The year that was....2010 Dear Family and Friends It's that time of the year again and I see that it's been a year since I looked at the Travel Blog site. I now realise that all I had written (not very much) was all for nothing as I didn't 'publish' any of it! So thought I would 'publish' it before I add the news of 2010. So now that you have caught up with the beginning of 2010 I can update the remainder The beginning of the year was very cold with our last snow of season falling in March. By this stage we were well and truly over 'my God, look at all that beautiful snow!' We were all glad once Spring had sprung, but it's a case of enjoy it before it finishes as ... read more
Christmas time in Beijing was very interesting. In a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas they were certainly getting into it...well at least the commercial side of it....I guess where there is a buck to be made you can just about celebrate anything. All the big shopping malls were decked out with Christmas trees and baubles as was our little Chinese apartment block. Although one thing I did notice and that was I wasn't constantly bombarded with Christmas carols wherever I went...maybe it's because I steer clear of the high-end expat shops. As does happen when you have a bunch of people who have no family around, you sort of all get together. We were lucky, at least we got to celebrate with one of our children, Adam and his girlfriend Cristina, our Canadian chiro friend, Glen, ... read more
No sooner had Christmas finished then it's straight into Spring Festival. There were numerous Temple Fairs dotted around Beijing. One that we went to was in Chaoyang Park...it was like Side Show Alley...I thought I was back at The Royal Easter Show. Another was at a Dongyue Temple (the oldest Daoist temple in Beijing) which showcases a range of folk customs and activities and people attend the blessing ceremony and pray for good fortune. Grrrrr…hear the Tiger Roar! 2.4 billion people move around China visiting family and friends over this week long holiday. Will we stay or will we go that was the question. Everyone said it's a time to leave Beijing...'the constant noise from the fireworks willl drive us crazy' but Adam in his infinite wisdom told us that we should stick around...'everyone should experience ... read more
To all our wonderful family and friends Dec 09 finds us still adventuring….but now, just in the one place. Each and every day in Beijing is an adventure. What was just supposed to be a stop over to visit Adam at the end of our around the world adventure (Malcolm tells me it’s an ‘adventure’ not a ‘holiday’) has turned into 10months. The time has just flown by…hard to believe. The first 6 weeks of our arrival saw us staying with Adam who kindly gave up his bedroom for us while he slept on an airbed in the dining room. I don’t think he anticipated us staying quite so long, so in the end we said that since he was the one working we should take the airbed and he should go back to his bedroom. ... read more
Christmas 08....I know it's a year late but since it's also a diary of our trip that was, thought I would blog it! Since Lani has decided to cut short her trip and go back to Australia to go to university, she has to do a quick fly through some of the places she had on her itinerary. So after one day in Barcelona and one day in Zagreb Christmas 08 finds us meeting up with Lani in Istanbul. Lani in her usual fashion had managed to find someone who helped her out at the airport so instead of catching the tram to the stop where we agreed to meet was driven directly to the hostel….only problem being that we had changed accommodation! She had forgotten that we agreed to text each other around the arrival ... read more
Beijing ...March 2009....am making a concerted to get all the travelblog up to date...June 09...failing miserably but now that I have the 'tai tai' life let's see how we progress....ok now it's Aug.. .... Dec 7…Off to Berlin…time for our early family catch up…which was what started all this tripping about Europe in the first place. Adam works for a German event/live marketing company that fly some of its employees to Germany for their work Christmas party and it was Adam’s turn this year so we knew he would be in Germany some time in Dec. Lani had an around the world ticket with a stop over in Berlin so we knew she would be there at some time so we decided to do the early family get together and meet in Berlin on Dec 7. ... read more
November 24, 2008 Finally departed North America, coincidentally Lani was also waiting at Toronto Airport to go to London but at a different terminal. She was having a stopover from New York while we were going direct from Toronto. It was quite a miserable day with the sun setting very early but we managed to find our way to the airport using the fabulous public transport. Luckily for Ralphie and Sal we all arrived within a couple of hours of each other which meant only one trip to Heathrow. It was like coming home…Sal and Ralphie spoilt all of us. Sal and Ralphie are old friends from our Sydney days (next door neighbours) whom we have known for the past 26 years. Sal just happens to be Lani's godmother which probably explains why Lani has spent ... read more
Friday the 13th. Feb..I know this is all pretty 'old news' but keeping the blog up to date is such a nightmare....I think it's getting all the photos uploaded and captioned that takes all the time. Soon we will be in China and I will make a concerted effort to get completely up to 'real time'. Back ‘home’ to Los Angeles and a big sigh of relief…you just don’t realize how tiring and nerve wracking it can be til you stop….the driving, not knowing where you are going to sleep everynight, where you are going to eat everynight. It’s so good to have family here, where we could just kick back and relax. It’s amazing how much crap you accumulate along the way….anybody who wants to go camping…my cousin has a complete set up…we hid it ... read more
All this area is pretty spectacular, known as the 4 Corners…Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. I mean where else can you have your body in 4 different States at one time. Throughout this area we pretty much camped the whole time which I thought was pretty good going considering the temperatures got down as low as 26F…we used all 4 sleeping bags and were glad that we decided to invest in an airbed. There were mornings when we woke to frozen bottles of water left on the table. Chaco Canyon - was a major center of Puebloan culture between AD 850 and 1250. The Chacoan sites are part of the homeland of Pueblo Indian peoples of New Mexico, the Hopi Indians of Arizona, and the Navajo Indians of the Southwest. Driving toward Monument Valley we ... read more
3 months behind, but attempting to catch up with my blogging! (01/09) Reluctantly we leave Denver. There’s something about putting your feet up and stopping in one place for a while. You don’t realize how tiring travelling is til you stop and take a break. Another day’s drive saw us driving through the Sawatch Ranges which includes fifteen peaks which top14000 feet, through Monarch Pass at 11312 feet then down to stay at Gunnison. We had been told that we should go to Crested Butte to admire the Collegiate Peaks and all the wonderful fall colours but once again we seemed to have missed the best of them, but not to worry the scenery is still very beautiful. In fact all the scenery around here is very picturesque. We stopped in Silverton which is an old ... read more