In the footsteps of Paddington Bear

Every morning I pass through Paddington Station on my way to the office. The station's name recalls childhood memories of my favourite Michael Bond books chronicling the life and adventures of Paddington Bear. He was so named after being found huddled in a corner of Paddington Station, fresh off the boat from Lima, Peru. Garry and I can claim to have retraced the steps of London's most famous bear after spending two days in Lima while en route to the UK.

We flew into Lima mid-evening on 27 October after departing Toronto and transiting via Miami earlier in the day. With a solid night's sleep under our belt, we spent our first day in South America exploring Lima's old colonial district on foot. It’s an area full of colourful plazas and ornate churches. 

The Catedral de Lima was particularly impressive. It's an incredibly ornate building replenished in classic gilded Catholic style. It was built between 1602 and 1797, but surprisingly, is actually the third Cathedral of Lima, built in this location.  

This "modern" edition incorporates a range of hidden architectural quirks designed to improve its earthquake resilience. For example, the ceiling is supported by Gothic ribbed vaults made of wood and stucco rather than stone thus reducing the weight that's carried by the surrounding walls.

Look! Don't touch!

Watching the changing of the guard outside the Presidential Palace was a spectacle that almost defies description. Try to imagine brilliant red, yellow, and blue costumes, a jazzy brass band, plenty of goose-step marching, and a ring of heavily armed police officers keeping the crowd at a distance. Picture this and you have a sense of the drama that unfolds in central Lima every day.

The ornate yellow stone facade of the Basílica and Convent of San Francisco was another memorable highlight. This church, together with the Sanctuary Nuestra Señora de la Soledad and the Church del Milagro, anchors one of the more welcoming and artistic corners in Lima's old city district (thank you Wikipedia for such a delightful description of the local area).

We spent more than an hour exploring the Basilica's grounds including the cloister gardens and the Chapter House lined with intricately carved, dark-paneled chamber benches. However, an enormous painting of the Last Supper by the Jesuit Diego de la Puente was probably the most compelling highlight of the guided tour we took inside the complex. This painting, completed in 1658, fills the rear wall of the church's rectory dining room.

Our tour also stopped to view the convent's library. Its contents are as old as they look. For example, the first Spanish dictionary and rare Incan texts predating the Spanish conquest form part of the library's 25,000-volume collection.

However, the amazing library and art aren’t the main reasons to visit the convent. The key attraction here is the catacombs! They believe there are anywhere in the range of 25,000 to 75,000 bodies stored here. The bones are arranged by type and stacked in some weirdly gruesome arrangements. This includes a well with skulls and long bones lining its walls in an orderly pattern.

We finished our walking tour with a quick stop at Plaza de San Martín. This plaza was inaugurated in 1921 on the occasion of the centenary of the Independence of Peru. It's dominated by a statue of General José de San Martín on horseback. 

The buildings surrounding it were once the central gathering place for members of Lima's elite. At their height, images of these buildings were synonymous with Lima. Although truth be told, an outdoor gallery of artwork we discovered near our hotel on our final night in Lima was far more memorable. The gallery was part of a lively night market that pops up on Calle Virgen Milagrosa, a pedestrian street bisecting
Parque Kennedy in Miraflores.

For our first two nights in Lima, we based ourselves at the Sheraton Lima Hotel & Casino in the centre of town. I used Starwood loyalty points to score us a couple of free nights. Despite being a freebie, the hotel gave us a phenomenal room.  The view was incredible. We looked out over the Palacio De Justicia De Lima (Palace Of Justice), Peru's Supreme Court building. 

The hotel's central location also meant we were never more than a couple of blocks away from the city's old district and its classic tourist sights. Our final night was then spent on the city's coastal fringe where we joined the tour group that guided us through the next two weeks in Peru.

We recommend the goat!

While in town we were bold enough to try a few local delicacies including goat (delicious), alpaca (tough and tasteless), and ceviche, a marinated dish of raw fish that rapidly became our favourite meal (Garry says it's more my favourite than his). In keeping with our cultural theme, we also booked ourselves seats at the cabaret performed each Friday evening in our hotel. The show was a flurry of colourful costumes and amazing dance moves from almost every South American genre.

The artifacts aren't the only fakes

Sadly, our most definitive memory of Lima was a classic tourist rip-off. For our last full day in town, we visited the infamous Gold Museum, home to one of Peru's most notorious scams. Several years ago, almost all of the museum star attractions were found to be fake. They say the items now on display are the genuine thing. They certainly are beautiful pieces, but one still can't help wondering if the local artisans have simply been hard at work.

However, it appears that we were victims of the museum's latest scam. After paying our admission fee, the cashier gave us our change using fake currency. This was no accident as the man insisted on rounding up the final sum, thereby enabling him to hand over fresh, clean notes. Afterward, our taxi driver became most upset with us as we tried to pay our fare! We thought he was trying to pull a scam by refusing our money until a shop assistant at Pizza Hut also rejected our money! 

In hindsight the forgery was obvious. After the second rejection, I noticed that the small "holographic dots" on our fake notes were peeling away from the paper. To add insult to injury a few were already stuck to my hand. A handy $20 lesson in local forgery printing skills.

Our final evening in Lima was spent watching hang-gliders soaring over the Pacific Ocean in Miraflores, not far from El Parque del Amor (the Park of Love). This iconic park is renowned for its statue of intertwined lovers called The Kiss, or El Beso, by Peruvian artist Victor Delfín. This is definitely not Victorian England!

We were surprised to discover that Lima actually sits on a plateau. Access to the coast is blocked by the cliffs of Chorrillos towering more than 70 metres above the shoreline. Along the rim, a scenic walkway called El Malecón follows the Pacific coast for almost 10km. 

We emulated the more active locals and walked the curving clifftop pavements for several kilometres, starting at the bustling outdoor teeraced, cliffside mall of Lacomar, passing through El Parque del Amor and finishing at Faro del la Marina, a blue and white striped iron lighthouse in Parque Antonio Raimondi.

 

Not far from El Parque del Amor was the hotel where we met members of our tour group, including Gwen, our guide for the next two weeks. She was an English lass, full of beans, who took the time to connect with everyone on the tour, making it a most memorable experience. Garry and I took her out for a night on the town the last night the group was together. As the evening wore on we soon discovered that Gwen loved to tear up the local dancefloor with some rather fancy moves.

Our adventure in Peru continues here.

Fall is autumn

From Princeton, it was on to Montreal where we rented a car for the week. I worked my magic once again with loyalty points. As a result, the car we booked with Avis cost us nothing. We also cashed in Starwood points for cheap hotel accommodation throughout Canada. It was almost free as we paid nothing in Ottawa, and secured highly subsidized room rates in Toronto and Montreal.

Coming in to land at Montreal airport was stunning with hundreds of acres of trees wearing their bright autumn colours and the spectacular St Lawrence River as a backdrop. After a lazy morning, we spent most of the first day wandering around Montreal including its quaint old town area. Highlights from our walking tour included a stop at the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. For good reason, its incredibly ornate interior is considered the finest in all of Canada.  

However, the most unexpected highlight of our day was the murals on the Les Foufounes Électriques, a bar located in the city's infamous red light district. The rusty rocketship alone was worth the detour. In its early days, this alternative music venue filled a single floor, with one counter and a small performance stage. 

Over time, Les Foufounes Électriques has expanded. It now covers four floors of its famously graffitied building. According to a local tourism write-up, the current establishment accommodates 2,000 people. Although, after seeing the exterior, we weren't game to explore inside.

We finished the day with a short drive to the Olympic Park, the site of the 1976 games and then on to a nearby hillside park called Mont Royal. The city’s autumn colours simply glowed as the sun began to set. Everywhere we looked, brilliant auburn shades radiated towards the horizon, while the dramatic Olympic Stadium dominated the darkening skyline.

The 56,040-seat stadium is a stunning piece of architecture – and one of the most expensive white elephants in Olympic history. It had cost a staggering C$264 million to build by the time it was opened in 1976, despite still being incomplete. Its estimated price tag had been a far more modest C$134 million when first approved in 1970.

The stadium’s soaring tower and retractable Kevlar roof were eventually completed in 1987. However, it took another nine years, until November 2006, before the full cost of construction was finally paid off. The final price tag? An estimated $1.47 billion once repairs, modifications and interest payment are taken into account.

On our last morning, we took in a few sights north of the city before continuing a leisurely drive along the Ottawa River to Ottawa itself. More Autumn colours and a few quaint riverside towns. Ottawa is a beautiful city set above the towering banks of a broad river. The Government buildings are wonderful gothic creations, capped by green copper roofs.

Our last morning in Ottawa was spent visiting the stunning Canadian Museum of Civilisation, conveniently located opposite our hotel. This curving venue sits on the banks of the Ottawa River looking across to Parliament Hill. The main hall houses a minor forest of towering totem poles, including several sporting men in Victorian top hats.

Our last couple of days in Canada were spent driving along the St Lawerence River to Toronto. The drive was well-timed, as the day of our longest road journey was also a day of persistent rain.

While on the road to Toronto, Garry and I stopped off on the US-Canadian border to climb a rain-soaked and leaking tower. The Skydeck looks across the St Lawerence River and Thousand Island region from a wind-blown height of 130 metres.

What a sight! A sea of breathtaking autumn colours and delicate islands spread out as far as the eye could see. The tower also offered a bird’s eye view of the US-Canadian border crossing and bridges on neighbouring Wellesley Island. For a brief moment, we forgot how cold and wet it was outside.

While in Toronto, I had the chance to revisit places I'd first seen in 1984. Highlights included a visit to the CN Tower, the world's tallest free-standing structure. It looked just as spectacular as I remember it all those years ago. We also wandered into the theatre district one evening and discovered Lemongrass, a wonderful Asian restaurant serving the best Thai food in North America. Check it out for yourself.

Decades of American memories

Memorials, museums and memories

In 1983-4 I spent an exchange student year living in upstate New York. Here I shared my life with the Kimball family in Syracuse. I was 17 at the time and had never traveled beyond the shores of my birthplace, New Zealand. This was also my first time visiting the USA (and Canada).

More than twenty-two years later, it's clear this experience fuelled my love of travel. Since then I've been lucky enough to visit more than 45 nations, setting foot on every continent with the exception of Antarctica (don't worry, it's on my list of destinations to explore next).

Many of my childhood memories of America came to life during a two-week tour of the US east coast this month. Garry and I stopped off in Washington DC en route to London. This gave me the chance to see many of the places I recall visiting in 1983, as well as take in some sights I’d missed the first time around. Meanwhile, Garry had his own set of memories to renew as he’d spent several weeks in DC four years ago.

For me, new experiences this trip included:

• The Vietnam War memorial (which didn’t exist 17 years ago). This really is a poignant monument - one that strikes an emotionally stirring balance between remembrance and reflection.
  
  
• Going to the top of the Washington Monument for fantastic views of the city (in 1983 I visited in Summer. At the time, we never ventured up to the lookout as a lengthy queue of people extended all the way around the monument - and then some!). Although the weather was misty the day we visited and so our photos weren't exactly "award-winning".
  
  
• The popular tidal basin walk to the Jefferson Monument through the gnarled Cherry tree groves.
  
  

Garry was also able to show me a few of his favourite haunts. This included a street near Dupont Circle where we discovered a new, mouth-watering variety of sushi. Called a rainbow dragon roll, it bore more than a passing resemblance to a Liquorice Allsort log.

During our time in the US capital, we took time out to visit many of its iconic institutions. This included a guided tour of the Capitol Building, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the National Archives.  The Library of Congress was a revelation for me. I don't recall visiting it in 1983. I'm sure I would have remembered its colonnaded reading room and soaring ceiling in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Likewise, the library's Great Hall is equally stunning.

I loved the National Archives. It's here you can see an original copy of the Declaration of Independence signed by the nation's founding fathers, plus a copy of the US Constitution signed 11 years later. There's something magic around seeing the signatures of historical figures with your own eyes. I still recall how excited I was to see these founding documents two decades ago. A second viewing invoked the same sense of awe.

As you do in DC, we also visited several museums including the Air & Space Museum (Which hasn’t aged well. Most of the exhibits were dated and appeared unchanged since my first visit in the early 1980s) and the Natural History Museum.

One new venue had a far more profound effect on both of us; the very moving, emotional Holocaust Museum. You could see our mood change dramatically following such a confronting experience.

Hairspray and history

From Washington, it was on to Boston for the weekend. I'd always wanted to visit this city but had never quite made it. The first day was largely washed out by heavy rain, but we did take time out to see a hilarious Broadway show called Hairspray. It's about a plus-size girl who defies the odds to become a teen idol TV star. 

I'd seen it in NYC several years ago and wanted to share it with Garry. He loved the show. It's just as funny the second time around. Sunday morning dawned with better weather, enabling us to see most of the old town on foot. Boston is filled with beautiful old buildings and history.

One such building is Trinty Church, a soaring 19th Century Episcopal church on the edge of Copley Square. As luck would have it, we enjoyed a superb view of this local landmark from our hotel room. I secured this impressive view thanks to some Starwood loyalty points I'd cashed for three nights at the Westin Copley Place.

I was also thrilled to finally visit a second, identically named, Trinity Church. However this church became famous anfter its steeple was used to warn locals of approaching British soldiers during the American Revolution. We've all heard the story of Paul Reeve who saw this signal and went on to ride through the night warning nearby counties.

Glass-blowing politics

A most unexpected highlight was our visit to the Christian Science headquarters. Here we saw the Mapparuim, a three-story spherical stained glass globe room glazed with a political map of the world as it appeared in 1935. 

You effectively walk into a spherical room across a glass bridge suspended in mid-air and view the world as if you were standing at its core, looking outwards. An incredible experience! You can read more here.

From Boston, it was on to Princeton where I briefly broke my sabbatical to attend a global Text 100 conference. Over the next five days, I got to meet the leadership team I now work with in Europe. I also was given the floor to share insights into the success we'd achieved in APAC.  Much of the presentation I gave was crafted on our overnight flight across the Pacific.

Staying at Princeton brought back more childhood memories. I'd last been here during my exchange student year. My host father, host sister Marcia, and I had driven down from Syracuse to see the University campus in February 1984. At the time Marcia was considering Princeton as a college option to take on a computer science degree. I recall that she visited the campus computer lab, a room filled with large clunky desktops.

It was more than a little ironic that I found myself back in town 21 years later, pursuing my own career in the technology industry.

While I attended the conference, Garry spent most of his time playing golf, shopping, and enjoying the parklands around the town. Princeton is stunning, filled with many old gothic buildings and many parks littered with autumn-coloured oak trees. As you'd expect, the squirrels are everywhere preparing for winter.