Cruise 2011 - Day 1 San Juan

After a good nights sleep we were up and at it fairly early. We went off down the street in search of Starbucks and Walgreen's, they are conveniently located next to each other. It was a beautiful hot muggy day, we sat outside of Starbucks and had our coffee waiting for Walgreen's to open. It never did so we decided to go back down the other end of the street to the one that was open... sheesh. On our way we decided to detour to the beach, there was a geocache that we wanted to get as well as walk on the beach. Of course we couldn't find the cache but we had a lovely time walking on the sand and paddling our feet in the warm water. We got our supplies then back to the hotel to drop them off.


Hopped in a taxi then off to Old San Juan. This is a very historic old town, some of the Forts date back to the 1500's. The forts were extremely important to protect the "New World" from the Pirates and other bad guys! It is absolutely gorgeous. There are two large Forts one at the Western end the other at the Eastern portion of Old San Juan. We roamed the narrow streets site seeing and geocaching. At noon we realized we hadn't had any breakfast and should eat. We had "Mango Tango's" for breakfast followed by a Mojito for lunch!(all at the same Tapas Bar) There was a little food in there someplace! Off to roam more of the Forts and to see the "Ferrel Cat's of San Juan" These are wild but friendly cats that hang around the streets and one particular park that we saw.





At the square across from the main large Fort there is a large water fountain that looks somewhat like a water park... well of course the kid in Mark came out and he wanted to play in the fountain. He stood in the middle of the fountain for about 10 minutes waiting for the water to turn on..... I sat inconspicuously on a bench almost pretending not to know him! It was rather entertaining when the water did turn on. Dave has it all on video and I do believe it will end up on "You Tube!" After Mark's shower we headed to the Eastern Fort for a look. The views are spectacular. By this time we were getting tired and of course thirsty. There was a terrible traffic jam with the cars not going very far and a lot of horns honking. We decided to walk a little way out of this part of town before getting a taxi to try and avoid the traffic. There were still a few geocaches we wanted to get as well. As we walked along the street there were vehicles from the local radio stations as well as satellite trucks from the TV stations, there was also lots of Police milling about. We wandered over to see what was going on and there was a demonstration from one of the local University's. The police were in full riot gear with tear gas and all. Time to get out of here guys! We got one more cache and hailed a cab to get back to our end of town.


Back to the hotel hungry and thirsty again, had a few drinks and appy's in the hotel restaurant. Went for a wander down the street to decide where dinner would be, we decided on a little Caribbean restaurant after a brief stop at the Marriott Casino. Back to the hotel for showers and an early night.


A few observations of San Juan so far, in no particular order.


Huge police presence, they do not appear to bother anyone but you feel very safe


Not many motor cycles or scooters, lots of very nice cars.


It reminds us very much of Santa Fe Argentina but on a higher end scale.


The people are extremely nice and helpful.


The weather is wonderful, we were talking to a couple of locals today and this is the cool season... It was 80 degrees today, that's just fine for us!


Tomorrow we are off to the Rain forest and then the beach to swim.

Cruise 2011 - Travel Day

After almost nine months from when we booked it was finally here! As we had such an early flight from Victoria Mark and Robyn spent Tuesday night at our house. After a few rum drinks and Champagne it was bed time. At the most we got about 3 hours sleep, just too excited. Kris was at our house at 0410 to drive us to the airport, he had to work early so it was very convenient for us. We departed YYJ for SEA at 0600. The flight arrived in SEA on time, quickly retrieved our bags to clear Customs and Immigration. Then onto the train to change Terminals, we were asking the information man what to do when Dave said "quick let's go" I hopped on the train with him only to see Mark and Robyn staring forlornly at us from outside the door! We gave a little wave and away we went! Luckily the trains run constantly and they caught up a few minutes later. So when you travel with the Reaville's and we say jump ya better hop to it!





Got to our gate and it was coffee and bagel time. Our flight departed SEA for DFW (Dallas) at 0825, we were a little late due to the flight being completely full and there were too many carry on bags. A few folks had to check them and we were on our way. Good thing we were armed with Ipods, e-readers, and books as there wasn't even music on this plane. We arrived in Dallas at 2:15 PM local, hungry and thirsty. We once again had to change terminals via trains. The Byrne's kept up this time! Went to TGI Fridays for Margarita's and food. We were a little late leaving Dallas but a pleasant flight none the less. Arrived San Juan at about 11:00 pm, all luggage arrived safely and off to the hotel. Of course we were hungry and thirsty again.... Off down the street for pizza and Corona at an outdoor cafe. Headed back to the hotel completely exhausted for much needed sleep.

Cruise 2011 - Prep

In 12 days and 12 hours we will be leaving on our Caribbean adventure! Last May our good friends Mark and Robyn decided they were going on a cruise and asked if we would like to join them. It only took one look at the brochure and we were booked! The final preparation is underway before our early morning departure to Seattle, Dallas, then onto San Juan Puerto Rico. We will have almost 3 days to acquaint ourselves with San Juan then onto the Serenade of the Seas for two one week back to back cruises.

Cheerio London Town

Hi Folks

We were up early for our departure to London’s Heathrow Airport. After doing the math (costs of trains, tube & Express service) Annabel suggested that we just hire a private car right from the door to the airport. She rang up and made arrangements for a 6:30 am pickup which would give us lots of time for our 10:05 departure. Having never been through the security process here we wanted to make sure not to be late!

The car arrived promptly at 6:30 and we were on our way. As it was Saturday, and no traffic to speak of, we arrived at the airport terminal within 40 minutes. Luckily for Kelly, to help “waste” time as we awaited our departure there were many, many shops to explore (Gucci, Armani, Harrods etc.) I sat and guarded the carry-on bags as she explored the far reaches of the airport shopping mega mall. (Sorry no pictures)

The plane was loaded on time but was ground delayed due to congestion at the airport. We finally got in the air at 1052 local (or 2:52 am BC time) and enjoyed the amenities of Executive class. Thanks to the generosity of one of the passengers, both Kelly and I were able to sit together for the nice flight home. A quick flight over to Victoria and we arrived home at 3 pm local (11 pm London Time).

It was a great trip and although we did miss some of the many sites around London we will be back someday. The rail system was pretty easy to use and aside from grabbing one train going the wrong way (hey it happens!) it worked very well. It’s hard to pick a favorite as all the things we took in varied so much. Duxford, the Imperial War Museum, and the GPSR’s dream spot Greenwich were the highlights.

Special thanks to Annabel and Barry Milton for letting us stay at their house in Sydenham. It became our base for the trip and it was great to be made so welcome. (Great to see Doris as well!)

Hope you all enjoyed the blog.

Our last day :-(

We slept in this morning and then enjoyed a nice coffee with Doris and our hosts Annabel & Barry. We planned our last day with a trip into the city to see experience the London Eye and then shopping for Kelly and the Belfast Royal Museum Tour for Dave. We left about 11 am and found the eye with little trouble after exiting the Waterloo station. It's quite huge and was easy to spot once we got outside.

Kelly picked up the tickets and after a short 15 minute wait we loaded up and were on our way around the huge wheel. Great views as the weather cooperated nicely. It was interesting to see all the places we had been over the last week as you had unrestricted views.

After getting off the Eye, Dave decided to join me in the Oxford Street shopping area instead of going to the Belfast. What a trooper! Hit a pub then to some shops along the ave. As we had made plans for a dinner with the gang, we headed home early and had our last train ride.

Annabel, Barry, Doris & Kelly at Crystal Palace Park

Before dinner we got our 200th geocache at a famous Dinosaur display (built in 1854) near our section of town. Very interesting place. It was our final night so all tucked in to a great meal at Dulwich House Pub.

We are up early for our departure back to Vancouver and then Victoria. If all goes well we should be there in the afternoon sometime.

Duxford

We left early under clear skies for the trip to Duxford and the Royal Air Museum located there. The return trip was 60 pounds for the two of us and we utilized several trains and a bus to get there. Sydenham-London Bridge-Kings Cross-Cambridge then a bus to Duxford. Everything went well but the bus was late due to a "driver issue" so had to kill some time waiting.


We had left Sydenham at 8 a.m. and arrived at the field at noon! A bit longer journey than planned but when I stepped off the bus..... a familiar sound filled the air. Having been to the Reno Air Races a couple times, there is no other sound than a Rolls Royce V12 Merlin screaming at top speed.... and so it was.... a Supermarine Spitfire doing a full bore, low pass down the runway at Duxford. My Nirvana!




We quickly paid the entrance fee and went into the new Air Space building. Concorde, Vulcan Bomber, DH Mosquito, Westland Lysander, DH Comet and a Harrier just to name a few. I took about 450 photos of the various planes in all the buildings. The US exhibit was probably one of the nicest you'll see outside of the States with the P-51 Mustang ,SR-71 Blackbird, B-17 Flying Fortress, B-25 Mitchell, Liberator, B-52, F-111, U-2 spy plane.... and much more.



Lot's of British WW-II fighters as well... Hurricanes, Spitfires, Typhoons.... with a B-109, V-1 Buzz Bomb, Storch and Junkers Tri-Plane representing the Germans ... simply over the top!


We left about 4 P.M. after seeing the displays and our trip was uneventful heading home. We had the pleasure of once again meeting Barry's mom, Doris Milton whom had been one of our gracious hosts when we were in Scotland in 1994. (This is Kelly's mom Thelma's cousin). We had a great Leg of Lamb dinner and enjoyed telling family stories (and some secrets) around the dinner table. A great finish to a great day.

Shopping Day

We left Sydenham in a moderate rain with good intentions to head for Duxford and the Royal Air Force Museum located there. It is located about 8 miles south of Cambridge and requires several train switches & a bus ride. With the weather so poor we decided to move the Duxford trip to Thursday and head to… yep you guessed it… the “shopping district”! We took the tube through to Knightsbridge and emerged right beside Harrods department store. Kelly had wanted me to see this at one point in our trip and I, thinking it was just another dept. store when along begrudgingly. Well I was blown away! This store was “over the top” and had the most incredible selection of the finest goods available. All the hi-end merchandise was well displayed and there was almost more staff than customers. The food section was so inviting with several walk up Sushi and Oyster bars! I split with Kelly and headed up to check out the “men’s” section…. Electronics, Outdoor gear etc…I was “forced” to go through the perfume section and the staff all looked like models out of fashion magazines.

Anyway the highlight of the visit was spotting the 70 inch Sony LCD TV that was newly available. Stunning picture and equally stunning price tag! It’s obvious that this store caters to the elite, high end shopper… of which I am not :)

We headed over to Starbucks and grabbed a coffee as we continued our trek around the district. We also returned to the area that Kelly had stayed when she was 15.

Piccadilly Circus was close by so we checked that out as well. The weather was improving considerable so we took in a nice pub lunch outside looking down Waterloo Bridge.

Off to Westminster Tube Station and the famous 10 Downing Street (Prime Minister’s Residence). Lots of guards & security in this area!

After witnessing the Palace Guards "inspection" close by we found the Cabinet War Rooms and toured the display… very interesting to see how the war had been run in such a cramped and dark area!

Next it was Westminster Abby... wow is all I can say!

As our feet were getting tired we headed back home and enjoyed an nice evening with our gracious hosts looking at family pictures. Another great day!