Quebec, Canada (1): Summer 2010

Dorwin Falls, Rawdon, Lanaudière



The magnificient 60 feet Dorwin falls are on the Ouareau river.
The falls are within the walking distance from the Rawdon town centre.



Swimming is not allowed in the river as there are sly and fast currents. But we climbed down the small slope to soak our feet in the clear and cold water.



There are picnic facilities under the pine trees. Camping is not allowed though. This place is definitely baby friendly!



Mont Tremblant Ski Resort

Mont Tremblant is a well known ski place in Quebec. During summer, they have a series of activities such as the International Blues Festival, to keep the place busy.





Activities for children, like the 'spider web', incorporates all favorite kids activities such as climbing, crawling, dangling and bouncing.
Visitors can also take paranomic gondola to the highest peak in the Laurentians and enjoy Mont-Tremblant's spectacular views.



We saw children keep playing this: Taking the ski cable up to the mountain and then coming down with this go-kart thing.



This town at the base of Mont Tremblant is merely for the tourists. There are only hotels, resorts, restaurants, shops ... Nobody really live here. The 'real' town is at the other side. The 'old Tremblant' areas are the replica of the old town.



There is a free public parting below of Old Tremblant. From there, visitors can take the free cable to go to the base of the mountain. Otherwise, it is an easy and pleasant walking up for 15-20 minutes. There are shops and restaurants all the way up.



The beach of Tremblant Lake is only opened to the tourists who staying in the resorts or the local residents. Other visitors have to go to the public beach which is around 1-2km from the 'old Tremblant'. Even summer, the water is still quite cold when the weather is not hot hot hot.

Northeast Scotland and West Highlands, UK: Summer 2009

Northeast Scotland

Except 2 of Scotland's 4 largest cities - Dundee and Aberdeen, the countryside of this areas is also a place to meditate the mystery and to relish the royal heritage.



Glamis Castle, the birthplace of the late Princess Margaret (the Queen's sister) and was the legendary setting for Shakespeare's Macbeth.



The mysterious pictish (a warrior tribes who inhabited here 2000 years ago)symbol stones is thought to be set up to record Pictish lineages and alliances, but no-one is sure exactly how the system worked.
We 'hunted' these stone (they were scattered around) at Aberlemno in the rainy day.
An American woman who was on the mission as us told us that, the Z rod and double discs symbolised sun, the double omega shaped symbol at the top left side symbolised soul and the mirror liked symbol at the bottom right side symbolised wisdom.



The Brechin Cathedral round tower is one of the only three that survive in Scotland. It is of a type often seen in Ireland.

West Highlands

This part of the country is an adventure playground for outdoor sport enthusiasts. The mountains draw hordes of hill walkers and rock climbers in summer, and skiers, snowboarders and ice climbers in winter.



We passed by this loch on the way to Glen Coe. There were many people picnic and camping, but none really swam. We decided to join the crowd. When we got into the water, we knew why nobody was swimming. Eventhough the weather was warm, but at the deeper part of the loch, the water was still icy cold. Real real cold...



My friends said, this scene with a bridge like this, looked like one of the scenes in Harry Potter, which the train took the students to the school.



Glen Coe is Scotland's most famous glen and also one of the grandest. It is also one of Scotland's five ski resorts.
We suspected the whitish 'chunk' that we saw on the top of the glen was snow, which haven't melt down since winter.



The West Highlands areas meet exactly my expectations towards Scotland. Mountains, lakes and greens.