After two mind numbing flights, first leg Auckland to Singapore (10 hours 30 minutes) then after a four hour stopover, then the second leg from Singapore to Munich (13 hours) arriving here at 5:25am this morning. There were long delays getting through immigration, well over an hour and probably closer to an hour and a half, and once I was through I decided I was too brain dead to even consider trying to work out how to catch the train into the city where my hotel is, with two suitcases, one of which is rather heavy so taxi it was. It was an expensive way of doing it but one has to help keep the economy going. I was surprised to find the day was very overcast, after having read of the heat waves in Europe ... read more

The final cruise morning coming into Amsterdam was fine and misty but many photo opportunities in the amazing light. We arrived in Amsterdam around mid day as we were having lunch, however we did not leave the ship until about 1:45 pm when the Freedom of Choice tours were due to commence. We had decided to go to Zaanse Schans which is a picturesque village which is famous for it's traditional Dutch buildings and windmills as I didn't think that Christine and Peter would get the opportunity to be in the countryside other than to see what we saw from the ship as we came along the canal to Amsterdam where we docked. We had one final night on board then we had to be out of our cabins by 9:00 am so they could prepare ... read more

Last night we had just one plan for today and that was to go to Kalkara and visit Fort Rinella. By this morning we had added to that plan, and that was to go back to Valletta first and check out St John's Co-Cathredral. I had been talking to an ex-colleague who is on secondment to Malta and he had said if we did nothing else in Valletta we shouldn't miss out seeing this cathedral. That thought ate away at us overnight and we we did not want to leave Malta, then say once we were back home that we wished we had gone. There were several main reasons and the first is that hanging in the cathedral is the biggest of Caravaggio's paintings the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist as well as the cathedral ... read more

I arrived into Frankfurt just after 7:00 am, after what seemed a long drawn out journey, including a five hour wait in Singapore and a strong head wind didn't help. The fourteen hours from Singapore to Frankfurt just took for ever! I am only overnighting here so booked into an airport hotel, the Hilton Garden Hotel (haven't seen any garden yet). Luckily I was able to check in immediately after claiming my luggage. I am not sure if lucky is the right word now I think about it again. Early check-in, 39 euro extra please. I think the girl felt a little quilty as she whispered (so the business men checking out couldn't hear) that she would give me free wifi the entire time I am here. Once checked in I dumped my case in the ... read more

A particularly early start to the day, up at 4:30 am as we were to be picked up by a neighbour to take us to the airport for our 8:00 am flight to San Francisco. I had heard it raining during the night and as well as it being pitch dark, it was still raining heavy when it was time to leave. Just getting our cases and us into their car was a mission.The traffic was relatively heavy, what with it raining, being peak morning traffic on a working day, and it was traffic for the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul. Despite all this we arrived in plenty of time which was just as well as we tried going through security in several places and each time we were turned away and sent off ... read more