Traf Burts

Our port of call after Marseilles and the Aix-en-Provence excursion was the long awaited visit to the village of Sainte Agnes. Son and daughter-in-law Andy & Ange lived there for 6 months about 8 years ago when Ange took some well deserved extended leave from Macquarie Bank. Grandson Alain holds a special place in this village. His maternal grandmother Colleen dubbed him MIF (made in France) before he was born back in Sydney. Garçon de ville. Before we tripped up the winding road to Sainte Agnes (a “perched” village) we took a morning look at Monaco and viewed the city of Nice – very nice. Sainte Agnes has only narrow pathways and cars are parked in car parks at both ends of the village. Pat hit the souvenir shop as was to be expected. We sought ... read more

Well, we pair reached our cruise ship, the ms Noordam after a short flight from Gatwick Airport, south of London. The pre-arranged transfer from the airport to the ship, dockside in Barcelona, was efficient as was the pre-cruise processing. Geoff thought Pat’s previous criminal history may have delayed us but obviously the incident in the Natural Garden Restaurant in Trafalgar has been forgiven and forgotten. The Holland America Line do things very well and so far the accommodation, food and the one excursion we have made, are top quality. Last night we stay in port and early this morning we took our first pre-paid excursion taking in a number of Barcelona’s highlights including a very impressive cathedral and the city’s top tourist attraction, the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia, which is a very unusual, oddly shaped ... read more

Finally arrived at our overnight B&B accommodation on the outskirts of the Wiltshire town of Corsham. The building is an old stone structure with loads of charm surrounded by a working farm run by the B&B owners' son. Our arrival was delayed somewhat due to crowds at the Birmingham International Airport customs hall. Seemed like hundreds of international students have all arrived on the same day. From what we could make out the new scholastic year starts next Monday. Plane arrival from Dubai at 12.30. We left the airport after collecting our hire car at 2.15 pm.... read more

Day 11 Back in Rome Well the cruise has finished and when we set out we weren't sure whether we'd love it or hate it. The 11 days were enough to convince us that saving for another cruise would be well worth while. Maybe the Inside Passage in Alaska would be good. Many of the other passengers told us how they had enjoyed that. Some may say that we spent most our trip visiting old buildings etc and that's true. But they all have so much history about them and we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and everything about it. 11 days of just perfect weather, a five-star luxury ship and visits to wonderful places. The only negatives were a few loud, rude, self-important passengers and it's not hard to figure where they were from.... read more

Day 9 Malta - Valetta & Mdina Our excursion today took us to look at the ancient (quiet) city of Mdina and then we returned to look around the modern capital of Malta, Valetta. Paid for a sumptuous meal in the "Pinacle Grill" - very nice.... read more