Wednesday 5th December An early start where we did our final packing and washing of sheets & towels before being taken to the airport by Moe & Colin. They have both been great to us and we would have liked to get to know them better as they have some similar ideas & values. The trip to Prague was uneventful, Easyjet having the best planes and service we have come across with the cut-price airlines. At Prague we decided to use the public transport system rather than a taxi as we had excellent directions on how to get to our hotel through the Net. A us and two metro trains and an hour later we reached our hotel, the City Club. The travel was a bit of an adventure but only cost us about A$3 ... read more

Lanzarote Sunday 25th November After spending the morning tidying and ensuring our bag was packed we were ready when Colin picked us up at 11.30am. We had no problems checking in at Stansted and security was well organised and efficient. We killed a little time in the duty free before making our way to the lounge at the gate where we read the novels we had brought until it was time to board. A very bumpy landing ended our flight into a windy, rainy Lanzarote. On the way to the luggage Judy bumped into an old friend Ros Keep who had lived for several years in Perth before returning to England where she now manages a pub near Cambridge. They talked fourteen to the dozen but unfortunately Ros and her friend Mike were booked into an ... read more

Monday 12th November We awoke to a cold morning, the car was covered in ice and the thermometer gave the outside temperature as - 4.5 degrees. Breakfast was not as good as those we have been having, no choice of cereals and the bare bits of a cooked breakfast - perhaps Scottish breakfasts aren't as hearty as English breakfasts! After washing the ice off the car windows with some warm water we set off for Edinburgh. It was so cold the ice on the bonnet remained there throughout the trip. We found the Castle St carpark following the directions the landlady had given us and walked around the corner to Edinburgh Castle. Here we were given a 'seniors' discount entry using Rag's Australian Seniors card, much to Judy's discomfort. (she upset that they considered her a ... read more

Sunday 4th November Awakening early we had intentions of a quiet day and started with the morning papers and a few chores, however the Indian summer continues and we felt guilty wasting the sunshine. We thought a walk would be great so headed toward Hatfield Forest some 30 minutes away. Arriving we discovered we weren't the only ones with a walk in mind. The place was packed with families enjoying the sunshine, children on scooters and bikes and couples walking their dogs. We were glad we'd thought to pack sandwiches as the queue for food was 20 metres long! We set off toward the lake where we found a wooden boardwalk. We were surprised that the forest didn't meet our definition of a forest as it had small groves of trees and large grassed areas. Looking ... read more

We made an early start as Larni & Lynne needed to get away early and we had decided to go to London to pick up our visas from the Chinese Embassy. They followed us until just outside of Walthamstow where they had to divert to go to Illford for their final school visit before flying to Paris this evening. Much waving as we enjoyed having them for their few days with us. It felt like a bit of Australia had come to us and we had so many laughs while they were with us. We picked up our passports with the relevant visas, no queues to this part of the building and a much shorter one going in than when we applied. Always the way! From here we made our way to Monument Station where we ... read more