Sylvia: Saturday 22 October We had a leisurely start to the day with breakfast in the hotel then headed down the road to the nearest subway station to start our exploration of Tokyo. I had studied a number of guides and come up with the most recommended route for our weekend here. The subways here […]
Wednesday 19 October A 50 minute train ride places me in Antwerp, about 45kms north of Brussels. My mother was stationed here in the latter part of WWII on an anti aircraft battery. She had always spoken highly of the place. At her seventieth birthday she told us a story of being strafed with machine gun fire […]
Tuesday 18 October Having arrived in Brussels by train last night, I headed to the Midi station and caught the train to Waterloo, while Sylvia headed off to work. A short stroll and I arrived at the information centre. Nineteen euros got me a ticket to all the sites of the famous battle. Apparently I had an ancestor […]
Sunday 16 October 2016 This is a tribute to my brother Gareth James “the barefoot blacksmith” who passed away in April this year. http://youtu.be/ZnO_4KbGbu8 We took a stroll from our hotel on Charlotte Street down to the banks of the Thames, passing the Royal Opera House, Covent Gardens and Somerset House. Crossing the Waterloo bridge, […]
Saturday 17 September After a well-deserved sleep in (well-deserved really for Sylvia as she has been in meetings and on calls from early to late all week) we headed downtown on the subway. Emerging at the World Trade Centre I was stunned by the changes here. The last time I was here in early 2002 the rubble had just […]
Monday 12 September Arriving in Tucson last night my long-time good friend Murray picked me up and drove us the 150k (just down the road here) back to Hereford in Southern Arizona where he and wife Row live. We are up early and out to the local air force base where Murray is supervising some construction […]
Sunday 21 August – Sylvia There was a cold change overnight. Apparently these happen from time to time when the winds blow straight up from Patagonia and temperatures drop for three days, in this case down from the high 30’s into the mid-teens. We had planned a 5:45am canoe outing this morning but due […]
Monday 15 August – Sylvia We had an extremely early start with a 5am pick up from the hotel this morning. All went fairly smoothly with our flights from Rio to Brasilia and on to Cuiaba, where we were met by our guide for the next few days, Lucy. Cuiaba is a small dusty […]
Friday 12 August We opted for a late start having not settled in to the hotel Fasano until 2am. We took a stroll down Ipanema Beach and around the corner to the Sheraton Hotel where we had to pick up our Olympic cycling tickets. The NZ Olympics lounge has a set up there where family members […]
Monday 8 August Crossing the coast into Chile revealed beautiful green paddocks rising up into grassy hills. With the snow capped Andes in the distance and clear blue sky’s it’s quite stunning. Smog surrounded Santiago as the Boeing 787 landed, applying full brakes, I presume to get an early exit from the runway. We walked off […]