottawa on the 25th of August.
Hope everyone's enjoying Winter in Melbourne - we have no idea who is winning the football, and strangely don't care!!
Cheers from sunny Ottawa, will post again when I can.
Ann and Arch