Just a relaxing day at sea with a Turkey dinner for Thanksgiving.
Category: 2018 Trips
Superb Vacations in 2018
Australia and New Zealand Cruise – Day 7 [Departure from Sydney – Day 1 of Cruise]
This morning I visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Darling Harbour. It’s a nice garden in the midst of the city. I took a walk through Paddy’s market in Chinatown for souvenirs. There were a number of good deals. The uber took a while to get to the hotel, but eventually I made it…
Australia and New Zealand Cruise – Day 6 [Sydney]
I walked along the goods line which has a very interesting building called the paper bag building to the Central Park Mall which has a very interesting amount of greenery on the outside and water in the skylight. I joined a free tour of Sydney that walked past most of the areas I am familiar…
Australia and New Zealand Cruise – Day 5 [Sydney]
The plan today was to take an $18 bus tour of the eastern suburbs including Bondi beach. Before the bus tour I visited Queen Victoria building. It has two large mechanical clocks. A few more interesting buildings along the way…. The bus tour first took us to Mrs Macquarrie’s chair…. I took a couple of…
Australia and New Zealand Cruise – Day 4 [Blue Mountains]
Today I took advantage of the discounted fares on the train to visit the Blue Mountains. A couple of years ago I visited via a bus tour that left from Sydney. Going by train was much cheaper… it was supposed to be $2.70 each way, but when I got back to Sydney Central train station…
Australia and New Zealand Cruise – Day 3 [Sydney, Australia, NSW]
I had booked a shared transfer from the airport to my hotel. It was $18 AUD, while the metro has an outrageous $20 platform fee at the airport. I was actually able to check into my hotel quite early in the morning. The room is nice, but not fancy. I took a shower then took…
Australia & New Zealand Cruise – Day 1 & 2
I call it day 1 & 2 because I’m flying from Houston at 8:30 PM on Nov 15th and arrive in Sydney on Nov 17th at 7:00 AM due to the international time line. I used miles to fly to Sydney, so I’ve flown more miles for free on United on this one flight alone…
Departure from Jamaica
Sadly I left the Caribbean paradise today. I spent a bit of the morning in the spa. A little time in the warm, but not hot jacuzzi. Then I moved to the hot Roman bath. I got a bit too warm and had to chill in the cold bath. I…
Jamaica Day 5
Another relaxing day today. I played cornhole and lost. I had lunch at the beach grill again. They grilled lobster and had someone cutting open coconuts (obviously adding rum to the water). I went snorkeling near the beach. I saw a skate or stingray that was fairly small. I also saw…
Jamaica Day 4
This morning I started my day with a spin class in the pool. I need to get one of these bikes. Lunch at the beach grill was great. They had steak and shrimp. I had to go back for seconds. So far my best meals have been on the beach. I got a few…
Jamaica Day 3
This morning I was required to take a ‘site inspection’ of the 3 Iberostar hotels. They didn’t show us a room at the beach resort (cheapest), or inside any of it’s restaurants, or it’s theater. We were shown a room at the suites that was very similar to the Grand, but with a smaller bathroom…
Jamaica Day 2
Today I walked around the beach a little, but mostly sat on a lounge chair and in the pool all day. I ordered room service for lunch. The cesar salad was pretty terrible, completely covered in parmesan cheese. The steak was okay, but they brought all kinds of condiments except…
Jamaica – Day 1
The day hasn’t started out great. I was #1 on the upgrade list with 2 available seats. Now I’m #6 without any available seats despite having the highest status level on United and checking in immediately. I’m glad I stopped flying United. Cathay Pacific treated me like a rock star, United treats it’s best customers…
Muscat, Oman
I have about 6 hours before my flight to Oman after arriving in Doha, Qatar. I attempted to get into the Qatar Airways busines class lounge, but logic doesn’t work in the Middle East. Since my next flight is on Oman Air they would only let me in the other airline lounge which is not too good. So I went through immigration and customs and stayed in the quiet and empty Qatar Airways arrivals lounge. I even took a nice shower and changed clothes. A few pictures from the sky. Oman has beautiful
Japan Day 11 [Tokyo to Oman]
My round the world trip has been derailed. I’m now flying to Oman from Tokyo on my way back to Houston….. Since my flight doesn’t leave until 2220 I had time to explore Tokyo a bit more. I checked out of the hotel and left my baggage. It was a very short…
Japan Day 10 [Tokyo]
This morning I was going to go to Senso-Ji in Asakusa before all the tourists showed up, but went to the Imperial Palace to see if I could get a ticket for the tour (you get inside the palace, but not inside any buildings) Interesting small door inside large door. Nice view of…
Japan Day 9 [Tokyo / Mt. Fuji]
Today was not a crystal clear day. Unfortunately the tour to Mt Fuji was only available on this day. The sticker for our tour. I paid $15 extra for the lunch to be included… I figured anyplace the bus stopped would be a tourist trap with very expensive food. The itinerary. We went to…
Japan Day 8 [Kyoto to Tokyo]
Another beautiful day in Kyoto. You can see the Shinkansen on the tracks from my hotel window. I started the day by visiting a nice garden called “Shosei-en Garden”. It was only a 15 minute walk from the hotel. The skies were a bit overcast. You can see the Kyoto…
Japan Day 7 [Kyoto]
This time we got to the Imperial Palace as soon as it opened. They have a great guide app (bring your headphones). Since we got there when it opened there was almost no one there. Poor planning meant we went to the Golden…
Japan Day 6 [Osaka]
Another beautiful day in Japan 🙂 Today I decided to go to Osaka and see the Osaka Castle. One of the turrets around the castle. It looks like a swamp animal in the moat. The Osaka Castle The…