We are in a lovely hotel in Urubamba, a small town in the Sacred Valley. The steep peaks of the Andes tower above us and make a sharp contrast with the Spanish-style style colourful gardens and mission architecture of Hotel Agustos. Today we left Cusco and entered the Sacred Valley, which is surrounded by rugged mountains. Parts of the foothills are striped with terraces, necessary for agriculture in this inhospitable terrain. It was interesting to see the same techniques used by the Inca and for contemporary farming which (apart from tourism) is the chief activity in the area. The focus of today was Pisac, a large archeological site which was a key Inca city and religious centre in the 14th Century before the construction of Machu Picchu. Surrounding massive terraces running down the mountain side, there ... read more

The start of this holiday was a series of challenges with our Melbourne to Syney flight delayed due to high winds causing us to miss our Sydney-Auckland- Lima connection and our one day tour of Lima and resulting in lost luggage, which we are told is now en route and we hope will arrive tomorrow. But there was a silver lining - we had a lovely unplanned day in Auckland courtesy of Qantas, had lunch with cousins Natasha and Rob, and took in a little of the views from the Waitakere Ranges. I also managed to convince Qantas to compensate us by moving our return flights a couple of days later so we can see Lima at the end so if the luggage turns up it will all work out. But today the holiday really got ... read more

Danny felt we could not visit Japan without paying our respects at Hiroshima, the city whose name has become a metonym for the devastation of atomic warfare. The memory of the A-bomb is a constant shadow in this city, not just at the Peace Park and Peace Museum. Random trees, for example, are marked as having survived the bomb, which flattened most of the city. The most visible memorial is the well known Atomic Dome, originally a trade building with a domed roof near the hypocentre of the attack, which unlike all other buildings in the vicinity was still standing albeit in shreds. Today it has been reinforced to ensure it remains in the state it was on 6 August 1945, as a witness. The Peace Park has a great many memorials to different groups of ... read more

Our last day in Kyoto, the historical capital of classical Japan where we have seen so many beautiful gardens and temples but will have to leave hundreds more unseen. We finished with a bang today, with one of the most famous temples and one of the best known gardens. Rokuon-ji is better known as Kinkaku-Ji, the Golden Temple, because of the gold leaf that adorns its exterior. The gleaming building is one of the great sights of Japan. It was destroyed in a notorious arson attack in 1950 and was fully restored -some say better than the original. It sits above a beautiful reflecting pond in another lovely garden and is certainly a not-to-be-missed sight. Our other stop today was Ryoan-ji, a temple famous for its stone garden but also home to some beautiful ink paintings ... read more

The heavens opened today and it poured, washing many fragile cherry blossom petals into the gutters. I think we may have had the best of the season though there will still be some blooms around and it is expected to clear tomorrow. Limited to inside activities, we had a slow start and a short day - a good rest for Deborah's foot and Danny's back. We visited the Ninomaru Palace at Nijo-jo Castle, built by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the final great unifier of Japan and founder of the Edo era. It is the classic example of shoin-zakura architecture, that beautiful style typified by sliding sliding screens, tatami mats and elegant tokonoma alcoves where one precious piece is displayed. Ninomaru is famous for its 'nightingale floor', a corridor that squeaks when you walk on it so as to ... read more