10 October 2019 This trip was a long time coming. I booked a year ago and got the last space on the tour. Even though I get great pleasure from all the anticipation and planning, I think those around me probably got heartily sick about hearing about it. I hope you will be much more appreciative of hearing about the actual journey. The long waiting seems to be a feature of this trip. My flight left at 12.55am (very early morning) so I went to work for part of the day, then got … [Read more...]
San Francisco in a day
On my trip to the US for a conference in November last year my original flight was cancelled and I was rebooked onto a flight that arrived into San Francisco at 6.00am. This meant that I got virtually no sleep on the flight and then still had to cope with a full day ahead. It also meant that I had an unexpected day to spend in San Francisco before my conference started that evening. So what can you do in San Francisco in a day? The previous year I had had a stopover in San Francisco and had … [Read more...]
2 Days in Las Vegas
Why on earth would someone who doesn't like gambling and isn't keen on cities want to spend 2 days in Las Vegas? My reason is Las Vegas is a great launchpad for a Grand Canyon adventure. I was fortunate to be able to attend a conference in San Francisco in November last year for work and decided to take the opportunity to tick another item off my bucket list: The Grand Canyon. I was very short on time as I had used all my leave on trips to China and Russia & the Baltic States earlier in the … [Read more...]
Grand Canyon Adventure
Las Vegas is a great launchpad for a Grand Canyon adventure. I was fortunate to be able to attend a conference in San Francisco in November last year and decided to take the opportunity to tick another item off my bucket list: The Grand Canyon. I was very short on time as I had used all my leave on trips to China and Russia & the Baltic States earlier in the year. I knew that I didn't want to hire a car and drive myself. Even though I would have loved to have hiked or rafted in the canyon, I … [Read more...]
Day 14: St Petersburg, Russia
Friday 16 September 2016 This morning we drove to Pushkin, named after the eminent author and home to his 19th century wooden house, 25km south of St Petersburg. Formerly 'the Tsar's Village', the royal estates were built here, including the summer residence of Catherine the Great, a majestic palace styled in blue and gold rococo. The gold on the outside of the palace is just yellow paint because even Catherine decided that to have that painted in real gold might be a bit over the top! … [Read more...]
Day 13: St Petersburg, Russia
Thursday 15 September 2016 Today we meet local guide Natalya again to continue our exploration of St Petersburg. We walk along to the Metro Station near to the main Muscovskiy train station that we arrived at yesterday, and around Plaschad Vosstaniya (Resurrection Square) to the entrance to the Metro. Although the metro system is much simpler overall here than it was in Moscow, it is not that well suited to where we will be going as it involves lots of walking deep underground to connect to … [Read more...]
Day 12: St Petersburg, Russia
Wednesday 14 September 2016 We arrived in at St Petersburg's central Moscow Railway Station at 6.40am and were met by a bus to transfer us and our bags to our hotel (the Ibis St Petersburg Centre)- which we were somewhat surprised to discover was actually only a couple of hundred metres down the road. We had to drive around the block to get there and it probably would have been faster to walk! At that hour our rooms weren't ready for us but we could go in and have some breakfast. After … [Read more...]
Day 11: Moscow, Russia
Tuesday 13 September 2016 There is chaos in the hotel this morning as the hotel is fully booked. We had to wait until 9.00am to hear whether we could extend our room till 9.00pm, so Gill and I had to pack our suitcases and take them down to reception to store in case we couldn't extend our room (we were able to extend our room so had to take the bags back up again). Everyone seems to be leaving at 9.00am so the lifts are absolutely chaotic: we used Ieva's tip to push the Up button and go up … [Read more...]
Day 10: Moscow, Russia
Monday 12 September 2016 We arrive into Moscow by train at 8.40am this morning. Most of us had slept pretty well on the train, although Dermott thought the tracks must have been made from cobble stones because it was rough at times. I bought tea for our cabin from Olga the stewardess and we shared some muesli bars - perfect to tide us over. Thankfully we do have a bus to transfer us from the station to the hotel; it is Monday morning and the traffic is bad but we are heading out of town. It … [Read more...]
Day 9: Minsk, Belarus
Sunday 11 September 2016 We have a free day today and there is the option to go to Dudutki - the Belarusian Museum of Folk Crafts. Although it sounds interesting, we ask what else there is to see in Minsk itself. Ieva says that she is going to do some sightseeing in Minsk and we are welcome to join her if we wish. Most of us do. We get to have a sleep-in and relaxing start to the day. We are supposed to check out of our rooms in the morning and leave our bags in reception as we are due to … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 8
- Next Page »