Loch Lomond & The Trossachs in Scotland

Whooshhhhh!

That's the sound of November flying past us.

The holiday fun has already begun.

We went ice skating at the Natural History Museum over the weekend with a group of friends.

It was so much fun!  Yes, I used  on one of those kiddie skate buddy penguin things.

 (Someone snagged it for me.  Hopefully, we didn't leave some poor child crying on the ice.)

But, I'm so not embarrassed, because I got out there, I didn't fall and had the best time.

There's evidence on Instagram.  There might even be a video.  

This weekend we are combining two traditions for the perfect celebration.

Thanksgiving + Pubs.  Fun will be had by all!

Today I'm sharing photos from another stop on our road trip with my dad & brother.
After our stop at the Giant's Causeway, a night in Belfast and one in Derry,
it was time to leave Northern Ireland.
(On a side note, Derry was the home of the first immigrant from my dad's family tree
that came to America in the 1700's.  So, of course, we had to stop there.)

Then it was back on the ferry and across the waters to Scotland.
I expected the landscape of Scotland to be very similar to Ireland.
But, it really has a completely different feel to it.
(I'm not sure yet how to explain it, but I'll try to as I post more about our time there.)

These photos are from Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.

'Tis beautiful, is it not?

(Doesn't it make you want to talk with a Scottish lilt?)

(I've used an excessive amount of parenthetical statements in this post. Apologies.)

How would you describe the difference between the landscapes of Scotland and Ireland?

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Matt's Million

Matt's back!!

I don't know about you but

I've missed having Matt post on the blog. 

I would walk (fly) 500 (a million) miles…

As we returned from Texas, where we were celebrating the marriage of Selena’s daughter to the lovely John, I reached a landmark that I’d been building to for literally my entire life – flying a million miles.  The 4,900 miles from Austin to Heathrow took me to a grand total of 1,002,864 miles flown.  So I reached the landmark 42% of the way through the flight, which (by my calculation) means I was overhead Halifax, Nova Scotia when the magic moment happened.

 

The only picture I took when I was in Halifax.  Was going through a video phase at the time…

A million miles?  That’s a million proper miles, rather than a million air miles, which you can accumulate with credit cards and hotels and rental cars.  A million miles is London to the moon, and back.  And then to the moon again, then back again with enough left over to get from London to Sydney.  And back.  And then from London to Sydney again.  And back again.  With enough left over to get you to Cairo.  You get the idea!

Your correspondent in Sydney.  No, wait…

At this point, I need to apologise if this sounds like I’m showing off.  Travel has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember, and while some people spend their money on kids, clothes or crazy stuff like pensions, I’ve spent mine on travel.  And after all, you are reading a travel blog!

How do I know I’ve flown a million miles?  I have a spreadsheet.  I’ve wanted to blog about my spreadsheets for some time now but according to Selena, the subject is “too niche”, “too introverted“ and (what’s was the phrase she used?) – “too mind-numbingly tedious” to blog about.  But here’s my chance!

I’ve tracked every flight and using webflyer.com, checked the distance between each airport flown.  It took a bit of work to get started, and required me to trawl through my parents’ photo albums to remember where we went on our Summer Holidays in 1976 (Gatwick to Gerona, 653 miles each way).  But I have what I believe to be a complete record of every flight flown, including the flights to the Grand Canyon we took in 1987 (Las Vegas to an unnamed landing strip in the Grand Canyon, 169 miles each way).

Las Vegas, whose airport I’ve transited 39 times…

Once you’ve compiled your records, you can see some fascinating things.  Well, fascinating to me, at least.  I’ve taken 564 flights, so each was 1,778 miles, which is almost exactly the distance from Calgary to Ottawa (which I flew on Air Canada in 2009).  The longest flight was Sydney to Los Angeles (7,490 miles, which I’ve done 8 times) – San Francisco to Sydney is actually 70 miles shorter (which I’ve only done once).  The shortest flight was only 56 miles (between La Ceiba and Roatan airports in Honduras), closely followed by Carlsbad to Los Angeles (only 82 miles, but it could take 3 hours by road).  Third shortest was from Tegucigalpa to La Ceiba (120 miles, which I only mention because Tegucigalpa is one of my favourite places to pronounce!).

Tegucigalpa was too ugly to photograph, so here is your correspondent in Roatan.

My most active year was 2003, when I flew 93,880 miles on 34 flights.  I have had many years of zero miles flown, although none since 1991.  I’ve flown British Airways 54 times, for a total of 91,200 miles, but Singapore Air wins the distance title with 112,200 miles spread across 36 flights.  In 2002 I only flew 9 times, but each one averaged 4,483 miles, which is roughly the distance from London to Miami.  Heathrow is my most transited airport (with 96), followed by Gatwick (88) and Sydney (80).

 

Only went through Bandar Seri Begawan airport twice, but it gives me an excuse to post this photo!  Bandar Seri Begawan is right up there with Tegucigalpa in my list of favourite place names!

Ok, perhaps I am showing off a little…  So what’s next?  Another million miles, obviously (London to Budapest soon - 923 miles each way).  A friend has also turned me on to openflights.org, which will track your flights online (and will turn your history into maps and other fun things), but even if I sign-up for this, I think I’ll maintain my little spreadsheet for as long as I’m still flying!

He's such a numbers geek.

One of the many things I love about him.

Do you collect miles? 

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Back to the Future

In my last post, I told you about my five favorite cities.

Today I'm going to tell you about one of my top three evenings in London.
It was all thanks to East Village London.

Secret Cinema's showing of Back to the Future created such a buzz in London.
All of the hype was so well-deserved!  It was the most incredible experience.

Matt wasn't able to go but my friend Erin was happy to join in the fun.
Of course, we were not going to turn down the opportunity to play dress up
complete with victory rolls and red lipstick.

You'll have to excuse the quality of the photos.

As this was a top secret experience, no cameras or cell phones were allowed.

Luckily, they were selling disposable cameras!  It's probably a good thing

I wasn't lugging around my DSLR as I was able to really enjoy the event.

The movie Back to the Future was the perfect choice and it was exactly like traveling back in time.

Once we entered we walked through the  American suburb of Hill Valley, popping into to the various houses all fully furnished with vintage delights.

We even visited with with "Doc" to talk about time travel.
All around us peaople were acting out various scenes complete with American accents.  You never knew when some one was going go running by or a fight would break out.  It was spectacular.

We took a right by the old Texaco gas station and arrived at the town square complete with the old Clock Tower.

The square was surrounded by shops, diners, a travel agent and a bank.  Erin was serenaded by a gentleman with a ukelele.  Everything was authentic and absolute kitschy fun.  The high school dance was in full swing in the

high school gym straight from the movie.

We spent some time just exploring and regularly gushing about the awesomeness of it all.

You can imagine my delight when I discovered the diner was serving iced tea! (with gin)

There was even an 80's bar tucked away.  Soon it was time to settle onto our checked blanket to watch the movie.

It was projected onto the clock tower.

But this was certainly not the end of all of the drama and fun.  A live 50's band played, actual cars and skateboarders raced around the square!  As the scenes were playing out on the giant screen, the action was also being acted out in real time complete with pyrotechnics and stunts. And, of course, the time traveling DeLorean!

From start to finish it was one of the most incredible and fun experiences I've had.
I felt like a kid again...pure delight and complete fun!
I'm so impressed with what they were able to pull off with this event.
I don't want to miss what they come up with next year.

A huge thank you to East Village London for inviting me!

When the Olympics were here two years ago, apartments were built to house all of the athletes. Those apartments are now available for lease and a whole community has built up around them.

Before walking over to the venue, we had cocktails and munchies in one of the apartments.
It was modern and spacious. The setting is special, too.  Not what you usually get in London, a neighborhood with plenty of room and green space. 

I'm truly impressed with how the area developed for the Olympics is now becoming one of London's nicest communities.

via East Village London

via East Village London

via East Village London

via East Village London

via East Village London

Here's a video they've put together to introduce you to London's newest neighborhoods.


Have you revisited the East Village London and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park since 2012?

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I was a guest of East Village London for the Secret Cinema event.
All photos (except where noted), writing and opinions are my own.   
As always, I promise to be open, honest and transparent with my readers. 
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.