Travel Blog

On Saturday lunchtime I moved to the Hotel Ayoub which was perfectly acceptable, albeit a lot smaller than the sprawling Mogadar. Once again it was a hotel that didn’t serve alcohol. Two in a row! I walked back to the…

Gatwick was heaving with people - on a Wednesday! I was fortunate enough to be fast tracked so I didn’t have to deal with most of them. I came very close to losing a third Swiss Army knife at security…

Our third stop was Guernsey in the Channel Islands. I’ve not been to any of them before and I was highly excited to learn that they have their own currency - more for my notaphily collection. And of course a…

My spa experiences have been interesting. I’ve been scrubbed to death, pummelled, pricked with needles, and covered in seaweed. And I paid for it! In fairness, I feel great. Best I’ve felt in weeks. After six days at sea we…

This is my third transatlantic cruise and the second going from the US back to Europe. I flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before, and the following morning I headed for the port early to see if I could get…

Only a month late! We joined the ship a day late in Portland, Maine as opposed to Boston. There were 10 others boarding in Portland so we didn’t feel too unusual. Once onboard the Holland America Zaandam, we had the…

Other than my tragic airport experience at the end of June, I had never been to Philly. Dianna had a double layover which made it worth me tagging along, so I did. It was the first time I’d been on…

Whoops! Only six weeks late. I forgot to mention that Alaska’s capital, Juneau is the only state capital that cannot be accessed by road. Rumour has it that there is one flight per week from a Canadian city which gives…

The next stop was the Alaskan town of Sitka which we had visited the week before. It hadn’t become any more interesting in the interim. I went to shore for a couple of hours and decided to go into one…

I’m now on the final stretch of this epic 46 day cruise. We are now fully booked with 2000 passengers. After leaving Vancouver we had a sea day heading up the coast with Vancouver island on the port side and…