Travel

Sadly, today was our day to leave London. We packed last night (after a bit of a lay down after the Ripper tour), so it was pretty easy to get up and out. Leann had her last black cab ride. Above is a shot out of the glass roof. Gay was kind enough to …

Our two tours today were a Harry Potter Tour (3 hours) and a Jack The Ripper Tour with “Rippervision” (1 hour). We arrived at King’s Cross Station *way* early, so hung around until the store opened/we were able to get our picture taken. :-) At King’s C …

Catching up from last night . . . Leann was off to the Tower of London for the Ceremony of the Keys and fish and chips, while I updated the blog and backed up our photos. (Fish was “meh,” but the chips with malted vinegar = a HUGE win!) The Ceremony of …

Well, I’ve just toodled Leann off to her “locking the gates at the Tower of London” ceremony by way of the best local fish and chips shop in TripAdvisor, downloaded photos from her phone, H’s phone, my phone . . . And now time to put it all together. S …

These are a couple of flowering bushes that I liked at our hotel: We left the hotel and were on our way in a van with a trailer. The van did not have enough room for me to get my legs into the seat, but I was able to sit in the first seat behind the dr …

As I believe I mentioned last post, it was pouring yesterday, which basically belayed what we were supposed to do on that day. But our Fearless Guide Rod was able to “smoosh” it all into one day – today! Pohutukawa – New Zealand “Christmas bush” becaus …

This is a “Waratah” – New South Wales, Australia’s flower. We drove past it in the van in Russell and Chris, our van driver and tour guide (originally from Scotland) told us about it. I thought it was really interesting looking! The Bay of Islands is m …

As you may recall, the day started for our guide, Rod, at 4:00 a.m. with notification that our flight had been cancelled. He jumped on things, however, and was able to get us on the next flight from Queenstown to Auckland. Good thing, too, since the fl …

Elizabeth and David are a couple on our trip. They came to New Zealand for their 25th anniversary (late ’80s I believe), but Elizabeth didn’t “get to” bungee jump. So she was going to do it this time around. They went when we did the Dart Jet Boat – El …

Today we took a trip out to Arrowtown. It is a picturesque mining town about a half hour bus ride from Queenstown. Rod did an orientation walk, and then Lynn (who leads Chinatown Tours in San Francisco and worked the Immigration Station on Angel Island …