Rob’s trip to Newfoundland

During the last week of February, Rob was sent out east for work. Scott, one of his colleagues, went with him. Well Rob and Scott had a bit of a ski adventure at Marble Mountain. See Rob ski (yes that’s right — two planks not one!)

GT Boutique back soon

Just heard that Giant Tiger will re-open 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 15. Can’t wait to see if they’ve remodeled at all and whether there will be any “fire” sales!

Europe Epilogue – the ear …

Just returned from the doctor’s office because my ear was still all muffled. Explained to her that I’d tried some Internet remedies (e.g. creating an “ear sauna” by putting boiling water in a cup, then soaking up the water with paper towel, which you leave in the cup, then drain off excess water) as well as one suggested by the pharmacist (i.e. 2 drops of olive oil in my ear), but it was still the same. She asked me what had happened so I told her about the head cold, taking decongestants (I always bring some to Europe because it’s nasal sprays over there), then flying home what happened in the plane from Philly to Ottawa.

She checked my ear and said that it was just what she thought. She could see the blood clot on my ear drum. That “explosion” feeling I’d had was blood oozing around inside my head. Lovely, huh? Anyhow, she thinks I’ll recover okay, but no flying or altitude until it’s back to normal.

New Zealand videos

Okay, so I’m just finally getting around to posting these videos. They belong with the New Zealand 2007 trip that you can read about on our web site. Watch Rob shear a sheep, Sarah learn a Maori traditional dance, see the crazy roads and bridges and panoramic views.

Photos are up on Flickr

I’ll add in links from the posts later, but you can now see our photos of:

• Belgium
• Vimy Ridge
• St. Anton, Austria
• Germany

Enjoy

Getting back home

You never know what’s going to happen on a travel day. This morning we arrived the airport fairly early, in hopes of having loads of duty free shopping. Not much in Brussels though, unless of course you count all the chocolate, beer, and other food they have ready for you. It’s too bad most of it couldn’t come back to Canada.

Driving Day to Brussels

Well yesterday I didn’t think I’d be able to write another post until we got home, but here I am.

We left this morning at 8:00 a.m., not too bad considering we were aiming for 7:30. We had made our way from Austria into Germany, and were on the longest leg of our route on the A61. We had just taken a rest stop for lunch at one of the roadside parking spots, with really disgusting toilets. But they are free. I almost took a photo just to compare it with the pay ones, but I had to get out really fast. Don’t think I could have eaten lunch after I’d gone. Really thankful for the Health Canada Christmas party gifts of pocket size hand sanitizer!

Around St. Anton

Well, yesterday was our last day of skiing. Not sure if I mentioned it in yesterday’s post. After we left the Internet cafe we picked up some groceries and a pizza from a local pizzeria. Some really interesting toppings. The only familiar one was Hawaii, with ham and pineapple, so that’s what we had.

Skiing Day 5

Well I almost didn’t think there would be a day 5 of skiing for me. I fell asleep around 8 p.m. last night feeling really crappy. Rob was really sweet and made me soup and salad for supper. He had the same, but with the addition of some already cooked chicken legs from the grocery store. A bit rubbery, but it gave him his meat.

Skiing Day 4

As usual, I’ll begin with the end of yesterday. Because we were going tobogganing around 7 p.m., I made (well really more of an assembly job) supper, which included Knorr Käsespatzle, already cooked pork schnitzel and salad.

After supper we set off for the Nassereiner to get our tickets for the Rodelbahn (toboggan run). It’s a 4.3 km track with lots of hairpin turns. There are two separate tickets, one for the lift to get up and another to get your Schlitten (toboggan) and your deposit back.

The ride up is a bit spooky because there are no lights on the hill at all, until you see the Rodelam hut about a third of the way up. We shared the gondola car with a German-speaking father and youngish daughter, who seemed to be a bit freaked out. We think it was her first time.