Glasgow - September 11 & 12, 2009 Glasgow was our final Scotish destination and how lucky were we that on the Saturaday there was a large music festival thorghout the city. Within the downtown portion of the city a number of the streets are pedesttian only. Towards the centre of the city there was at least one muscial group per block. [View Full Entry]

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The Isle of Skye -- September 9, 10, 11, 2009 To visit Scotland is also to visit the Highlands. Early on the 9th we set off with Highland Experience Tours, which included an excellent guide (who had lived in Montreal & Toronto for 5 years before returning to Scotland) and a small number of other travelers. First we journed through Rob Roy territory, passing Stirling Castle, which is one of the most photgraphed castles in Scotland. and up to the wild expanse of Rannoch Moor to Glencoe. We travlelled past Fort William (It was considered that whoever controlled Fort William controlled [View Full Entry]

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Edinburgh -- September 7th & 8th, 2009 Sept 7th We caught an early train to Edinburgh. When we arrived at the Sheraton Grand Edinburgh and went to check-in, who should check us in but a young girl from our home town of Whitby Ontario. Our room was not ready so off we went touring, first down Princess Street which is a primary shopping area to acquire a kilt for our granddaughter, combined with a tour of the city on one of those Hop-on-Hop-off busses top get an idea of the lay-out of the city. Sept 8th Unfortunately we woke to rain [View Full Entry]

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St Andrews Scotland -- Sept 3, 2009 Sept. 3rd was to be our day of travel to St Andrews a 5 ½ train ride which turned into a 10 ½ ride. First there was problems with the wires ahead of the train, next there was flooding near Dunbar and trains going north to Scotland were being turned back (after some delay the passengers from earlier trains were transferred to ours and we made it past Dunbar. However, problems come in 3‘s so our next problem was the breaks on the engine. Eventually we made it to St Andrews, in the pouring [View Full Entry]

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London, England -- September 1st & 2nd, 2009 We arrived in London the morning of August 31st, and although we had little rest, never-the-less we signed up for one of those tours where you can jump on and off at different sights within a 24 hour period. It is a great way to get a quick overview. September 1st, we are off first for Buckingham Palace. There are different tours that one can take; we chose the State Room tour. A tour that I would recommend to anyone, unfortunately you are not permitted to take pictures once in the Palace so [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop after Melbourne was Cairns, several days on Dunk Island and trips to the Great Barrier Reef. While Adelaide and Melbourne were coping with 6 years of drought and fires, the northern portion of Australia was struggling with flooding. The flooding was so extreme that when we travelled to the Great Barrier Reef it was foggy and I didn't bother to get my pictures developed. The Reef was an hour out to sea from Dunk Island and yet the rivers were carrying so much silt that this far out to sea that visiblity was limited. This was our 2nd [View Full Entry]

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On February 7th we can claim to have been in the hotest city in the world which was Melbourne. The tempature was 46.4 C or 115F. I don't know what the effect of wind would be but if it is -10C and there is a wind it will feel and the impact will be as if the tempature were colder i.e. -20C (Windchill). There must be the same effect with heat, for on the day the tempature rose to 46.4C there was a very strong wind and it felt as if there was a very huge and strong hair dryer on [View Full Entry]

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I will have to go back and post some additional pictures, since upon review I did not post some of the better shots taken in and around Sydney; but we will hold this for a later posting. On Febuary 1st we flew from Sydney to Adelaide. The entire week before, Adelaide and South Australia had tempatures of 40C+. In the summer time South Australians are accustomed to 40 C for one or two days but then a break with the tempature declining into the 30's but never a full week of 40C and higher. For the four days we were in [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Brisbane on January 25, 2009; rented a car and set out to drive to Sydney along the Gold Coast. This was my first time driving on the left hand side of the road. It not that difficult if you rememberr that as the driver you should always be closest to the driver coming in the opposite direction. My biggest problem was with the turn-signals and the windshield wipers. At home the turn signal is on the left side of the steering wheel. Well in Australia, it is on the right; the result was that frequently when I went [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop after French Polynesia was the Kingdom of Tonga. From there we we suppose to travel to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, unfortunately the Cook Islands were being hammered by a hurricane, so the Captain wisely decided to take a long detour and sail directly to Vavau Tonga. I did discover one thing in the 31/2 days at sea and that is that Mare has a stronger stomach than I do. If one wishes to visit an island in the South Pacific that is still under developed with regard to the tourist trade, I would recommend Tonga. Another day [View Full Entry]

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