Well after a hectic couple of days in the middle of France in the Burgundy wine district, you find you correspondents winging our way back (by train) to Paris then straight through to Bruges in Belgium for the next two nights. Our two days with Debbie and Phil in Pommard and surrounds were fantastic – if a little hectic. They proved excellent hosts and nothing was too much trouble for them as they organised meals and Phil drove us around the district on the first day. The accommodation was first class as they have done a terriffic job in fitting out the apartment. It is most impressive. Yesterday, after we organised the balance of our holiday on the net, Chris and I took off on foot among the vineyards and into and around Beaune and back ... read more

Bon jour Hello again Day started off well with a swim. The Novotel is working out fine if you disregard the fact that they turn off the AC and turn on the heating. Its fine with the window open instead! Great day already today – and more to come! Then, across to the Gary Lyon station (a hairy experience – thanks Si) and organised our travel, entrance and audio guides for Versailles tomorrow – at about a third the going price. Gotta love the internet! That is tomorrow taken care of. As for today, arranged a day pass for all public transport today (RER and Metro (and buses but we will leave them alone)), and an entry ticket for the Louvre – saves queuing. Happy with that arrangement so we come back and celebrate with a ... read more

Hello all Your intrepid travellers are on the march again! The bargain basement trip from Qatar Airways - so far - so good. Flight was good - checkin a breeze, planes excellent, the changeover at Dohar too easy and landed ahead of schedule. The good is the comfort and layout of the planes. The bad - food. Ordinary, and each dish was tepid at best. But as I have often said, the definition of a GOOD flight is one that takes off and lands sucessfully. Everthing else is a nice-to-have. My high risk strtegy of taking a D and F seats for the long haul worked well as the E remained empty and Chris and I had 3 for 2 seats. Great for stretching out. We arrived in our hotel after 36 hours of travel (including ... read more

So, two days in one again! Last night we stayed in a nice fishing village called Morro Bay around half way between San Francisco and LA, and while we organised a motel that included wi-fi, no-one could get it to work and we had already moved in. Oh well. No trouble getting out of San Francisco, but these GPS’ are magic. The come into their own when you are in unfamiliar territory - and even more so if you stray from the chosen path (either accidentally or on purpose) they are great and setting you right. So the 900 km drive over two days was uneventful and the stay last night was otherwise very nice - eating in a fish restaurant on the pier. A stroll in the somewhat icy conditions after dins was rewarded by ... read more

Well it had to happen I suppose. Woke to pouring rain that lasted until about 2.30 or so. Even so, we wandered down and thru Fishermans' Wharf (really just a big retail comlex like a poor mans Darling Harbour or Docklands). Interesting though. There is a submarine and a Liberty Ship set up as museums/Exhibitions, and we chose to go thru the Sub. Really interesting - and cramped and well organised as you would expect. This is a WW11 job that has been restored and from some of the notices around, you can spend overnight on it as a group - although I am not sure why you would want to. Anyway, it was interesting and filled some of the rainy time. When the day improved we climbed up Lombard Street - 'The crookedest Street in ... read more