Blogs from Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Great sleep on the couch although i kept waking up cause everyone needed to start their days way earlier than i planned!! So i got up and had some tea around 1030 ish, had some breaky and got ready to set off for a day of exploring. I walked through the outskirts of town not making a right turn somewhere i walked past a bunch of cool shops and amusement centers (uk casinos) and ended up walking across a huge bridge to end up in Quay pronounced key. Walked down to the harbour and found the cool Mellenium bridge which is quite the design. Walked over that to the Baltic and had a look in there for awhile. Not a huge fan of modern art!!! At all Best thing in there was this gallery for Darwin ... read more

We collected half my family in the Venga Bus and headed to the Crewe Arms for just a quiet lunch with about 20 of my rellies - great to get them all together as only see them once every 3 years !! Rich was trying to work out the northern lingo but seemed to be keeping up quite well. Later on we watched the All Blacks play nicely with the Portugese and Rich became an All Black for one night only..... ... read more

This is the start (hopefully) of our travel journal 'Round The World' Two senior citz taking the 'trip of a lifetime' (courtesy of MyTravel/Airtours). New to blogging so need to be patient but so far very impressed with the blogs available via travelblog. Whoever started it, a big thankyou! We leave from our home in N.Staffs at the end of the month and back in time for Easter! Ten countries, 35000 air miles, (72 air hours!), lots of anticipation, excitement, a little trepidation and lots of trust in God!! The start of the story... Trial packing.. how to fit all the hot and cold weather clothes, 3+ cameras, all the gadgets(!) and to stay inside the weight limit and yet leave space for souvenirs to be collected en-route? How to survive the odd lost/delayed case? BY ... read more

Just over a week to go before I embark on what my family say will be a trip of a lifetime - I'm going to Beijing, China to take part as a foreign volunteer at Tsinghua University, helping, along with other native English speakers, Chinese university students to improve their English skills. My sister has been helping me to get my toiletries ready, and has already agreed to help me with sorting out clothing and packing - I'm sure she expects payment for her help!! All I can say is that I'm very excited about going - my visa, flights and travel insurance are all sorted, so all I need to do is make sure that I get to the airport and check-in on time, and then it's 'Bon Voyage!!' I hope to keep family and ... read more