Travel – Page 24 – Geeky Girl Engineer

Parc du Mont-Royal

Posted on August 3, 2014 by geek

After spending some time enjoying the tam-tams, I went further into Parc du Mont-Royal to do a little hiking and to visit the overlooks that I had read have amazing views of the city. The park is on part of a mountain, so the overlooks have wonderful views of the city below on the plain. The Camillien-Houde lookout gives views of the northern half of Montreal Island, and the Kondiaronk lookout gives views from the northeast and southwest including downtown Montreal. I wished I had had more time to hike as much of the park is a dense forest. It is a wonderful park and oasis, akin to New York’s Central Park.

Trails through the park’s forest

Rock outcroppings near the trails

From Camillien-Houde lookout

From Camillien-Houde lookout, a view of the Jacques Cartier Bridge (with zoom)

From Camillien-Houde lookout, a view of the Olympic venue (with zoom)

From Kondiaronk lookout looking at downtown

From Kondiaronk lookout looking east

From Kondiaronk lookout looking west

Montreal Tam-tams

Posted on August 2, 2014 by geek

After my week in Burlington, I made a short, first visit to Montreal. I must admit, I had a few preconceptions about Montreal. I don’t know if my preconceptions were because Montreal is the largest city in Quebec, and I associate French speaking with more cosmopolitan or because of some of the history and politics of Canada and Quebec. In any event, I’ve been to Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Halifax, and a few other places in Canada, but I wasn’t sure if I would like Montreal as much as I have liked the other places. All my preconceptions about Montreal pretty much flew out the window mainly due to the fact that one of the first things we visited on the first day of sightseeing was the Sunday afternoon Tam-Tams in Parc du Mont-Royal. I had read about the Tam-tams in Lonely Planet, and they are sort of scheduled spontaneity of drumming and a few other musical instruments. People just come and start making lovely music, and then other people come and start dancing to the music. It seemed like a bit of a hippie-fest, and that characterization is not meant to be derogatory. I had no idea so many hippies lived in Montreal. It was really fun to watch, and if you are ever in Montreal on a summer Sunday afternoon, I encourage you to go to George-Étienne Cartier Monument in Parc du Mont-Royal. Just don’t blame me if you start dancing around like a nut.

This child was watching the adult dance with clear curiosity.

Adults brought little drums out of nowhere to try to get these kids to drum. The kids were not clear on what they were supposed to be doing.

I loved his mobile drumming setup, complete with bicycle wheel and I think frying pan.

This guy seemed like a very serious drummer.

There seemed to be a “main” group of drummers on the benches and then “back up” drummers sitting on the wall.

I assume he did not cart the drums because people were throwing trash in the drums, but this guy was the epitome of a cool drummer.

Yes, there was cowbell.

The “main” band.

Also, the tam-tam was not the only activity occurring in that area. There were people walking on a tightrope (attached to two trees) and a group of people doing some sort of yoga, gymnastic, balancing thing. Also, there was a guy creating very large bubbles.

Tightrope walker with yoga gymnasts in background

Guy creating some really large bubbles.

Burlington Uniqueness

Posted on July 28, 2014 by geek

I have already written how nice a town Burlington, Vermont is and how much I love its colorful houses. I just had to add one more post with a few photos of some of fun, arty, and unique things that I saw there that help to make it a cute town.

First, on Church Street, there is this water fountain which is probably one of the most unique and beautiful public water fountains that I have ever seen.

Water fountain on Church Street

Then there is this box on Church Street where you can put donations for the less fortunate, and it is of course designed to look like Champ, the famous monster of Lake Champlain.

Donation box that looks like a very cute Champ

Then there are these paintings on a commercial building that are by far the best way to incorporate electrical boxes into the exterior design of a building that I have ever seen.

Paintings on and around electrical/telephone boxes

Best use of an electric meter in a painting

Then finally there is this sign that I spotted several copies of on Church Street. I have no idea if the second part is actually written into the Burlington ordinance, but it would be awesome if it was.

Dog ordinance sign

Burlington Houses

Posted on July 28, 2014 by geek

While I spent much of my time walking around Burlington, Vermont, in the downtown area, I also spent a good deal of time walking around some of the residential neighborhoods. Burlington has some historic, large, gorgeous houses, and many of them are painted in various, traditional colorful schemes. However, Burlington also has plenty of not quite as old, not quite as nice houses painted in not quite so traditional colors. Some of them are painted in almost blindingly bright color schemes, and I loved them. They are not traditional at all, but in my opinion, they are completely fun. I don’t even like some of the color schemes, but I love that someone cares enough about the house and what it looks like to paint it something other than all white.

The day that I spent much of my time photographing these houses, I walked into the Fletcher Free Library. While I was admiring the architecture of the old section of the building, Lorrie, one of the library workers asked me if I was enjoying the architecture. We had a lovely conversation about the library, Burlington, and Burlington’s houses. It turns out she knows the owner of many of the colorful houses that I was admiring. You have to love small towns, because of course I would run into someone who knows the owner of many of the houses. According to her, Stu lives in the brick house with purple trim that is situated between the two purple-painted wooden houses, and he has the purple Camino. These were some of the houses that I was admiring the most, especially since they featured the color coordinated purple car in-between them. Also, his brick house has a duck family walking on the ceiling of the entry porch because of course it does. He and his wife own and rent many of the bright houses, and he paints them that way just because he likes it and doesn’t care what others think. Stu, I am an admirer of your work. I don’t like all the color schemes, but I love that you painted them that way.

Post has been edited to correct the spelling of Lorrie’s name. Thank you Stu for the correction, and thank you for your comment!

Well played Benjamin Moore, well played.

Burlington

Posted on July 27, 2014 by geek

I was in Burlington, Vermont for a week for a conference. Luckily, I had a few hours off here and there, so I was able to spend some time walking around the town. Burlington is a wonderful city in which to walk around. It has some wonderful old buildings, which I love, and as it sits right on Lake Champlain, it has some really nice views of the lake. If you visit, you have to spend time just walking on the Church Street pedestrian mall and perhaps eat at the many restaurants on it or go in some of the shops. Of course, there are plenty of other great restaurants and shops downtown besides the ones on Church Street. Also, stroll along Waterfront Park and admire Lake Champlain.

City Hall

Church Street

Citizen Bank

Old brick buildings

Old buildings

Fletcher Free Library

Fletcher Free Library window

Waterfront Park

Lake Champlain

Sunset on Lake Champlain

Winooski

Posted on July 27, 2014 by geek

While visiting Burlington, I walked to Winooski, which is just to its north, and wandered around. Winooski is a cute little town that is situated next to Winooski Falls, a rocky area of the Winooski River. They have built a really nice river walk area on one side of the river, so you can walk past the falls and also down to the dam. The town square is also walkable and has a bunch of really good restaurants. [Normally I don’t recommend specific commercial places, but I had dinner at Our House, and I highly recommend it. They have all these really good variations of mac and cheese, and it is just so delicious.] The only bad thing about the town is how fast the traffic goes around the town center, which can make crossing the street difficult.

Winooski Block

Winooski town center

Winooski Mill

Winooski River (upstream of falls)

Winooski Falls

Winooski Dam

Winooski River (just downstream of dam)

Winooski River (downstream of dam)

Green Mountain Audubon Center

Posted on July 26, 2014 by geek

I came to Vermont for a conference, but I arrived a day early to do a little sightseeing. One place we visited was the Green Mountain Audubon Center outside Huntington. It is a really lovely place to wander around for several hours. It has a hemlock swamp, a gorgeous river running through it, forests full of ferns, and lots of pretty flowers. We also saw a few nice birds, and I saw some really cool looking insects, which I cannot identify.

Fern forest

Huntington River

Swamp

American red squirrel

Beetle?

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Fern frond

Milkweed

Insect

Flower

Amtrak Vermonter

Posted on July 25, 2014 by geek

I think I have written blog posts before about how much I love traveling my train. I love sitting back and watching the world go by. Train travel also sometimes allows you views you could not get any other way. I recently took the Amtrak Vermonter from Washington, DC to Burlington, VT. The latter part of the trip had wonderful views of the Connecticut River and rural Vermont and New Hampshire. It was a wonderful way to start my trip. Here are a few photos from the trip.

Triborough Bridge (East River) in NY

Crossing the Connecticut River near Windsor Locks, CT

Bridge over the Connecticut River near Northfield, MA

near Bellows Falls, VT

Thoughts on Iceland

Posted on June 19, 2014 by geek

I have been home from my two-week trip to Iceland for two weeks now and finished going through all the photos I took, all 4,500 of them. I pulled the best ones to post in my travel section, and looking at all the photos keeps bringing my thoughts back to Iceland. It was such an amazing trip. I saw many things I don’t normally see like puffins, whales, geysers, waterfalls, and more, more, more, more waterfalls, boiling mud pots, lava formations, beautiful coastline, a natural thermal pool in a cave, a stunningly beautiful historic site sitting at the separation of two tectonic plates, an iceberg filled lagoon at the base of a glacier, a wonderful, major tourist attraction, thermal pool made from a power plant’s wastewater, Iceland’s capital and largest city, its next largest city, several small towns, and so much more. I also experienced many adventures that I don’t normally get to do like SCUBA diving an absolutely gorgeous site in 2°C crystal-clear water and hiking up a glacier in crampons. I also, to a very small extent, got to see some of the differences between the way people in Iceland and the USA live, both from the perspective as an ordinary American and as an engineer. What do I mean, from the perspective of an engineer?

1. Most of the bridges in Iceland are one lane. I find this absolutely fascinating. They obviously did the calculations and decided that the roads, including the Ring Road, the major road that circles the island, get so little traffic that two lanes are not necessary. Also, Icelandic drivers are rather polite. You get to a bridge, and if a car is coming in the opposite direction, you simply wait until it crosses, to cross the bridge. When you approach a bridge, you slow down and make sure no one is coming or if they are, you figure out who will reach the bridge first to decide who goes first. This would never work in the USA.

Even this beautiful suspension bridge over Jökulsá á fjöllum on the Ring Road on the northeastern side of the island is one lane.

2. Even better than the one lane bridges is the one lane tunnels. I am still flabbergasted by them. There are actually a few one lane tunnels in Iceland, but the one I went through was Vestfjarðagöng. There are three roads that go into and out of Ísafjörður in the Westfjords, and all three go through a tunnel. The road that goes to the south goes through the Vestfjarðagöng tunnel. Leaving Ísafjörður, the tunnel is at first two lanes for about 2 km, and then you get to an intersection. The tunnel has an intersection. I’ve never been in a tunnel with an intersection before. It’s amazing. Then after the intersection, we kept going straight to the south. At that point, the tunnel becomes one lane with a turn off to the right every third km or so (perhaps more). I was driving, and I had to turn off several times for oncoming traffic. I must say to, in the tunnel, it was all the more difficult to determine distances and how soon I needed to pull off. This one lane tunnel lasts for about 3 km. Later that day when we were driving back to Ísafjörður, I encountered oncoming traffic once, and they pulled off before I could figure out if I was supposed to since I would have to cross their lane of traffic to do so. I am still not entirely sure what the rules of the road are in that situation. If I had known something like that existed, I would have studied on rules of the road for it. Again, one lane tunnels would never work in the USA.

3. Not all their roads are paved, and I don’t mean their tiny, never used private roads. The Ring Road is not paved in sections. I can understand from a maintenance standpoint why, but from a car maintenance and safety standpoint, I can’t.

4. They don’t really believe in guardrails for roads. There were a few spots where they actually did have a guardrail, but they were few and far between. The roads that climb up their mountains going through many switchbacks rarely have guardrails even though there are seriously steep drops on the side. The roads are even more fun when they are unpaved with no guardrails. This does force the driver to take extra care when driving, but it is still scary as hell. Of course they do have helpful little yellow, flexible markers on the side to sort of alert you to the whole don’t fall down the side of the mountain thing.

5. Not only is most electricity generated from geothermal heat, but in some places, the hot water also comes from geothermal heat. In Reykjavik, pipes deliver hot water (groundwater heated at the geothermal plant) directly to the houses and businesses. There are of course separate pipes for the cold water. How awesome must it be to not need a water heater and get endless hot water?

Those are some things that particularly fascinate me as an engineer. Some other observations include.

6. There are a lot of sheep in Iceland, and the sheep seem to regard fences are mere suggestions. The rural areas of Iceland (i.e. the vast majority of it) has a lot of farms with sheep and other animals. The farms have lovely fences. Most of the animals are in fact behind the fences. However a certain percentage of the sheep don’t really care to be fenced in. As we drove the Ring Road, we constantly saw sheep between the road and fence where the majority of the sheep were safely grazing. We never saw sheep in the road, so evidently the sheep are fairly smart, but still, we found the number of the sheep outside the fence to be funny.

7. Iceland is the land of waterfalls. You can’t go five minutes without seeing one. After a while, you start to ignore the ones that aren’t really big or have some unique feature. We saw so many waterfalls that we started driving right past the “normal” ones. These normal ones being ones that in many places would be their own tourist attraction. We passed many farms with a waterfall in their backyard. The beauty was insane.

8. Shops in Iceland have shorter business hours and are only open from about 9 or 10 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. This did not appear to be a thing that changed once it was officially tourist season. While I appreciate the employees and owners wanting a normal work day, from the perspective of a tourist, it was really annoying because if you are sightseeing all day, by the time you return, everything is closed. You need to leave a day to just shop.

9. Food is really expensive there, but the food is wonderful. Also, everyone in Iceland seems to make incredible bread. Also, the Skyr yogurt is awesome. Really, pretty much all the food was great.

10. Icelanders are very nice and helpful. The vast majority of them speak English and are patient, helpful, and have a sense of humor about people trying to say a word or two of Icelandic and, at least in my case, failing miserably. Side note: We read that the closest English way to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that erupted there in 2010 and messed up air traffic across the globe, is “hey I forgot my yogurt.” I relayed this to an Icelander who laughed a great deal and said that was actually not a bad way to learn to say it.

11. There is evidently very little crime in Iceland. I saw a total of 8 police cars the entire time I was there. In several cities, we did pass what was clearly the police station, but seeing an actual police officer or car was rare.

In summary, Iceland is incredible. Go visit if you can.

Flying Over Greenland

Posted on June 3, 2014 by geek

My flight back home from Iceland flew over the southern tip of Greenland. It was an afternoon flight, and it was an almost cloudless sky. Luckily I had a window seat and my camera at my feet. Actual, it wasn’t luck. I always get a window seat if I can. Also, I trust neither the TSA nor any airline with my camera, so it is always carried on the plane. Greenland is gorgeous from above. Not so sure I want to visit though, maybe, for a short visit sometime. I’ve been to Antarctica, so perhaps I should venture to the arctic also.