It’s been a couple of days since the last blog, so there’s a bit to catch up on. My reasons for falling behind will become apparent. I got up on Monday morning, packed and caught a cab down to the car hire place. I picked up the car no problem and was off. Fortunately it was Labour Day so there wasn’t a lot of traffic about. First problem was that my GPS was still in kilometres but I changed that once I stopped in Lexington. Lexington is just outside Boston so I was there in under half an hour. It’s a picturesque little town. I found a carpark, parked there and got out to have a look around. I soon found the visitors centre, had a look in there and talked to the lady. As I ... read more

Thursday started early, but I almost missed it. When setting an alarm on my phone, it defaults to the current day so I had two 4:00am alarms set for the wrong day. Fortunately, I had a dream where I missed an alarm for something because I had decided to sleep outside for some reason. This started me awake at 4:15am, which was really lucky! I was able to get ready in time, even considering that the airport shuttle arrived early. There’s not a lot to say about the flight to Toronto. It was on time and good enough. Once we landed, I had about an hour’s wait until the flight to Quebec city boarded. This flight was on a small turbo-prop plane which made sense when we landed at Quebec city airport – it was like ... read more

I am writing this on Monday night having just returned to my hotel in Kamloops after dinner. Kamloops is the overnight stop for the Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver to Banff. Despite not doing much, it’s been a pretty tiring couple of days. The flight from Sydney went fine. I was quite impressed with Virgin Australia’s international service. The staff were really good and very friendly. I was also lucky enough to score a seat behind the “bulkhead” as they call it. The downside, of course, is that’s where they put people who have a baby with them so they can put a bassinet on the wall. On the plus side, you get extra leg room but without the responsibility that comes with having an exit row seat. Of course there was a baby, but she ... read more

So I left Aalborg via train, heading up to Hirtshals where the ferry to Norway left from. I arrived with plenty of time to spare so I grabbed a bite to eat. It was only later that I remembered that the class I had booked on the ferry “Catch Me If You Can” was a restaurant, not just a deck. Oh well, I still managed to fit in a nice dessert of chocolate cake and ice cream while on board. And more importantly, my table was at the very front of the ship…. Not that there was anything to see besides ocean. I read my book for the entire journey. Arriving in Kristiansand I was most pleased to see some decent hills. Northern Germany and Denmark were nice enough to look at, but really was very ... read more

So I arrived in Berlin. The first thing to impress me was the fleet of taxis waiting outside the airport - every one was a Mercedes. Sure, they’re made in Germany, but it’s not exactly what you expect. I still like London taxis best though. I reached my hotel and after a small nap I headed out for a quick look around my hotel. It seems the hotel was in the middle of a major shopping district, which has little appeal to me (especially with my already full suitcase!) I was a little surprised by a couple of the places - a Head shop (marijuana paraphernalia) and an Erotic Museum. It was like being in Amsterdam again! But I settled for a delicious dinner of bratwurst on a roll and headed back to my hotel for ... read more