Superb Vacations in 2018
Early start today. 0700 flight to Amsterdam. I checked out of the hotel, paid for the parking, drove to a petrol station, filled the rental car with diesel and drove back to the airport. I had no problem finding the rental car return, I think. I left the car in the parking lot with a…
I drove on the Autobahn from my hotel near the hotel to Wolfrathausen. In the evening I decided to park at a Park & Ride and take the metro to the Christmas Market in downtown Munich. The Christmas Market was not huge, but had a good selection of crafts, Christmas ornaments, food and of course…
My last day to explore Prague… I checked out of the hotel at around 0800 (sunrise) and left my luggage at the hotel. I walked to Charles Bridge first to take photos since the only other time I visited I didn’t make it across the bridge before I lost light. I walked to the Astronomical…
I woke up early this morning…. I was hoping for a sunrise… I should have known better. I hiked up the hill to get to a viewpoint on the lower part of the Prague Castle to try and take a picture of Prague with a sunrise. Light eventually got better, but no colors and then…
This morning I got a little later start than I wanted to… I started the morning by visiting the Prague Castle. I went to almost all of the areas except one before it closed. I did however go up in the south tower of St Vitus’ church at around 3PM and stayed for the sunset….
This afternoon I took the train from Kralupy to Prague. I attempted to find an ATM machine, but the ones near the train station wanted 125 CZK fee… I ordered and Uber to take me to my hotel. I’m staying at the Augustine Hotel… part of the Luxury Collection (SPG / Marriott). It is luxurious……
I spent most of the day riding in a van on the autobahn. Luckily I have T-Mobile and was able to send emails and read some news along the way. The hotel I stayed at was SPORT HOTEL (which actually also has a hostel as well). The rooms were basic with very thin wooden doors,…
Today didn’t allow for much sight seeing. I did have a German lunch – chicken schnitzel. And I also had a German dinner with pork and beef tenderloin. I also tried Eier punch with my dessert.
I arrived early on my flight from Houston, so I didn’t need to rush through the Schipol airport. My flight to Hannover was on a puddle jumper, but I was only on it for about 45 minutes. After arriving I got my luggage and walked to the train station… where you would expect to find…
I’m flying on KLM through Amsterdam to Hannover, Germany. After arriving in Hannover I will take a train for an hour until I reach Hameln, Germany. Eventually I’ll arrive in Prague, Czech Republic before taking a long train to Wolfrathausen, Germany and flying back from Munich, Germany. As you can see the seat makes you…
I woke up this morning, had a wonderful breakfast in the morning at the hotel and wandered down Queen Street for a bit. I found a shop with $10NZD shirts and bought a couple. They had a hilarious ‘Fake News’ game on sale. I missed the Christmas parade and took the SkyBus to the airport….
Unfortunately it’s time to disembark. The cruise was great with the exception of one tour. I dragged my bags for 20 minutes to the Sheraton. I walked back to the Queens wharf to find the tour guide. The tour visited many of the places I already had seen already walking to the tour. After the…
It appeared that it would be another chilly and rainy day. I had reservations to tour the Hobbiton Movie Set at 12:30, so it was a bit of a struggle to find things to do in the rain. I did find a small aviation museum near the airport. Like all aviation museums they had a…
I spent part of today resting, and part of it going through a few photos from Sydney. Tonight was the fancy formal dinner complete with prime rib and lobster. The lobster was fantastic. My prime rib was also good. For the starter I had French onion soup. For dessert I had baked Alaska and creme…
I woke up this morning to a cold, windy and rainy morning. I was nearly covered in Gore-Tex from head to toe when I left the ship in the morning (my Red Wing boots are waterproof, but not Gore-Tex unlike my pants, coat (with a hood), and gloves. Mysteriously the rain let up almost immediately…
Today’s weather is cold and rainy. I went on an excursion by boat through Queen Charlotte Sound. The sound here is very inspiring, lots of green ferns and other trees. After the cruise they took us back to the bus after making a comfort stop. The only interesting thing at the comfort stop was this…
This morning the ship used the life boats to tender us to shore. I took the Christchurch on your own tour. I was a bit disappointed in the late meeting time. Once we got on the bus the driver said we were supposed to have 4 hours of free time in Christchurch, but we wouldn’t…
Today is my first day on land since boarding the ship. I chose the Taeri Gorge Train and Dunedin Highlights tour. The weather didn’t cooperate today, it was chilly, rainy and a bit foggy. I walked onto the train from the ship. There were a few outside areas between the cars that allowed for better…
I’ve technically arrived in New Zealand today, although I didn’t get off the ship. I set up my GoPro to create time lapse videos. The first Fiord was Milford Sound. We entered about 7:30 AM after the Princess ship. We stopped briefly to let a few passengers off that was doing an overnight experience. I…
Finally able to catch back up. Sea is cold and choppy. The ship will be sailing through the Fjords tomorrow. I’ll have the GoPro set up.