Here we go, Headed off at about 6:45am and headed north towards Aspen. Plan to stay overnight in a place called Blanding in Utah. Comfortable drive and stopped in Flagstaff for breakfast at Dennys. Have become a bit of a fan of the breakfast, freshly cooked and almost drinkable coffee. Noticed the temperature had dropped sharply from Pheonix. 78°f down to 53°f. Flagstaff is at 7000ft so that will do it. Suitably fed, we headed off intending to go via Monument Valley. Pleasant drive through Navajo country with lots of small settlements. Arrived at Monument Valley (http://www.navajonationparks.org/htm/monumentvalley.htm) and was suitably impressed with the country side and the vistas so reminiscent of all the old cowboy movies you see. Souvenir shop was full of John Wayne memorabilia. Spent about 2 hours taking pho... read more

Have been slack In the last 5 days we have had lot of things to as well as some illness. A passenger went down with a severe bout of flu on Day 2 and didn’t surface for at least 3 days. She has managed to infect pretty much the whole ship with even the cruise director Evonne getting ill. On our sail to Nuremburg Gaynor managed to develop a serious cough. I was not the best either so we decided that we would have a day on the boat, keep ourselves warm and hopefully kick the bug. One fellow traveller Dianne offered to buy us some cold medication whilst ashore, we gave her an order for some lemsip and cough medicine. It was quite relaxing although Gaynor was going downhill rapidly. Dianne returned with some goods ... read more

Well, here we are again. Landed in Budapest around 5pm, taxi to hotel. The Sofitel is very nice and quite reasonable with club lounge access which means if you don't have to eat out if you take advantage of the spread they provide. You also don't check in in the lobby, but get taken straight up to the Club lounge and check in there. Very civilized. Gaynor is getting stuck into it with her champagne journey around Europe. We spent the evening chatting with a couple of ladies from England Sue and B who are here on a girls weekend away, and loving it. The lounge closed so we off to bed to ready ourselves the next day of sightseeing. In the morning after breakfast bought a Hop on-Hop off bus ticket and went around the ... read more

Well There has been a lot of water under the bridge since I last spoke. I think the best way to due is dot point form in chronological sequence. Bath:- We awoke to the typical English B'fast which was OK but the service, albiet polite, it was when they came to you with very little pro-activity in the way they did things. We headed up the road adn waited for a Hop on-Hop off bus to turn up. We have always found these a great way to get around. They have running commentary and stop at various points to allow you to sight see at your leisure, then rejoin the bus when you are ready to continue around. You can get on and off as many times as you like in the day. We traveled round ... read more

Just a quick update. Flight to Singapore was good. Changi airport is huge. It makes Tulla look like a bush terminal, albiet the shops and outrageous prices are the same. I suppose that's the case with all airports. It is such a guilty pleasure to fly up the pointy end. You could almost fit 4 people in the same space ( and they probably do down the back). The seat folds down into a bed ( photos to follow ) and you can tell the frequent travelers in that class because as soon as the seat belt sign goes off they jump up, convert the seat to bed format, press the "do not disturb" sign and sleep for the entire flight. I had to get the hostess to make my bed up. I think I managed ... read more