Saturday, September 30, 2017

To Be or Not To Be?

The first leg of this European trip takes me from Phoenix to London.  I planned to spend two days in England before flying to Munich, my targeted destination for this entire trip.  I debated on what to day in two days around London.  Should I just stay in London or should I go somewhere nearby.  I've always wanted to go to places near London, maybe 1 to 2 hours away, like Cambridge, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, York, etc.  After many considerations and research, I decided to go to Stratford (short for Stratford-upon-Avon) and Oxford during these 2 days.  The reason is because they are both in the same general direction from London.

My preferred option when I travel is to take public transportation - bus or train.  After looking at the bus and train options, I realized that it is not an easy option going to both of those places.  I'd have to change trains several times and the walk from the train or bus station to where I will be staying is too far.  So, I decided to rent a car.  The first question friends asked me when I tell them I am renting a car in London are:  do you know how to drive stick-shift and do you know how to drive on the "wrong" (i.e left-side) of the road?  The answer is Yes and Yes.  I grew up in Singapore learning how to drive a manual transmission and sitting on the right side of the car.  It may take me a few minutes to get oriented but once I start driving, it comes naturally.

I've been spoiled by a low rental-car rate in the US using my former employer's corporate discount.  I was surprised when I reserved the car how much it costs to rent a car for just two days.  Throwing a GPS and insurance, it came up to about US$200 for two days!  First, I need to get oriented with the car.  How to use the built-in GPS?  I found out that instead of entering the full address, you can just enter the postal car and it will know where the destination is.  For example, the post code for the Salamander B&B where I was staying in Stratford is CV37 6PB.  That's all I need to enter and it did get me to my destination.  The second thing I need to learn about the car is putting it in reverse gear.   Most of the manual transmission cars that I've driven, you push down on the stick and shift the stick either up or down.  I couldn't figure this new car out!  Finally, someone showed me that there is a ring below the stick that you pull up, which engages the reverse gear.  Now I need to figure out how to open the door to the gas tank.

As anyone using a GPS can tell you, sometimes you blindly follow the directions, which seems to take you round and round in circles.  It took me about 30 minutes before I realized I was finally on the M40 highway out of London towards Stratford.  It took about 2 hours to drive from London to Stratford.  The GPS finally located my B&B.  Here comes another challenge:  a very narrow alley, just wide enough for my small car.  I managed to slowly squeeze through and park in the very limited space that the B&B has for guests.

Salamander B&B

If you've never stayed in a B&B, especially in Europe, you should.  B&Bs' preceded AirBnB.  The difference?  These people have been doing this for a very long time.  They pride themselves in providing a homely atmosphere for their guests.  AirBnBs', especially those who are new, are just there to make money and have little hospitality experience.  I was greeted by Vivian, the housekeeper at Salamander, and shown my room. Pascal, the owner was out shopping.  Why did I pick Salamander?  I read about the B&B in an old Rick Steve's book on England and I read the reviews.  For £40.50 or about US$55, I was given a single room with its own bathroom (down the hallway) and a full English breakfast.  The building and furnishings are a little old but they are all in good condition, clean and comfortable.  I don't need to spend $200 on a hotel where I don't care about all the amenities.  The English breakfast was excellent.  What's different about an English breakfast?  It usually includes baked beans and fried tomatoes, besides the bacon, ham, potatoes and fried eggs.  You sit in a dining room and share tables with other guests.  There were probably about 20 guests altogether, from different countries - New Zealand, India, US, etc.

An English Breakfast

Stratford is a small old English town by the river Avon, hence the name Stratford-upon-Avon.  It is about a beautiful 10-minute walk from the B&B to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.  I walked past row houses that are probably more than 100 years old.  The theatre is modern and sits by the river.  The river is charming, reminding me of many pictures of the English countryside that I've seen.  There were ducks and swans, barges and row boats for rent.  A dirt path goes along the side of the river goes from the theatre to the Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was buried.  I spent about a couple of hours in this area, because it was so beautiful and green.  Times seems to slow down; watching the ducks and swans, the boats and the river flowing gently through the lushly green river banks.  The oak trees are starting to shed some of their multi-hued leaves.

The charming Avon River, with white swans, ducks and boats (named after Shakespeare plays) for rent.


Another perspective of the Avon River, looking towards the bridge

Royal Shakespeare Theatre

Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare was buried

Inside the church, where Shakespeare was buried
This area has been settled since the 7th century.  It became a town in the 12th century.  Shakespeare was born here in the 16th century.   He died in 1616 and was buried at the Holy Trinity Church.  The entire town is mostly dependent on tourism because of Shakespeare.  Some friends who have been here told me that there is not much to see here but I disagree.  I think the town is charming and quaint.  I know some people called small towns in the US or Canada that are over a hundred years old quaint.  Stratford is more than 500 years old.  If there is a word for quaint, this is it.  Just walking around town, admire the old architecture, shops, and the river, is just plain beautiful.  Click here to read more about Stratford.

Another thing I discovered while walking around town are the Narrowboats.  In the old days, towns are connected by rivers or canals.  England has an extensive network of narrow canals that are navigable only by these narrowboats.  Today these boats are used mostly for tourism.  I was told by one of the boat owners that you can rent (or hire, as the British would say) one of these boats for 2 weeks for about US$2,000.  The boat can sleep up to four guests, plus the two boat operators.  There are cooking amenities on the boat - stove, refrigerator, microwave, etc.  But some people prefer to eat at the pubs at the town where they stop.  It is a beautiful, slow, leisure way to enjoy your holiday.  For example, you can take one of these boats to Cambridge.  It will go through canals, passing through locks, and stopping at small English towns.


Narrowboats anchored at the canal

Here are more pictures of Stratford:


A series of Shakespeare plays

Beautiful walkway outside Holy Trinity Church

Two institutions that are getting obsolete:  Royal Mail and the Public Telephone

Lucky to be able to get a ticket to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.  But I was too tired to stay awake

A statue in honor of the Bard

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Slot Canyons

In late September, I took a group of 4 participants to a photography workshop in the Page, AZ, area.  The name of the workshop is called Slots Canyon because the highlight of this trip are the slot canyons in Antelope Canyon.  There is a Lower and Upper Antelope Canyon. One is on the north side, the other on the south side of Highway 98, about 15 minutes outside of Page.  The iconic sandstone sculpture is unique and unforgettable.  Once you see it, you will always relate them to the canyons in this area.  They are extremely popular with foreign tourists.  Ironically, many Americans have seen pictures of it but have never been there, including Arizonans who have lived in the state all their lives.

We visited Lower Antelope Canyon twice, each lasting about 2 hours.  Photographing the canyon is a challenge because of the the number of tourists passing through.  Our young guide, Brendon, has some photography background and knows where the good spots are.  He was able to gain cooperation from his fellow guides by stopping the tourists at times to allow us time to take some excellent shots. All of us in the group came away with some beautiful photographs.  Here are some that I captured.

With that many foreign tourists everyday, the Navajo guides have been able to pick up some foreign languages.  Probably the biggest group of tourists are the ones from China.  I heard "kwai tien!" (meaning hurry) and "cho la" (meaning let's go) many times.  The tourists are not supposed to stay and take pictures but if you've come this far and see something so amazing, how can you resist?


Taken with my Nikon camera with some post-processing.  One of my best
Face of an Eagle

A narrow canyon

Beautiful colors in the canyon
A group picture in the canyon

Have to be extra careful climbing down

We had a sunrise shoot at another iconic tourist spot, about 10 minutes outside of Page - the Horseshoe Bend.  Here the Colorado River takes a 270 degree turn around a gigantic rock.  Even though we were there at 5:30am, there were many tourists there already.  It gets more and more crowded as the morning goes on.  Later in the day when we drove by the parking lot, it was entirely full.  Many tourists buses make this one of their key stops.  You will see why by looking at its unique geography below.

Horseshoe Bend
My iPhone camera did not do the picture justice.  You need a wide-angle lens to capture the majesty of the area, including the horizon above this picture.  Unfortunately, I broke my wide-angle lens for my Nikon DSLR camera a couple of days before this at another sunset shoot nearby.  This is the hazard of photography.  You are so engrossed with taking a shot that sometimes you get careless with your equipment.  Most photographers can tell you stories of equipment that they lost or broke.

German girl doing a yoga pose above Horseshoe Dam
We struck up a conversation with a couple of German girls who were there to admire the scenery.  As we were leaving, one of them struck a beautiful yoga pose.  We were all amused.  It was a conversation topic the next couple of days.

We also went to many other places besides the 2 that I mentioned above.  This area, including southern Utah, has very unique geologic formations.  Here are some of them.

Toadstool


Wavy formation at Water Holes

Another Toadstool
One morning we took a river tour down the Colorado River from the Glen Canyon dam to Horse Shoe Bend.  It's a different perspective, seeing the canyon from below.  The rafts are similar to the ones they use for the Grand Canyon River trip that I took several years ago.  They sit above 30 people.

Bridge across Colorado River and Glen Canyon Dam

Another boat on the river

The boats are similar to what are used for the Grand Canyon River rafting trips.

A group picture
Five days went by very quickly.  Perhaps because we were constantly on the go and because we all got along.  There are always different personalities in a group like this but being a small group, there is less friction.  The two older folks did slow us down sometimes but nothing that kept us from taking some excellent photographs.