Month: September 2012
New York M&M Store
Just across the street from our hotel was one of the world’s four M&M Stores. A triumph of marketing, this store managed to convert little chocolate buttons into 3 floors of merchandise. This large two-story sign on the front was just as impressive as the inside of the store. [quicktime]https://www.wilsons.id.au/wp-content/uploads/IMG_0394.mov[/quicktime]
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New York
Our two days in the world’s largest city has been invigorating I first visited New York in 1978 and then I was overwhelmed and felt very insecure. That was well before New York was cleaned up and became safe. My last visit was in the early 90’s and the World Trade Centre was still standing. […]
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Washington
After dinner on our first evening in Washington, we had an evening tour to a number of memorials which was led by a local guide, Susan, who had been a schoolteacher in her previous life. There was no doubt that she could have kept a classroom of 10 year olds under firm control. We visited […]
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Amish Country
On Monday we left Niagara Falls and crossed the border into the USA from Canada. There were five busses in the queue ahead of us and it took an hour or so for us to clear immigration and to get on with our day’s trip. Fortunately, we didn’t have to unload all our baggage – […]
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Niagara Falls
We arrived at Niagara Falls yesterday in the mid-morning. The city is a rather tacky place and reminiscent of 1960’s Las Vegas with fun parlours, ghost train rides and, of course, Ripley’s Believe it or not Museum. Our first activity of the day was to see the falls from the top of a big Ferris […]
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Toronto
Toronto is the commercial capital of Canada and is a bustling and vibrant city. We traveled here yesterday, from Ottawa in a long day of driving although we had a stop in a little town called Kingston for lunch and a river cruise. Near this town is an area along the St Lawrence River known as […]
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Ottowa
Ottowa is the capital city of Canada. A little like Canberra in Australia, I understand that it was created as the capital from a small, insignificant town. It was originally a backwater timber town and was selected by Queen Victoria, probably because it sits in the heart of ‘old Canada’ and adjoins both the English […]
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Parc Omega
As we travelled from Quebec to Ottowa we stopped at a rather neat wildlife park named the Par Omega. In it, they have quite a number of North American wildlife. Each are kept in separate areas (because some species such as the wolf) would obviously eat some of the others, but they still roam relatively […]
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Quebec
Quebec (pronounced Kei-bek by locals) is an enchanting city and full of surprises. It is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec with a population of ¾ million people. We arrived here yesterday afternoon from Montreal – straightforward trip of a little over 200 kilometres. On the w\ay, we stopped at a little tourist […]
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More of Montreal
Yesterday, we started our tour with Scenic Tours with a short tour of Montreal. I need to modify some of my comments from the previous day as we found some quite interesting areas a little way out of the CBD and some very nice parks. At the top of Mount Royal is an extensive cemetery […]
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Montreal Old Town
Montreal, the capital city of French speaking Quebec seems to have a nice mixture of North American culture, along with a clear European feeling. Its coat of arms features a red cross on a white background with an English Rose, Scottish Thistle, Irish Shamrock and a French Fleur de Lis in each of the quadrants. […]
Read MoreTaxes and Charges
I am very grateful that in Australia, we include all the taxes in the displayed price of an item. Another thing that I need to get used to in the USA is to recognise that the displayed price does not represent the total cost of an item. I don’t mind paying taxes at all, it’s […]
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