TheStevos

Croatia has a fascinating history, but most amazingly, its founders had the foresight to build cities that would one day become the set of ‘Game of Thrones’. As we cruised south through Split, Korčula, and eventually Dubrovnik, we could see that every town has jumped on the Game of Thrones bandwagon with Game of Thrones souvenirs and tours for those enthusiasts. For the septuagenarians I was cruising with, they had less interest in these activities. Each of these three stops was once well fortified, but not necessarily at the same time. Split was the Roman emperor Diocletian’s retirement home and it had a lot more living space than a typical Arcare residence. Before Diocletian turned the first sod, there was nothing much along this section of coast and the town of Split evolved around the palace. ... read more

Big bustling London. There’s always something to do in this metropolis. To say that it doesn’t sleep is not entirely correct. London takes a while to wake up in the mornings. Even on workdays it seems that the inhabitants are tucked away in their pokey little apartments until well after sunrise. At this time of year, the sun gets up pretty early too. To me that seems like a waste of daylight! When London finally springs to life there is always something for the traveller to enjoy. Mum and I have both been to London a few times and seen most of the big attractions. This time around we took in a stage show. If you are easily offended, I recommend that you stay well away from ‘The Book of Mormon’. Mum went a second time ... read more

I've just begun another adventure, but this time with a different companion. Nathan has been left at home to walk the dog and Leanne is earning money. That leaves me to travel with Mum. We flew into Heathrow this morning but straight away parted ways. Mum went to visit her friend Carol for 6 days and that gives me 6 days to check out the South of England before we meet up again and continue our trip through England, Italy and Croatia. So day one has been in Bath, a place I've wanted to see for a long time. I'm glad to say that it is as charming as I had hoped. The town was originally a Roman resort. You know how they liked a bath! Well, some Roman found a stinky, muddy marsh and decided ... read more

I just spent AUD$30 to do a load of washing. It was money well spent. I will explain later. This story begins at the very pointy southern tip of South America, in Ushuaia. When we got off the cruise ship we were so glad to just walk away and forget about all of the instructions that had been given to disembarking passengers the day before. When you have to get off ... which bus number you will have to get on ... What plane you will need to catch (and no doubt wait an unreasonable amount of time for at the boarding gate). We didn't enjoy feeling like sheep being herded around on the first day of the tour and much prefer independent travel whenever it is possible. We took the opportunity to see the southernmost ... read more

NOTE: There are lots of nice photos at the end of this entry. Please have a look at them after the text. We've waited almost three years since we first booked this cruise to Antarctica. Everyone knows why it was delayed through 2020 and 2021, but when we were so close to finally seeing the white continent it felt like there was always just one more obstacle in the way. First we had to get a negative result for a COVID test the day before departure. Fortunately all three of us managed to do that. The tour operator decided to charge 65 euros per test, for a RAT that we know costs about 5 euros. Oh well, whatever! Then we were told that we need to be on a bus to depart the hotel at 2.30 ... read more