WHAT ARE YOUR TRAVEL ESSENTIALS?

Do you have items that you always take on your travels? Are they little luxuries, or things that make the travelling easier, or are they items that you might need in a travel emergency? I'd really love to know what others consider their "don't travel without it" items. I too have a list of critical things to pack. Some of them are duct tape, sewing repair kit, zip ties, travel plate and cutlery, luggage scale, ziplock bags, small flashlight, small lidded insulated mug, and a few other items. Each of these has been put to use on at least one of my trips and some of them have multiple uses. Over the next weeks I will be randomly posting about my "critical things to pack", and explaining why each of them is so important that I am willing to add each to my baggage.

A SUMMER EVENING STROLL ...

Sometimes all we need to do to feel like a tourist is to take a new look at an old place. In Richmond, BC, there is a trail called the West Dyke Trail.Thisurban trail gives one the feeling of strolling along a rural shoreline. The views are both restful and beautiful. At first the trail follows the mighty Fraser River, and then it gently turns to meander alongside marshland over which one can see the natural beauty for great distances. There are views over the Gulf of Georgia, north to the Coastal Mountains and Howe Sound, and southwest towards the Gulf Islands. One does not even need binoculars to enjoy the plentiful bird life along the estuary and marshes. Watch and listen carefully. I am not an expert regarding birds but even I can recognize many of the species. I have seen Redwing Blackbirds, Canada Geese, majestic Bald Eagles, hawks, herons,and of course the ubiquitous seagulls. There are also many other varieties of water fowl that I cannot identify but still love to watch. This popular trail abounds with walkers, runners and cyclists of all ages. Yet there are many moments when one is quite alone and can absorb the serenity of this natural place. It is so very easy to forget that you are very close to a major international airport and several large, busy cities. I took a walk with a friend one gentle summer evening. The sun was low in the sky and the colours were beginning to change. However the various insects were still making their cacophony of sounds as they strove to finish their work for the day. A gentle breeze carried bird songs to us as it refreshed us on this otherwise quite warm evening. If you travel up here to Canada and visit us in Vancouver, be sure to take some time to enjoy some of the lovely walks. Consider strolling the West Dyke trail in Richmond where, after about 10km you will find yourself in the charming village of Steveston. This is a perfect way to end your walk with the beverage of your choice and some fish and chips. You will never have fish fresher than in Steveston. Try the take-out at Pajos on the wharf. After that exercise you deserve to enjoy their famed fish & chips in the sunny outdoors. http://www.richmond.ca/parks/trails/trails-map/westdyke.htm

TWEETING BITS AND PIECES

Looking for more travel hints and comments? Go to @ozchictravels. Here you will see tweets from some of my favorite travel places and companies. And, as they come to mind, there will be my own travel tweets about hints, tips, and favourites.

MY LEAST FAVOURITE TRAVEL BREAKFAST PLACES THIS YEAR

In May I stayed at the Hotel Montparnasse in Paris. It is actually quite a pleasant place to stay and easily accessible to transportation. The breakfasts were included in the room costs and were plentiful. They also didn't mind if you took some fruit or a bun for later. So far so good. Well I happen to love scrambled eggs. On my second day I went to the buffet for my eggs and served them onto my plate. Yummy, at least until I was half way through the meal. And there, embedded deeply in my eggs was a long, brown hair. I am fair and my hair is short. UGH! As I pushed the eggs aside my neighbour at the next table made an unpleasant sound as she pulled a long stray brown hair from the bottom of her supposedly clean plate.
I never ate the eggs there again and was very careful about what I did eat. Yes, I told the dining room manager. He made some semi-concerned noises but also made excuses. As much as I could see in the public area no changes were made as to dining room staff avoiding having hanging hair to their shoulders. Goodness knows what happens in the kitchen.
That's my Hotel Montparnasse breakfast experience this past May.

My most recent icky breakfast was at the Listel Hotel in Whistler, BC. Now the Listel Hotel is an older hotel and the rates are less expensive than many of the Whistler hotels. Saying that, it is close to the village and yet quiet for sleeping. Most staff are friendly and the rooms are comfortable. However I do think management does miss the message when they repeatedly defend issues in the dining room with "well it is a complimentary breakfast". That may be so, but I'm sure the cost is calculated into the overall room costs; it is not free.
My son and I are diabetic so we try to be careful about our breakfast choices. The front desk receptionist assured me that instant oatmeal was one of the breakfast options. Other choices were toast, bagels, several cold cereals (all of the sugared variety), sweet muffins and rolls. There was also yoghurt and cold hard boiled eggs. It is a sparse breakfast that does not meet the standards of today's usual Continental Breakfast.

Our first morning at breakfast we discovered there was no oatmeal. We were told "sorry, we are out". That led us to the local grocery store to buy our own oatmeal and sugar free yoghurt. We mentioned the omission to the reception desk. Well, three mornings later there was still no oatmeal. The only protein was the hard boiled eggs. They are a little difficult to be enthusiastic about first thing on any morning but they are at least a protein source, at least until one observes the server drop several (already without their shell) on the carpeted floor, then bend to pick them up and hold onto them, while putting the ones still in the bowl onto the serving dish, and never going near the garbage can. Well, I still wonder if those eggs were later rinsed and then re-served.
And then there is the toast. The server did have a protective glove on one hand, but interestingly she was placing the toast onto the tray with the unprotected hand, Hmm. Very interesting because I never did see gloves on the hands of the servers when they were cleaning up.
Dishes? Definitely we never ran out. They must have been washed very quickly because the cutlery was usually still wet when it was placed in the help-yourself trays. Oh how bacteria love these warm, moist environments. And there was usually a small pile of discarded plates and bowls on the side where other diners had decided that they preferred to have their food on a plate that did not still have remnants remaining from the previous diner.

The dining room was uncomfortably hot and stuffy even with door and windows open. Are they saving on the cost of ventilation? On our second day we decided to eat our meal (most of it bought ourselves at the local Nesters Grocery store - i do love that store) outside on the patio. At least we did get to eat out there after I (momma) went back and soaked napkins in hot water so I could scrub the layers of black dirt from our table and then dry it. And then we almost lost our table to a man who saw it as the only clean table and was a little upset that he would have to clean his own table. In fact, many people wanted to eat outside and they all either tried to sit away from the dirt or cleaned their own tables. It was hot, it is summer, the dining room was stuffy and overcrowded - is it too much to want to have a clean place to eat on the patio? Is it too much to ask that we be able to be confident that the food is handled in a hygienic manner?
Yes, I will possibly stay at the Listel in the future if I am looking for a more economical hotel and it is the only one that fits my budget. Breakfast? I will shop at Nesters and either eat in my room or take myself out for a picnic.

  

JUST A NOTE SO YOU KNOW I"M HONEST

Please be aware that my comments in these blogs are solely my own. Also, I receive no renumeration from any of the places, companies, or individuals referred to. That way I can write an honest travel blog that is not answerable to commercial sponsorship. If you see ads in a sidebar, they are from Blogger and do not influence my comments.