Day 7: Safe arrival back in Vancouver and fun with Pocketwizards!

We arrived safely back in Vancouver. I had been anticipating this moment for a while: not so much because I had been dying to come home but because I had been gearing up to take an interesting photograph of Erich and Karen with the train. Hey - Photographers think of crazy ideas when they have nothing better to do on a 16 hour train ride!

Now first some background: This was the first major trip I had taken without taking an SLR with me. On almost all previous trips, I had always brought along an SLR, and a sometimes with dizzying array of lenses. But when you're trying to travel light (read: married with kids), this doesn't work so well.

So this time, I brought along a Canon G9 point-and-shoot, a flash, two pocketwizards, and a compact light stand. Comparatively speaking, this was very light gear inspired by this Strobist article. The great thing about this setup was that it allowed me to take both interesting lit or available light photographs without the overhead of a lot of equipment. The very configurable G9 combined with the relatively fast f2.8 lens work well to suit any serious amateur or professional photographer wanting to travel light. Combine this with the power of a 580EX and the range of pocketwizard remote triggers and you have a great setup.

I digress. Back to what I had been dying to do. I had been anticipating that we would have decent morning light when we arrived back - a necessary requirement to making this photo work. (I had actually tried this same photo the night we left, but did not have sufficient available light to balance properly.)

With the train safely back at the station, I asked one of the train attendants whether it would be okay if we stayed an extra minute while I took a photo. I quickly handed Karen a slaved flash on pocketwizard mounted on a light stand. She placed it at the same position as one of the overhead reading lights inside the train. I guessed at the power setting, figuring I would adjust it by asking Karen to vary the distance via walkie-talkie. I went outside the train and took a photo. The result was this photo where you have dark window upon dark window with the exception of one lit (as if by reading light). It's simple, but illustrates the power of what one can do with a light setup like this.

Strobist Info: Canon G9 @ f/5.6, 1/30, ISO 400, Flash set to 1/8th power.

Day 6: The trip back and the rowdies

We spent our last day in Jasper exploring some of the attractions frequented by local town folk. We rented skates and skated at the local ice rink. This is where we met some local high school students (on lunch break) who seemed to have nothing better to do than to make rude noises of flatulence in the public address system. This unfortunately made Erich very uncomfortable to the point of crying. Karen eventually gave them a piece of her mind, as I skated menacingly toward them (remember I have toe-picks on my skates!) and just as quickly as they had appeared, they fled. At last, we got some good quality skating time!

After lunch, we made our way back to the train station where Erich eagerly watched as the train readied itself for the journey home.

Once on the train, we were once again treated to beautiful views of the Rockies as the train weaved slowly along the tracks. At dinner time, we ate in the dining cart where we enjoyed a nice three course meal. (Erich's favourite course was the desert of course!) We also enjoyed chatting with some fellow travellers from Canada, the U.S., and Austria.

Then things began to get interesting. Being on a cross Canada train means you get to meet people from all over the country. Although there were many many nice people on the train, it's the obnoxious ones that we tend to remember unfortunately. Allow me to relate some examples:

• One (who obviously had a bit too much to drink in Jasper) chatted angrily on the phone with his "buddy" (think: yo! whassup!) about how he had backstabbed him. He proceeded to pace up and down the car yelling obsenities until finally the attendants threatened to thrown him off at the next stop where police would be waiting.
  
• Another talked about how he had just gotten a call from his parole officer. Boy! Just the kind of thing you want to hear as parents of a two year old... Actually he was mostly ok, except that he unilaterally served as alarm clock when he decided to make a 5am phone call. (I suppose the years of living in jail meant that you lose a sense of mutual politeness.)
  
• One older fellow whom we had chatted with on the dining car also had a bit too much to drink and spent most of the night walking up and down the length of the train hitting on all the older women.

Despite the few obnoxious people, most others were very pleasant. I must say that all things considered, we really did have a very good ride back. At least we have good stories to tell! The attendants were extremely helpful, and it was comforting to see that they dealt with the rowdier people swiftly.

Day 5: Surreal Beauty

Here are some more photos of the scenery in Jasper National Park. November is a very interesting time of year to visit the park because the weather can be so unpredictable (sunshine, rain and snow). The unpredictability makes for some rather unbelievable contrasts of light and darkness. These photos taken on Maligne Road illustrate my point.

Day 4 & 5: Jasper National Park

Come Monday, we had arranged to rent a car. We spent most of Monday and Tuesday sightseeing through the National Park. We explored the Athabasca falls (photo left), looked at the Columbia icefields, walked through Maligne Canyon, and stood speechless at the magnificent beauty of Medicine Lake and Maligne Lake in the winter time. (Yes, I took lots of photos...)

We also came across lots of wildlife. (I had expected some, but not quite this many!) We saw big horn sheep, mountain goats, cariboo, white-tailed deer, and even a pair of wolves. About the only thing we didn't see were bears. But that was expected as most bears are likely getting ready or already in hibernation this time of year.

A not so common sighting of a pair of wolves (that's what
we think they were anyway!) on the way to Maligne Lake.


Maligne Canyon. This waterfall actually freezes over in a few
weeks allowing hikers to walk through the canyon on foot. People
with higher risk tolerance actually ice-climb the waterfall.

Medicine Lake: A beautiful scene as the sun highlighted parts of this
seemingly all enclosed lake with no exit point. Water in fact flows out
of this lake through several underground rivers / streams to Maligne Lake.

Maligne Lake. Incredibly beautiful and pristine views of the
Rocky Mountains were visible from the lake.


On the road between Maligne Lake and Jasper. It had just snowed a few
hours ago, and the trees were still sprinkled with snow, creating beautiful
contrasts in the trees. Notice the layering of trees in this valley.

It was so pretty outside, we decided to stop the car on the
highway and take a picture. (Not to worry - there was not
high traffic whatsoever!)

Day 3: Jasper Town

Sunday was spent mostly exploring the town of Jasper itself. We began the morning by attending worship service at a local baptist church. Apart from having the opportunity to worship God in such a beautiful town where the beauty of God's creation was so abundant, we also noted the incredible sense of community in the church.

For example, we were greeted by Paul, a brother in Christ who also happened to be the Parks Canada tour guide at the train station. We also recognized other familiar faces from around town. Indeed Paul remembered us from the day before, and was delighted to see that we had come to worship with them as well. (It turns out Paul had also heard of the Bridge church -- spotting a recent advertisment for worship leaders at Regent College last time he was in Vancouver! God works in mysterious ways.) The tight knit community reminded us a bit of the ficticious "Stars Hollow" in the Gilmore Girls.

Much like the ficticious "Stars Hollow", much of the commerce and industry in Jasper revolves around tourism. During the peak seasons of the year, Jasper is bustling with people interested in skiing, seeing wildlife and generally having a good time. However, during the non-peak seasons (November is definitely one of those times), the town seems to settle into a more local mode. Some restaurants even close altogether during this month either for renovations or to enjoy some vacation time of their own.

Photo Right Caption: This one shown in the photo to the right was an example of a restaurant that had closed. Of course the sign caught my attention -- I guess changing times and demographics had this previously "Chinese Canadian Food" restaurant rebranding itself as purely "Chinese" food.... though a quick glance at their menu has me questioning that a bit.

Visiting Jasper in November thus gave us a bit of an insider's look at Jasper - which we appreciated. We even had the chance of visiting the local arena and community centre.

Here are some of the places we discovered:

Cafe Mondo seemed to be a local hangout. This italian themed cafe (I mean with the flag draped at the back - what was your first clue?) was buzzling with music, TV with the latest sports, local town folk and a wonderful variety of coffees, hot chocolates and cookies. Karen and I visited this cafe a few times during our trip to chat and thoroughly enjoyed it.


The Other Paw Bakery and Cafe was also another place where locals and passing train engineers seemed to hang out. Though the atmosphere was more of a darker theme than Cafe Mondo's, we enjoyed their freshly baked pastries.

Day 1 & 2: All Aboard the train to Jasper!

The Ng's climbed aboard the Canadian VIA Rail train enroute to Jasper in the early part of November for our annual "vacation in the winter time". (Vancouver is typically grey, rainy and wet this time of year, so it's a perfect time to get away.)

Though some may think we were crazy to bring a two year old on yet another 16 hour journey, the train turned out to be a remakably fun mode of transport for Erich:

• The coach class had wide open seats facing seats (similar to sitting business class on an airplane)
• The washrooms, though not huge were certainly bigger than airplane washrooms and were cleaned regularly.
  
• The train afforded us the luxury of being able to walk up and down through cars.
• Included in the train of cars was an observation deck, a games/activity area, a cafeteria, and a dining car - all of which meant that two year olds can have lots of fun exploring while we all took in the breathtaking view of the Canadian Rockies.
  

Shown here is a picture (right) of Erich assembling a paper VIA train after finishing a Thomas the tank engine puzzle in the activity car.

When we arrived in Jasper, we checked into a suite at the Jasper Inn. The Jasper Inn was a reasonable hotel. Our one bedroom suite included a small kitchen and a wood fireplace; we made use of both extensively. With the kitchen, we were able to prepare all of our own meals. This meant of course cost savings, guaranteed healthy meals and additional family time. The fireplace afforded me and Erich male bonding time as I dutifully passed on how to start a wood fire, the proper way!

After settling in, buying groceries at the local supermarket (photo left), and exploring the quaint (albeit partly closed due to off-season) town we settled in for a good night's rest. Unlike Erich, who could actually fit across two seats on the train to sleep, Karen and I had not gotten as much sleep as we would have liked. We traded positions throughout most of the night while we tried to get some sleep.

Like a kid in a toy store...

Wait, it is a kid in a toy store. While visiting Panorama Park at Deep Cove, we visited an ecclectic store which had a toy section. Erich was elated (and fast!). Well truth be told, they did have these really neat model cars and trucks where the doors would open and you could look inside for a scale model of the real thing. :-)

Let's play ball!

It was "bend it like Erich" day as we went out to Panorama Park in Deep Cove to play some ball with Erich. He really enjoyed watching daddy and mommy kick around the ball and catching it.

Why did we go all the way to Deep Cove just to play ball? Well apart from discovering a new park, we were headed there to have a fun outing for Karen's birthday. Ever since trying one of the doughnuts from a shop called "Honey's doughnuts" in Deep Cove, her mouth has been watering to munch on of of those delicious perfectly textured doughnuts again she requested to go there for lunch.

Big impact for little man

Our family took a well needed get-away to Seattle this past long weekend. It was part birthday gift to my wife (she got to go shopping) and part opportunity for me to spend some male bonding time with the little guy. So we booked a hotel in Seattle, and headed down there right after small group last Thursday.

Friday morning, I took him to the Museum of Flight. He fell asleep on the way there, but when he woke up, he could not contain his excitement! He said, "hehe, Daddy! Airplane over there! It's the airplane musemum!"

What really amazed me though was when we went to see the airplane park. Situated in the "parking lot" was Air Force One and the Concorde. As we were walking up to the Concorde, he said excitedly, "Daddy! It's the Concuarde!" Now that was astonishing. He had only seen the Concorde once before (the last time we went to the museum), so for him to recall that must have meant that the first visit had a big impact.

Here's a photojournal of our Concorde visit:

In front of the magnificent bird. The Concorde is really quite an
elegant plane to look at from the outside.

Better watch that maximum weight per step!

The inside of the Concorde is actually quite small. My head was close to
touching the ceiling, and Erich appreciated that it was more his size.

Erich looking up at the belly of the Concorde.

Tourists in our own city - the grand tour

In an effort to make our newly emigrated friends David and Laura feel more welcome in their new home, we took them on a grand tour of Metro Vancouver. David and Laura are from Delaware.

We started early with Karen's famous french toast for breakfast. After packing in the hearty breakfast, we headed out. We visited many places starting in Queen Elizabeth park. Oddly enough, our friends found the Nat Bailey Stadium (adjacent to the park) to be quite the thrill. They vowed they would revisit it to see an actual baseball game. We then drove through Cambie line RAV construction to make it to Richmond via the Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Once in Richmond, I brought them to the little community of Steveston where some of the first Japanese and marine settlers came. I recounted to them how my family had started our B.C. life in Steveston, and how we used to buy fish every Saturday morning by the docks. We had a tour of those docks, and topped off our experience there with a visit to the famous Dave's fish and chips restaurant.

From historic Steveston, we took them back through the city of Vancouver to a relatively modern import - a bubble tea cafe (Dragon Ball) where they enjoyed some of the latest taiwanese/HK imported mixed fruit drinks.

After we got our drinks, we zipped across town to "Little Italy" near Commercial and Broadway. One cannot truly appreciate the diversity of Vancouver until one has visited Commercial Drive and it's various shops including the famous Santa Barbara market.

We proceeded along Hastings Street through to Simon Fraser University where David was finally able to see his current employer's rival school. (David is currently a post-doctorate fellow and lecturer at UBC.) Much to the bemusement of us SFU alumnus, they actually enjoyed the Arthur Erickson architecture of SFU.

Next up was a breathtaking view of the city atop Burnaby Mountain (where I had proposed to Karen). We stopped here briefly before heading on a longer drive straight across the North Shore to Horseshoe Bay where we explored one of my favourite parks - Whytecliff Park.

It was here that I learned something new about Laura and her incredible climbing abilities even whilst wearing a pair of (stylish) sandals! (see David's commentary on his blog...)

We ended our day with a quick tour of the downtown eastside (hey, we got to show the good, bad and the ugly right?) and finally dinner at a Vancouver classic - the old Spaghetti Factory.

As evidenced in the picture above, Erich had loads of fun too. It was great getting to know our friends more, all the while showing off this great city to them.

Oregon: a trip Erich won't soon forget!

Toward the end of November, we took a family road trip down to the Oregon Coast. We had gotten some inexpensive accommodations in Seaside, Oregon so we decided to make a short trip out of it. It just so happened to be American Thanksgiving (and black Friday), and it also so happened that the Canadian dollar was flying at an all time high (about $1.10). That meant that while I was taking Erich to see lots of museums, Karen got to do some early Christmas shopping.


View Larger Map

We started Thursday evening, stopped by Seattle Premium Outlets, then proceeded to South Seattle where we stayed the night. Little did Erich know what his Daddy had in store the next day.

Museum of Flight

Cashing in on the success of our previous trip to the Canadian Museum of flight, I decided I would take him to the Museum of Flight at Boeing. His face lit up as he saw the numerous planes parked on the lawn and he could not believe that I was bringing him to see another airplane museum. (or as he says: "daddy bring me to the airplane musemum")

One of the major showpieces of the exhibit was the Concorde. Karen and I had the privilege of seeing the Concorde back in 2003 when it was still flying. It would sonic boom just over Reading, UK each morning, so the sound was unmistakable. Now, Erich was able to see this piece of history first hand. We stepped onto the plane and observed the rather small but comfortable seats.

Erich also had lots of fun sitting and playing with the various children's exhibits designed to demonstrate the various controls of an airplane.

Woodburn, Oregon

After we took in a few acres of exhibits, we fetched Karen from the mall and proceeded to drive down through Portland to Woodburn. Woodburn is the outlet shopper's paradise: with the high dollar, no sales tax in Oregon, and the enormous selection at the Woodburn Company Stores, we stocked up on dress shirts and trousers that I seem to wear out almost like candy.

Seaside, Oregon

After staying the night in Woodburn, we proceeded to drive to the Oregon Coast and stayed at a coastal town called Seaside. Here, we mostly stayed, taking in the beautiful scenery and the unique sights. We took Erich to the Carousel Mall where they have an old fashion carousel.


We also took Erich down to Tillamook where we visited the cheese factory and saw yet another airplane museum - this time of old World War II planes housed in former blimp hanger. Erich thoroughly enjoyed both. I find it so interesting how he is fascinated at these big marvels of machinery at such an early age, and I wonder what the influence it will have on him. I still remember that some of things I became most fascinated about as a young adult stemmed from my experiences as a child.

The Weather!

Part of the reason why our accommodation rates were so inexpensive was because we were going off season. The weather played a huge role in helping to deter tourists, but as Vancouverites who are used to the rain, it wasn't so bad. Besides, I often find that just after a rainstorm is the best time to take beautiful pictures!

The only really scary part of the trip was driving along Highway 101 (the coastal highway) one night in pitch darkness with the rain pouring down in droves. I mean the rain was BAD! Visibility was next to none, and the locals were still tailgating me expecting me to go the speed limit (of 50mph). In hindsight though, it could have been a lot worse - in fact a week after we got back to Vancouver, the area was flooded and Oregon and Washington declared temporary states of emergency.

Day 11: Hello Mr. Beethoven, may I please come in?

We traveled to Bonn, Germany on our 11th day of our trip. Those of you who are musically inclined will know that Bonn is famous because it is the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven. It also has some of the best shopping in the Westphalia area of Germany, so you can guess who did what. Since shopping isn't terribly interesting to blog about, I will share briefly about my run-in with Mr. Beethoven.

We went to the house where he was born. Erich was especially keen and knocked promptly on the door (as shown in the photo). Once inside, I explored the various rooms. Though I had actually been here briefly once before (on tour with the VYSO), I finally had the chance to see the museum in detail. I found particularly fascinating the collection of Beethoven's actual instruments that had been amassed. To hear actual pieces as they would have been played on Beethoven's own instrument is certainly a rare occasion.

Day 10: Off to the zoo!

Germany is known for is its abundance of world-class zoos. We went one nearby called ZOOM Erlebniswelt Gelsenkirchen where they had a "real" African Safari. (We put "real" in quotations because they also had a section on the Pacific Northwest where some claims of authenticity were somewhat questionable...)

Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun touring the landscape and seeing animals not normally seen in North America. We saw hippopotamuses, giraffes, lions, tigers and even zebras. Erich especially liked the pink flamingos. :-) What fun it is to actually see animals we previously only identified in books!

Of the many stories that came out of this trip, one animal encounter was particularly memorable. Midway through our African safari tour, we were taken on a 'boat ride' through a man made canal. Just as we rounded the bend, a flock of birds decided they would use our (open) boat as a potty... you can guess the rest.

Day 9: Full steam ahead!

We took Erich to the Eisenbahnmuseum in Bochum-Dahlhausen today where he drove a locomotive German workers have turned a former industrial rail yard into a modern museum about trains. In stark contrast to our visit to the Bluebell Railway in the UK, much of the museum was devoted to the area's industrial roots - particularly that of coal mining. As such, much of the machinery was industrial sized.

We saw numerous steam locomotives - many of which were so big that Erich dwarfed in comparison. There were locomotives from as early as 1920, to more modern things from the 80s. Surprisingly, many of the earlier locomotives (i.e. those built in 1920) were in production until the early 90s in East Germany. Now that is German Engineering!

Perhaps what was most interesting (to me at least) was to see the various political and historical remnants on each train. Some of the trains still had "Deutsch Reichsbahn" from the pre-World War II era printed on them. It is a bit eerie staring at these magnificent machines and imagining the kinds of cargo they saw over the years.

To Erich of course, even being near trains brings a huge smile to his face, and being able to see a rail house JUST like that of the Thomas the tank engine rail house must have been a real treat for him.

We ended our day with a little bit of "eis" (ice cream) from a local Italian shop. Evidently, Erich remembered this very well too, as every time I show him this picture, he says "ou-oma give me ice cream". :-)

Day 8: Hats off to Hattingen (and other very old cities)

Day 8 was spent shopping and strolling in the nearby old town of Hattingen. Resembling much like a textbook middle-aged city (complete with city walls, square, hall and church), Hattingen offers some unique looks into the past. Of particular fascination is how modern life has integrated into these old buildings. Adjacent to where the above photo was taken is a bar, complete with modern beer-branded lamps adorning its side. It too is in a very old building built around the same era.

What is also interesting is how long these ordinary buildings have survived. ~500 years is an awful long time for a building (especially compared to North American standards) and makes for some interesting comparisons in workmanship. (Think leaky condos vs. 1576 A.D. building...)

Apart from the stroll, I also had some interesting fun with off-camera, strobist style flash. (This was much to the chagrin of my travel mates of course.) Thanks to my father-in-law who reluctantly acted as a light stand, and to Karen and Erich for being my guinea pigs models.

Strobist Info: "Daylight effect by overpowering daylight". Camera set at 1/50, f7.1 to capture ambient at ~ ev -1/3 stop. Flash at 1/2 power, to the top left of my subjects to overpower ambient sunlight. Fired using Cactus (eBay) triggers.

Day 7: Willkommen in Deutschland!

1 plane, 1 shuttle bus, 1 ICE train, 2 S-trains, and 1 city bus later, we finally arrived at Karen's grandparents home in Bochum , Germany. With all the traveling behind us, we took comfort in the fact that we were going to be staying here for the next ten days. The full weight of what we had just gone through on Day 6 was finally starting to set in. The irony was that all German train workers were actually supposed to be on strike the day we were arriving, yet postponed their job action at the last minute. Had they actually been on strike that day, I'm sure our travels from Cologne to Bochum would have been even more adventurous!

Nevertheless, by Day 7, none of us were anxious to travel anywhere far, so we mostly stayed put. Unfortunately, I was nursing a cold by now also, so resting was a good thing. In the afternoon, grandpa took us for a short stroll in the neighbourhood (Linden) and we went to have coffee and cake.

Before long Erich was settling in too. Here, in this photo, Erich Guenther looks up at his namesake (his great-grandpa Guenther) as the family takes a stroll down Ax Strasse (Ax Street).

Day 6: Blessings in disguise

We arose early on Day 6 to board the tube train back to London Heathrow. It was mostly uneventful. We had made all the tube connections Stephanie had printed for us, and even arrived early. At Heathrow, we picked up our bags from Left luggage and proceeded to line up at the Lufthansa check-in desk. We waited in line with dozens of other travellers. Thirty-five minutes later, we were in front of the Lufthansa agent. We presented our itinerary to her when things started to go wrong.

She asked us rather agitatedly, "Are you sure you are on this flight?".

I replied, "of course we are on this flight - it says right there on our itinerary!" (In actual fact, we had even checked our flight the day before at the Lufthansa ticket office.)

We were then told in no uncertain terms that our flight had been canceled due to fog and that indeed we were in the wrong line-up. Yes, I did say wrong. It was further implied to us that we should have heard the announcement broadcast over the PA system an hour ago, and that we were otherwise wasting her time. Apart from the fact that we weren't there an hour ago, attempting to hear an announcement in a crowded airport like Heathrow is a bit like trying to hear the take-out window clerk at a drive through intercom.

In short, we needed to stand in another 45 minute line-up and rebook our flight at the Lufthansa Ticket counter at the other side of the terminal. This presented a further logistics problem as my father-in-law who was still mid-flight from Vancouver to Düsseldorf had no means to know how to meet us now.

This was shaping up to be quite a travel nightmare, but instead of throwing up our hands in frustration, for some strange reason we began to see a number of blessings in disguise.

Blessing #1: Thank God for Sam!

One of the youth we had connected with back in 2003 was a fellow named Sam Leung. He is quite an interesting guy from Taunton. Because we did not know that he was now studying in London, we had not made plans to see him. He, however, upon hearing that we had arrived in London suggested that he could meet us for breakfast at Heathrow. We thought - what a great idea and consented. Our original plan was to pick up our luggage, check in, then have a nice sit-down breakfast with Sam before going through security.

However, when our plans took a turn, Sam happily blessed us. He helped us to remain calm through the ordeal. He looked after Erich for us. He helped us carry our numerous pieces of luggage as we snaked from one queue to another. Thanks to Karen, we even got to have breakfast after all, albeit take-away breakfast standing in a queue. All the while, we were still able to chat about how his life was going now.

In the end, Lufthansa decided to rebook us on an already full and very late flight to Cologne, Germany (we were due to arrive at Düsseldorf). It was so late in fact that after we had received our tickets we were told we were supposed to have checked our bags in 10 minutes ago! But Sam again went to the rescue taking our bags for us and standing in the check-in queue so as to expedite our check-in.

Both Karen and I remember thinking how God, in His infinite wisdom and timing had sent Sam to help us remember that God was in control.

Blessing #2: The two English gentlemen on the plane

After we rushed our bags through check-in, and rushed through security (we felt like we were on the Amazing Race), we finally breathed a sigh of relief as we walked onto the airplane and took our seats. An inspection of our assigned seats however indicated that we weren't seated together. Not wanting to subject too many of our fellow passengers to the restlessness of Erich, we decided we would ask if one of our seat mates would be willing to switch seats with us. Our immediate seat mate rudely told us no. However, the other seat mate decided he would bless us and kindly rearranged himself AND his colleague so that we could all sit together as a family. Now THAT is courteous!

Blessing in disguise #3: We lost our car seat

We arrived in Cologne as planned, and a shuttle bus took us into a secured building where we entered through German customs and immigration and collected our luggage. It seemed however that our car seat did not make it with us on the plane. We were dismayed at first, but then we realized this was yet another blessing in disguise. Not only would we not have to carry this on all the trains (we didn't really need it for the Germany leg of our trip), we would get it hand delivered to our destination in Bochum, Germany. As if this wasn't enough of a relief, losing the luggage also meant we got to visit Luthansa's lost baggage desk where the very nice lady filed our claim and allowed us to use her phone to contact my father in law. Had we not have 'lost' the car seat, we would have had to find our own way to the train station, and scrounge up enough cash to make a very expensive pay phone call.

Blessing #4: The two German girls at the train station

Our final blessing was in the form of good Samaritans who helped us in our train journey to Bochum. Because Hans, my father in law, was not there to greet us, we were forced to find our own way to Essen, a nearby city of Bochum. We used our very limited knowledge of the German language to try to find our way around. I got very used to saying: "Guten Tag, meine Deutches ist nicht gute. Ich mochte nach Essen gehen." or "Guten Tag, sprechen sie Englische?"


View Larger Map

The latter question was mostly met with either rehearsed and heavily accented answers or very polite "Nein". That is, until we met a pair of traveling German girls who just said "follow us!". I must admit that had these two girls been two menacing looking men, I might have had second thoughts about just blindly following them, but they seemed innocent enough and willing to help. They directed us to the nearest Hbf (main station) where we were able to find our way.

All in all, the lesson I learned this day was that all is not always as it seems when we choose to look for the blessings rather than the bad circumstances.

Day 5D: Visiting cousins

We ended our one day in London with an evening with Karen's cousin and his fiancee. Michael Ling, an accomplished (and very busy) London attorney took time out of his busy schedule to take us out to dinner as well as to let us stay the night in London. We enjoyed some very delicious Italian food at a local restaurant.

Stephanie (Michael's fiance) was also very kind to show us around the transport system so that we would be able to find our way back to Heathrow in the morning.

We were very grateful for their hospitality and particularly for hosting us that evening. Being able to stay in London that night helped us to get to Heathrow quickly in the morning.

Erich still remembers very well this evening, because every time I show the picture above (of the outside of their flat), he says "Michael's house".

Day 5C: Prime Mark of London

One of our UK friends suggested we take a look at Primark, a bargain clothing store, whilst in England. Karen has a knack for finding great deals on clothing, so she jumped at the chance to bargain hunt in the UK. Therefore, on our second half of our tour through London, Caroline took us to the nearest tube station where we would be able to get to Primark on Oxford Street.

By this time I had gotten quite tired from all the walking, and carrying the stroller + Erich + bags up and down the tube stairs. I decided I would hang out with Erich near the front of the store while Karen did her shopping. Now this store, being rather big, has several entrances. At each entrance was a security guard checking for shoplifters and kindly asking passerbys not to eat in the store.

The first few minutes of my stay near the front door were rather uneventful. Customers strolled by, guards checked bags, and the sounds of people elated with the low prices filled the air. Then, just as I was settling into my spot, an alarm went off. A few of the security guards congregated and discussed about "the situation", decided it was nothing and life went on. Most shoppers even handily ignored the alarm!

But the alarm kept on ringing and as the alarm rang, so did my nerves. I wonder what the alarm is for, I thought. I don't see anyone shoplifting! It didn't help that the security guards looked nervous too. Then the tension was finally broken when suddenly, a voice over the PA system advised customers to please evacuate the store immediately.

"What in good heavens is going on?", I thought. Of course, being in London, unfortunately, the worst crossed my mind first - what if this was a bomb threat or some other sort of terror related incident? I mean after all, the person on the PA definitely had a sense of urgency about him.

I rushed out with Erich, and stepped aside as a crowd of several hundred people piled out of the store. I watched nervously as security guards hustled people out, and told them to drop whatever they had picked out on the floor and closed the doors behind everybody. I waited for Karen to emerge from the crowd. No sign of her. It was heart wrenching not knowing what happened to her.

Finally, amidst lots of shouting, we finally found each other. I decided that we would not visit the store again.

In the end, it turns out that the alarm was caused just because of one malfunctioning sprinkler head.

UK: Right hand drive and other oddities

Driving in the UK was certainly a fun and fascinating experience. Here I am posing next to the Vauxhaul/Opel Corsa that we had hired in Reading. It is quite a nifty little car, and the sad part is that you can't get stuff like this here in North America.

I got to observing the distinct things that I noticed were different. Here are my top 10:

10. People drive on the left hand side of the road and the right hand side of the car. (Duh, but I had to start with the obvious! :))

9. Driving on the other side of the car of course means that my usual habit of turning right to look behind me when I am in reverse doesn't work. This one took a bit of getting used to.

8. Roundabouts are everywhere. I have grown to love these things: why stop at a four-way stop or a traffic light when you can just merge into a roundabout and exit just as efficiently? Think of all those left turn accidents that this avoids.

7. Speed limits are reasonable. On country roads and dual-carriageways, speed limit can be up to 50mph. Considering the width of these roads, there would be a media circus if this were the speeds in Vancouver.

6. Cars are much smaller. This could be purely because things are just generally so much more expensive in the UK, but cars are much smaller, compact and practical than the bloatware you often find roaming the streets in Vancouver. The Opel/Vauxhaull is affiliated with GM by the way. Why does GM have this obsession that North Americans like big cars? If only they sold their European cars in Canada, I might actually use some of my GM points I've racked up over the years...

5. Petrol (gasoline) is very expensive. Think same price except in pounds per litre.

4. Everybody knows how to drive standard. Had I not had the chance to practice driving a standard transmission, right hand drive, 12 passenger mini-bus back in 2003, I think I might have freaked at this one, but this is old hat now. That and driving a manual transmission Mazda5 back home helps.

3. Standardized road signs. They were a bit difficult to figure out at first, but once you had them figured out, it was easy to navigate with them. Of course the hardest one for me to figure out was the white circle with the slash through it - I didn't know it meant "National Speed Limit" until I was told.

2. People know how to drive. In general, drivers are alert, aware and observe fast/slow lane rules. On the motorway, the slow lane really is the slow lane, and the fast lane is really the fast lane. You don't have people who drive in the 'fast' lane just because they feel like being on that side of the road.

And the number one thing I found was different...?

1. Drivers are much more courteous. I guess it has to do with knowing how to drive well. When you drive well and are aware, letting someone else go ahead of you means you'll know they'll be paying attention and you'll be making traffic flow more efficiently. Compare this to the "me-first" or the deadlock "you first, no you first" situations one often finds in Vancouver.