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Sailing the South Seas – Final
Island Hopping I???m catching up about 12 days of our trip with this final chapter. Although I had a lot of time aboard the ship, I always found something better to do than writing updates on my blog. I’m writing most of this at our hotel in Fiji, where we’re staying for a few days after finishing our cruise, where we were for the past 15 days. On our cruise, we visited many islands in French Polynesia where we started in Tahiti, then the Cook Islands, one stop in Tonga and finally four islands in Fiji and we disembarked at the port of Lautoka, here in Fiji. As is often…
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Sailing the South Seas – Part 3
All Aboard We weren???t always cruising people. For a few decades, we enjoyed planning our own trips, months and years in advance and then travelling to places on our own agenda. Trips to Australia and Italy last year were both self-planned and we loved both of them. So what???s with all the cruising we???ve been doing? We???re on our third cruise since late 2024 and a fourth later this year. I suspect that we???ll continue to cruise over the years but I miss those trips where we can make a deeper dive into a single country. Junk Science or Genius? It???s ironic that for all the cruising we???ve done lately,…
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Sailing the South Seas – Part 2
Sun in the South Seas When we booked our flights to Tahiti some time last year, we knew that we would be connecting through the San Francisco airport. We had memories of this kind of connection through San Francisco when we went to Australia in 2011 and almost missed our flight due to huge lineups through security and immigration. As it turned out, our worries were misplaced as there were no delays and we made out connection to Papeete, Tahiti on Sunday night. Even better, our hotel was about a 10 minute ride from the airport. We???re in Tahiti for 4 days, then on Thursday we will transfer to our…
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Sailing the South Seas – Part 1
Back to the Beginning While I’ve been writing this travel blog for over 20 years, it wasn’t always the case, and in the early days, it was quite different. I remember in the old days, I used to have to run around trying to find Internet cafes in order to send emails to friends and family, often consuming hours and hours. We now take it for granted that every hotel and even flights have wifi. As we’re heading off to the South Pacific, it brings back a lot of memories where Excellent Adventure first started. It was a few years after we got married, and one of our first big…
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Three of Us in Italy – Final
No Heat for You We arrived at the farmhouse in Tuscany around 6 PM, driving our rental car from a train station on the outskirts of Rome, braving several hundred kilometres of Italian drivers, including many traffic jams on the highway getting here. We were all pretty tired by the time we arrived, and we were met by the manager who ran the location to show us around. As is expected, the building that we???re staying in is made out of thick stone, and the first thing we noticed when we were being shown around the rooms was how really cold it was inside. It was about 17 degrees outside…
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Three of Us in Italy – Part 3
Heading South We had spent four days in Rome and visited many of the major sites, doing a lot of walking in the process. By the time our first Sunday arrived, we were packing our suitcases and heading south to Sorrento, taking our first of four train rides in Italy. We picked up our train at the extremely busy Roma Termini train station, taking about 2 hours and travelling at 260 km/hr to the main station in Naples, Napoli Centrale. Barb and I have always loved taking trains wherever we have travelled, getting to see the landscape as we pass by and always much more relaxing than flying. On our…
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Three of Us in Italy – Part 2
The Ride It???s Thursday morning, and we arrived at our hotel in Rome last night. I didn???t sleep very much on the plane, and by the time we got to our hotel, it was almost 10 PM, and after setting up everyone???s Wi-Fi, I needed to sleep and this morning feel much better and well rested. It???s about 6 AM, and I???ve been up since 5 AM, which is normally the time I get up, so that???s not unusual. Barb will likely be sleeping for several more hours, and this is the ideal time for me to write my blog while everything is fresh in my head. We debated how…
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Three of Us in Italy – Part 1
Back After a Long Time After reviewing my notes, we last travelled to Italy 20 years ago. It was one of our earliest trips to Europe and the first time we travelled with family. We returned from Italy with many great memories, and we???ve discussed a return trip for the past few decades. That return trip has finally arrived, after almost a year of planning.?? As always, we???re at the airport now, waiting for our flight out of Vancouver. I???m posting Part 1 of this series, titled ???Three of Us in Italy.????? New Look For long-time readers of my blog, you???ll notice the updated design I???ve implemented. It???s been several…
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Sailing in Scandinavia ??? Final
The Ship I have to go back several days when we took an Uber from our hotel in Copenhagen to the cruise ship terminal. I???m starting to write this final chapter while we have been on board the ship for a few days already. Although it was just a few kilometres away, it took almost 40 minutes to get there as getting just 10 blocks out of town was a challenge with all of the pedestrians traffic but mostly the number of bicycles on the road that I talked about earlier. We found out later that two large cruise ships had arrived that morning and accounted for the significant increase…
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Sailing in Scandinavia – Part 2
Getting Here Under normal circumstances, we would have planned a direct flight to European destinations but in this case we connected through Toronto and it added about 5-6 hours to getting to Copenhagen, Denmark where we arrived earlier today. The net effect was that we arrived here much more tired which affected our being able to sleep normally the first night. The Cycling We arrived into Copenhagen early in the morning and since our hotel room wasn???t ready we decided to get some exercise and start exploring the city. It was sunny and a brisk 15 degrees, although it would warm up considerably throughout the day. By our third day…
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Sailing in Scandinavia – Part 1
Back on the Sea It feels like a lifetime since our last cruise, but in reality, it was only eight months ago. Between that time and now, we spent a month in Australia, and even that trip feels like a distant memory. I have a theory that travelling and immediately returning to work shifts your focus to the present moment, making the past feel like it was longer ago. I???ll have to test this theory after I retire, when returning from a trip and returning to work aren’t closely connected. This also reminds me that having a detailed record of our trips on this blog and also my photos allows…
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Our Month in Australia ??? Final
The Final Weeks I???m going to be wrapping up this final installment and cover almost two full weeks of our Month in Australia, so it???s going to go over a lot of ground. I???m starting to write this section as we???ve been in Brisbane for 3 days, and by the time I???m finished writing, we would have been in two more destinations, completing it near the end of this trip. We spent 5 days in Melbourne. We ended up staying in two large cities throughout our trip, and Melbourne was by far my favourite. Melbourne is a sprawling city, and on many days, we walked 7-8 Km. We had lots…
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Our Month in Australia – Part 3
The Car As there are six of us, we wouldn’t have been able to get around without us having our rental car. We???ve now gone to several places and have taken two cars. I honestly don???t know how we would have done anything without a 2nd car. In an ideal situation, we would have rented a seven-passenger car so we could have always gone together in one car, but this would have been too large of a vehicle for our needs. I???ve found that it has taken hardly any time for me to get used to driving on the left side of the road and also driving on the right…
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Our Month in Austraila – Part 2
Flight Worries, Weather Worries When we boarded the flight in Vancouver on our way to Australia, most of us wondered if we would experience any turbulence as we flew over Cyclone Alfred, which was directly in our flight path as we approached the Sydney airport. This turned out to be a non-issue as the flight took a slight diversion around the weather system and at most there was just slight turbulence so overall the flight, although very long, was enjoyable. We were going to end up staying in Sydney for about 9 hours as our flight to Bendigo was much later in the day. Although it looked pretty overcast as…
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Our Month in Australia – Part 1
Long Time Planning Planned further in advance than any trip in memory, our return to Australia started almost two years ago. I remember it all like it was yesterday. It was in May of 2023 when I made a promise to my cousin to soon make a return trip back to Australia. In reality, we would have eventually gotten around to getting there, but this conversation definitely moved it up higher on the list. Travel Fatigue Ahead As I often do, I???m posting the first part of this series from the airport in Vancouver. For the 12th time (I had to research this number), we’re travelling with Peter and Liz,…
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Our Excellent Return to the Sea ??? Final
Transition Day Today is Saturday the 19th, and the whole ship is in transition. About 95% of the passengers have disembarked as they only booked a seven-day cruise ending in Civaateccia. Right now, the whole ship feels very empty as there are only ten cabins, including us, who have booked 14 days. The crew is extremely busy emptying out and cleaning the rooms and generally cleaning the ship. It???s an interesting perspective of what goes on to make a cruise ship ready before new passengers start boarding. Small Ship Barb and I are by no means seasoned cruise ship passengers. This cruise on the Windstar line is only the fifth…
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Our Excellent Return to the Sea ??? Part 4
It???s been six days since I last wrote anything about our trip, which is unusual for a three-week vacation. I always bring my laptop with me, and I try to write a little every day, especially in the early morning when Barb is still asleep. I’m going to catch up on most of the things that have occurred over the last week. Still Sick In varying degrees, Barb and I have been sick for part of this trip. We???ve made several trips to local pharmacies to stock up on various medications, and it???s been more bothersome than we would have liked. Other than a few days in Santorini, we???ve both…
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Our Excellent Return to the Sea ??? Part 3
Sick It???s not unheard of for any of us to get sick while traveling. It doesn’t happen on every trip and when it has occurred in the past it’s more or less just been an inconvenience and recovery is often very quick. This isn’t one of those trips. As of this writing on Sunday morning, I’ve been sick for about 5 days. While I’m feeling much better now there were a few days earlier in the week when I didn’t know if I would be able to continue. For the first time ever, we arranged to have a doctor see me in the Santorini hotel and I was given medication…
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Our Excellent Return to the Sea – Part 2
The Island Our flights from Vancouver to Santorini were uneventful, but it???s always tiring to travel so far, and fully getting over jet lag will take some time. It???s a 9-hour time difference from Vancouver, and it always takes a toll and a day or two to start sleeping normally. I???m writing this section at 6 AM on the first morning after arriving, and Barb and I were up around 2 AM. We???re both hoping that by tonight, we???ll be acclimated to local time. Santorini is every bit as beautiful as we remember. When we arrived yesterday, we were met at the nearest local plaza by one of the hotel…
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Our Excellent Return to the Sea – Part 1
Barb and I were reminiscing how it’s been 30 years since we first visited Santorini. It was in 1994 when we traveled to the Greek Islands and the Mediterranean on our honeymoon, seeing the world for the first time with fresh eyes and jumpstarting our 30-year love of travel. Who knew back then that we would get to see so many other destinations around the world over the years? For almost a year, Barb and I have been planning this return trip to Santorini and a Mediterranean cruise, generally mirroring what we did on our honeymoon. ??Many more details about the cruise part of our Adventure a bit later. But…
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Our California Adventure – Final
Down South On Sunday morning, our fourth day in California, we were packing up our suitcases and preparing for the 250 Km drive south to our next destination which would be the town of Carmel, officially known as Carmel-by-the-Sea. We recalled that we had both stayed in Carmel one time before when we did a driving trip here around 2004 so it’s been a long time since we were here. I honestly don???t remember many of the details of our previous stay here other than we very much enjoyed it and added it to the four places we planned to stay on this trip to California. We planned to stop…
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Our California Adventure – Part 2
Airport Mishaps For all of the places we have travelled to over the years, very rarely have we had any mishaps in an airport. At most, have one of our luggage gone missing one or two times over 30 years and we???ve occasionally missed connecting flights. But none of these compares to the complete gong show of our experience in the San Francisco airport yesterday. We never could have imagined that from when we landed to when we left with our rental car it would be almost 3 hours. From luggage arriving at a different terminal to closed car rental counters. Although we may want to come to this part…
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Our California Adventure – Part 1
Road Trip There’s something very appealing about a road trip. Going from place to place on your own time. Stopping when you want and exploring new sights and towns along the way. For ten days, Barb and I will be on our road trip through California, seeing some places we’ve been before and several new ones. We expect that the weather should be fairly hot and, interestingly, we rarely travel this time of year for that very reason. We’ve normally chosen to travel in spring and fall when it’s more temperate in most locations and we’ve found that it makes for a very pleasant time getting around and seeing the…
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Our Excellent Portugal Adventure – Final
Back to the Start On Tuesday, we left Lagos in the south of Portugal and prepared for the 300 Km drive back to the Lisbon airport where we dropped off our rental car. We had the car for 10 days but it was no longer needed as we will spend the remaining 4 days of our trip here in Lisbon before flying back home. We remembered that we spent our first night in a hotel here in Lisbon near the airport about 10 days ago when we first arrived and before picking up our rental car, heading to Evora. It was the right decision to stay in a hotel when…
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Our Excellent Portugal Adventure – Part 3
Down to the Coast Approaching the halfway point of our Portugal trip, it was time to leave Evora and head south to our next destination. ??We spent four nights in Evora and felt it was the right amount of time for a town of its size, one additional day would have been too much and we were ready to move on. We left Evora around 10 AM and we calculated that the drive to the south coast would have us arrive far too early so we decided to take a scenic route along the west coast of Portugal to give us a later arrival. Fish for Two After about two…
