Saturday, April 28, 2018

Bears of Berlin

Last week I went to Berlin for work, I was supposed to leave on Saturday, 14 April but freezing rain and snow delayed our travel by a day. Well our travel out of Ottawa anyway, my sister made her connections and got into Berlin on Sunday as planned. I got in around lunch time on Monday and my boss got in around supper time on Monday so we missed the first day of the meetings.

De-icing in Toronto


The symbol of the city of Berlin is a bear and all over the city you will find buddy bears, an art project that was started in 2001.  They make a good photo op so we decided to take pictures of all the bears that we saw. There are some 140 full-size bears but obviously we didn't see all of them.  

Olympic bear

Sites of Berlin bear

Block House bear

Melia hotel bear

East Side Gallery bear


Welcome bear




Bear inside the TV tower

Capital bear

Zoo bear at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station)

US Liberty bear






Nivea bear

Some of these bears were not full size bears but rather smaller ones that we saw in stores.  The US Liberty bear, found at the US Embassy, was the only one we couldn't approach as you needed to go inside the lobby of the embassy. Most of the other bears were outside but even those that were inside were in places open to the public such as train stations or stores.

More about my trip to Germany to come in other blog posts.  




Sunday, April 1, 2018

Happy Air Force Birthday!

Happy April Fool's Day, Happy Easter and Happy Air Force Birthday!!

Yes, in addition to being April Fools Day and Easter Sunday today is the birthday of the  Royal Canadian Air Force.

My family has had quite a history with the RCAF. My dad, my mother's brother Terence, and even my mother were in the Air Force.

Cpl D.H. Stewart

Scope Wizard
My mum was only in for a short time, in those days a woman had to be single so she had to get out once she was engaged to be married. 

Summer Training Course, 1954

Anne in uniform
By the time two of my sisters and I joined the military, it was one unified service in Canada but after we joined the three uniforms of the Army, Navy and Air Force were re-instated. All three of us were for a time assigned Air Force uniforms.  I switched to the Army uniform after serving over 11 years in Army positions and another sister changed trades and switched uniforms too.

Me getting  a black Armoured Corps beret
Although there is still only once Command structure in the Canadian Forces, even the names have been reinstated so now again we have the Royal Canadian Air Force. The name was officially adopted on 1 April 1924 and so this year marks the 94th birthday. 

So Happy Air Force Birthday, it is NOT an April Fools Joke!

Oh and Happy Easter too!!