The body clock is still not adjusted and although the alarm is set for 5.15am to give enough time to shower and prepare for a taxi to the airport and out 9am flight to Rome, we still woke at 3.15am,again !Perhaps tonight we will sleep all the way through to a more normal hour. We had been pretty efficient last night and the suitcases were packed and today’s clothes laid out. Still haven’t worked out the shower water from flooding back but what the heck it’s our last shower and we will leave them to mop up any surplus that doesn’t drain back down the grate. Friday is holy day in Dubai and so the streets were relatively quiet and our ex-Pakistani taxi driver, who had a remarkable side profile to Daniel Craig the current James ... read more

We counted at least 16 nationalities amongst the cabin crew that joined the flight out of Sydney and they got down to business quickly once the plane had levelled out.By the time Broken Hill was below us they were serving another dinner.We thought about whether we should be eating two dinners in one night and then decided,yes,as it looked like it would be a while to breakfast with the 14 and a bit hour flight ahead of us. The offering was different from the first dinner and again tasty.This new crew though were no different to the first and the offer of drinks came well after we had eaten.To be fair though we didn't need to participate in wine after midnight and settled for a juice instead. Our surrounding passengers had changed in nationality too with ... read more

Before we give you a bit of a summary of today we would like to share some facts with you of the BBA which started on April19th 2009. First though we would most sincerely like to thank all those people who helped make this adventure one we will never forget. Arthur and Dorothy in Settle,Rhona and Eric from Leeds,Ian and Chris from Long Preston,Jean and Stella from Southwick,Anice and Bruce from Kendal,Alan and Alison from Edinburgh,Jamieson and Jackie from Edinburgh,Aileen and John plus all the cousins and Benvies from Montrose and nearby ,Wim and Dinny from Zwolle and Di and Sebastian from near Lucerne and to anyone we might have inadvertently forgotten a VERY BIG THANK YOU for the greeting and the hospitality you gave.Without this our adventure would definitely not have been as memorable.We look ... read more

Things are all back to normal in the hotel at least from a hot water in our room to be able to shower and get ready for another day of sightseeing. Tour director,Gretchen,has day two planned with more top attractions to see all to be connected by rides on the Metro.Paris is proving to be a little bigger to get around over the three days that we have and the best option for today and tomorrow is to use the Metro.It may mean we miss some places we would have passed had we been walking a bit more but we just have to accept that and pick up on those when we come back to Paris again. We are out of the hotel door 45 minutes earlier than yesterday and across the road to the Gare ... read more

It’s a strange life!! For the past few weeks after daylight saving finished in Europe we had been waking in the morning quite late,sometimes not until 8am even.Yet this morning,without a car for the first time in months to get to our next destination,we are awake at 5.30am!!!And all this because we had programmed out minds to think that we must be awake so we can get prepared and over to the station so we don’t miss our train to Paris at 9.30am, four hours away!! We did manage to get some further shuteye before we got serious about rising at 7am. With all but the barest supplies of a couple of pieces of fruit,yogurt,toast and butter our breakfast will be of the ‘express’type this morning. Getting down the 4 flights of winding, narrow steps with ... read more