antogill

I am always sad when I leave my mother in Ireland and again some tears were shed as we made our way to Singapore and then to home. I was surprised at the extent of development in Singapore but Helen had told me about the efficient public transport system- SMRT- and (as usual) she was right - it was the most efficient of all systems we had encountered across over 10 major cities ( although Washington Dc was pretty god as well) - we got a two day pass for $S 16 and had a smart card style access to trains, light rail and buses across the City- very good coverage. We visited the Jerong Bird Show, the National Orchid Garden, Sentosa Island and Mount baker National Park and look out, the Gardens at the Bay, ... read more

The holiday is coming to a close and with three days remaining in Singapore I have updated and completed the world tour- all up it will be 72 days and you can see we have covered a lot of ground and stopped in many places. Start point was Brisbane for overseas trip to Los Angeles- left Canberra and will join up with Cheryll's sister Sandra- boarding plane for America tomorrow. Map extended to cover trip from LA to San Francisco on 11 July Map extended to cover trips to Eureka on 15 July and Medford on 16 July Map extended to cover trip from Portland to Seattle on 20 July Map extended to cover cruise trip from Vancouver to Seward and trip from Seward to Anchorage. Map extended to cover trip from Anchorage to Fairbanks on ... read more

Washington DC as the US capital has lots of government buildings, national institutions and shrines- it has some similarities to Canberra but on a bigger scale. The highlight for me was attending the 50th anniversary of the Martin Luther King's march and famous speech - President Obama spoke at the ceremony as did former presidents Clinton and Bush- I was there from 12 noon to 3 pm along with 100,000 people - I was about 1 mile away from where Obama spoke on the steps of the Lincoln memorial but there were big screens and speakers about the place - it is interesting that the event was co-ordinated by the National Parks and Special Services- I bought a tee shirt as a memento of the occasion. I also visited the various memorials in Washington and traveled ... read more

In the last few days we have traveled to Toronto and then to Ottawa, the capital of Canada. Toronto is the largest city in Canada located on Lake Ontario with a population of almost 3 million people - it is a very busy city with buildings of condominiums taking place all over the place- it has the vibrancy and buss of a large city as well as the signs of homelessness and street vandalism that are inevitable. Toronto provided a base for us to visit Niagara Falls- one of the 7 natural wonders of the world - it truly is. The other highlight was a visit to a shoe gallery in downtown Toronto- over 13,000 shoe displays, the history of footwear across the world and a whole floor dedicated to sneakers- Nike Air Jordans being the ... read more

Over the last few days we have traveled by special train from Vancouver to Jasper staying one night in a town called Kamloops. The train was a double decker with a clear see through roof and the mountainous scenery was very spectacular. the service on the train was fabulous and I will need to run off many calories given the quality and quantity of the food- the staff on the train were great too- got customer service down pat. We have stayed in the Jasper lodge hotel for the last two days and tomorrow head off to walk on a glacier in Banff- life continues to be tough. Will talk again in a few days and update you how I am going with my american/Canadian beer drinking - some photos included to cover the activities. Take ... read more