General – Page 2 – Creative Meanderings

Kyoto Day 2

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Mar 302017

Nearly another 20,000 steps saw us with a “lighter” touristy day…. We decided to head out to Arashiyama since J had never been out there and it had been quite a while since I went out that way. It is not far outside of the downtown area and E was super excited about the train as it is some kind of special one – afraid it was lost on me. 😉

Arashiyama is more popular during the fall season for the changing colors of the leaves, but it was still rather popular and busy. The highlight definitely had to be the gardens of Tenryu-ji Zen Temple. We also hit a couple of the coffee shops that were listed in our guidebook at the hotel and were definitely not disappointed.

The first was % Arabica Coffee, which has a Hawaiian blend, but was started in Kyoto. We were surprised to find that it has become a chain in countries around the world. The simple branding of it makes sense why it was so popular that lines were consistently formed outside of it throughout the time we were there and probably the whole open hours. We were satisfied with our wait for it too.

The second coffee stop was at Togetsu Cafe on the other side of the bridge. It was less crowded and had a nice modern feel to it. The coffee was also nice, though probably average in taste. Still, coffee breaks are always wonderful.

Our other main pastime aside from cafes and walking to enjoy the scenery is eating. For two nights in a row we have managed to wait in line for dinner. Last night’s was a bit over the top with a nearly two-hour wait at a ramen shop – run by a cute older couple who are making a killing thanks to TripAdvisor. Tonight was just under an hour. Of the two, tonight’s was definitely more worth the wait – though both delicious.

So, aside from putting on about 5kilos this mini trip alone, we have definitely been enjoying our time! 😀

~T 😀

Kyoto Day 1

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Mar 292017

It’s been many years since I made a visit to Kyoto again after living there for three years in 2001-2004.

Sometime ago I made a short visit as my first time back since my divorce. I wanted to remember my love for the city outside of the time being unhappily married during those years.

Now, I am back again wishing my new hubby was with us, but loving the trip down memory lane with my BFF and godson – who is experiencing it for the first time at 11 years old.

Our first day was pretty full on especially since we were all up at 4:30am to get ready to leave and catch our 6:50am bullet train from Tokyo station.

Twenty-three thousand plus steps later, we had toured my favorite part of the city: Chionin Temple to Yasaka Shrine Park to Kodaiji along the Sannenzaka path which leads up to Kiyomizu Temple. Sadly, Kiyomizu was under construction so we did not go in, but we thoroughly enjoyed our walk stopping in the shops, eating and remarking on the new “kimono experience” craze by so many tourists.

Overall, despite being exhausted we had a great first day in the old capital city of Japan 🇯🇵!

~T 😀

Ikaho Onsen

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Mar 252017

Missed posting yesterday because J and I took a girls’ trip out to higher elevations, colder temps and warm hot springs in Gunma’s Ikaho Onsen area.

It was a short trip out of Tokyo (about 1.5hrs from Ueno Station to Shibukawa). We did the famous 365 steps up and down from the shrine to the bottom and back. It is a popular tourist location in the fall, but it was still a lovely trip – even more so because it was a free stay due to J’s hubby’s family. (ありがとうございました。)

Pictures probably say more than I can, so will let the pictures speak for themselves!

~T 😀

Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Bergen, Norway

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Sep 062015

Back to my updates on summer travels – it is fun to look back at all that I did in such a short time!

So, our last stop in Norway was Bergen. We took another ferry from Belastrand to Bergen. It was a fairly chilly ride, so we stayed inside for most of this one. Plus, the joy of seeing the fjords was lessened after taking it all in the day before.

Bergen was by far the coldest place we visited despite going through snowy mountains. Since it is a harbor town, the sea winds blew in during the late afternoon to drop temperatures, so we were not as keen to be out in it for too long. Therefore, most of my souvenir shopping happened here. 😀

Bergen’s street shops are quite famous in photos – maybe you’ve seen them before and are just as picturesque in person.

24-Jun-2015 15:32, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 9.0, 50.0mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100

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J and I walked around the town exploring. It’s not a big city, but a good size town that took us about two hours to walk around. Then, we took the funicular up to the top of the hill, which many people like to walk (crazy!), for a view of the area. It is quite beautiful to see.

24-Jun-2015 15:25, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, ISO 32

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We had a pretty good time and ate a really nice meal here, but we were definitely happy to skip out on the cold!

Here are all the pics from Belastrand to Bergen:

Scandinavia 2015: Belastrand to Bergen

More to come,

-T 😀

Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Belastrand, Norway

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Aug 232015

One of the main reasons to head to the west coast of Norway is to see the fjords. It was beautiful just to wake up to the view of the lake and we got to watch a bit more of the parasailing competition before we hopped on the three-car local train from Voss to make our way to Myrdal, which is higher up in the mountain.

23-Jun-2015 13:53, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 11.0, 10.0mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 100

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Then, we crossed the platform and got onto a small old-fashioned (tourist) gauge train to Flam. Along the way, we made a brief stop to see a pretty cool waterfall

23-Jun-2015 12:27, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 2.65mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32

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and then ended in Flam, which happens to be a stop for cruise ships touring the fjords. Thus, there really is nothing to do there. We had a couple of hours to kill, so we stopped into a little supermarket for a drink and snacks to enjoy in the park.

23-Jun-2015 13:47, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 2.65mm, ISO 32

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From Flam, we took a ferry to Belastrand about 1.5 hours through the fjords. There were a number of picturesque moments along the way. We braved the wind the whole time to take as many photos from the back and then fought our way forward from time to time to get some different shots. Although it was beautiful overall and I definitely enjoyed it – I wasn’t overly impressed….I know, I’m spoiled!!! 😛

23-Jun-2015 16:46, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2015 17:38, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 9.0, 10.0mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 200

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23-Jun-2015 16:06, Apple iPhone 6, 2.2, 4.15mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32

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The town of Belastrand isn’t that big and seems to be just a stopover for those touring the fjords.The main attraction in town seems to be Saint Olaf’s church.

23-Jun-2015 19:46, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 10.0, 35.0mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 100

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Since there weren’t a lot of food and drink options in the town, we paid the hotel prices for a nice dinner with a view of the water, which was worth it!

So, that was a lovely visit of the fjords! Here are the pics:

Scandinavia 2015: Voss To Belastrand

More to come,

-T 😀

Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Voss, Norway

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Aug 172015

After our fairly short visit in Oslo, we took the train from Oslo to Voss. Voss seems to be the European destination for sports, camping and general ‘outback’ family holiday. It is a beautiful town located on a lake and my hotel room looked out on the mountain caps and lake.

22-Jun-2015 20:01, Canon Canon EOS 70D, 9.0, 13.0mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 100

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Poor J, got a view of the train tracks….:( 😀

One of the best parts of the journey to Voss was passing the snow!! We were chatting along and suddenly saw out the window a land of WHITE! It was quite amazing and beautiful. Neither of us had seen snow in ages, so it was quite a treat. Plus, the weather was so gorgeous compared to the desert heat we had left behind.

It also happened to be some parasailing/hangliding championship the weekend we were there, so we got to see quite a few competitors fly up high into the clouds and come down with spins and tricks. Quite cool!

We were also a bit giddy from the freedom and escape of the desert. So, everything seemed really wonderful to us. Furthermore, it was still light out even at midnight – we had dinner at 10:30 forgetting the time! It is definitely worth the visit out to Voss if one is going to be in Scandinavia. If I were to return to Norway, I think this would be a must-return-to-place!

Here are the pics:

Scandinavia 2015: Voss

More to come,

-T 😀

Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Oslo, Norway

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Aug 152015

Our next stop on our Scandinavia adventure was Oslo. So, we took the train on a rather wet morning through the countryside and found ourselves in the small capital of Norway.

While people in the touristy areas were friendly enough, no one was overly friendly. We still did a lot of walking and found ourselves seeing a few interesting places within the downtown area. However, when we hit the tram to find our way to Frogenparken and Vigelandsparken, we were amazed by the sculptures and monument created there. It was very moving to walk around seeing the faces and sculptures of people from all walks of life designed as loving in unity.

We also took in the greenery as we do not see much of that in the desert! 😀

Here are the pics:

Scandinavia 2015: Oslo

Overall, aside from the park, it wasn’t a very memorable city as far as sights are concerned. What is memorable is the extremely high cost of just about everything…! 🙁

More to come,

-T 😀

Summer 2015: Scandinavia – Copenhägen, Denmark

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Aug 132015

After the couple of days of “work” in London, I flew off to Copenhägen, Denmark to meet my friend, J, for our Scandinavia adventure. We had booked a 12-day ‘tour’ to see the region and I couldn’t wait!

We started with Copenhägen for two nights and fell in love with the sights, people (aka tall men!) and food. Everyone was very friendly to us – perfect strangers – and helped us with ideas for food or things to see. It’s just the right size city that is fairly walkable, but not too small that you’d get tired of it. We did a lot of walking and exploring of the entire city.

Some highlights included the caramelized pork burger smothered with potato salad on a bun and walking through the ‘cannibas’ quarters with its graffiti and liberalism. 😀

Here are the pics!

Scandinavia 2015: Copenhagen

P.S. I will keep most of these posts fairly short, as I plan to do some travel writing on another site where I have published a few stories before. I’ll update these posts with the links once I get to them. 🙂

More to come,

-T 😀

Spring Break 2015

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Apr 122015

My parents have hit the full retirement life and spent the last four months in their ‘winter’ home in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. So, I decided to go for a visit during my spring break this year to see what the fuss is all about.

Well, let me tell you – it was excellent and I definitely see why they chose to live there. There’s tons to do and the weather is fantastic. Besides that, it’s absolutely beautiful with the colors of the mountains, canyons and water all mixed in with desert blends and blue skies. It was a really nice 10-days, even if the 28-hour trip from Abu Dhabi to Dubai to Atlanta to Las Vegas to Lake Havasu was a bit exhausting. 😛

Here are the pics from the holidays!

SpringBreak2015

London – Day 2

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Aug 232014

On our second day, we decided to do the Big Bus Tour so that we could see the city and get our bearings.

23-Jun-2014 12:32, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2014 12:36, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, 0.007 sec, ISO 32

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We started out on the Red Line, but that line offers a live commentary on the city and my mom had a bit of trouble with the accents. So, we switched to the Blue Line, which has the recorded commentary. 😉 Although it is a hop-on hop-off tour, we just stayed on for the full loop, which was about 3.5 hours. Mom was a bit jet lagged, and it was easy to get the full picture.

2nd Day bus tour of London23-Jun-2014 10:08, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.4, 2.15mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 50

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23-Jun-2014 10:51, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32

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Harrods23-Jun-2014 10:50, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2014 11:07, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 32

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23-Jun-2014 12:02, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2014 11:42, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 32

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23-Jun-2014 10:56, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 32

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23-Jun-2014 12:21, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 32

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23-Jun-2014 12:33, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2014 12:42, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2014 12:42, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2014 13:18, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 32

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23-Jun-2014 13:18, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 32

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23-Jun-2014 13:01, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 32

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23-Jun-2014 13:25, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2014 13:25, NIKON COOLPIX S51, 6.6, 6.3mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 100

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23-Jun-2014 13:27, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 32

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After completing the loop, we decided to ride a bit around again to see Big Ben and the Parliament building. This fulfilled my 8-yr-old dream! It was a very impressive sight and even better than the pyramids! 😀

23-Jun-2014 14:09, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2014 13:58, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2014 13:59, Apple iPhone 5s, 2.2, 4.12mm, ISO 40

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23-Jun-2014 20:01, NIKON COOLPIX S51, 6.6, 6.3mm, 0.005 sec, ISO 100

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Our Bus Tour ticket included a river boat cruise, so we went back in the evening and cruised the river Thames where we also got to see the Tower Bridge in full. It was a full and tiring day, but all good!