Portobello Road Market

If you've seen the movie Notting Hill, then you've seen the Portobello Road Market.  There's a great scene where Hugh Grant's character is walking past all of the vendor stalls as the weather changes from season to season.  The Portobello Road Market is probably the most popular outdoor market in London, with vendors selling everything from produce to antiques to everything in between.  Saturday is the busiest day as that's when all of the vendor stalls are occupied.  The crowds were out in full force -- I think because of the holiday week, everything is going to be more crowded.  We spent our morning perusing the stalls and enjoying the atmosphere.

Notting Hill is a fun neighborhood to walk around in.  There's all kinds of neat shops, great architecture, and quiet streets once you get off the main road.  We tried finding several of the filming sites from the movie, including what stood in for William Thacker's travel book shop.  We hope to get back here before our week is up and explore a little more with hopefully a few less people.

Happy Boxing Day

Our flight over the pond was great and we landed at Heathrow around 7am local time.  We rented an apartment for the week and arranged for a car service through the rental company to take us to the apartment.  Our driver David met us after collecting our luggage and away we went.

Shopping at Harrods

The nice thing about traveling on Christmas Day is that traffic was light and it was easy getting through the airports.  Although our flight was full, there wasn't the normal throngs of people that we usually encounter in the airport.  Our drive into London from Heathrow was the same.  Very little traffic and not a lot of people out.  Today is Boxing Day -- also a holiday in the UK.  Traditionally, Boxing Day was when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts -- called a "Christmas Box" -- from their employers.  Today it's a bank holiday and many things are closed.  This makes traveling a little trickier as public transport is reduced and the Heathrow express trains don't run.  Just like America, it's a big day for shopping.

Our apartment for the week is on Pitt Street in Kensington, close to Notting Hill and Kensington Palace.   We went to the Tube station -- that's the subway for you Yanks -- to buy our travel card for the week and hit the grocery store.  After a much needed nap, we went out in the Boxing Day frenzy to Harrods.  As you can see from the picture, the Tube was jam packed with people.  Harrods was no different.  Tons of people and twice as many shopping bags.  Definitely something to experience but I think we'll come back a different day to shop when there's a few less people.

Packed like sardines on the Tube

We capped our first day with dinner and a play.  Mom wants to see Mamma Mia, but the tickets left for tonight were too expensive.  Instead, we chose a British comedy play called Neville's Island -- four guys stuck on an island while on a corporate team building exercise.  We had a good laugh and enjoyed the British humor.  With only a nap to carry us through our day, lack of sleep is catching up to us.  Now it's back to the apartment for a good night's sleep.

London Calling

Merry Christmas!  Or as the Brits would say -- Happy Christmas!  We've started our journey to London and are waiting to board our flight to Heathrow.  Mona's parents usually travel with us when we go overseas, but this time my Mom Kathy is joining us.  We're spending a week in London and this is a bucket list trip for her.  It's been 20 years since Mona and I have been to London so we're interested to see what's changed and visit some sites we haven't seen before.  Although the weather will be cold, the city will be decked out for Christmas and it will be fun to see all the decorations and see how Londoners celebrate Christmas and New Year's.  Now for the flight over ...... hopefully we can sleep some as we arrive at 7:00am.

Canadian Rockies

After Waterton Lakes, we drove through the rain to the Town of Banff.  Banff National Park was the first national park in Canada, and the town is in the center of it all.  It is also a prime ski area in the winter.  Our home for the next two nights is the Mountain Home B&B, just two blocks from Banff Avenue -- the main shopping/restaurant thoroughfare.

Lake Louise

Unfortunately, the weather has turned cool and with off and on rain.  Highs are only in the low 50s.  There is very low cloud cover which makes seeing the mountains, especially the tops, impossible.  There is a mountain at the end of Banff Avenue that we never did see in the three days we were in Banff.

While the Town caters to tourists, it has lovely "mountain chalet" architecture along the main street and a lively vibe.  It also has a lot of fantastic hikes, lakes, and waterfalls within an easy drive.  One of the nearby areas that people tend to visit is Lake Louise.  The Town of Jasper is about 3 hours or so up Route 93, also referred to as the Icefields Parkway.  The area stretching between Banff and Jasper is the heart of the Canadian Rockies and probably the most visited.  Banff National Park and Jasper National Park are both located here.

Moraine Lake -- perhaps the best view we experienced

Because of all the rain in Banff, we drove north and west to Lake Louise and drove a portion of the Icefields Parkway up to Bow Summit.  Fortunately, we drove past the rain and the sun even popped out for a bit.  We still had a lot of low cloud cover, which obscured a lot of the mountain tops.  However, we were still treated to a lot of spectacular scenery.

Probably the most scenic view we saw was of Moraine Lake near Lake Louise.  The view here is so iconic in Canada, that for many years it graced the reverse side of the Canadian twenty dollar bill.  The lakes and rivers in this part of Canada often have a deep cobalt blue appearance.  This is due to the sediment in the lake and how it tends to refract sunlight bringing out the blues and greens.  The water itself is not actually blue.

Peyto Lake

We had a great day driving and taking short hikes to take in the views.  The weather held up and the sun popped out.  As we drove back to Banff, the rain returned, but we didn't mind a bit.  

Waterton Lakes

After our stay in Glacier, we left Montana to finish our travels in Canada.  We're spending the rest of our time in the Canadian Rockies.  Our first stop was Waterton Lakes National Park which borders Glacier National Park.  The two parks make up the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park.  Canada and the United States designated these parks as a joint peace park in 1932 to commemorate the long standing relationship between the two nations.

The Town of Waterton lies wholly within the park.  It has one small main street with several shops and restaurants.  The other iconic feature is the Prince of Wales Hotel which sits on a bluff overlooking the lakes.  This hotel was also built by the railroad as was the Many Glacier Hotel.

The view from the top of Bear Hump Trail

We hiked the Bear Hump trail in order to get a sweeping view of the lakes and the town.  It was a short hike, but very steep.  We were up and down in under an hour, but the view was well worth the hike.  We also spotted another bear -- a black bear out for a stroll across the field.  We only had a few hours here before we had to leave in order to drive to Banff, our home for the next two nights.

Lots of Wildlife

We've been very fortunate during this trip to see a variety of wildlife.  We spent a few hours at the national bison range between Missoula and Kalispell where we saw bison, deer, and a golden eagle.  In addition to bear and moose, we've seen mountain goats, big horn sheep, marmots and pika inside the national park.  Most of these animals only live in these mountain environments so it's been a real treat to be able to see them.

Bison

Big Horn Sheep

Pika

Marmot

Many Glacier

On our last day in Glacier, we said goodbye to our apartment in Kalispell and drove the entire length of the Going to the Sun Road over to the east side of the park to the area known as Many Glacier.  We were able to stay one night at the historic Many Glacier Hotel inside the park right on the shores of Swiftcurrent Lake.  This lodge was originally built in 1915 by the Great Northern Railway Company. It has a large four story lobby with giant wooden timbers and hallways that overlook the lobby.  Our room has a balcony we share with the adjacent room that looks out right over the lake and the mountains.   Unfortunately we were only able to stay one night, but this is definitely the place to stay when on this side of the park.

There are two places to stay inside the park in the Many Glacier area -- the Many Glacier Hotel and the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn.  It was down the road from the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn that the trailhead starts where we were able to see the moose.  For all the ambiance and charm of the Many Glacier Hotel, the dining is apparently not very good.  We saw the reviews on TripAdvisor that weren't all that positive.  Our neighbors that shared the balcony with us confirmed it.  Fortunately for us, there's a pizza/Italian place at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn.  The TripAdvisor reviews were favorable and we got a pizza to go and ate on our balcony while watching the sunset.  A much better ending to our day than eating in the hotel dining room.

The view from our balcony