Israel 2026-06

Israel 3,

July 6, 2026,

I slept for 8.5 hours so I think that I am all caught up from sleep deprivation from the time change and my 36 hour voyage from hell. As they say, no pain, no gain.

Last evening I wandered over to Mike’s one of my favourite brasseries on the beach. It was a warm 23C with a cool breeze, just right to have a beer, in a pub, with the Med in the background, and watch the Norway-Brazilian football World Cup match. I was at a table with a family of Brazilians who had made Aliyah to Israel many years ago. They were very friendly and expressive but unfortunately it did not help their team win the match.

At the Maxim Hotel, you are free to sit at almost any table as the hotel caters to volunteers. I played ‘Jewish geography’ with a lady who was originally from Montreal and now lives in Toronto. She grew up in the CDN and CSL areas and we had many common acquaintances. I then spoke at length with a lady originally from South Africa and who now lives in Australia.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach doing my usual activities. I am really a beachcomber at heart. In my spare time there is nothing more that I would like to do. I am not really very intellectual at heart. I was 30C with a slight breeze and only the occasional 2 foot breaker. I swam to the breakwater, 500m there and back with ease. The life guards must be getting used to me swimming out that far as they didn’t whistle me in. I didn’t hear a whistle anyway and I was the only one out swimming that far. I then jogged 5k on the beach knocking off 2 min from my time yesterday. If I continue at this rate I will be down to 0 in 3 weeks which is impossible if you do the math.

I bought a Magnum ice cream bar at 3:30 and got so excited by the prospect of eating an ice cream on the beach, that I got carried away and dropped my credit card on the sand. A ‘kid’ picked it up and spent 135 shekels ($65) before I could cancel it. It must have been a kid, as a pro would have made an attempt to empty my bank account. The store got the thief on their camera and I will review it later in the week. I don’t know if they have ‘wanted dead or alive’ posters here.

I am at the La Mer Restaurant overlooking the beach eating my 1st solid meal in 3 days. I really have not been hungry and except for breakfast, have only consumed liquids. There is a live band here to encourage me as I devour a margarita pizza and a local Maccabi draft beer.

Tomorrow, I will do my first shift with MDA so you can expect a full account of my cases.

Love,

Brian

Israel 2026-06

Israel 2,

July 5, 2026,

Hi Everyone,

I never had so many missed flights and cancellations on 1 trip. In the end I flew from Paris to Vienna and then onward to Tel Aviv, arriving at 5:00 am on Sunday having being in transit for 36 hours door to door. That is a record for me that I hope not to duplicate in future voyages. The stop overs through Rome or Athenes were cancelled along the way as I kept missing connections. I was lucky however, as the flights were not over booked. I easily found 3 seats together on 2 of the flights so I was able to stretch out and sleep.

I picked up a car at the airport but didn’t want to open the phone to use the GPS as that would have been expensive without an Israeli SIM card. I have forgotten my way around Tel Aviv so I wandered around on different street until I found the road along the sea. From there it was an easy hop, skip and a jump to my hotel. I now have an Israeli SIM card with an Israeli phone number but the same email address.

The hotel Maxim staff greeted me warmly on my arrival. This morning I walked around Dizengoff Sq and presented myself to several bookshops. They suggested that I contact the manager on the website to sell my book. Back at the hotel, Saeed, the manager of the hotel, and I worked on making a short advertising note for my Swords of Iron book which will be placed on the Maxim Hotel website.

It was a little cloudy in the morning until the sun broke through the clouds leaving a few wispy ones in its place. It was 30 C with a slight warm breeze. The water was warm and there were 1.5m waves. Much of the beach was black flagged with certain areas open for swimming and surfing. I did some body surfing and then swam out to the breakwater, 250m off shore. I was the only swimmer who ventured that far from shore. I then did my 1st 5k run of the season along the beach. Even though it was rather hot, the breeze and the proximity to the water made the run rather pleasant.

Love,

Brian

Israel 2026-06

Israel 1,

July 4, 2026,

Hi Everyone,

No matter where I want to travel, I always seem to have problems at the airport. This time is no exception.

I am going to Israel to volunteer as a physician/paramedic on a Magan David Adom (ADM) ambulance. This is the 3rd time that I am doing this in 3 years since the start of the Swords of Iron War. 2 years ago MDA accepted 150 volunteers mostly from the US with a few from Canada. Last year, I believe that only 2 were accepted and this year I think that I am the only one. This is probably due to the fact that I know Vicki personally. She is in charge of the volunteers and has been instrumental in finding me a place on an ambulance.

Once again, I will be staying at the Maxim Hotel on Hayarkon St across the street from the sea. Most of the volunteers stay at the hotel while in Tel Aviv. There are large round tables in the dinning room and you are free to sit at any table and introduce yourself. “Hi, my name is Brian, I am from Canada.” It sounds a lot like AA where you introduce yourself by saying: “Hi, my name is Brian, I am an alcoholic.” I think that alcohol and volunteering in Israel both become highly addictive.

I originally had a flight from Montreal to Tel Aviv with a stop over in Paris for 5 hours. The flight was supposed to leave at 5:00 pm but was cancelled. I usually don’t like to fly to Europe late in the afternoon, as it robs you of a night sleep and you arrive early in the morning sleep deprived. The flight was reschedule for 10:30 and then 11:30. I was able to obtain 3 seats in a row so I stretched out to sleep for the trip. Knowing that I would miss the corresponding flight to Tel Aviv, I was rebooked on a plane to Athenes and then to Tel Aviv.

I was woken up 1 hour later for dinner. The food was pretty good and I had a small bottle of red and a sleeping pill. I like to fly with Air France because they offer a glass of champagne as an apero. Unfortunately the glass slid on the table spilling half of the glass. I will be more careful next time.

I arrived in Paris late, just in time to see my corresponding flight to Athens take off. I am now booked on a plane to Vienna with a correspondence to Tel Aviv, arriving at 5:00 am, 14 hours later that my original itinerary. If everything else goes as planned, door to door, I will have travelled for 35 hours.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day. I was hoping to see the Canada – Morocco game in Tel Aviv but will obviously miss it. Perhaps I can catch up with the news in the airport.

Love,

Brian

Whistler 2026-03

Whistler 3,

March 30, 2026,

Hi Everyone,

We arrived in Whistler yesterday afternoon and took possession of our condo. The girls went out shopping for food while Antoine accompanied me on my quest for gortex ski pants made by any company that had pants that fit me. Apparently, this is the last year for goretex to be manufactured. It is a wonderfu material designed by Mr. Gore who passed away a few years ago. It is 100% waterproof even in pouring rain and breaths so you don’t get overheated. It also lasts for ever and is virtually indistructable. Unfortunately, the manufacturing process is carcinogenic for the factory workers and it is impossible to recycle. I have been looking for gortex lined (not a shell) pants that fit me for over 1 year. After visiting a number of stores and trying on a dozen pairs of pants I finally found one made by Peak Performance, a Swedish company. I must have one in black as that is the colour for ski patrol pants. There was one left in the world so they will ship it to me in 2 weeks. Wow!!

We were up early and skied from 9:30 to 3:30 with a short break for lunch. Whistler is a fabulous ski station. It is divided into 2 parts, Whistler and Blackcomb. We skied all day on Blackcomp and didn’t ever touch half the trails. The Whistler Resort is huge, the biggest in North America and twice as big as most of the other resorts. It was a bluebird day with sunny skis, a few clouds and -5 C. You could not ask for a better day of skiing. The day started off with hard packed snow which eventually softened up around noon. We did groomer, broken powder runs, bowls and tree runs.

Spanky’s ladder is a snow ladder, 100 meters high at the top of the mountain and leads to expert black diamond and double black diamond trails. We took off our skis and started climbing. I make it ¾ of the way up and was gasping for breath hopefully only because of the altitude. Antoine generously climbed down to meet me and took my skis up for the last ¼ of the climb. The climb was well worth the effort as the run was largely untracked in places allowing me to enjoy my new skis. At the end of the day we did a diamond, tight, steep tree run appropriately named ‘Where’s Joe’ as is difficult to keep your colleagues in sight. This was the first time that I was able to try my skis on a tree run and they performed really well. To reward ouselves for a day well done, we had piazza and beer at the Handlebar, Bar where we met Dominique.

We each take turns cooking. Last evening it was Dominique’s turn. Tonight it is Antoine and Julia’s turn. They all know better that to ask me to take a turn.

Love,

Brian

Whistler 2026-03

Whistler 1

March 28, 2026,

Hi Everyone,

This is my second trip out west to ski and probably my 40th altogether. We flew on a direct flight from Montreal to Vancouver, the only incident being that my wife and I were not seated next to each other. The flight attendant offered us chocolate bars and drinks an hour into the flight. I chose tomato juice and wine which I realized was an error on my first sip at 10:00 a.m. They no longer serve food on domestic flights so we brought along our own empanadas. I was able to drink the wine with the empanadas for lunch.

We are staying in Vancouver for 2 nights at a downtown boutique hotel called the Victorian. It is located in a great area close to walking distance to the major attractions. We walked along Hastings Street to get to Gastown which is the older part of downtown Vancouver. When I first came here 40 years ago, there was 1 block on Hastings where all the druggies lived on the street. The area has expanded greatly since then as Vancouver attracts down and outs from all across Canada due to the climate here and the ability for one to sleep out on the street in the winter. For one reason or another we have left a large segment of the population behind in our country. I don’t know the solution.

We walked all over the downtown area. There are an over abundance of coffee shops, all quite cute and selling $8.00 croissants and $6.00 cappuccinos with 18%, 20% or 20% suggested tips. There is a beautiful view of the mountains in the distance and one can see the harbour as well. The beach is not far away. The flowers are in bloom everywhere. Vancouver rarely gets snow and had non this season. Later we met my son Antoine for dinner at a local Italian restaurant. I never take home a doggy bag but the bread was so good we took some home for breakfast.

Love,

Brian

Big Sky 2026-02

Big Sky 6,

Feb. 10, 2026,

Hi Everyone,

Last evening we had the conference banquet. The conference has been going on for 46 years and I have attended many of them. The atmosphere is very relaxed and many of the urologists bring their wives and children. Everyone is dressed in ski centre casual. The food and wine were adequate and everyone was in a very good mood. The conference, although the numbers were decreased compared to recent years was very successful. Personally, I prefer the atmosphere of smaller conferences where you can speak freely with the conference presenters. I met some old friends as well as a couple, Marty and Ellen from Denver. He is a paediatric urologist originally from Winnipeg and almost took a position in Montreal. Ellen is an excellent skier and we arranged to ski together today.

One of the conference leaders, Brian, who I knew from previous meetings, asked me how many conferences that I had attended and if I could say a few words. Never at a loss for words, I told a little story. Dr. Ralph Hopkins organized the conference until 2013. At the conclusion of the conference, in Jackson Hole,while I was putting on my ski boots, he came up to me and addressing me by my first name, asked me how I had liked the conference. I was rather surprised that Dr. Hopkins, the conference leader would even recognize me. After all, I am not very important in the urology world. He then asked me if I enjoyed the skiing and would I be back next year. I replied affirmatively and we shook hands promising to see each other the following year. 3 months later he had a cardiac episode and passed away. I month later I had a heart attack and a quadruple bypass. I can only imagine him looking down on me from above and muttering to himself “Hey Brian, where are you, we had a deal!”

Ellen and I met at 10:00 at a prearranged area at the bottom of the hill. It was a bluebird day, 5C and sunny. The powder that had fallen the day before and though broken, still gave adequate coverage with no ice showing. We followed the sun, skiing from one end of the mountain to the other. We did blues, blacks, tree runs, powdered bowls and trails. She is an excellent skier and can go down any type of hill. At around 1:00 we arrived at the far end of the mountain and after doing some tight powdery tree runs we stopped for hot chocolates and cookies.

To get back to our hotel we had to go up and down several trails taking several chairlifts. We were on top of the last run, at 3:00 pm, a black trail with moguls, sunny with broken powder, challenging but certainly doable. The trail narrowed at one point but I should have had no trouble getting through. I then experienced the absolutely worst fall of my 65 year ski career. I was skiing at moderate speed in good control when the tip of my ski hit a hidden rock. I fell straight forward over my skies and continued tumbling head over heels gaining more and more speed. I spread my arms and legs out, trying desperately to dig in and stop. It was no use, I just kept sliding and sliding. I wondered in my head if I would get badly hurt and hoped that I would not hit a tree on the side of the trail. I eventually stopped in powder snow, one ski on and one ski off 100 meters down the hill. One ski had fallen off and had accompanied me in my fall. Ellen picked up my pole which I had left further up the hill. The ski stop on one ski was bent. Two buckles on one boot were open and bent out of shape. The edge on the tip of one ski is badly bent and may not be reparable. I was gasping for breath but thankful that I had not been badly hurt. I have a minor sprain on my ankle and am limping. I pulled myself together and we skied slowly down to the bottom of the hill on an easy blue. What an experience!

Tomorrow I will fly back to Montreal.

Love,

Brian

Big Sky Montana 2026-02

Big Sky 3,

Feb. 6, 2026,

Hi Everyone,

Today was another blue bird day of skiing that you could only hope for at the end of March. I was not in a hurry to get on the slopes today as the snow is rather hard packed until the sun begins to soften it up at around 10:00 a.m. We had sunny skies all day with a temp of 10C and no wind.

I skied only on the groomers as the expert terrain was either closed or had too many rocks showing to make it worth while. Tree skiing was impossible as are the chutes. Nevertheless the sun and warm weather made for a good day of skiing. Half way down the hill is a huge igloo that you can walk through. A band was playing inside and people were dancing. There is a patio outside with sofas and chairs. Everyone was having drinks including white wine, beer and Veuve Cliquot champagne. Imagine that, in the middle of winter. I sat on a sofa, took off my ski jacket, wearing only a fleece and basked in the sun in an attempt to get a sun tan.

America is made up of 45% people of ethnic, non white origin. You would not know that by the crowd at the ski hills. Everyone is white and looks to be very successful. Skiing has become extremely expensive. In American dollars a day ticket costs $250. Hotels start at $600 a night. The ski prices are the same as in Canada except that you pay in American dollars. The ski industry must have been hit hard by the tariffs. Food prices in restaurants are unreasonable. There are beautiful areas with homes starting at $5 million and going up to $20 million. The rich and famous have discovered Big Ski just as the have discovered Jackson Hole.

On the other hand, everyone is very friendly. I have not over heard any political discussion. The chair lifts are for 4, 6 or 8 persons. The seats are heated. A bubble comes down if it is cold and windy. The guardrail pops up automatically when you arrive at the top. On the chair everyone wants to know ‘How are you doing today? Are you having a great day skiing today? Where are you from? Montreal, oh I have been there. What a great city. Do you ski at Mont Tremblant?’ It is really pleasant.

My conference starts tomorrow and I ate dinner last evening with a few friends that I know from previous conferences. We will be about 50 urologists and the staff looks to be excellent as usual. The conference is very family friendly reminding me of the times when I used to take the kids with me. I can remember renting a condo for 7 of us.

Love,

Brian

Big Sky Montana 2026-02

Big Sky 2,

Feb. 5, 2026

Hi Everyone,

I left Montreal yesterday at 11:00 a.m. and arrived here at 3:30 a.m. Montreal time, a mere 16.5 hour travel time. That includes leaving the house to allow for 3 hours to go through American customs. No one is going to the States now and passing through customs took 40 minutes. The customs officials were much less surly than usual probably happy to have visitors to their country. I had 2 hours between flights and a 4 hour wait to catch a limo to take me from Bozen International Airport to Big Sky. The drive took 75 minutes and I was asleep on arrival here. I was so tired that I left my skis outside my door in the hallway, leaving me wondering where they were when I awoke in the morning. I slept 7 hours to recuperate and was on the slopes at 10:00, a little late for me.

Today was a ‘blue bird day,’ sunny with blue skis all day. I am happy that I brought my Salmon QSTs, 92 underfoot for those of you who are knowledgeable about skis. The snow was packed powder in the morning with absolutely no ice. By 12:00 it was spring skiing in February, unheard of in recent years. It was 10C so I had to take off a few layers and was skiing with my jacket open, no neck warmer and no long underwear. I sat on a terrace at noon in a tee shirt and sipped a $10 black coffee. The prices are outrageous here.

They have not had any snow here in 10 days. I skied mostly on blue, double blue, easy black trails and bowls. There is a lot of tree and glade skiing here but no one was skiing there as the snow was hard packed. They are really spoiled here. My Icon pass covers the whole area but you must take a gondola for an extra $25 to get to the top Loan Peak area. This is a black, double black and triple black area. There are also dozens of chutes but no takers as the snow conditions were not great and there are a lot of rocks showing. All in all, there was enough open trails to ski on.

Love,

Brian

Australia-New Zealand 1

Australia- New Zealand 11,

Oct 24, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

I arrived last evening in Kuratau as small village on Lake Taupo, a large fresh water lake about 50km long and very deep. I am staying at Tongariro Adventures on the shore of the lake. My hosts Barb and Mike are lovely people. They listen well to my endless stories. I ate dinner at a high quality restaurant overlooking the lake. I had to take my motorbike to get there which curtailed my consumption of wine.

This morning I awoke to blue skies, cool temperatures which warmed up during the day. Mike advised me to ride up to Whakapapa Village ( that really is its name) and then up to the ski resort on Mt. Ruapehu. It was a wonderful ride up windy roads to the base of the mountain. The scenery begins with rolling hills and sheep and eventually breath taking views of the mountain. The mountain is covered in snow half way up, but the season was ending and I didn’t see any skiers.

Half way up the mountain, I became aware of the idiot blinking light (for idiots) warning me that I was almost out of gas. I continued up the mountain anyway as I figuered that I could always just roll back the mountain in neutral. I have been riding motorcycles for over 50 years so it is amazing that I didn’t check the reservoir before starting out. At the base of the mountain I struck up a conversation with Ben, one of the mountain employees. It is really easy to meet people when you are alone on a bike. Everyone wants to know where you are from, how long you have been in New Zealand and what are your plans for riding. I told Ben that I was out of gas. The next gas station was 10km away, a bit risky on an almost empty tank. ‘No worries.’ While I sipped a cappuccino at the cafe, he called over his friend Grace who drummed up a canister of gas for me. She was a world traveller and had worked in a ski resort in Prince George, Northern B.C.

We filled up my tank and I was on my way back to my hotel. A group of motorcycles passed me at breakneck speed. I can’t and don’t ever want to go that fast.

Love,

Brian

Photos taken on the road from Kuratau to Whakapapa

Ben and Grace

Barb

Australia-New Zealand 1

Australia-New Zealand 9

Oct. 22, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

It’a amazing, that when you are travelling, you can have good days, better days and fabulous days with only the occasion blip. Today, after breakfast, I elected to do a walking day to give my 9 hour, motorcycle bum a rest. I walked down from my hotel to the waterfront, passing through the town. Tauranga is a lovely town, doubling as a beach resort and a large industrial port. The downtown area has the usual amount of shops with a number of them specializing in hiking and sporting equipment. I did a lot of browsing but no purchasing, responding to the sales people that I was only a tourist vacationing.

I found myself at the waterfront overlooking an old railway bridge which took me across the bay. The bridge had a walking lane used by hikers, runners and bicyclists. It was 800 meters long. I walked across and found myself on a road that followed the beach on the other side. I walked for an hour and eventually a car stopped to ask me if I was lost and could she give me a lift. Her mother was in the back seat and was probably about my age. I told her that I was from Canada and that I had just completed a triathlon as she had notice the number tatoued on my arm. She drove me a few kms to the local bus station. She explained to me that she was of Mauri origin. The Mauris are the original settlers here, arriving from Polynesia several hundred years before the white man. Mauri culture is very evident here as many of the villages and mountains are in Mauri language and are unpronounceable and difficult for me to memorize. There are only 5 million people in all of NZ, many of whom are Mauri. On the bus, the stations are announced in Mauri and English. We could take a lesson from them in Quebec. Our native Indian culture is visibly lost in our everyday lives.

The bus took me to Mount Maunganui and the bus driver asked me politely if I was going to hike up the mountain. When I acknowledged that was what I was here to do, he responded ‘that is what I figured.’ I took that as a compliment as I guess that he also had seen my tatous. I had a cappuccino and muffin for lunch and spoke with a young couple from Italy, travelling around and working as cooks. I suggested to the young lady, Noel that they might find work in Whistler as they were quite interested in the fact that I was from Canada.

I asked the waitress about how long it would take me to climb the 300m mountain. She looked at me and suggested that I try the climb tomorrow as I had just consumed 1 muffin and 2 cappuchinos. I started up the mountain and asked a few young people if I could climb up the mountain in 1 hour or so. They politely smiled. There were several paths to take, longer with a gentle slope or shorter but steeper. I took the latter to go up and the former to walk down. On my way back I spoke to a young fellow who lived here and then with an Estonian waiter who is a sea captain. You meet so many people when you travel alone.

All of the pictures below were taken in Tauranga and on Mount Maunganui.

Love,

Brian