DR “sin” Dianna
Well they’re taking no chances with Covid in the Dominican Republic. Because of a reduced number of tables in the restaurant, we’re having to “book” a slot for the buffet. I mean has anyone ever heard of such a thing. A buffet reservation? It’s barbaric. As for the gym and…
London to Paris to DR
On only his second day working for Cannon Cars, Amir, originally from Bangladesh picked me up in his pristine white all electric Nissan van thing. What it lacked in style it made up for in efficiency - £4 of electricity gets him about 100 miles. It was probably the slowest…
Corfu, Sailing
After rousing at an ungodly time in the morning we reached the airport and flew to Corfu in a little under three hours. It was a glorious sunny day and we were transported to Gouvia Marina to find our boat. We boarded late afternoon and we went about allocating bunks.…
Aruba part 2
Well I knew the peace and solitude would come to an end at some point. Aruba opened to Americans six days after the first European flight and half a dozen planes arrived from various US cities on Friday 10th followed by another 10 flights on Saturday. The island slowly came…
Aruba Desert(ed) Island
After Tui cancelled all direct flights to the Caribbean until at least October, I had to find an alternative route back to the US which I managed to do through KLM via Amsterdam. The flights didn’t match up so I had a night in the Hilton at Schiphol airport. London…
Montego Bay, Jamaica
Having to leave the US every 90 days is proving to be a real chore. We had 5 nights in Montego Bay, Jamaica which is located on the north coast and the second largest city in Jamaica. Jamaica is actually split into 3 counties - Surrey to the east, Middlesex…
Cozumel and Home
This was my second visit to Cozumel and it immediately felt far more laid back than Roatán. Randy and Susie had rented a jeep and we drove along the coast to the southern tip of the island where I held my first iguana. Possibly my last. The coastline was rugged…
Belize & Honduras
We missed another port on Friday - Costa Maya in Mexico, due to unsafe conditions for the gangway. Two other ships were in port but they were perpendicular to us therefore not facing the same wind problem. Nothing worse than problem wind on a Friday. So we had another sea…
Jamaica & the Cayman Islands
Ocho Rios, Jamaica Once off the ship we were treated to an extortionate quote for a taxi which needed some serious negotiation. It was so ridiculous I thought about getting back on the ship. We knocked a third off the price which wasn't nearly enough and settled for Brooks (31)…
Bahamas
There’s nothing starting a new year with a cruise, so here we are in the Caribbean again, struggling by. We are cruising with some friends of Dianna's, Randy and Susie who run a ranch/ wedding business out near St. Louis, Missouri. Growing up, Randy (56) was best friends with Dianna’s…
Caribbean Cruise
Only two weeks late...A day after moving in to our new house in Florida we were due to go on a Caribbean cruise. Terrible timing however I didn’t complain for very long. After a four hour drive we boarded the Celebrity Equinox in Fort Lauderdale and the ship was almost…
Baltic Blog part 2
Gdynia, Poland was our first day of the cruise without something organised so we took advantage of our new found freedom and didn’t leave the ship until almost 11am. All aboard was 2:30 so this was going to be a whirlwind stop. Have you ever been to Poland, someone may…
Baltic Blog part 1
After arriving at Gatwick and printing out our boarding passes and luggage tags and then affixing the tags to our bags and peeling off the receipts, we were asked to load our bags on the conveyor belt and scan them. Between us we were allowed 4 bags of 20kg each…
Bruges, Belgium
After Oslo we had another sea day before arriving in Bruges and it was a wonderfully sunny day in the North Sea. A bit parky though. The astonishing moment of the day came at breakfast when bananas made their first appearance on this cruise. Astonishing because Norway is not known…
Hamburg, Germany
We set off on Saturday for our chaps cruise, minus Jim. Simon (Evans) and I arrived in good time at Southampton about ten minutes before Simon (Bull). The taxis seemed reluctant to go anywhere near the cruise terminal because of traffic so we decided to walk the 0.7 miles with…
Ga, Tn, Al, NYC
After our mammoth road trip, Dianna came out of semi-retirement and went back to work on a three day trip meaning I was free to explore a little more. I drove north of Atlanta and based myself in Alpharetta, one of the more salubrious neighbourhoods where the lawns are manicured…
Oslo, Norway
Our second stop was in Norway’s capital city, Oslo, and we were all taken by the cleanliness, the laid back feel and the sheer number of electric vehicles. Oslo was founded in 1040 and has a population of around 650,000. The day started with a stroll to Oslo Cathedral which…
25 Day Road Trip
Our 25 day road trip has now come to an end after covering around 2,800 miles, visiting 12 states and two countries. The journey started in Georgia and our first stop was at Lake Oconee east of Atlanta. I’d bought a road bike so we were able to go on…
Windstar Caribbean Cruise
Dianna and I flew from Atlanta to Saint Maarten a day early and stayed at the overpriced Simpson Bay Beach Hotel. The following day we didn’t have to be on the ship until 4pm and they were kicking us out at 10am so after dumping the bags at the port…