This week’s virtual road trip roundup ranges near and far. From the comfort of home with a click of a mouse, you can enjoy a free concert by two Kingston musicians, test your knowledge of geography, tour Quebec City or the Diefenbunker, or learn how to make pork carnitas. Happy online travels!
Delve into geography with Canadian Geographic
Canadian Geographic magazine is hosting an online talk by ultramarathoner and Royal Canadian Geographical Society explorer-in-residence Ray Zahab on Thursday, May 14, at 7pm. And the magazine is holding its second live trivia game on Facebook on Tuesday, May 19, at 7pm.
Take a free virtual tour of Quebec City
SunnyTourGuide, a Quebec City walking tour company, is now offering two of its popular itineraries—one of the Upper Town and one of the Lower Town—for free online, as virtual 45-minute tours. You can also arrange for a private virtual tour for $50.
Catch a concert by two Kingstonians
Visit Kingston is promoting a Facebook Live show on Friday, May 15, by two musicians with Kingston connections. Country artist Kyle Dunn (see video above) was a semi-finalist in the CBC Searchlight competition and has recorded in Nashville, and singer-songwriter Tim Sheffield’s music reflects influences as varied as reggae, funk and country.
Raise a glass on National Caesar Day
Did you know that the Bloody Caesar is a uniquely Canadian cocktail? (I did, because my niece’s American husband was so intrigued by them when he first visited Canada that we now make them regularly during our family Thanksgiving cottage weekends.)
To celebrate National Caesar Day, OCCO Kitchen is hosting an online Caesar event on Thursday, May 14, starting at 3pm. And Saturday, May 16, also starting at 3pm, Smirnoff’s is hosting Ottawa’s Virtual Caesar Crawl. Using the ingredients that Smirnoff will deliver to your door, you can tune in to watch cocktail experts in four Ottawa venues walk you through the mechanics of making a perfect drink. Hurry on this one, thought—as I type, there are only a few kits left.
Stroll virtually around the Diefenbunker
If you haven’t yet made it to the Diefenbunker—a decommissioned Cold War bunker deep below a field in Carp—you can enjoy one of four virtual tours around it until you get the chance to visit “in real life.” Check out the machine room, the vault where Canada’s gold reserves would have been stored (it was later converted into a gym for the soldiers on the base!) and more.
Kick back with a movie
Ottawa’s Canadian Film Institute is taking its European Union Short Film Festival completely online this year, and it’s all free! From May 14 to 21, you can stream short movies from across the European Union and enjoy them at home. Films include The Lion and the Monkey, an animated tale of friendship (Belgium); Half Speak, a drama about a couple’s conversations in their car (Hungary); and Salt Wound, which sees an Englishwoman arrive in a Greek village where the locals are fighting a private development project (Greece). The movies are grouped in streams focused on three themes: love, life changes and the passage of time.
Moving from art films to Hollywood flicks: If you rent one of the streaming movies in Cineplex Canada’s Movies That Give Back promotion, the cinema chain will donate a dollar to Canadian food banks. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of most of the movies promoted here as “recent favourites,” but that doesn’t mean much—I’m more of a TV person!
Take a virtual tour of Cornwall’s historic sites
The Cornwall Historic Walking Tour includes more than 30 plaques installed throughout Cornwall and its outskirts. These days, you can follow the route online and read about sites such as Sheik Island, the Cornwallis Hotel, the New York Central Railway Bridge and the Canadair T-133 Silver Star monument (see photo above).
Hear and see nature in Lanark County
It’s hard to get out in nature these days, so Lanark County photographer Jennifer Jilks is bringing nature to us with these videos of wood ducks, mallards and a wonderful chorus of frogs.
Enjoy photos from around Quebec
Since we can’t travel, Tourisme Quebec is encouraging Quebeckers to post photos from their windows on Facebook and Instagram, and inviting non-Quebeckers to share photos from happy trips in the past. Use the hashtags #PourUnMoment and #ForAMoment when sharing your images and when looking for photos others have posted. This post from Tourisme Outaouais explains the idea in more detail.
Meditate to the natural sounds of Mexico
One thing about this lockdown is that my definition of a “road trip” has expanded to cover the whole world. So here’s an intriguing offering from Los Cabos Tourism: a collection of 15-minute soundscapes designed to reduce stress and help you meditate. They blend sounds of nature from Mexico—such as wind, waves and whale songs—with orchestral music and spoken meditations (in English or Spanish).
Learn to make pork carnitas
Speaking of long-distance virtual road trips: Accor Hotels has just served up this two-minute video featuring chef Luke Mathot, who gives some quick tips on making pork carnitas (basically, Mexican-style pulled pork) at home. Since he’s a pro chef, the recipe is a bit freewheeling—along the lines of “try this, and if you don’t have any of that, use this”—but it looks really tasty.
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