It's Castles and Beaches In England!

I've been traveling since 2004 and while I've been to the London Heathrow Airport many times, I've never actually set foot in its cities or towns. I've always thought my first experience of England would be London but instead, it's turned out to be the villages of the North. We (Steve, his brother and myself) set out on an early drive out to a town called Alnwick where Steve's parents grew up and now live. It's what you'd imagine a small English village would be with its small houses, quaint roads, peaceful stretches of sandy beaches with the clouds as a backdrop. I spent a total of 3 days here in the North of England and absolutely fell in love with this area. His parents busied us with visits to a handful of historic castles, beach walks with the dogs and stops for tea and cake. I love a good tea in a cute shop!

There are hundreds of historic castles here in England. Some are ruins and some are still serve as homes to the royal. We personally visited Almwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Dunstanburgh Castle and Warkworth Castle while driving by a few others. Of the bunch I saw, Bamburgh is the most epic standing massively on a small sea front hilltop with records of its existence dating back to the year 547. When you see something built from the year 547, it makes everything else I see back at home seem insignificant. I used to marvel at the "est 1907" plaques. I may scoff at them now! Maybe. The most charming castle of this bunch for me would be, Dunstanburgh and that's because of the sheep fields you passby leading up to the castle. Dunstanburgh dates back to 1313 and it's shown in ruins but you're able to climb the steps to see field after field of this North England beauty.

This part of England is so quaint and quiet that it's hard to believe the reality we currently live in with the situations of a Trump presidency in the US and Brexit looming for Britain. The common thoughts from some locals around here seems to be that the US will be able to recover from a Trump presidency as this will blow over in a few years and the damage he has done is fixable with the next administration. So, while the short term effects seem drastic, the long term effect may be nominal. However, I have the Supreme Courts appointments on my mind! With Brexit, the thought is that while there aren't any short term effects, the long term effects could be quite detrimental particularly to the younger generations. I wouldn't disagree.

Another observation I had here was that their pharmacy drugs are significantly cheaper! My allergies came alive when Steve and I were on our way to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. I was able to buy some rather effective allergy meds at half the cost of what I'd get in the US. For example, a 24 pack of Zyrtec D would cost $29. A 30 pack of Prinsitine cost £9 pounds or $13 and it was on abut one get one half off so I essentially purchased a 30 pack for $9. The cost of our healthcare in the US has weighed heavily on my mind ever since I had my preventive annual check up and saw the bill for lab work. Outrageous! Needless to say, I've loaded up for the next three allergy seasons!

 This Europe trip of mine wasn't quite planned. It came up rather last minute as Steve had a conference to attend in Edinburgh and I tagged along to meet his family. His family have been so kind and gracious, I will miss them and look forward to our next visit. The funniest was when Steve's dad asked me,"does Steve still pile the sink full of dishes?" And when I replied, "um, no." His mother added, "Yi put a stop to that, she's very tidy." I'll miss our mornings waking up to views of sheep and open skies. Until next time, England! And with that, it's countries #32, #33 and #34 going on the backpack!

Scotland... A City Of Closes

After a few days of discovery in Amsterdam, I flew to Edinburgh to meet up with Steve now that his conference is over. We were hosted by his older brother, who greeted us at the train station in a Golden State Warriors T shirt not knowing the relativity of it, in a small seaside town, about 30 minutes outside of the city called Kinghorn. 

Edinburgh is small and not nearly as colorful as the city I had just spent a few days in but it packs a punch in history! It's charm is in its centuries old monuments, the castle on the hill, the way they refer to an alley way as a "close" and how even their "new town" looks much like an "old town." And, of course the bagpipes! We spent our days roaming around the main downtown area marveling at this aged architecture wondering how many tales and stories must these lanes and closes have. One of my favorites was a tall clock tower with the label, "toll booth." I suppose they used to be the entry to town having payed some form of currency. One of the most popular attractions in Edinburgh is a hilltop called Arthur's Seat which gives you 360 degree views of the city, however when in a city, my photog eye prefers to see the details of the forest! If you're in the New Town area, an eatery named The Pantry serves a tasty turmeric latte..must try!

 While Edinburgh is lively with the Queen's Mile packed with live acts and history, I'd be missing out on the sights of inviting Scottish villages had Steve's brother not live a short train ride away. Every train journey into and out of the city gives sight to their Forth Bridge, one that resembles exactly the Bay Bridge of back home, as well as, the Gypsy Carnival grounds in Burntisland. Burntisland is a neighboring seaside village to Kinghorn with a beautiful and large open seaside green space. Apparently, every year and for many months during the summer, this green space is occupied by this random carnival that just shows up. According to land laws, the field is public so no laws are broken although if I was an owner of a seaside home in this town, I'd have other thoughts! 

Warm and dry months or even days and weeks don't come often in Scotland. I was fortunate enough to have brought the sunshine from Amsterdam with me! Next stop: my first experience of England!

Haarlem, You're A Gem!

Day 2.5, I wanted to escape the crowds and found myself with many options. Do I rent a bike and ride out to Ouderkerk as suggested by a local bike renter? Do I ride a bike out to the beach? Maybe to Haarlem? Maybe out to Zaanse Schans, a village of windmills? I ended up taking the bus out to windmill village and then hopped the train to Haarlem. I arrived early enough to Zaanse Schans to avoid the large group tour buses which is at its best. The shops in the village aren't open yet at this hour (before 9am) but you get the morning peace to yourself and see the farm animals at its glory feeding in the fields. Windmills in a field, it's so Tour de France like! After an hour or so in this windmill village, I hopped the train to Haarlem and instantly fell in love!

Haarlem is a gem. While everything in Amsterdam is in your face, in Haarlem, you have to seek the details of the charm. It has quaint streets, a vibrant but low key town square and my favorite were the floral adorned quaint residential streets. The square packs your typical bit hits: museum, a couple of churches and a formal hall of sorts. This town's St Bavo church houses a beautiful massive organ that a young Mozart played on in 1766. The age of history in Europe still baffled my mind. While the town square is low key inviting, the residential
streets own the charm of this town. Nearly each door had a bike in front of it. Folks of all ages live here but it's the older women congregating on their bikes in front of door steps speaking with such succinct enthusiasm that made me smile. They would end every sentence with a "looo".... helloooo... good day-ooo. This little town packed a character that I consumed fully. 

What I enjoy most about Europe is the ease of train and bus travel! All in all, my time in the Netherlands did not disappoint and I remembered how much I love travel in Europe. The Dutch are kind and always so gracious when I ask for directions. Yes, even the sort of creepy gentleman that stopped me in the streets insisting on helping me get to where I wanted to go because I had a map in my mind and went on to insist that I was must be "rich" because I live in San Francisco. Is that the reputation we have?! Everyone in general have been extremely helpful and so nice! They want to get you to your destination as much as you want to get there. Every time I've asked a train info person which platform I should go to for a certain destination just to make sure, they always look me in the eye and succinctly say "It leaves in X minutes." A thought I had most often while strolling through Haarlem is if I could live as efficiently as these locals. Their residences here are quaint and small but efficient. Nothing is oversized here, unlike home where it seems that the bigger it is, the better it must be. I don't follow that norm much... perhaps I was European in my past life!

Amsterdam...It Wasn't Love At First Sight.

Far from it, actually. Amsterdam has always been on my list but it was on the "fit it in" list as I never thought Amsterdam itself warranted a flight across the country and pond. At last, I had the opportunity to fit it in on this leg. I arrived in Amsterdam in the early afternoon and spent it walking myself lost in circles which is normal for me for my first day in a city. Everywhere I walked, there were massive crowds of people. I thought to myself, "I've never been to Europe in the summer, this must be what it's like." I was not very impressed with day 0.5 in Amsterdam. 

The next day, I got an early start and took myself on one of Rick Steve's self walking tours and once that was over, I went on a walking escapade through Amsterdam's canal belts. It was here that I found Amsterdam's appeal. The city center is crazy busy and quite chaotic but once I got out to the side streets and neighborhoods, I was in awe and the inspired photog in me came through. The west end and the Jordaan area of this city is beautiful with its calmer quaint streets lining the less boat filled canals. The shops cross between familiar and interestingly different. It's in this quaintness that I was able to take in the architecture of this city. One thing I did notice about the houses here is that, every top floor window has a little captain's hook. I thought it was historically decorative at first but only to find that it's actually functional in use: that's how people transport large items up to the top floor. Go figure. One of the more powerful experiences was passing by the Anne Frank house. I didn't go in for the tour as you had to get reservations months in advance to wait in line or you can wait in the line for hours after 3pm for the same day option. It was enough for me to know that the significance of this building exists and that it's here. Around the corner of the Anne Frank house is the statue of Anne Frank. Just take a moment, stand in from it, the statue portrayal of this little girl is pretty powerful. One other area that I especially enjoyed was known as Begijnhof. It's a quiet courtyard of a housing community lived by nuns who hadn't taking the vow to lead monastic lives. The history in Europe never ceases to amaze me. It took a few hours walking the streets in the morning before I was comfortable finding my way without referencing a map. I had referenced it so much previously that it was picturesquely ingrained in my mind. 

For a small city, Amsterdam packs in a lot of landmarks, it was easy for me to navigate which street directionally I wanted to head towards based on which landmark I was near.  It was also on Day 2 that my photog eye found it's inspiration here! I'll leave you with these observations of Amsterdam: it probably has the most diverse cuisine offering I've ever seen in one town! Every local here cycles, that's how they get around yet not one wears a helmet, not even the babies. Everyone here seems to follows the traffic laws and rules to a science where drivers and cyclists can coexist without incident! Of course it helps that, infrastructurely, they seem to have been able to incorporate bike lanes that can take you from one end of the country to the other!

Learning The Tokyo Way!

I left Kyoto on Friday morning for Tokyo via the bullet train and arrived Friday afternoon. Pro tip for the Shinkansen bullet train, if you're coming from Kyoto to Tokyo, seats A (window) and B gets you the view of Mount Fuji. If you're coming from Tokyo to Kyoto, seats E (window) and D (middle). I made my way from Tokyo station to Shinjuku station and after walking in circles for about 20 minutes, found my first hotel of stay in Tokyo. It's usually how I get to know my temporary neighborhood, walk in circles.  

Tokyo, at first glance, is just full of people. The Tokyo and even Kyoto I had in my mind was of narrow streets and tiny everything. The real Tokyo is actually large everything, except food! The crowds are pretty non-stop around the train stations and it amazes me how the street corners of  Shibuya Crossing constantly refills itself with bodies. It's been five full days here in Tokyo with each getting better as I better understood its customs and way of life. Japan overall is a very polite and respectful country and it's more apparent in the big cities when you witness it before your eyes in masses. Everyone here waits in line for their turn on everything. In the metro and bus stations, one line of twos and people move over in their line to let folks off the train before they even attempt to get on. Want to take the stairs to get over the freeway bridge and overpass, there's a line for that. I once backtracked for half a block to get in line for the overpass stairs. Folks walking on the street stay left. Folks getting up and down the steps for the subway stations, stay left. For a city of 13 million, this is one well ran, respectful, orderly and clean city. I can count the pieces of trash I've seen on the streets here in Japan. It's pretty amazing and I'm jealous that the US isn't more like this. My most often thought during this trip was that, I wish the country I live in had more respect for it. Aside from the landscape, I noticed that people in Japan take their work very honorably and respectfully. The people dutiful own the roles they play in their uniforms. The staff from the train stations to the police stations are here to openly and communicatively help their people. It's made finding my way in Japan so easy! When trying to communicate and ask questions, key words work much better than complete sentences. 

Moving on to food! Steve (who met me in Tokyo for two days of adventure) and I will probably never think of food the same way again. Everything in Japan is so fresh and is often presented nicely. There is such a tradition, flow and systematic way of doing things here that I really dig. The sushi is probably the freshest you'll ever put in your mouth if you have it for breakfast by the Tsujiki market. In an area of Tokyo called, Akihabara, we randomly walked into a tonkatsu place called Marugo where it was the most fun to watch how much the locals enjoy their food.  The Hitochino Brewin Lab is our holy grail of beers. There's just too much delicious goodness here!

I didn't come to Tokyo, let alone, Japan with a whole lot of preplanning. Prior to the trip, I was in New York for a 9 day work trip followed by a very busy work week. I had a very successful trip considering how little planning I did, which consisted of booking my hotels, a handful of restaurant recommendations from friends, read a handful pages of the Lonely Planet guide which I do not recommend at all- terrible Japan guide, renting a pocket wifi to send to my first hotel, read a few travel advisor articles and four places on the list I had to visit: The Path of Bamboo and the Inari Shrine in Kyoto and the Hitochino Brewing Lab and the Tsujiki Fish Market in Tokyo.  I found Tokyo pretty easy to get around once you get a handle of their transit connections and maps. At first glance, all the colors, lines and dots are enough to send you cross eyed but if you only focus on the dots of your destination and the color lines that go with them, it gets a lot less overwhelming. Having said that, it's a very walkable city. For this trip, in 10 days, I logged over 100 miles on foot. Bring good walking sneakers!

If I were to be honest, I wasn't overly excited to come to Japan. It's one of those destinations that I felt like I should check out vs having a huge want to check out. The currency exchange was good so why not?! My usual Asia trips have me living in harem pants for the duration. I knew Japan wasn't going to be that but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it in totality. Everything in Japan are such arts of work, from the shrines and temples to their warm toilet seats. Oh, how I will miss those warm toilet seats! For our next trip to Japan, we will probably skip the large cities and head to the countryside! Arigato Japan!

Kyoto With A Side Of Nara!

I've spent four days in this walking city and have averaged about 10+ miles per day on foot! Like any other "big" city I've been to, I didn't prefer it at first sight but give it a day of settling in and my perspective changes. Locals here are beyond nice, polite and helpful. The secret to Kyoto in my POV is leaving the big busy streets for the little side streets and taking the trains to areas outside of downtown Kyoto. While they may not provide you with the historical aspect of the many temples and shrines in Kyoto, these are the areas where you can really appreciate the beauty of this city and its culture and traditions. 

It took me about 2 or so days to adjust to Kyoto's transit system. The transit map had 

 more colors and lines connecting than my brain wanted to comprehend but once I got the hang of it, it was pretty smooth sailing. When in doubt, find your way to Kyoto station! Having said that, the transit system here is very traveler convenient. The city buses will take you to just about anywhere you want to go either on a $5 all day pass or $2 a trip. Lines are unavoidable but most folks are polite and follow the rules of engagement, however, I have come across two instances in which someone has tried to cut in front of the unassuming foreigner, me, in which they've met my elbow. 

Prior to coming, the two must visit spots in Kyoto for me was the Fushimi Inari Shrine and the Path of Bamboo in Arashiyama. The Path of Bamboo, while made for stunning photos, was a little under whelming because it's a short path. If you're coming out to this area, the autumn foliage in the Arashiyama park was pretty spectacular and made the trip more than worth it. The Fushimi Inari did not disappoint. I had really no concept of this shrine prior to coming other than that the red gates looked cool. I went early in the morning, it's an easy 10 minute ride from Kyoto station and was met by peace and quiet at 730am. Making the trip up to the top of Mount Inari will take about an hour and well worth the steps. Passing through 10,000 hand built red gates, at a cost of about $40k each, humbles you with a sense of peace and awe. By the time I made my way out at 10am, the place was a zoo. 

 I was on the fence about making day trips outside of Kyoto but very glad that I did. I chose Nara as my day trip destination. It's about a 45 minute trip on the rapid subway, as opposed to the 76 minutes it'd take on the regional train. The little town was a nice break from the hustle of Kyoto. Folks are enamored by the deers in Nara, known as the golden deers, but I see deers all the time at home. I was enamored by the thousands, as in 4,000, stone lanterns that line the parks on the way up to the Kasuga Takisha Shrine. If you're in Kyoto, this day trip is much recommended!  Lastly, for the best autumn foliage, aside from the Arashiyama Park, the Path of Philosphy near the Ginkaku Ji Temple is pretty ideal. I hear when it's cherry blossom season, the path is a sight to behold! For the idyllic narrow paths, head towards the Kiyomizu Temple area!

Food is always a highlight for me on my trips. After all, I'm averaging 10 miles a day on foot! I've been to the best place in Kyoto for tonkatsu at Katsukara thanks to a trip from my friend Ray. Also, a tip from Ray, I stood in line with a bunch of Japanese folks for the best udon noodles at Omen. And that was a long line! I've had my share of street food as well! My favorite so far are the sweet potato stuffed pastry fish. I've had my daily matcha lattes to start my mornings off. A good meal here will cost you about $20. What may seem like a subpar meal, but a good one back home, would go for no more than $8.

My home here in Kyoto have been spent at what the folks here call a capsule. It's all of 37 square feet, I paid for the upgrade from 21 square feet, that served as my room. I can literally touch the ceiling with my feet when I stretch and probably both walls when with my hands. I came with a half filled backpack so space is of little significance to me. I will attest that large suitcases have caused frustration for my fellow travelers. At least they can find relaxation in the awesome hot tub spa and sauna on the bottom floor!

Although Christmas music and decorations run the streets of Kyoto, today is Thanksgiving back in the US. I'm most thankful for the health of those close to me. Because of that, I don't have any big worries. Any other worries yields choices and ultimately, a path to resolution. Peace and love to my family and friends back home! 

Next up, on the Shinkansen bullet train to Tokyo!

Banff...My Soul Is Full

Of all my travels, there aren’t many places that’s made my soul feel immediately full. Banff was an exception to that! Banff was been on the list of places to get to ever since I heard about it a few years ago. “It’s one of the most beautiful places.” Over the years, I’ve learned that people’s opinions when it comes to travel is all relative. It really depends on where they’ve been and how much they’ve seen. Nonetheless, I decided that this July 4^th weekend, I was going to take advantage of the long weekend and hop the 2 hour flight into Calgary from San Francisco to check out what this Banff business was about. I landed in Calgary after an hour’s delay because our Air Canada plane couldn’t get its electricity to work. Once I landed, I picked up my Avis rental car and off I went with my Waze app. Note to Verizon customers, you can use your phone and access your data and minutes as normal for $2 a day in Canada and Mexico. The drive from Calgary to Banff would take about 90 minutes so away I went on my Nissan Versa rental. The drive from Calgary to Banff takes you along the Canadian Rockies and it was stunning. I love the feeling of driving on an open roads in a place I’ve never been to. Every turn on the highway is a discovery and in this case, every turn was another large mountain range that was more stunning than the last. Photos would not do this experience justice and you would know by the smile that couldn’t be wiped off from my face from the get go. Arrived at last in Banff!

There were many trails to choose from.You can hike in Banff, you can hike in the Lake Louise area, you can head all the way up to the Jasper National Park if you wanted to. I narrowed my hikes down to two main trails given I only had two full days to experience this beauty. Day 1, I arrived at Lake Louise by 7:30am. The waters and the beauty of Lake Louise when you first set eyes on it is nothing short of stunning. For today’s hiking adventures, I chose the Tea House Challenge hike. It’s basically a loop-ish hike with two different tea houses at the two main points: Plain of Six Glaciers and Lake Agnes. The most difficult decision was which tea house/ which direction would I want to do this in? It's up for heavy debate on trip adviser and I ended up heading out to the Plain of Six Glaciers first. It’s on a more exposed trail, I wanted to avoid the afternoon heat and it’s a more gradual of a climb vs heading to the Lake Agnes Tea House first. I enjoyed much of the trail to myself, benefit of starting early. I made it to the Tea House and ventured further out to the Plain of Six Glacier viewpoint. All along the trail, you hear these loud booms, they were active avalanches! Once at the viewpoint, I stopped to take in the scenery and eventually met a couple of new faces. I met a fellow solo gal from Utah and also  met a gentleman with a cute smile from Louisiana shortly after named Chris. I had recognized him from the parking lot. He’s goal for the next day was to make it up to Mount Temple in the Larch Valley area where I would be going tomorrow.

After the Glacier viewpoint, I took the same trail back until I saw the first sign that directs you to Lake Agnes. The closer I got to Lake Louise, the more humans I was sharing the trails with. By the time I was done with my hike, Lake Louise became an afternoon crowd house! They came in hoards offloading from the big tour buses. Lake Agnes on the Highline trail. Note: there are two connecting trails that will take you to Lake Agnes along the Glacier trail. The trail up to Lake Agnes is covered, gradual climb and you will see more faces over time as heading up to Lake Agnes first is the more popular route for whatever reason. This is where I would bump into Utah gal again! Having now done the route, I prefer heading out to the Plain of Six Glaciers first. By doing so, you see the views of the Glaciers the entire time, the sunrise is facing the Glaciers at these morning hours making for appropriate photo lighting, the climb is more gradual which you start to feel after 12 miles

The second trail I chose was the Larch Valley / Sentinel Pass trail that was categorized as black diamond difficult.. It’s 9 miles but steep. I arrived at the trail head in Moraine Lake at about 8am. Lake Louise is the star lake of Banff but Moraine Lake is not too shabby. The Valley of Ten Peaks tower over the lake creating another stunning backdrop. At the start of the trail, I bumped into the gal from Utah again, Melissa as we introduced ourselves this time. She turned out to be Melissa Hartwig, creator/author of the Whole 30 nutrition lifestyle. I was heading up on the trail as she was going to be following closely behind. Hiking in this area, it was recommended that you carry bear spray. I woke up to a news alert that a woman was attacked by a bear in Alaska the previous night. I will admit, I was a tiny bit nervous about the possibility of a bear sighting. Should I have bought the bear spray as recommended by the shop gal? My first question to her was, “Do I spray the bear or do I spray myself with this?” Ignorant as it may be, I had no idea! You spray the bear she says. I then thought, if a bear attacks and I am solo, I doubt I would have a chance to grab the spray and do I passed. I did make clapping noises along this trail when I felt a bit too alone to let the bears know that humans are coming, as a recommended tactic. I made it up to Larch Valley which was beautiful and it’s really the first time you get to see all ten of the peaks. From here, you have the choice to turn around and go back down to the lake or continue up Sentinel Pass. I continued on. It was a steep switchback trail but not more steep than the 10 or so switchbacks to get up to Larch Valley. The tricky part up Sentinel was that now you’re dealing with snow patches, loose gravel and couple of really steep ascents which would make for a tricky descent. I will admit there were two occasions where I thought about turning around because it was that steep of a stretch and I was already nervous about the descend down but I carried on telling myself that I had all day to get down the mountain and I would scale down on my ass if it came to that. Arrival at least! The views from Sentinel Pass was stunning at 8,547 feet!

Melissa joined me about 15- 20 minutes later. We shared a bunch of photo moments before making the descend down together. We shared more photo moments on the descend and after awhile, I think Melissa was used to my random "stop! photo!" I had told her later on that photography is my hobby and she responds, "No wander you see all these vantage points!" Having done the trail in its entirety, I would say it’s hard but not difficult. The views were worth the climb!

Banff is a gem of a place on this earth and I look forward to coming back for more trail fun! The park was worth every penny of the $15US 3 day park pass. I returned the rental car having logged 550km on it. My soul is full from this experience. Until next time!

My tips from my short but sweet experience: 1) If you're thinking about doing it- stop thinking and just do it! It's an easy two hour flight from SFO, pick up a rental car and it's an easy and stunning drive out to Banff from Calgary. 2) Arrive at the trails early! It's worth the effort. By 9am, the overflow parking lots are opened and you want to be well on the trails by then! 3) Bring layers! Two weeks ago, Sentinel Pass was covered with snow. I started my hike in a tank top and had my long sleeve and rain jacket by the time I reached the top. It was WINDY! 4) Make sure you have enough water and food. There are no official water sources out on the trails. You do have waterfall streams however should you choose to take the risk. 5) You don't need to buy map if you're not hitting up the back country. Trails are well marked. Just take a photo of the trail map at the start for reference.