London ... On the way to Sicily!

We arrived in London on the morning of Sunday June 1st and after a quick breakfast decided to have an afternoon nap before heading up the street to visit the lovely Wallace Collection. After an hour or so enjoying the fine art and other exhibits it was off to the Audley for a pint (or several) of Guinness. We made friends with a couple of blokes at the next table (Lee and Daniel)

and after more than three hours of good pub cheer (and excessive pints) we stumbled out of the Audley to head over to The Only Running Footman for an excellent roast beef dinner, washed down with more Guinness!!

The jet lag stuck with us and we were both up long before 4am ... Not the best given that Lisa has to work all day on Monday. Fortunately, Lisa is one tough cookie so the odds are she will make it through the day in good form.

So far we have been blessed with lovely sunny weather and we hope it follows us to Rome and Sicily, where we head on Tuesday.

London Fog!

Once more a business trip to London for Lisa has been transformed into a fun weekend for the two of us! All the better as Christos is not working right now. So off we went, taking the Friday night overnight and arriving in London early on Saturday morning. We checked in at the Connaught, enjoyed some coffee and then Lisa (suffering from a bad cold) crawled into bed while Christos decided to crawl allow over Camden, a part of London we had not seen before. The walk to Camden was just over an hour and unfortunately a light rain accompanied much of the stroll. Camden was quite fun! Lots of fun shops, food stalls, tourists and street vendors. Christos spent around £50 on a stack of sweet vinyl, purchased two duck confit wraps and tried to hail a cab but was unsuccessful, ultimately walking back to the Connaught. When the rains stopped we did enjoy a rare double rainbow as seen from our room.
Lisa was still recuperating so Saturday night was just a quick trip to a local pub ("The Only Running Footman") that we had not visited before. Christos enjoyed the lamb curry while Lisa had a soup and the fish and chips (rated pretty good by Lisa). Back at the hotel we watched a little telly before drifting off to a late night sleep. Sunday morning started late (11am) and with Lisa still sick and Christos' feet sore from the prior day (not to mention grey skies) looks to be a pretty low key day of Olympics watching. As predicted, Sunday was indeed a low key day and other than a quick trip out by Christos to get coffees and snacks was spent watching Olympics in our hotel room.

We tried to get to sleep early but the time change weighed on us both, resulting in sleep coming only well after midnight.

Monday was Lisa's first work day and a day for Christos to visit the British Museum where he spent most of his time looking at Asian bronzes.

Tuesday was another day of work for Lisa and Christos visited a financial firm to discuss some mining names (they had reached out to him the week prior). Snapped a picture of this cool cooking pot installation (London shop windows are fun).

Holbox Island - Day Four and Five (The Clouds) and Departure

Our last full day on Holbox Island was Monday and it was a bit of a letdown relative to the weekend as the clouds rolled in obscuring the sun. Still, even with a cloudy sky the weather was much preferable to the snow and freezing cold of Toronto! Monday was spent reading, wandering into town (window shopping; we ended up buying nothing on the trip). Dinner was at El Chapulim in Holbox (the same place we had dinner on Saturday night) and was excellent. Lisa had a surprisingly good seak and Christos had the seafood medley (Fish, Shrimp and Mussels); the fish was superb, the mussels and shrimp good. After a walk along the beach at night, we settled back into our bed and fell asleep watching "Suits" on Lisa's Ipad. Tuesday we awoke with to another cloudy day but with no power on the island! This was a bit problematic as we had no water for showers and were leaving in a few hours. So our day of return to Toronto was off to a bad, stinky start and got worse with a three hour delay once we reached the Cancun airport. Ah well, all told it was not so bad (we have had far worse travel experiences) and the trip to Isla Holbox was well worth it; hopefully we have recharged our sun batteries enough to make it through winter.

Holbox Island - Days Two and Three (The Sun!)

Our second day in Holbox started with a beautiful blue sky and warm weather. After a quick breakfast, we embarked on a three hour boat tour (shades of Gilligan's Island). The start of the your was funny as a guy showed up at the hotel in a golf cart and told us it was time to go ... So we started walking towards the golf cart thinking he would take us to the pier or some such but he just waived us towards a boat that was offshore from the hotel that we had to wade out to! The tour took us to a few different spots. First was Mosquito Point which seemed to be lacking in Mosquitos but was rich in birds of all sorts including flamingoes. Then it was off to Isla Pajaros for more bird watching before heading to Yalahao lagoon for a swim in a cenote. The visit to Isla Pajaros (Bird Island; which is a protected island for bird nesting) was great! Quite cool to see the Pelicans, Ospreys, Herons and other aquatic birds close up. A platform just off the island has been built where one can moor a small boat and then observe the birds from only a few metres away.

On the way to Yalahao we had the most amazing experience .... A pod of around six to ten dolphins came up to our boat and started swimming and arcing around the water's surface for us. After about ten minutes it was time for them to go so they treated us to two leaps in to the air before swimming off! Truly amazing!!!

The crazy thing was that we ran into the same pod of dolphins on the way back from Yalahao and they once again entertained us for about ten minutes, albeit without the leaping out of the water this time. We got back to our hotel in the mid afternoon and spent the rest of the day lazing around, walking on the beach and pestering the local iguanas (we kept ofefring them fruit which they were happy to eat but if we approached to closely they would scuttle off).

Speaking of iguanas, our hotel grounds were thick with them to the degree that we would often find one blocking the door to our room!

After the boat ride it was into town for dinner at an excellent little restaurant called El Chapulim where we both had fresh fish on a bed of mushrooms with a side of rice. The fish was excellent, tender and flavourful.

After dinner we walked back along the beach and stopped at a local bar on the beach to enjoy a cold beer.

Extra Long Weekend on Holbox Island! The arrival

We woke up in Toronto on Thursday morning and with the TV telling us it was minus 11 (minus 21 with the wind chill), we were happy to be heading south for four days (five nights) in Mexico! Air Canada flew us to Cancun where (after a transfer to the FBO airport) we boarded a tiny plane for the flight to Holbox island. We had to laugh when we noticed the instrument panel informing anyone who would notice that the pilot data needed an update, and had so since 2007! Clearly our pilot was not too concerned and seemed to know where he was flying. The twenty minute flight was fun as it was the first time Lisa and Christos had been in a tiny plane together. After a muddy taxi ride in a golf cart through town (cars are not common on Holbox but golf carts are), we finally arrived at our hotel in the late afternoon, had a few beers and a snack and just relaxed until dinner a few hours later. We were slightly apprehensive about the weather as it had been raining since we arrived in Mexico (hence the muddy ride) but it soon cleared up and we had no rain on our first night.

Friday was our first full day on Holbox and it was wonderful. Blue skies with a few clouds but no rain, nice and hot! The first half of the day was spent lounging hammocks by the beach and reading before we rented bikes for a ride into town. The ride was quite an adventure as the mud roads were still filled with small ponds from Thursday's rain so we had to swerve to avoid puddles or plot through them hoping we would not get too wet. After the tour through town, we returned to the hotel for a little rest and then went down to the beach to watch the sunset while having a beer. Finally  it was off to town at night for dinner at Rosa Mexicana where Christos had the octopus and Lisa had the steak. Both were quite yummy. After dinner, we strolled along the beach gazing at the stars and enjoying another beer. We tried to watch "Despicable Me Two" but only managed to get about fifteen minutes in before sleep took us.

Oyster Party VIII

Once more as summer turns to fall (which then creeps towards winter), it is the time of the bivalves! Our annual Oyster Party was a blast with three types of oysters (Rodney's, Colville Bays and Pemaquids),  yummy nibbly sandwiches and enough booze to satisfy the Irish.

The festivities began at 4pm, the oyster bar closed at 7pm and of course the party went till the wee hours, ending at 2am! After the oyster bar closed, DJ Tweed made a rare appearance spinning old favourites and new tunes. Much mirth was made, a few drinks were spilled, some beer crimes were committed and all told the evening was a smashing success. It was lovely to have our good friend Aare the Esto visit from Newfoundland although his usual quarters were occupied by a new couple of attendees; Neil (Lisa's brother) and Jenn, Neil's girlfriend, who made the trip from BC. It was an east coast meets west coast houseguest situation. 

In the end, we worked our way through some 550 oysters. Thankfully the master shucker Lawrence was on hand to deftly deliver the bivalves to the plate at an estimated rate of five or more per minute, although he was often fighting a losing battle as even at his speed the oysters were snapped up faster than he could plate them!

It was great to see many of our friends but also wonderful to welcome a new crowd to our annual event. 

London ... Finding your Local

With summer turning into fall and the market doldrums of August coming to a close, it was time for Lisa to head off to London for a round of marketing her company to investors across the pond. The trip involved in a weekend in London so we decided to (once more) make it a working holiday and Christos accompanied Lisa to the foggy city. We flew overnight on Thursday, arriving late in the morning on Friday, and both Lisa and Christos had meetings until the late afternoon. After meeting up back at the hotel around 5pm we walked up Mount Street to our favourite pub, The Audley. The evening was spent quaffing cold Guinness; we were joined by a Scotia trader (Kal) and our plan for a "couple" pints quickly turned into an evening of many pints! We were also informed that the Audley is our "Local" in London (a fact I think we already knew although had not crystallized into such a simple phrase).

The next morning we awoke to a wet and rainy London and we didn't really get up to too much. We had lunch at "The PunchBowl", a pub that Guy Ritchie and Madonna bought together (he got it in the divorce) and wandered a bit before settling in to our room for a night of movies (we liked "The Internship" but not "Str Trek: Into Darkness") and room service.

Sunday was another rainy day in London and other than a trip to Fortnum & Mason in the afternoon was pretty low key. for dinner we hopped in a taxi and went off to "The Albion" in Islington for an excellent traditional Roast Beef dinner with all the fixings before returning to our hood for a pint at the Audley and then a good night's rest.

Monday was a work day for Lisa so Christos headed off to Leighton House in the early afternoon via a walk through Hyde Park. It was a bit of a hike (just over an hour each way) but well worth it as Leighton House was a nice small museum in the home of the Victorian painter, Frederic Leighton (his most famous piece being "Flaming June"), who was a bit eccentric having done much of the house in an Arab/Middle Eastern style. Definitely worth the visit and Christos purchased a small pottery bowl while there (we seem to be addicted to pottery).

Tuesday was a work free day for both so we headed over to the Victoria and Albert museum for a visit which was thoroughly enjoyed. The Ardabil Carpet was a highlight but the rest of the museum was also worthy of a visit (although Lisa did claim that the statuary paled beside the works of Bernini) including the option of dressing up in a replica tunic from the Middle Ages! We were done at the V&A after about two hours and hopped in a cab back to the hotel as it was once again raining.

Our plans to leave on Tuesday were dashed by mechanical problems which resulted in an extra night in London and a quick meeting for Christos on Wednesday morning. We finally managed to get back to Toronto on Wednesday evening and were happy to sleep in our own bed after our wonderful London escape.