Wisdom on 31 December 2012

Here is a message from my friend C.P. this morning, words of wisdom on my entering a new phase of life in retirement. Thank you C.P.

To invent the life you want to have rather than the life someone says you must have. It takes time.

And on this note here is the year in photos, not a bad year at all, lots of travelling in Europe throughout the year and then retirement, with photos of the actual site where the decision was made.

The first month of the year was the usual blah, mild winter and not much happening, work was not that interesting and by March I decided it was time to return to Rome and consulted friends to see what was going on in the Eternal City.

The two domes of the Churches in Piazza del Popolo as seen from the Belvedere of Villa Borghese.

I also had my birthday in Rome with friends at a lovely luncheon in Capena just a few minutes outside the Città.

Cake was Linda's creation and it is not on fire.

Because March is Artichoke season, she also made Stuffed Artichoke Roman Style. A favourite of mine.

Now I did walk a lot in Rome, something I truly enjoy doing, the City is built like a theatre set and anywhere you look there is always something to attract your eyes.

Looking down this street that morning in March I was just waiting around for Nancy de C. to start one of her private tours of the Convent at Trinita dei Monti, top of the Spanish stairs. So I was just looking down the street, Via Sistina, this would be around 9:55 am and if you look all the way you can see at the other end the steeple of Santa Maria Maggiore. The street changes names twice before you arrive at the other end, to Via Quattro Fontane and then to Via Agostino DePretis. It was busy that morning like all morning in Rome are and I do not know why, but a little voice told me, you know retiring would not be such a bad thing after all, you had a wonderful career. Rome and it's sunlight can inspire.
That is when I decided that I would retire by year end.

Vincent Lam in Ottawa at Fraser Café at the launch of his bestseller book, The Headmaster's Wager. During the Ottawa Writers Festival. A wonderful book to read. Vincent is a writer but also a E.R. doctor at Toronto.

In early May we had the annual Tulip Festival in commemoration of the Royal Family of the Netherlands who spent the Second World War in Ottawa. Carpets of  tulips everywhere in city parks can be seen, beautiful.

Nicholas and Nora in the morning after breakfast, a little snooze.

Of course this year was the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II. The Diamond Jubilee was celebrated in June in Canada.

Then in June we went on our cruise with AZAMARA from Amsterdam to Hamburg to Copenhagen, to the Island of Ronen and on to Helsinki, St-Petersburg and Tallinn finally arriving in Stockholm.

From Kevin M. apartment and B&B beautiful view. We also met M.J. in Amsterdam.

Before coffee in the morning in a lovely café just down the street from our B& B.

Copenhagen Palace Square in the morning.

We then sailed to a small island of Ronen to see smoke houses where fish is smoked like herring. It is very fresh and delicious with a glass of wine.

 A very traditional method of preparing and preserving fish and it was very interesting to see. Such a lovely small island, very green, a beautiful picture of Scandinavia.

 We then sailed on to Helsinki, a beautiful small Capital, friendly people and wonderful pastries.
The excitement was building as we were now approaching Imperial St-Petersburg the city built by Peter the Great, what a jewel and thanks to massive renovations by Vladimir Putin, the city once again shines on the Baltic.

Here we are across from the Winter Palace by the Sphinx on University Embankment. If you touch the Sphinx you are likely to return to St-Petersburg. I wish we could have stayed at least one more day, two days was simply not enough for this magnificent city.

Our last stop was Stockholm, which for Will meant going to Drottningholm (Queen's Palace) to see the famous 17th century theatre. He waited almost all his life to see it and I had heard of it for the last 35 years, so the expectation was great. We were not disappointed, it was magical, to be able to step back in this perfectly preserved small theatre.

My favourite photo of 2012, Will at the entrance to the Royal Park, he was so excited, like a little kid.
Of course Sydd appears in the photo, he accompanied us throughout the trip.

 Talk of green environment in Stockholm Harbour.

But this was not all for my travelling, in the Fall I went for a few days to London to see friends. Wonderful visit and how nice to see the City with a lot less tourists. Staying with C. in the Marylebone area near Selfridge's on Baker street.

 The West facade of St-Paul's Convent Garden, Market area, known as the Actor's Church built by Inigo Jones in 1633. A beautiful Church well worth a visit.

How many times in my career, Will and I said this, so true and it continues to be.

December, the first snow in Ottawa. We have had so far more snow in December 2012 than in the entire winter of 2011. It promises.

On the 29 December, the retirement party with a few friends at home.

and the year ends, on with the new......

It's -22 C. on this photo, Happy New Year to All!

Stockholm,Copenhagen,Ottawa

We ended our cruise on AZAMARA in Stockholm. What a lovely city, the way in from the sea passes by numerous islands reminding me of The Muskokas in Ontario. The city itself on lake Malaren a little like Toronto on lake Ontario, is very green, clean and well organized with excellent public transport both on the ground and around the waterways. What also impressed us and this is often remarked upon by many Canadians who travel to Europe, in Sweden WI FI is fast, cheap and available free almost everywhere you might be. While Canada where the telephone was invented, we lag behind because of crazy monopoly rules in the hands of just a few select companies.
In Stockholm, a city built on several islands, we easily walked from one to the other. We went to the old town where the Royal Palace and the Council of State or Parliament, the Cathedral and many other beautiful buildings are located. What is nice is that there are very few cars and you can wander around at leisure. But this being the end of our trip it was time to say goodbye. We took the train from Stockholm Central Station to Copenhagen a journey of about 5 hours on a high speed train of the Swedish Train Company SJ in all comfort and yes equipped with free WI FI, the meal served on board was very good, fresh, first class quality. We cross the waters at Malmö over this spectacular bridge to Denmark. In a few minutes we were at Copenhagen airport Kastrup and then into town.

Meal service on Swedish train.

Copenhagen Central Train Station with bicycle parking lot.

We stayed in Copenhagen for a day and chose an hotel right across from Tivoli Garden. We returned to Tivoli to have dinner in the park at one of the many nice restaurants and looked in at the Chinese Peacock Theatre on the Pantomime, always fun. Tivoli has quite a few Peacocks walking around, the white peacock with no long green feathery tails are the females and the male walks amongst people in a slow walk eyeing imperiously every one. On one of the sidewalks I came face to beek with Mr. Peacock, he was not moving so I moved aside and he walked right by me.  It is a big bird and very impressive, even little kids know to step aside.

Tivoli

The next day we flew to Canada, Copenhagen airport Kastrup is modern with dark wood floors, airy modern design. A very nice flight, the food was good. A good vacation all around, we saw many beautiful things and had a pleasant change of scenery.

Sidd and his visiting cousin Jööhann from Stockholm. He is one of those green environmentalist type.

Stockholm Vasa Museum

On day two we had again wonderful sunny weather. So we walked out of our hotel and started visiting the city. First we went to the famous Vasa Ship Museum. The Vasa is a 17th century war ship built at great expense which sank in 1628, minutes after being launch in the Port of Stockholm as stock holders and other backers watch in horror. The ship was top heavy, a mistake was made during its construction and a squall in the harbor capsized the ship, killing 50 of the crew.

a mock-up showing the moment of the accident.

The sailor whose body was found on board, he was 35 years old, measured 5.5 feet tall and was wearing what all sailors wore then.

It rested at the bottom of the harbor for 333 years preserved intact in its watery grave. When it was brought up in 1961, the ship was in such perfect state of preservation 95% intact that it was decided to build a museum to show what such a war ship looked like. What you see today is not only the ship itself but its sails and ropes, clothing and boxes of personal effects, money, glassware and all the objects which went down with it on that day, including one crushed body of a sailor who was pinned under a great cannon when the ship capsized. The museum has a wealth of information on life in Sweden at the time. It is well worth a visit, I can see why it is so popular.

The Vasa as is today in its museum.

very impressive to see such an old ship on display.

Through the cannon holes you can see right inside the ship. Sailors slept on the deck, ate and drank together. The admiral, the captain and all the officers lived in the great cabin at the back, slept together in murphy beds accommodating 8 men, took meals together and worked all in the same room. The toilets for all where at the head of the ship. A spartan life style you could say. The big difference was that the Officers ate fresh food while the men ate pickled and salted rations, no vegetables or fruits, thus much disease on board.

Stockholm, Sweden

The Captain of our ship told us that we if got up early around 6 am we could experience sailing into Stockholm. From the open sea it took us 2 hours at a speed of 16 knots to reach the port of the City.
All along the way I thought it all looked a lot like the Muskokas in Ontario. Rocky islands, pine trees, inlets here and there, very scenic.  There are hundreds of islands as you make your way to the city port.

The one problem we encountered here was the ATM machines at various banks, they do not appear to work with the CIRRUS system, we checked with the banks and our bank but there was no problem with our cards. We did notice that in general people do not appear to use much cash here, debit and credit cards are use for all purchases small and large. So in the end it worked out fine. Funny thing, you get a receipt for everything in Sweden, it does not matter what you purchase, even for the smallest items.

dining room aboard the little steam ship where we had lunch on our way to Drottningholm

steamship MS Carl Philip built in 1901.

I also did not find Stockholm all that expensive, many items are the same price as Ottawa. We bought a bouquet of flowers and for the quantity and quality of the flowers it was somewhat cheaper than Ottawa. Coffee, sandwiches, desserts, all the same price. Taxi rides about the same for the distance, no surprises there. Hotels are definitely more expensive by about 50% but again we are here at the height of a major 4 day holiday and all hotels are booked solid in town. Lunch and dinner in restaurants about the same as Ottawa. So all in all, I cannot say it is more expensive, it may just appear that way. I checked hotel room prices for off season and it runs around 140$ CDN for a couple with breakfast, compared to Canada its very good value.  Our hotel Kung Carl is very central in a fashionable sector of Stockholm, we walked everywhere. The Hotel breakfast was generous and good, the coffee was excellent. 

City Hall of Stockholm with the monument to the founder of the City Birger Jarl.

We did walk a lot and Stockholm is a city for walkers and bikers, excellent public transport, very clean civilized city. Almost everyone speaks English, you are not expected to speak Swedish. I also heard German and French. The people we encountered are pleasant, lots of smiles and easy going. But this was also true in Finland, Denmark and Holland.
You can also take boats to all the islands forming the city, there are about 20 in all. You have the Hop on and Hop off bus and also the boat. There are lots of old steamers which offer a nice ride into lake Maleren with a beautiful lunch on board, linen, porcelain and all.

The Summer Palace of the Royal Family of Sweden at Drottningholm.

 The Court theatre of 1764 on the Palace grounds.

We took one steamer to go to Drottningholm Palace about one hour away from the city centre, it was a beautiful ride up the lake and we had a very good lunch on board. Will finally got to see the famous Court Theatre built in 1764 it remains the only authentic 18th century theatre in Europe with all the original machinery, never modernized. What happened was that in 1809 the theatre was closed after the assassination of King Gustav III and then forgotten, since it was on the grounds of a Royal Palace no one had access and like sleeping beauty it just slept. In 1926 by accident someone came to visit the little theatre while doing research work on a famous painting which was supposedly hanging in the theatre. It was at this moment that this researcher found all the machinery and scenery, decor stored away as it was in 1809, preserved in time. It is truly a gem, visiting this theatre is stepping back in time, everything is exactly as it was. It is a marvel to look at, you cannot believe your eyes. All the original wallpaper is hanging on the walls still, hand painted and as was then the fashion nailed to the walls. The original furniture, even musical instruments are there. The masterpiece is the machinery to operate the changes in decor which still works perfectly today and the painted scenery which can be changed in a matter of seconds thanks to the machines all operated by hand. You need 46 persons to make it all work. Our guide told us that the workers lived, slept and ate in the theatre with their wifes and kids, everyone was housed in a communal fashion. The kids often worked as stage hands, and the King provided lunch as part of your salary. The great stars lived on stage, not only they performed on stage but also slept and had their change rooms etc all on stage. Not much privacy but again it was a different time and concepts such as privacy and space were not what they are today. Beds were folded and a privacy screen was your wall to separate you from others.

The auditorium is small and nothing is as it appears. The walls are wood covered with plaster and painted to look like marble, the boxes are made of papier mache. There are two boxes for single men who are at the front of the auditorium so they could be seen by the audience and maybe find a party. Two royal boxes in the middle and two privacy box for people who wanted to attend a show but not be seen. The lighting is all candle with a metal reflector to amplify the light. The public sat on plain wood benches and tables were provided so that you could have something to eat and drink during performances. Going to the theatre back then was part socializing and part looking at the show. Ladies used their fans to send signals to the available men or to flirt and it was not unheard of that maybe they would have a meeting in a dark corner or in a box.

If the King attended, he and his wife were provided with special chairs to indicate rank. The theatre is still used today in the summer, capacity is about 134 persons. The acoustics are great and modern artists have to moderate their voices otherwise they will sound to loud. This summer they are presenting Handel's, Orlando and Cavalli's, Jason and Medea.

The great thing about this visit was the Will got to see the theatre and operate the wind machine backstage, a privilege really granted by our guide who was impressed that he had waited 60 years to see the Court Theatre. Will was so happy, it made his day and I was happy for him that finally he had realized this dream and I could be with him on that day.