Monday, May 7, 2012
Friday, October 1, 2010
Sept 30
We are at the end of our travels. We are in San Fran with Colleen and Kevin. We have not been tourists at all but have enjoyed their company and that of their friends. Kevin turned 60 so we have had 2 birthday celebrations, breakfast with friends, been out to dinner and lunch[twice] at costco. Off course we manged to do some shopping! It has been VERY hot-108F-driving to Vaccuville. This has been their late summer as before this there was really no summer. We have found out we can take 5 pieces of luggage home between us! That is our job for tomorrow before we fly out tomorrow night. We hope that you have enjoyed the blog and shared with us our travels. Bye for now.
We are at the end of our travels. We are in San Fran with Colleen and Kevin. We have not been tourists at all but have enjoyed their company and that of their friends. Kevin turned 60 so we have had 2 birthday celebrations, breakfast with friends, been out to dinner and lunch[twice] at costco. Off course we manged to do some shopping! It has been VERY hot-108F-driving to Vaccuville. This has been their late summer as before this there was really no summer. We have found out we can take 5 pieces of luggage home between us! That is our job for tomorrow before we fly out tomorrow night. We hope that you have enjoyed the blog and shared with us our travels. Bye for now.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Wednesday 22nd September
We were in dread of the US Customs to get of the boat, what with the finger printing and photos for everyone we thought we may be stretching our luck to get checked in on the plane in the time we had. What a joke. We we walked off the boat, found our luggage straight away and got through customs in about 2 minutes, and most of that was walking off the boat. We actually managed to get off the boat at about 8.30 and we caught a cab to the airport – not knowing just how busy the airort would be. The cab ocst us $45US plus $5 for a bridge toll. One cabbie talked to me as we crossed the road from the boat terminal and said that he could get us there for $90 and the extra charge was because of heavy traffic. We declined his invitation as well as another from another driver for a $60 ride.
Anyway,we had checked in and were rid of our bags in record time and had some lunch with some friends we usually had our dinner with. They arrived just after we had managed to check-in.
The plane was delayed arriving from Rome so initially it was delayed 35 minutes.
After boarding, they had a problem with the fuel gauge, then another delay because Obama was flying in for the UN meeting, then the weather in central US was foul and we had to wait on the taxiway for another hour.
We finally departed, 3 hours late and by the time Colleen and Kevin picked us up we were very tired.
Anyway,we had checked in and were rid of our bags in record time and had some lunch with some friends we usually had our dinner with. They arrived just after we had managed to check-in.
The plane was delayed arriving from Rome so initially it was delayed 35 minutes.
After boarding, they had a problem with the fuel gauge, then another delay because Obama was flying in for the UN meeting, then the weather in central US was foul and we had to wait on the taxiway for another hour.
We finally departed, 3 hours late and by the time Colleen and Kevin picked us up we were very tired.
Tuesday 21st September
As we had cleared Immigration in Boston it was a quick escape for a day in New York.
We walked up to Times Square and looked around the place then caught a hop-on-hop-off bus for a tour of up town and down town.
The tour guide was a typical New Yorker and was obviously very proud of the town, as everything was the biggest, largest, most expensive etc.
The second guy was just as good but his jokes were very dry and almost Australian sence of humour even though he came from “Joisey”.We ended up getting back to the ship at 6pm. It was a great day.
We had a couple of thought about our expectations of NewYork.
Firstly, there wasn't as many people walking around the streets as we thought there would be. Secondly, the same could be said of the traffic as it wasn't as bad as we had expected, but then we weren't driving in it either, except for the bus and that was fine.
Lastly the city is not wall to wall skyscrapers as I expected. There were plenty of 5 and 6 storey buildings all over the place and somw even smaller than that.
We walked up to Times Square and looked around the place then caught a hop-on-hop-off bus for a tour of up town and down town.
The tour guide was a typical New Yorker and was obviously very proud of the town, as everything was the biggest, largest, most expensive etc.
The second guy was just as good but his jokes were very dry and almost Australian sence of humour even though he came from “Joisey”.We ended up getting back to the ship at 6pm. It was a great day.
We had a couple of thought about our expectations of NewYork.
Firstly, there wasn't as many people walking around the streets as we thought there would be. Secondly, the same could be said of the traffic as it wasn't as bad as we had expected, but then we weren't driving in it either, except for the bus and that was fine.
Lastly the city is not wall to wall skyscrapers as I expected. There were plenty of 5 and 6 storey buildings all over the place and somw even smaller than that.
Sunday 19th September
We escaped the ship at about 9.15 and declined the cruise ships offer of a shuttle bus (too expensive) and shared a “limo” (a 19 seater “Ozmeister” bus) to Harvard for $7US each. A pretty drive along the water and once again many different styles of building.
Harvard is a beautiful place. The driver tried to drop us on the wrong side of the river which would have meant a very long walk. I [Fay] requested nicely that he drop us at the square! No tip for him. Wonderful buildings and grounds which also had mini religious services taking place on the lawns around one of the squares. One fellow was playing a saxophone which we could have stopped and listened to for hours. The buildings are all quite different in their architecture and very imposing. It is much smaller that what we expected but very lovely. Once again we had fantastic weather. We caught the public bus back to town - $2.50 for two.
We could have caught the subway but we thought we would see more this way. We had a lovely time wandering around. We had lunch in a sports bar at the second attempt. We tried one but they didn’t serve lunch till 2 o’clock, 12.30 at the time. The successful one was quite nice so we had Boston Clam chowder in a bowl with some crackers and some soda (coke and lemonade).
Harvard is a beautiful place. The driver tried to drop us on the wrong side of the river which would have meant a very long walk. I [Fay] requested nicely that he drop us at the square! No tip for him. Wonderful buildings and grounds which also had mini religious services taking place on the lawns around one of the squares. One fellow was playing a saxophone which we could have stopped and listened to for hours. The buildings are all quite different in their architecture and very imposing. It is much smaller that what we expected but very lovely. Once again we had fantastic weather. We caught the public bus back to town - $2.50 for two.
We could have caught the subway but we thought we would see more this way. We had a lovely time wandering around. We had lunch in a sports bar at the second attempt. We tried one but they didn’t serve lunch till 2 o’clock, 12.30 at the time. The successful one was quite nice so we had Boston Clam chowder in a bowl with some crackers and some soda (coke and lemonade).
Monday 20th September
We sailed at 7am and made our way to New York. The last leg was a little rough. We ended up playing cards morning and afternoon and had the last of the gala dinners that night.
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