Professors Burch

NEW ZEALAND – AUSTRALIA CRUISE January 2 – 16, 2013 Since my trip “down under” twenty-five years ago, I couldn’t wait to return. I wanted Bill to experience their stunning natural beauty and diversity as well, but neither of us wanted to withstand the excruciatingly long plane ride in coach class. So, we saved up until we had 600,000 frequent-flier miles, enough for two round-trip business class tickets, and booked a 12-day cruise with Celebrity Cruise Lines, one of our favorites. Our flights were spread over three legs—Houston to LAX to Sydney to Auckland on United and Air New Zealand—and they were, as expected, luxurious. The food was elegant and plentiful, the on-board entertainment system offered over one hundred program choices, and the seats reclined to a full 180 degrees, which enabled me to get about ... read more

BALTIC CRUISE # 2 July/August, 2011 One of our favorite cruises was the 12-day Baltic Cruise that we took several years ago on Royal Caribbean, so when we discovered a shorter, slightly different version of that voyage, we decided to book it. Some of the ports of call that we particularly enjoyed on the earlier cruise (Stockholm, Helsinki, and especially St. Petersburg) were included as well as new ones we had never before visited in Latvia, Poland, and on a Swedish island called Gotland. We flew to Stockholm, Sweden, on Swedish airline SAS because it offered discounted business class seats, and what a pleasant experience it was! Upon being seated, we were offered Champagne and mimosas. The seats were spacious and reclined fully, and the food, which had a Scandinavian flair, was yummy. Soon after taking ... read more

GALAPAGOS ISLANDS June 11 - 17, 2010 The Galapagos Islands have for centuries captured the interest of people from all over the globe. Having majored in biology, I have always wanted to witness firsthand the uniqueness of the Galapagos ecosystem. It has been called a naturalist's dream and often described as a "living laboratory of evolution." Until the discovery of the Islands in 1535, the flora and fauna of Galapagos evolved in isolation, producing strange and marvelous island species, as Charles Darwin found when he visited the islands in the 1800s.The isolation and inaccessibility that make these volcanic islands so unique also make it difficult and expensive to visit, however. They straddle the equator in the Pacific about 800 miles west of Ecuador, and only about 145,000 people visit annually. Nonetheless, the effort and money required ... read more

Autumn in New England and the Canadian Maritimes - 2009 There is nothing quite like autumn in New England and the Canadian Maritime provinces with their kaleidoscope of glorious colors, continually changing in a blaze of glory. The Caribbean Princess took us there in grand style on an eight-day cruise out of Brooklyn, stopping at the ports of Halifax, Nova Scotia; Saint John, New Brunswick; Bar Harbor, Maine; Boston, Mass; and Newport, Rhode Island. The Caribbean Princess is the largest ship in the Princess fleet with a capacity of 3,622 passengers and 1,200 crew members. After arriving in Newark and paying $100 (including tip and tolls) for a cab ride to the dock in Brooklyn, we boarded in early afternoon. We spent several hours familiarizing ourselves with the 960-foot-long ship (the length of a football field ... read more

LONDON May, 2009 There is a reason that London continues to be one of the top tourist destinations in the world : With all of the history, culture, entertainment, shopping, royalty, and just all-around ambiance, it is difficult to top London. This was our third trip to this spectacular city; however, the first two were brief and a long time ago, so we were looking forward to having an entire week to explore. For our friends Ed and Charlotte, it was their first visit, which made it even more fun. Our overnight flight from Houston to London arrived at 9:30 a.m., and we promptly bought underground train tickets (London's Tube) for the 55-minute ride to our hotel on Kensington High Street, the Hilton Olympia. Our rooms were not yet ready, so we left our bags with ... read more