I'm back

One of the reasons for not posting is that my old desktop got savaged by one of those "bugs", you may know the one.
It's the one where if you contact a 'phone number within a set time they get rid of the bug for a few hundred quid!
Those of you who know me will know that I do not submit to bully boy tactics, and besides that, the old Microsoft system installed was now past it's support stage.
So, after advice I ditched the machine sold the bits on eBay and have been getting used to my laptop which I had just for holiday trips.
I also now have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 for my holidays. It saves me a bit of lugging about at airports.
It's not suitable for blogging though, not with my fat fingers anyway, it'll take me even more hours to write the following!

Canada
An anonymous poster obviously still interested in reading my stuff, advised me that nobody would be interested in my holiday.
I'll continue to blog  anyway, as usual just for me, and anybody else who may be interested especially the anonymous one.

We had 16 nights in Canada starting in Toronto for two of those nights

and then moving across country by road to Niagara Falls, where we had an overnight stay and a night time cruise into the falls.The falls are really quite stunning, even better in real life.

"American falls"

Then up to Montreal for two more nights including a  guided tour of Quebec City and the old walled town with a tour of the Notre Dame Basilica

We then flew out to an over night stay in Calgary, the birthplace of the "Mounties", on the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers, and the site of the annual stampede

Bow River

the hoodoos

We then move onto Banff  by road for three nights, a quaint and total touristy town, somewhat in contrast with the close by beautiful lakes of Moraine  and Louise

Continuing the drive through the Rockies we next stay in Kelowna on Okanagan lake, for two further nights, and where we later that night able to watch our first game of (ice )hockey.

Then onto the Coquihalla Highway to  Merrit an then to the ferry for Vancouver Island and two nights in  Victoria, for a visit to the Butchart Gardens, and later the chance of some whale watching.

We spotted two different humpback whales, but I got caught out with  insufficient time to properly focus the camera in the excitement of spotting the surfacing creatures.
What a thrill!
Anyway, another first for us, having been in Scotland and Australia at the wrong time of year!

So finally onto Vancouver for two nights.
As can be deduced we did a hell of a lot of travelling but all in all a great and enjoyable experience for us both, only let down by poor customer service in and out,by Air Canada...but that's another story,
Our next holiday is in January and it's another first for us, a 42 night ocean cruise to the Amazon and West Indies

House move
We are in no rush to move but we've put the bungalow on the market.
The idea is to move into a more urban location, perhaps Newark and it's main line rail link back to the "Big Smoke". Such a move will take almost an hours' travelling time off our current location.
We've spotted some rather nice apartments in Newark, set within recently refurbished breweries,offices and big Georgian houses, all within a spit of the mighty Trent.
So we shall see.

Fishing
Time for some trips to the Trent and Upper Witham, but first we have another short break for our wedding anniversary, and my mate Dave's (of The International Drinking Society) 75th birthday celebration in Petersfield, and our couple of extra nights stay in Emsworth.
I may well put my travel rod in the boot, as I have an invitation to fish a Stedham AC stretch of the Rother, this may be just wishful thinking on my part though, as The Boss may have other things in mind.
Late October will mean a trip on the Wye with Steve Pope, and a North Western river or two with a couple of other friends.

I'll be back!