In the footsteps of Paddington Bear

For five years, I passed through Paddington Station while commuting to and from work in London. The station's name recalled 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. 

In 2005, Garry and I retraced the steps of London's most famous bear by spending two days in Lima. At the time, we’d taken a short sabbatical while relocating to the UK to live and work. Our time in Peru also kicked off our first visit to the South American continent. We ultimately spent a month exploring many of the continent's classic highlights before flying out of Buenos Aires.

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, overlooking Plaza Mayor de Lima, was particularly impressive. It's an incredibly ornate building styled in a classic gilded Catholic manner. It was built between 1602 and 1797. Surprisingly, it's 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.

At one point we stumbled upon a religious procession carrying an image of the crucified Christ. The framed icon was being paraded down Jirón de la Unión, a pedestrian boulevard, accompanied by a loud brass band and a crowd of devotees. I’m pretty sure it was part of the festival of El Senor de los Milagros. 

The month of October is given over to this festival every year. It dates back to the 17th-century. A slave from Angola drew on the walls of his hut, the image of Christ. An earthquake struck soon after. All the houses in the village were destroyed, except for the hut of the slave, whose image on the wall was intact.

These days a venerated replica of the image is carried around town by believers in a 24-hour procession across Lima. Key procession dates are 18, 19 and 28 October. We were in Lima on the twenty-eighth. However, the icon we saw wasn’t the original replica, just a framed copy.

Elsewhere, economic inequality was certainly more visible in Lima than it is in Australia. For example, a ramshackle slum on the nearby slopes of Cerro San Cristóbal caught my eye as we approached Plaza Mayor de Lima.

Watching the changing of the guard outside the Presidential Palace was a spectacle that almost defies description. 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 daily.

The elegantly ribbed 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-panelled chamber benches. We took a guided tour through the complex. An enormous painting of the Last Supper by the Jesuit Diego de la Puente was a particularly compelling highlight of our tour. 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 into 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 pop-up night market 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 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 few blocks from the city's old district and its classic tourist sights. We then stayed in a hotel on the city's coastal fringe on our final night in Lima. Here we joined the tour group that guided us through our 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 artefacts 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's star attractions were found to be fake. They say the items now on display are genuine. They're certainly beautiful pieces, but one can't help wondering if the local artisans have simply been hard at work again.

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, thus enabling him to hand over fresh, clean notes. Afterwards, 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 afternoon in Lima was spent watching hang-gliders soaring over the Pacific Ocean in Miraflores, near 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 terraced, 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 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 dance floor with some rather fancy moves.

Here's a quick overview of our tour itinerary. In hindsight, it captured the best of Peru, including locations like Arequipa that we'd have missed had we organised our own itinerary.

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 payments are taken into account.  As an infrastructure geek, I loved seeing it up close for the very first time, although we didn't get to go inside. (2025 Note: I finally saw the interior after taking my parents to Montreal in 2012).

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. Other exhibits shared the history of Canada’s First Nation people and its early years battling rebellious Americans.

We also took time out to wander the grounds of the Canadian Parliament before heading for Toronto. I loved the "Women are Persons" sculpture honouring five Canadian women who’ve made significant contributions in the fight for women's rights. Nearby are the equally impressive Rideau Canal Locks. This is set of eight concrete locks that lift boats from the Ottawa River to a canal extending 204 km to Lake Ontario.

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 observation 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.

Hairspray and history

From Washington, it was on to Boston for the weekend, touching down shortly before 10:30pm on Friday night. I've always wanted to visit this city but never quite made it. Our first day, Saturday, was largely washed out by heavy rain. However, we made the most of a dry spell with an afternoon stroll, before venturing out again 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. As for me, it was just as funny the second time around. 

Our damp afternoon walk saw us cover more than 3km. Our scenic route took us through nearby Copley Square, the Boston Public Gardens (home to an iconic statue of George Washington on horseback), Boston Commons and the Granary Burying Ground (the final resting place of Paul Revere and Samuel Adams), before finishing up at Faneuil Hall. We stopped for a light pub meal as darkness fell, then caught a cab back to prepare for our night out. 

Faneuil Hall is an interesting place. This ruddy brick building, now the centerpiece of the restored Faneuil Hall Marketplace, was erected by the Town of Boston in 1742. It is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle of Liberty" as it was the venue for speeches by revolutionary Americans like Samuel Adams encouraging independence from Great Britain. Adams is immortalised by a statue at its entrance. Earlier on our walk we’d stood in front of his grave. There’s something wonderfully profound about a historical figure being brought to life by real world infrastructure and artefacts.

Boston's oldest suburbs are filled with beautiful old buildings and history. One such building is Trinity 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 our impressive view courtesy of some Starwood loyalty points I'd cashed for three nights at the Westin Copley Place. When we checked in, my gold status resulted in a complimentary room upgrade overlooking the church.

Copley Square is also home to the finish line of Boston's renowned marathon. This athletic milestone is preserved in marble along the plaza's western perimeter pavement. However, I've since learned that the finish line is actually located on a side street about a block away. 

I still recall the New Zealand runner, Lorraine Moller, winning the Women's Division of the Boston Marathon in April 1984. I was an exchange student in upstate New York at the time. As a Kiwi kid living in the States, having a fellow Kiwi recognised nationally made me proud. A few months earlier, another New Zealander, Rod Dixon, had won the New York marathon.

Elsewhere in the square, we came across a delightful, but damp, sculpture depicting the Hare and Tortoise of Aesop's fable folklore. However, I preferred the equally quirky Make Way for Ducklings sculpture we encountered a few blocks away in the Boston Public Gardens. It depicts the duck family from the children’s classic of the same name. Next door in the famous Boston Common, we found more fictitious characters cast in bronze by the aptly named Frog Pond. Apparently, the pond doubles as an ice skating rink in winter.

Sunday morning dawned with partly sunny weather, making it ideal for exploring more of Boston on foot. We began the day with a visit to the Christian Science headquarters, a couple of blocks west of our hotel. It’s the home of 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. It's an incredible experience!  However, visitors aren't allowed to carry cameras and loose items inside. Hence, the middle image below was ripped from the internet. You can read more here. 

Our next destination was North End, Boston’s original historic neighbourhood. I was thrilled to finally visit the iconic Old North Church. It’s steeple was used to warn locals of approaching British soldiers during the American Revolution. Two lanterns were hung in its distinctive white tower for less than a minute to avoid attracting the Brits' attention. We've all heard of Paul Revere, who saw this signal. He went on to ride through the night, warning nearby counties.

Boston’s revolutionary horseman is immortalised in bronze nearby. This imposing statue rests on a pink granite plinth at the end of Paul Revere Mall, a leafy pedestrian boulevard extending eastward from the church. Cyrus Dallin, a 23-year-old artist, won a competition to erect the sculpture in 1885. We later learned that he cast several versions of this statue, some of which are displayed elsewhere in the city.

Curiously, the Old North Church’s sanctuary isn’t fitted with regular rows of parallel pews. Instead, its seating is divided into low-wall cubicles called box pews. Families and congregation groups once paid a weekly fee to retain exclusive use of their cubicles. The layout visible today was restored in 1912 and includes some of the original doors, hinges, and panelling from 1723.

You can also tour Paul Revere's home, a three-story weatherboard house located a few blocks from his bronze effigy. It was built about 1680, making it the oldest surviving house in downtown Boston. Despite several renovations, about 90 per cent of what you see today is still original. However, with only a few hours left before heading for the airport, Garry and I took one look at the queue to get in and decided it wasn't for us.

One final highlight from Boston. This one’s for infrastructure nerds. I was delighted when our cab from the airport took us through tunnels that make up Boston’s new Big Dig highway. This massive infrastructure project in the central city rerouted a highly congested, elevated highway underground and added a new underwater link to the airport. 

An ugly, automotive bulwark that once separated downtown Boston from its historic waterfront district is gone. A chaotic cacophony of traffic has been replaced by verdant parklands, landscaped gardens, trees and public spaces that curve their way through the central city.

The project has taken almost 15 years to complete. Construction delays and cost overruns have made it the USA’s most expensive highway project. However, despite these challenges, it helped inspire Sydney’s burgeoning network of underground motorways. For a geek like me, it provided an impressive and seamless transfer from the airport to our hotel.

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 met the leadership team I now work with across Europe. I was also given the floor to share a few insights into the success we'd achieved in APAC.  Much of my presentation 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 for studying a computer science degree. I recall that she visited the campus computer lab, a room filled with large, clunky desktop machines. 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 parks filled with autumn-coloured oak trees. As you'd expect, the squirrels are everywhere preparing for winter.

Once I'd completed my professional obligations, Garry and I got back on the road. Our next stop was the French Canadian city of Montreal.