The Great Ocean Road
Stretching along 151 miles of Victoria’s southern coastline, the Great Ocean Road is perhaps the most scenic drive in Australia. It starts some 60 miles southwest of Melbourne at Torquay and for the most part it’s a winding coastal road making it wholly unsuitable for anyone sitting in the back…
The Australian Open
After returning from Hawaii I had one night at a Sydney airport hotel before a short 90 minute domestic flight to Melbourne to meet Anne and Keith who are the primary reason I’m here in Australia. I built the whole trip around them and the Australian Open tennis tournament. They’ve…
Waikiki Beach, Hawaii
I’d managed to persuade Dianna that meeting in Hawaii would be a splendid idea for Anglo-American relations and as luck would have it, her work schedule allowed for such a plan to become a reality. This was my third visit to Hawaii in six years and it seemed the perfect…
Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast, in the state of Queensland, is the largest non-capital city in Australia with a population of about 640,000. 40 miles south of Brisbane, Gold Coast has become known for its surfing, high rise hotels and apartments, theme parks, nightlife and grown men on wheels. It’s not just grown…
Suburban Sydney
After five nights in Sydney I jumped on a commuter train for a 40 minute ride heading northwest and arrived at Hornsby which is the nearest train station to Dimitra. She picked me up and we drove off to collect Julie (Norway cruise 2016) and her new boyfriend Bruce. First…
New Years Eve in Sydney
One of my favourite things to do when travelling is to get up early and explore a city before anyone else is out of bed. It’s one of the few benefits of jet lag. The sun was up at 5:30 so I was off, masquerading as someone who might be…
The Longest Flight
As with many trips, the story started in the taxi to the airport. I hadn’t anticipated having a deep and meaningful conversation about love, fatherhood and the imagined modus operandi of a Turkish midget should he ever find himself on a singles cruise, but the self-proclaimed ladykiller, Senol, was certainly…
Atlanta, Georgia
The last leg of this trip was an unscheduled three days in Atlanta to visit with my friend Dianna. I flew Delta from Fort Lauderdale and the flight was only 90 minutes. I tried talking to a guy from Minnesota sitting next to me but his cellphone was apparently more…
Fort Lauderdale
The singles cruise had come to an end and after thinking I’d persuaded Dianna that we could spend some time together doing something in Florida or the Caribbean or wherever she wanted to go, when we met on the outside top deck the next morning reality had kicked in and…
Grand Cayman & Cozumel
Our penultimate stop was Grand Cayman, the largest island in the Cayman Islands, the other two being Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. They are a British Overseas Territory and cover 102 square miles with a population of 60,000. Although considered part of the UK, their GDP for a territory is…
Falmouth, Jamaica
Following our day in Princess Cays we had a day at sea before arriving in country number 80. Falmouth is on the north coast of Jamaica between Ocho Rios and Montego Bay and is the capital of the Trelawny parish. A regular stop for cruise ships it is the birthplace…
Princess Cays
This is my first Princess cruise and I’ve booked a Vacations To Go hosted singles cruise for 7 days. The Love Boat was aboard a Princess cruise so I’m hoping we have Captain Stubing and Julie the cruise director. I was humming the theme tune as I boarded. The ship…
Miami
After leaving the Celebrity Silhouette I headed to Miami for two nights but before leaving Fort Lauderdale I had an appointment/ interview for the Global Entry program and I do like to enter globally. It lasts for five years and means that when I fly into the USA I simply…
St Kitts
St Kitts was our seventh and last stop of this cruise and talk about saving the best until last. St Kitts, or St Christopher Island as it is formally called, and Nevis is a country in the Lesser Antilles and attained independence from Britain in 1983. The islands are only…
Barbados & Dominica
I went to one of my favourite places in Barbados, the Boatyard just outside Bridgetown. The sand on the beach was just perfect. I visit a lot of beaches and I’m not always pleased with the amount of pebbles and foliage and general detritus mixed in the sand. Often I…
St Lucia & Grenada
I spent my time on the beautiful island of St Lucia with Anne and Keith who were waiting as I left the ship. In their semi-retirement they’ve taken to four day weekends and as it was Black Friday it was an official weekend day for Mr and Mrs Noel. First…
Saint Barthélemy
For the second time in two weeks the ship docked in St Maarten so in search of new experiences I booked a tour to the neighbouring island of Saint Barthélemy. More popularly called St Barts (or Barths or Barth) this small exclusive French island is only 20 miles southeast of…
Saint Croix, USVI
Our first stop was the island of St Croix which is actually the largest of the US Virgin Islands at a whopping 82 square miles which is almost three times the size of St Thomas, often considered to be the main USVI. It has a similar population to St Thomas…
Celebrity Silhouette
So on to a new ship and the routine of making friends commenced once more. I’d only been on board 10 minutes when the battle for my money began. I spent $500 in the first hour although I have secured one of only 14 places in the Persian Garden with…
A Week in Florida
I opted to walk off the ship with my bags at 7am rather than meet my luggage at the allotted time of 9:45. I'd actually driven across the state to Naples by 9:45 so it was a good move. The Mustang convertible is not blessed with boot space. My home…