I traveled from London to Muscat today on Oman Air. As you can see my seat was very comfortable. I’m not sure what kind of visa I had, but I don’t think they used the correct stamp… I’m not planning to become a resident… I stayed in the fancy Intercontinental hotel. Below are pictures…
I had a few hours to explore before my train back to London. I walked up the hill to the cathedral and castle. I had a guided tour of each. The only thing original of the castle was the wall. Th they also had a copy of the charter of the forest, but no…
This morning I took the tube to the Baker St station and walked to the Wallace Collection. It is a small, but nice and free museum. I then took the tube back to Paddington to collect my luggage from the hotel and also had a quick…
I landed in London today at Heathrow Terminal 2. I took the transfer bus to Terminal 4 where Oman Air is. I went through security and arrived at the gate. I told them I couldn’t continue because my business visa wasn’t ready yet… They took me off the flight and got my bag. I then…
I had this trip on my calendar for months. Nothing complicated (except flight routing). I’ll be back in Houston November 15th so I can be ready for my trip to South Africa that leaves on the 18th. Well now I’m going to attempt to stop in the UK for a couple of days on…
After a short nap I woke up and took the metro to Place Espagna to catch Aerobus A1 to the airport. I got on the Aerobus at 0705. I think it is silly that Barcelona spent all kinds of money finally getting the metro to connect to the city and the metro is slower than…
Because the cruise was very active (many long nights in the many bars) I intended to use this as a recovery day – intended. Sine we needed to be out of the room by 0800 I had set my alarm for 0645. I was already packed for the most part. I packed most everything…
In attempt to use some of the $150 of onboard credit I decided to take a tour arranged by the ship to Avignon, the Palace of the Popes and Les Baux. There were 25 people on my bus. Luckily it was cold, windy and out of season, so there were not many other groups…
I organized a private tour in an 8 passenger minivan. Our driver guide Benjamin was excellent. Our tour started by driving along the waterfront in Cannes. We got a few photos of the red carpet in Cannes and the ship. We then drove along the waterfront of Nice. We then drove up to a…
Today I had organized a tour of Cinque Terre. It was a private tour in an 8 passenger minivan. We left the ship at 0745 and the guide drove us past La Spezia to Manarola. The town was beautiful and empty. We explored a little while the guide got us ferry tickets. …
I started a bit later than I should have. The ship was scheduled to be cleared at 0600. By the time I got the free port bus to town it was 0700 and 0720 when I finished walking to the train station. I had half the port bus following me because I actually knew where…
Sea days are a wonderful thing. Today’s activites: I slept in until around 0930. I would have slept longer, but the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle (official meeting) was scheduled for 1100. At the Cruise Critic meeting I met a few of my fellow cruisers that were joining me on the private tours…
I was one of the first few people off the ship today. I had intended to visit the Bellver castle, however as I was walking I checked the website and found that it (and many other museums in town) were closed on Mondays. Luckily I determined this before hiking up the hill to the castle. …
Thanks to my favorite airline (United) my flight landed at 10:32 instead of 07:45. I rushed to drop off my suitcase at Bags & Go (which will bring it to the ship for me) and catch the Aerobus. I took the Aerobus to Placa Catalyuna and the metro to La Sagrada. Luckily I arrived at…
So far everything is looking wonderful. The door chime on the Excursion wasn’t active this morning. I got to the Parking Spot (#2) and luckily I was more organized than usual and had my reservation because they were out of uncovered parking, so I got a free upgrade to extra wide uncovered parking. I’m…
I’m mostly ready for my next fun trip – my first ocean cruise this year. I’ll be sailing on the NCL Epic on Sunday from Barcelona, Spain (or will it be Catalonia?). My flight goes through IAD (Washington DC Dulles) Itinerary is as follows: Sunday Oct 22nd: Arrive in Barcelona, tour of…
Flying back to Houston… Immigration had a hard time finding my entry stamp. Apparently despite the fact that I have plenty of empty pages they need the exit visa near the entrance visa… so I now have a stamp on top of another stamp…. I learned what changes were made to allow laptop computers…
We had an afternoon chopper (Augusta Westland 139) back to Doha. The Radisson Blu upgraded me to what they called a suite…
The friendly immigration workers are still playing the game to determine how many stamps will fit on one page. I have plenty of empty pages, but yet they are unwilling to look for them. I took an Uber to the Radisson Blu (shuttle bus would have been a 45 minute wait). …
Recognize this view? Yes I’m on the Qatar Airways 777-300ER again. No complaints here. Good service, good seats. Direct flight. Well I wish there was beef on the menu.