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Published: November 20th 2018
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Miami BeachOur fourth overseas trip for this celebratory year began on Sunday morning, November 18th. We headed to Adelaide airport from where we flew to Sydney and after a short stop in the Qantas Lounge boarded a Qantas flight to the USA. We had asked to be upgraded using Fletcher's frequent flyer points and we were delighted when we were informed the day before we left that we had been successful. Therefore, the flight from Sydney to Dallas, which was 14 hours, we spent in Business Class which made the trip so comfortable. Lovely food and the ability to sleep stretched out made time go very quickly. Arriving in Dallas we had a fairly easy path through customs and then a one hour wait in the American Airlines lounge before boarding our very full Economy flight to Miami. This was just over two hours but was very pleasant.
We arrived in Miami about 6-40pm local time, however, the luggage took over 40 minutes to appear. Once we had collected our bags we took a taxi from the airport to our accomodation at Miami Beach. Once there trouble struck. We had checked our email in Dallas but as we arrived at our
apartmnts there was no visible way of finding which one was ours or how to get in. We knocked on the door of the first apartment and a young black couple emerged. They told us we should have recieved a code and the number of the apartment from the owners. My phone was almost out of charge so the young man rang the number we had been given on our book-in form. This elicited a message that the office was only open from 8am-8pm and as it was now 8-05pm we had an answering machine. We left a message and eventually someone rang back and through much toing and froing we were given the information that we were in Number 7 and a code to access the room. We were so grateful to these lovely people who had gone out of their way to help two Aussie geriatrics get in to their room.
When we did access the apartment we were pleasantly greeted with a two bedroomcomplex with full kitchen facilities, very clean and well-furnished. No WiFi though. We headed back to the main street and found a Cuban Cuisine restaurant, the Sazon, where we had a tasty meal
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Towers at Miami Beach of a shared Ceviche followed by different fish dishes. I had forgotten that you have to halve the orders here because in America every serve is HUGE!!! On the way back to the room we bought some supplies for breakfast and a bottle of wine for supper. We then settled down to have a good night's sleep.
After a not so good night's sleep, due mainly to jet lag, we had our yoghurt and about 9am set out to explore Miami. We walked down to the beach which was sparsely inhabited at this early hour. it was quite warm already and we strolled along the beach for a short while. Then we walked back to Collins street and eventually found The Tavern, a cafe outside the Oceanside Hotel at which we stopped and had coffee and shared a banana and cinnamon pancake. We also got on to the internet here and Fletcher found an email, sent about an hour before we were due to check in, giving us the code and room number along with internet codes etc. Would have been good if it had been sent a bit earlier! From there we hailed a taxi and asked him
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Statue of Juan Ponce de leon who claimed Florida for the Spanish to take us to Brickhill which the waiter had recommended. The taxi driver was great and we engaged him for the next day to take us to our hire car. However, the destination, Brickhill, was souless, consisting of highrise shopping malls and very little else. We got onto one of the Miami Trolley buses , which are free, and run along the main streets. We hopped off ours at Bayside, which is a seaside shopping area and port for cruises around the bay. We admired the memorial to JFK and the statues commemorating Simon Bolivar and other South American explorers. We bought tickets for an Island Cruise around the artificial islands and the homes of the rich and famous. We had enough time to grab some lunch at Segrefedo's which consisted of bruschetta with avocado, brie and tomotaoes and some chicken tenderloins. We enjoyed a peroni to wash them down.
The cruise was very pleasant. It was a beautiful day, about 28 degrees with a cooling breeze. We slowly passed the islands where the very rich have mansions valued at more than $30million. People like Jackie Chan, Ricky Martin, David Beckham, Shaquille O'Neale etc etc have these fanastic homes
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In front of the Monument to JFK on manmade islands in the bay. Back on shore we walked down to catch the free trolley bus which was supposed to take us closer to our home base. Well, we then had an adventure. Our friendly taxi driver had told us to catch the S bus which would take us back to our accomodation for about $5. Fletcher eschewed the S bus and opted for the Trolley. We found that that option left us very short. We then found out, from another friendly lady at a bus stop that we could catch the J bus which would land us close to home. We waited for 20 minutes, and when the J bus arrived the driver told us that he could only take us 20 blocks near to our destination. We alighted at the ssigned stop and then transferred to the free Trolley bus that runs around Miami Beach. This was packed as by now it was 5pm. We eventually made it back to our flat after an interesting lesson about Miami Transport.
Having rested for a short time we walked back down to Collins St and then decided to eat at Manolo. This is an American diner with
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Statue of Simon Bolivar a combination of Italian, Burgers and Spanish cuisine..Fletcher had a Seafood risotto while I opted for Spinach and Cheese Canneloni. Though there were only two canneloni they were smothered with cream and I ccould only eat one. Fletch ate his seafood but left half of the rice. We then headed back to the apartment, buying a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc for a nightcap on the way. An interesting day!!
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