Asia has a number of major hubs to Europe – Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and recently with the growth of the Chinese airlines, various Chinese cities such as Shanghai & Guangzhou (old name being Canton). When checking which transit hub to use to buy your business class ticket consider the economy of the […]
Ceylon did not become Sri Lanka until 1972. The country has had a chequered history, from the Portuguese arriving in 1505, followed by the Dutch, when the king of Sri Lanka signed a treaty with the Dutch East India Company, in the hope that the Dutch would get rid of the Portuguese. It was during […]
Food & Beverage always helps to make a holiday. Dining in the Symphony Dining room – breakfast, lunch or dinner. Maureen and I started having our breakfast in the restaurant, but ended up on deck sixteen at World Fresh Marketplace – the choice was larger, but each evening we had our dinner in the Symphony restaurant. Breakfast in […]
With such a long time at anchor off Doha, Qatar, there was not any excuse not to write home – at least we didn’t pay for the postage. We handed our letters to the purser or chief steward, which was then handed over to our agent, along with any Company communication. The Company mail was […]
A few days away from Sydney in an effort keep warm – Perth is the transit stop to Broome, which is a two hour flight north of Perth. I can’t blame Perth for its coolness of weather nor could I complain about our hotel – Novotel. Using Accor points we secured a large corner room […]
We hired our chariot for a ride around Broome and the surrounding area. Ton up Maureen OK, I admit that we will not be driving – we should have taken this tour at the beginning of our holiday, but we didn’t. Our driver was full of information that we couldn’t find in the usual tourist brochures. […]
Sunrise over Aqaba In the distance Israel, behind us Saudi Arabia, and further to the left of Israel is Egypt as we came alongside Aqaba. Aqaba is in the Kingdom of Jordon, and Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is their King, having become King on the death of his father, King Hussein, in 1999. Princess Cruises offered a number of shore […]
Before we emigrated to Australia we lived in a small town (small for the UK) of about 11,000 people called Congleton, which is in Cheshire. During the time we lived there we took part in the celebrations for the town’s 700 th anniversary. I worked shifts for BOAC (later British Airways) at Manchester Airport, which […]
Two and a half times around the deck equals one mile (1.66 km) Yesterday we thought we’d do the mile before breakfast, only to find that the deck we wished to use was ‘closed’ due to the crew washing down and they didn’t want anyone to slip and hurt themselves. We climbed to various other […]
Sunrise over New Caledonia For a time I was in a business partnership with a Frenchman, who lived in Tahiti and later moved to New Caledonia before finally moving to Sydney. I can remember him saying that for a Frenchman working for the French government and being posted to one of the French colonies in […]
Sunrise over Aqaba In the distance Israel, behind us Saudi Arabia, and further to the left of Israel is Egypt as we came alongside Aqaba. Aqaba is in the Kingdom of Jordon, and Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is their King, having become King on the death of his father, King Hussein, in 1999. Princess Cruises offered a number of shore […]
Our next stop would be the Barossa Valley, which was a six hour drive from Broken Hill. As we headed south it was all open spaces. The pictures above reminded me of Jack Absalom’s paintings. The Australian land has very distinctive smell, for me it is the smell of Australia and I love it! My […]
Flag of Wales The Eisteddfod can be traced back to Cardigan Castle in 1176, when the House of Dinefwr, which was a royal house of Wales, supported the eisteddfod. The House of Dinefwr can be traced back to King of Gwynedd in 844. The above is the flag of Dinefwr. The Eisteddfod had it ups […]
The old and the new – Golden Princess can be seen with a sailing ship along side. We berthed close to the town, which allowed for a short walk to many places of interest. A touch of yesteryear where ever we looked. Many of the streets and homes reminded me of New Zealand, quiet and […]
