Saturday 29 September 2018

After Ottawa came Montreal.


Among other things, art galleries, dinner with a friend's dad and his partner, etc. We were intrigued by the huge mural of Leonard Cohen on the side of the building slightly to the right of the middle of this photo.



If that is a bit too much like 'Where's Wally?' here is a closer photo taken from the street. The mural is based on a photo taken by Leonard's daughter. The artists have added pink to his right hand because he is holding it over his heart.

After Montreal we flew back to Vancouver to join a three week tour - starting in the Rocky Mountains (BC and Alberta) and ending with a cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska.


In Banff we stayed at the Fairmont. I managed to get this view of the hotel as we went for a walk upstream along Spray River. The hotel has had many additions over the years. However, they have been integrated beautifully into the original building.



I was impressed by this baronial-style hall toward the back of the huge hotel. A really delightful space where I could imagine a ball being held.



This staircase is in the new foyer and I think led to the original front entrance hall.



We also stayed at the Fairmont at Lake Louise. After dinner on the first night we went for a walk along the lake. When we turned around to walk back I was surprised and delighted by this view.


In Whistler we took the gondola up to the first peak. The weather did not look so miserable when we set off. Then it started to hail as we then walked up to the open ski lift to get to the highest peak. At the very top there is a suspension bridge over a great chasm between two smaller peaks. However,...



...Laurie was braver than me. Anyway, someone had to take his photo. 



While on the cruise ship we took three land based excursions. At Skagway, Alaska, we went up to a ridge line at the border with Canada. There we saw these strange looking trees with branches on one side only.



It is the result of the Katabatic wind that flows down off the glacier situated above this stunted, slow-growing copse of trees. The growing season is only three months here, so these five metre trees are probably several hundred years old.



Further back down the valley we were taken for a four-hour guided walk along a side branch of the Skagway river. The humidity is such that the forest floor is carpeted with moss 30cm thick and the branches are festooned with a variety of epiphytic mosses and lichens.



On one morning our ship cruised into Glacier Bay. I was amazed at the cracking and thunderous sounds of Margerie Glacier as it inches its way down the valley. The only visual evidence of this movement was the occasional collapse of ice at the glacier face. All the glaciers have been in retreat (hyper-text link) since about 1850. These ones are predicted to largely disappear in the next 30 to 50 years.



For all the visual spectacle of these collapsing lumps of ice, it was quite a discomforting experience.



Our final excursion was a flight in a De Havilland Beaver float plane from Ketchikan.


We flew among precipitous mountains with trees that amazingly managed to cling to the almost vertical walls.



There were numerous lakes in the valley floors...


...where the pilot landed and invited us to step out onto the floats. In the middle of the lake!


Our travels were not without sightings of a variety of wildlife. In Juneau we went whale watching...



...and sighted a number of whales that were feeding in this deep narrow passage between islands. 


At Blue River BC, between Jasper and Sun Peaks, we were taken upstream on canoes roped together like a catamaran. The canoes had very quiet electric motors, so the black bear in this photo was apparently unperturbed by the very still and silent human witnesses. I was impressed that our largish group was able to be so quiet.


Elsewhere on a different occasion from a train, we saw masses of red salmon migrating up stream. 


This chipmunk was foraging for crumbs of a biscuit being eaten by a hiker at Lake Louise.



I was amused to see these Canada Geese being a nuisance to the golfers at Jasper Park Lodge. It made me think of the kangaroos on the golf course at Anglesea.




And here the flock of geese being given right of way in Vancouver near Stanley Park.

We hope you have vicariously enjoyed our travels. At last back at home we have begun to get our selves back into a familiar routine.
However, we feel refreshed by our journey and will long remember the sights, sounds and friendships shared on our Canadian/Alaskan holiday.

Christopher and Laurie
30th September 2018

Sunday 2 September 2018

OTTAWA photos

In the National Gallery of Canada at Ottawa is the reconstructed 'Rideau Chapel', which was rescued from a former Sisters of Charity Convent that was put up for sale in December 1970.  


We visited this gallery and were delighted to find the sound installation, 'Forty-Part Motet' by Janet Cardiff that we heard 4 years ago had been re-installed in May this year. It is a wonderfully enveloping aural experience where 40 speakers arranged around the perimeter of the Chapel play a recording of Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium (Hope in any other). This is a motet for 5 choirs of 8 voices. In this instance each singer was recorded with a separate microphone and is played back through a dedicated speaker. Thus one can experience the music 'from the inside'.


Around Ottawa we visited the historic township of Almonte and were surprised by the amount of rushing water powering a small hydro electric station on the other Mississippi River
    

We were intrigued to see this turf roofed storage house at the farm gate market near Leonora and Richard's house.


Across the river from Ottawa, in Quebec province, is Jacques Cartier Park where we saw an extraordinary display called MosaiCulture.  The display consisted of huge sculptural works made on steel and wire armatures that were then covered with living plants that gave colour and texture to the surfaces. The entire surface, walls and roof of this 'railway station' exhibit was covered with living plants rooted in a blanket-like substrata.


Here is an enormous tree with endangered species of birds from around the world...


...and two snowy owls.


In this close-up you can see the individual branchlets.


The fur of the dog in this image is entirely of long brown grasses.


Here two moose are part of a huge display...


...of the mother earth figure, Gaia. The people give some sense of scale.


I particularly liked this foal and mare made by a British sculptor. 


They are made from carefully selected pieces of 'driftwood' which are in their natural found state and apparently not carved to fit together.

Sunday 26 August 2018

VANCOUVER TO TORONTO, PHOTOS

On Friday 17th August 2018 we set off from Vancouver on The Canadian.


Laurie in our dining car. Below scenes on the way.



Through the Rockies...



...lots of rushing water...



...and a tunnel seen from the dome viewing carriage.



Here you can see most of the 25 carriage-long train passing under a road bridge.





Spectacular rocky outcrop with coloured veins running through.


Day two, at Melville station, Saskatchewan.



Here we had a chance to stretch our legs by walking rapidly along the full length of the train.



In the curve-ended lounge at the back of the train. Smoke haze from wild fires is visible through the windows



Morning sun on silos in Saskatchewan. 



Day three and morning sun lifting the mist on lakes in Ontario...


 ...
...

 Trackside wildflowers.


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Goldenrod in the Toronto central business district...


...

We rather liked this bird sculpture on University Ave...


 ...
...

This is a close up of one of the public notice boards to which anyone is free to attach a notice.



Those that had been cleared of old notices reminded me of a Rosalie Gascoigne 'found object' sculpture.



Interior of the enclosed courtyard of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.



Underneath the spiral staircase.


Inside the rather spectacular cafe.


 ...



This is a view of people canoeing on Lake Ontario. As someone from the dry Australian continent, who has always lived by the seaside, I am constantly astonished to see a body of water that extends beyond the horizon that is ALL FRESH WATER.



Laurie and the communication tower in Toronto.



This is a wonderful tromp l'oeil mural on an apartment block.



Only the dark windows in this photo are real.



In the same square was this lovely traditional looking fountain.



'Traditional' until you took a second look.
All the dogs are looking at a golden bone at the top of the fountain.