Niagara Falls Canada

This weekend we had Lies & Joost visiting us from Holland. We lived together in our student housing at the University of Technology Delft during the 1975-1980 period (with 13 other students). The two of them arrived in Toronto yesterday to start a vacation trip in Canada of 6-7 weeks. The first week a bit touring in Ontario, then on the train all the way to Vancouver and sightseeing in British Columbia for a few weeks. Today we visited the Niagara Falls, always a great site to see (even if you already live just 20 km from it for the past 22 years like Mary and me.......). The Maid of the Mist boats were busy with hundreds of tourists but the line up was so long we decided to pass on that.

We had a nice lunch in the historic village of Niagara-on-the-Lake and tomorrow they will start their further travels in Canada. Thanks for the nice visit Lies & Joost!

Manly and Bondi beaches

Yesterday Hilary and I took one of the ferry boats to Manly, a ride of about half an hour through some of the many bays of the Sydney harbor area. Manly has a nice beach area with - even on a Monday - many enthusiastic surfers enjoying the good waves.

Today we visited another beach area in the greater Sydney area, probably the best known around the world: Bondi. We had a beautiful blue sky but a chilly wind; that did not deter some sun bathers on this Tuesday. The city made a beautiful board walk between several beaches in this area.

Flying the Seneca colors even during my days off here. Maybe this Dutch guy is just too cheap to buy some other clothes? I have had a nasty cold since I arrived in Sydney on Saturday. Otherwise I would have made some laps in this very cool pool right next to the ocean.

Tomorrow the last day here in Sydney. I will be staying put for the day to try to beat that cold before starting the 7 + 13 + 5 hour flights via Manila and Vancouver to Toronto on Thursday. It was very nice to spend a few days here together with Hilary. I kept the poor woman awake with my snoring every night worsened by my cold. She'll be happy to see the old man going again.

Sunday walk in Sydney

There, now in the right way. In my previous post I did not get it quite right with this photo. Today Hilary and I - she with her 14 hours of time difference jet lag and me simply because of age & travel overnight - woke up early on the Sunday morning and started what turned out to be a 12 km walk.

First stop after the initial 3-4 km a coffee + treat near the famous Sydney Opera House. This is right across from the old Sydney Harbor Bridge which we walked up afterwards.

The Opera House from the bridge. With in front of that landmark a few of the many ferries which serve the communities in and around Sydney. We walked over the bridge to North Sydney to see if we could find the apartment building I lived in during my few months here in 1983.

At the other side of the bridge we found an arts market where I lost Hilary for a while. In the meantime I had another good coffee and concluded that Sydney also has become a very global village with people and food from around the world....

We did not find back my little street of so many years ago but that was fine. We did find a lovely little park where we spent some time and started the walk back past a few of the nice small bay areas of this beautiful city. Very nice to be back. Sore legs and muscles though trying to keep pace with our 25 year old daughter.....

From Suzhou to Sydney

The presentation on Wednesday about the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of work (and the role to possibly play for educators and trainers) went well. Managers from local companies were in attendance and we hope that some of them will follow up with our local partner organization with who we then hope to develop tailored training programs.

And yes, I bring my suit again also for this audience (as I recently did in India). Impressed?

After the presentation on Wednesday I went for a beautiful long walk along the lake next to my hotel. The photo above is from the gardens of my hotel which are right on the lake. The setting for the lake invites for wedding photos and there were many making use of a beautiful sunny day to do so.

 Our colleague Wilson took me on Thursday after our meetings to one of the famous gardens in the old city of Suzhou. These were stunning private properties hundreds of years ago.

First we visited a small museum on the history and the architecture of the gardens. Afterwards we took a walk in part of the garden and listen to Suzhou opera singing in one of the tea-houses.

Friday I went back to the Shanghai airport for a flight of 10 hours to Sydney, Australia, to meet up with our daughter Hilary who lives and works here for a year.

So cool to be back in this city where I worked and lived a few months in 1983, 34 years ago, especially together with Hilary.