May to July 2015 16-May Depart Sydney 9:10pm – QF8413: Sydney to Dubai, QF8519: Dubai to Oslo 17-May Arrive Oslo 12:30pm 1. Thon Hotel Rosenkrantz, Oslo 18-May Thon Hotel Rosenkrantz, Oslo 19-May Fly to Bergen – SK267, depart 1:35pm, are 2:25pm. Stay overnight Clarion Hotel No. 13, Bergen 20-May 20 May to 3 June – […]
The final leg: Xi’An to Auckland
Roger: Wednesday 29 July As we departed the hotel four staff came and said goodbye, one asking politely for us to put a comment on trip advisor. As suggested by the hotel staff we stopped at the Hanyangling Museum. This place was incredible, dating from the Han Dynasty, around two thousand years ago, prior to the […]
Beijing to Xi’An
Roger: Monday 27 July At 0640 I snuck out of the hotel leaving Sylvia sleeping. A 30-minute stroll to Tiananmen Square was relatively quiet. I had headed there to check out Mau who like Lenin has been preserved or embalmed. We had checked out the sign yesterday and worked out it was open 0700 to 1100 […]
Ulan Bator to Beijing
Roger: Thursday 23 July The Kempinski Hotel seemed to have slipped into the local way of not getting things right. The check-out was a shambles, I was expecting John Cleese to appear any second. Eventually a taxi took us to the station. The driver wanted 25k in locals for what should have been 6 to 8. […]
Trans Mongolian Railway: Irkutsk to Ulan Batar
Roger: Friday 17 July Sylvia wasn’t feeling too good so stayed in bed. I took a stroll out to the east side of town. The streets are dirty, not with rubbish, but even sealed roads have in places thick patches of mud on then. Even in the centre of town there is a fine layer of dirt […]
Trans-Siberian Railway: Moscow to Irkutsk
Sylvia: Saturday 11 July After another lavish breakfast, which for Roger again included champagne and caviar, we headed off in separate directions. I had forgotten to collect our tickets for the Trans-Siberian railway and had to find my way by metro across Moscow to a guard station to pick them up. Of course, at the […]
St Petersburg to Moscow
Roger: Wednesday 8 July Heading down the passage of the Hermitage hotel we struck a Russian bride all frocked up. Down in the rather grand foyer a few pieces of brass spark up as the groom and about twenty people stand around. As we get to the ATM in the foyer the bride arrives […]
Visiting Friends: Chatillon en Diois, France and Berlin, Germany
Sylvia: Friday 3 July We have a leisurely start this morning with breakfast in the Shangri-La hotel before taking the metro to the Gare de Lyon where we catch our train to Lyon at 10:58am and then on to Valence. The TGV whizzes along quickly and we arrive in Valence on time. We catch a […]
Venice to Paris
Roger: Tuesday 30 June We leave the Villa Tuttorotto with its Roman artefacts in the basement at 0500 for a short stroll through the old city, bag wheels clacking over the rough cobble stones. The locals must get pissed off with early departing tourists. The Venezia Line ferry departed at 0630. We were a little surprised […]
Croatia by Land – Plitvice Lakes and Rovinj
Roger: Sunday 28 June Up early we were at the number one entrance to the Plitvice Lakes before nine. The lovely Irene at Villa Irene had suggested we get there before the tour bus crowds arrived. By nine we were zigzagging our way down the hill passing groups of Asian tourists wired for sound! It seems […]