Saturday 27 October 2012

Washington - 27th October 2012





Today was our last day. There is so much we haven’t done, and so much on the list to do, that there is going to be lots that is going to have to wait until next time! After an early start, to try and get in as much as possible, we grabbed a coffee along the way and went to meet a walking tour guide that I had found on the internet.


The company is called Monumental Stouries, and is a free, tips only, tour. We met Tim, the guide, on Constitution Avenue just off the north grounds of the Washington Monument. It turns out that there is only one other couple on the tour – an American couple, the lady coming from New York and lives one block away from Madonna and the gentleman who went to law school with Mitt Romney. Made for a very interesting tour. The lady also was working on the 65th floor of the World Trade Centre when the plane hit, and gave a very graphic encounter of how she escaped.

Tim was so knowledgeable about the monuments and history – and whatever he didn’t know the American gentleman filled in. A real bonus! We started by walking over to the World War II monument, and then through the Constitution Gardens and by the Reflecting Pool towards the Vietnam Monument. As we were at the World War II Monument, Tim saw two secret service sniper guys on the top of one of the buildings, and said that usually meant that Marine One (helicopter) was on its way in. He explained that if there were three helicopters, one would be carrying the President, if there were two it would be the Vice President, or one it could be anyone! There are thirty Marine One’s altogether. There were only two, so looks like we didn’t get the top man today. The reflecting pool had just been drained and had 34 million dollars spent on having pipes connected to it to keep it clean. This apparently has done two things – allowed algae to grow on it so is not clean at all, and keeps the water moving so that it doesn’t reflect. We must have been really lucky the other day when we had a perfect reflection. It certainly wasn’t today.

We then went to the Vietnam War Memorial, a black granite wall with names of every American that lost their lives engraved in the wall. It sounds a bit morbid, but it actually is very poignant. It is cleverly designed to seem like a knife wound cut into the ground, deeper in the middle than at the ends. So many things are left every day at the wall be relatives and friends of the soldiers – all that are collected at midnight and stored. A Harley Davidson motor bike was left one year by a motor cycle group – so that the deceased could “take a ride” at any time they felt like it.

We then went to Lincoln’s Memorial again, and again had more and more information on this and the surrounding area. We walked around the back of the temple, and had a great view of the Arlington Memorial Bridge and Woman’s Monument in the cemetery. From here we walked to the Korea Memorial. A garden type monument with nineteen stainless steel soldiers that looked as if they were walking though hills and swamps. The expressions on their faces were so life like – just as if they were feeling fatigued and really wanted to come home. A wall went down one side of this with faces etched into it of actual soldiers that served in the war.

From here, we went to Martin Luther King’s Memorial – the newest addition. This was a huge stone sculpture, with many of his quotes engraved into the walls surrounding the sculpture. The entrance is made of a huge rock split into two, that you walk through the middle. His image has been hewn out of the block that came from the middle and moved forward. Very clever. One of the quotes on the side of his image has caused much controversy, so is going to be redone at some point with the whole quote instead of the cut down version which has apparently changed the meaning. From here, there is a view of the tidal basin over to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial. It has been a beautiful day again, but our feet have just about given up. This walk took five hours – way over what it supposed to, but was so interesting with the conversation that nobody seemed to mind.

We grabbed a cab and went to one of the restaurants that was recommended by the guide book, one of the locals, and the tour guide – Old Emmitt Grill which is virtually next to the White House. It was well worth the visit.

Clam chowder and lobster – and the biggest lobster I have ever eaten. And it was so good! Well chosen for our last meal in Washington. It was then back to the hotel and pack for our flight at 11.20pm out of Dulles Airport and back to the UK. Just in time – Hurricane Sandy is due in the next couple of days, and is predicted to be the worst storm to hit the area in decades.  And our $55 hop-on hop-off bus ticket was used for one bus for two stops – not the best value for money purchase we have ever made!

Friday 26 October 2012

Washington - 26th October 2012




Today was the first day with no real plans – lots of things to do, but nothing put on the schedule. Which meant we faffed around and achieved very little! On the news this morning was a warning that Hurricane Sandy was on its way - the weather was going to remarkably change by Sunday, and the hurricane was due in on Tuesday. Somewhat glad we are shipping out Saturday night! It was definitely more cloudy today, but still was warm enough for a t-shirt only.


We thought we would try the hop-on hop-off bus, and duly picked up a leaflet and set off for the bus stop. We traditionally always do this, and most of the time regret it as we hang around wasting time waiting for buses that go in usually the opposite way we want them to go. Will we ever learn our lesson? Having not even opened the leaflet until we get to the bus stop, we are hit by the price. $45 for one day, $55 for two. That is massive, but we are here now. There is also a combo – buy the night tour as well for $80 total. The bus pulled up, so we had to make a quick decision. I left Paul to negotiate with the bus driver and went upstairs. It was past the next stop before he came up – he had to book the night tour and decided where to get on and he was not pleased he had to make a decision on his own!

We were heading initially for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where they did free tours between 12.30pm and 2.00pm. The bus was going in the right direction – hurrah! We got off, and then spent twenty minutes trying to find the place. In the end we went in the Commerce building and got the security guard to point us in the right direction – which was the opposite way that we went when we got off the bus. We approached the building and the queue was huge – this wasn’t something that you could book, you had to just turn up. So we got in the queue. I spied a hot dog stand the other side of the road, so decided to do the “American” thing and had a chilli dog. It wasn’t as nice as what I had imagined – it tasted just like a hot dog at home and I don’t really like them. Oh well – at least I tried it.

We got in on the last but one tour – there were a lot of people behind us that were turned away. We had a quick DVD on the history of the building and American money – there are two facilities that print money, the other one is in Fort Worth, where we had just come from. Then we had the tour that took us in galleries above where the money is printed. We started by seeing the paper going in and having one layer of print on, then another, and then the serial numbers and the seal and then cut and stacked. It all takes a small amount of time to get stacks of money. If the money is printed in Fort Worth, it has a small FW printed on it. Most of ours we had was printed there. It was a bit like a newspaper printing press – it just kept coming and coming. Apparently all pieces of paper are accounted for, so none can go astray!

We then went outside to the bus stop to wait for a bus. And we waited, and we waited. Then a bus came – that was so full there was standing room only downstairs. I didn’t think it was a good idea to get on that, so we started to walk to another stop. Another bus came along, and that was full as well. Now I was getting cross. We decided to go and get something to eat, and then go back to the hotel for jackets as we had to meet at the White House for the night tour at 5.45pm. We actually ended up at the Elephant & Castle – which turned out to be an English Pub. I had roast beef and bread & butter pudding. Bizarre. We sat outside – it was on Pennsylvania Avenue – when all of a sudden there was no traffic whatsoever on the road and deathly quiet. The waitresses said that President Obama was on his way – the second time today. So, cameras at the ready, we took all the police motor cycles, probably the car Obama was in (who knows), as well as the twenty or so other blacked out cars that was in the line. Oh well, that brightened up the meal!

We then thought we had enough time to walk back to the hotel, and then back again to get the night tour. Wrong. We didn’t get back to the hotel until 5.20pm, and we needed to be back at the White House for 5.45pm. Jackets grabbed, we went down and got in a cab. “To the White House in fifteen minutes please”. I think we must have got the grumpiest taxi driver ever. He asked us if we knew it was rush hour, why had we waited so long, and didn’t English people look at the time. But, he tried his best to get us there, and he did. I don’t know why we hurried – the tour bus was twenty minutes late! I did predict that earlier, but was only joking.

We had a guide called Ralph, and he made up for the semi bad day we had had. He was a lovely guy – and it turns out as a fourteen year old he had been at the Lincoln Memorial when Martin Luther King made his “I have a dream” speech. We went around all of the monuments and he gave us witty stories and information all the way. The whole city was alight with the bright lights on the marble monuments. He told us, at the Lincoln Memorial, that the sculptor had made another face on the top of Lincoln’s head of Robert E Lee, and at night you could see the grim reaper’s shadow at the back of Lincoln. You could certainly see the shadow, although the face looked more like the lion out of the Wizard of Oz. Who knows.

We went to many monuments that we hadn’t already been to – the whole city is built around monuments. I am sure we won’t be able to do them all. One of the famous ones of the Marines at Iwo Jima was in neighbouring Virginia (over just over the bridge) where they were getting ready for one of the biggest marathons in the USA on Sunday. Another good reason to go on Saturday! It was a good tour, and ended the day on a higher note than it started!

Thursday 25 October 2012

Washington - 25th October 2012





This morning I had prebooked a tour to the Capitol Building at 11.00am. We took the metro the opposite way to Capitol South, which was a short distance from the entrance to the Visitor Centre. There was not so much security here – no official ID required even though this is the equivalent to our Houses of Parliament. The Capitol building is home to the US Congress and its two legislative bodies, the House of Representatives and the US Senate. After going through security we were in a huge hall called Emancipation Hall, where everybody congregates before going on tours. And there were hundreds of people going on tours. School groups, private tours and just the general public like us. We were taken into a theatre initially, where we learned a little on the history of the building and how the American system works. From here, we were given ear phones that were connected to our guide’s microphone, so everyone could hear perfectly.


The building is full of statues and works of art. It was explained how many artists and how long it took to paint all the different parts of the building. Inside the actual dome is a beautiful painting by an Italian artist called Brumidi. The guide was extremely knowledgeable – saying more than once that the English burned the place down at one point in history. Oh dear! We went into the original room that the Senate used to meet in, but because of its rounded ceiling there were spots in the room that sound didn’t travel to. Would do for those MP’s that fall asleep then! All rooms are exquisite, and I felt very honoured to have been able to visit.

As we were leaving, the guide said that we may be able to get passes to visit the gallery of both the House of Representatives and the Senate – so we did. We went and sat in the balconies of the empty houses – the house is in recess until after the election in a couple of weeks time. I shall watch with interest the swearing in of the president now I know where it is taking place.

We went and grabbed a quick bite to eat before making our way to the Library of Congress, just opposite the Capitol Building. There is a tunnel that links the two which we could have used. This featured in the film National Treasure, and I felt I knew it already. The film didn’t do it justice. It was absolutely beautiful. There were free tours, and we joined the next one. A volunteer explained that this is the biggest library where there are no books on view – all books have to be requested and got for you from a member of staff. This is the biggest library in the world – and is being added to at a rate of 13,000 items per day. Wow! And it must be the most beautiful as well. There was a private party being prepared for this evening, so the library was shutting early and ours was the last tour of the day. Wonder how much that is costing?

The last place we went to was overlooking one of the reading rooms where members of the public who are registered with the library can request books. I knew this room – it was in the film. And apart from a few little additions that the movie director made, it was exactly the same. Great! We then had to leave as tables were being laid – and an ice skating rink was going to be laid in the main hall!

We walked from here towards the White House. Paul had been itching to go there, and now there was no stopping him. He didn’t want to stop anywhere on the way – he just wanted to get there. On the other hand, I did want to stop and see things on the way. So he sat whilst I went and looked at the Senate Fountain and reflecting pool (another one!) and then over to the Taft Memorial. There’s that man again! And there were squirrels everywhere. I have never seen so many squirrels. We had seen an odd one every day we have been here, but here there were eight or ten of them all hopping about burying their nuts. They are quite tame.

I reckon the White House was probably a couple of miles walk. It was cloudy this morning, but now the sun had come out and it was lovely. We got to the White House, back or front not sure – the bit where there is a half circle of pillars – and took a few photos and that was it. A bit of a let down really from what we had done already this morning. Might have been different if we had managed to get on a tour here. From here we picked up a cab to take us back to the hotel. A couple of quick drinks, an hour to let the feet recover and then out again on a walking tour entitled “The Most Haunted Houses”.

We, again, grabbed a quick dinner on the way. We met at a house called “The Octagon” and decided to walk. It was virtually next to the White House, so you can tell how compact this city is. It really is good to walk around. We heard various stories as we made our way round of the houses, and the area, and people that used to live here and some still visit – apparently! The bit I wanted to do was around Lafayette Park – an area that features strongly in David Baldacci’s Camel Club books. We walked around the side of the White House, and had various houses on the way explained as to their history. It was quite busy with people and traffic, so it wasn’t really scary at all. The stories were interesting though – and the guide was obviously a believer! Paul was not, and thought the whole night was a load of baloney. The guide did say that 70% of the time, someone got something “unexplained” on their photos. One chap looked at his on his camera, and there was a ghostlike woman’s shape in one of the upstairs windows of Stephen Decatur’s house. Spooky!

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Washington - 24th October 2012




We had a very leisurely start to the day today – and had breakfast in a little café just down the road from the hotel. We put $5 each on a metro ticket, and got the blue line towards Franconia to Arlington Cemetery. It was a beautiful day again, really warm. Coming up from the metro, the cemetery was about a four hundred yard walk. One end of the road is the Women in the Military Memorial, and a mile or so the other end, over the Arlington Memorial Bridge, is the imposing Lincoln Monument.


We only had an hour or so here – we had a Pentagon Tour booked for 2pm. The tour that they offer in the cemetery on a little bus takes just over an hour, with stops, so we elected to walk to the Kennedy Burial Site and then come back for the tour after the Pentagon. The trees in the cemetery were so colourful – this must be one of the prettiest times of the year to come here. The browns and oranges were so vivid. We walked the twenty or so minutes to where the eternal flame still burns – and has done since Jacqueline Kennedy lit it when her husband, JFK, was buried. She is now buried there with him, as well as two of their children that died within a few days of birth.

The rows and rows of gravestones are all in straight lines – very military fashion. No flowers on any though – although the ones we had passed were mostly from World War II so they may not have had many surviving relatives. We headed back to the metro, and had to put another $5 on the card – apparently paper cards have a $1 per trip surcharge. If you are here for a few days and are going to use the metro it is worth buying a Smart Card. We only had one stop to go for the Pentagon – it said to report 30 minutes prior to the tour, and we were duly there ten minutes before that. Security was similar to that of airports, and we got in in about five minutes flat. So, we had to wait for over half an hour. It is such a busy place – so many people coming and going. There are over 23,000 people that work in this building – it is massive. The US Department of Defence is housed in this building, which incredibly took only 16 months to build during World War II.

I don’t know what I expected, but what I saw wasn’t it! We had a security briefing from a young group of lads that represented all of the armed forces – one marine, one army, one navy and one coastguard. Each of them took a group of us – there must have been about 50 people on the tour, mostly British would you believe from a college in Brighton! We started off through a shopping mall. There is everything here that anyone could want to buy – because of the amount of people that work here and the security they have to go through to get in and out, it is easier for them to have everything they need inside. They even have a bank and a DMV(driving license office, where the wait is nowhere near what it would be in a general one!).

The five sided building has five rings – a small one on the inside going out to the biggest on the outside. There are five floors, and over twelve miles of corridors. We walked some of the corridors, which were very clinical and clean. The walls were decorated with various themes, from a wall for General MacArthur to walls with quilts that were donated from all over the world after the 9/11 attack. There are elevators up and down, and a park area in the middle where rank is not recognised. As this is a military establishment, and approximately 12,000 officers stationed here, a lower ranked person would be forever saluting so the middle has been made a neutral area. There used to be a hot dog tent in the middle that the Russians had eyes on and thought it was the entrance to an underground bunker. Probably is!

We then went into the area that the plane had hit in the 9/11 attack. A room had been decorated as a memorial to the 184 people that lost their lives on that day – 59 from the plane and 124 who were working in the Pentagon. It hit the building at over 500 miles per hour, but apparently hit the ground first before bumping into the building so this may have been one of the reasons why so few lives were lost. It does look quite sturdy! When we got back to where we had started, we had walked over a mile and a half. No pictures at all were allowed to be taken on either the inside or the outside – paranoia considering we hadn’t seen anything of importance!

We made our way out of the building, and then walked around to the back of the building where an outdoor memorial has been built. It is a beautiful area – each person has a bench with their name on, with water running underneath it and reflecting off it. All people are in age order, and depending if they were on the plane or in the building depends on which way the bench is pointed. All of the benches are laid in the direct path that the aircraft was pointed when it hit. There are many trees also planted here – a very sad but lovely place.

It was so hot now – we walked back round to the front and got on the blue line again and went back to Arlington Cemetery to finish the tour. We bought the tickets ($8.75 each) and got on one of the little trolly buses that left every twenty minutes. The first stop was the Kennedy site. The guide did tell us that there are 26-31 funerals every day here, and they will reach capacity by 2037. The older graves have all sorts of different headstones, but since 1947 they have only been the same uniform headstone. There are two presidents buried here – JFK and Taft. Never heard of him! With every grave, there are up to three people in it. The military person, and a spouse or dependent if they so wish. 285,000 plots so far I think – times by three. That is a lot of bodies! We then went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where some sort of ceremony was going on with school children and wreaths and a bugler or two. We walked round the amphitheatre – not sure what they use that for, and then back to the bus. This chap used a tape to give information – not a patch on the one before that knew everything and some. We reached the point where we had started, and felt we had had enough of the Cemetery – beautiful as it was. No idea how they fit in five funerals an hour here – it would need to be military fashion I think.

We then decided to finish the afternoon by walking over the Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Monument. It was further than it looked! The walk was very pleasant, but feet and body were struggling to keep co-ordinated. Cyclists share the sidewalk with walkers, and you have to be on your toes to hear them coming and avoid them. We eventually reached the monument just as the sun was going down. When it shone on the white marble it looked stunning. We walked round to the front of this Greek inspired temple, and looked up the steps to see Abraham sitting regally in his chair. The steps were full of people – sitting, standing and going up and down. This really is one of the icons of Washington. Whether it is Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, or just one of those scenes from umpteen movies, everybody knows this. Looking back to the Washington Monument from the top of the steps, the reflecting pool does exactly that – reflects everything. The suns last rays were catching the trees and the pool was full of reflections. Looked good – but apparently it is a 2000 feet vat of duck poo!

We decided to grab a cab back to the hotel – just in time for Happy Hour. Didn’t even know there was one until the drinks were lined up. We chatted to a chap from Ohio who thought his vote was going to be the one that decided who the president was going to be, and a local who gave us some ideas for dinner. We took one of them, and went to the Taj of India. It was indeed a good choice – and very good value for money. Will have to try another one tomorrow!



Tuesday 23 October 2012

Washington - 23rd October 2012




This morning we have got a flight from Dallas Fort Worth to Washington Ronald Reagon Airport. Firstly, we have to try to get this car back to Hertz in the same condition that we got it in! The bags went in the boot of this one – as Paul said, it didn’t have a roof in it as well. All checked out, and a smooth journey to the airport, and made it without any mishaps. Hurrah!


A quick bus trip to the terminal, and then checked in for our American Airlines first class flight. More points – thank you American Express card! Thought we were going to get breakfast in the first class lounge – but no! A first class ticket doesn’t get you in the lounge here. On an internal flight, you have to have a membership card to the AA Admirals Club, or equivalent gold BA club membership. I am only blue – all these free flights don’t count, and I hardly ever pay for one! Oh dear – back to Starbucks and try to find a seat at the gate. It wasn’t too bad, the coffee was good, and we only had to wait a little over an hour.

The flight was just over two and a half hours long, with watches going forward one hour. We were fed a fairly decent lunch, so at least the hunger has been kept at bay. The seats were very comfortable, but no inflight entertainment on this short flight. Good job I had my Washington Guide book to read!

We landed and because it was into the domestic airport it was nowhere near as busy as an international airport. Someone even got our bags for us – first class passengers have orange tags on their luggage, and there were a couple of chaps pulling all the orange tagged bags off. I suppose they have to do something to justify the extra cost if they don’t let you in the lounge. There were plentiful taxis waiting, and it took twenty or so minutes to get to the Fairmont Hotel. This airport is also a lot nearer the centre than the international airport. The taxi was just under $20.

Very nice hotel in the Georgetown district of Washington, which is where the university is. A quick change, and we headed out for a walk we knew not where. We headed for the Potomac River, which was about half an hour away. The streets here are very different to Dallas, and many other American Cities. It looks a little like a leafy lined England in many places. So many trees and green spaces, and very few high rise buildings. The leaves are turning a beautiful red colour – it is said that the fall colours are just as nice in these parts as they are further north in New England.

We came to the river at just before sunset, and there was a lovely seafood restaurant with tables outside overlooking the river. An excellent place to stop and people watch. The weather is still very warm here, even at this time of night. There were several crews of rowers on the river racing, with a man who looked to be the referee shouting through a cone. Could have been from the university I suppose – wonder if they have a race here with another university like the Cambridge and Oxford boat race?

We had a lovely dinner, and the sun was spectacular going down. The planes seem to use the lie of the river to land, so several were coming in over our heads all evening. Some old time music started playing a bit further up the promenade, and several very old cars pulled up – I think there was some sort of private event going on. They were waved up the promenade – then a policeman on a huge motorbike came along and pulled them over and looked as if he was giving them a ticket. Obviously didn’t get the correct authorisation!

We walked a bit further up the promenade to a lovely fountain display, then turned and followed the road grid system back to the hotel. It is so easy to find your way when one direction of roads are numbered and the other direction has letters – you always know exactly where you are. Wonder if I will eat those words at some point?


Monday 22 October 2012

Dallas - 22nd October 2012




It was a leisurely start to the day – I haven’t been to bed that late in years! We took the Mustang north of Dallas to Arlington to have a tour of the Dallas Cowboys Football Stadium. It was about thirty minutes drive, and we stopped for breakfast on the way. Well, that is to say we tried to stop for breakfast. But in a country where every other place is an eatery, we couldn’t seem to find anywhere that served breakfast. We tried a place called Boomer Jacks – looked OK. I ordered a chicken sandwich (it was noon by this time – we didn’t start very early) which turned out to be a chicken burger with fries. Not the healthy start to the day that I was planning!


We arrived at the impressive stadium and bought our tickets for the VIP tour – it goes every thirty minutes and costs $27 each. The stadium is just over three years old, and is amazing. It seats around 80,000 people, but they sell standing tickets that can make it up to about 110,000. The standing areas are not that big, so how they get that many people in there I don’t know. And I don’t think that many of them will be able to see. There are cars on show in the stadium, and fountains that do a jig when the Cowboys score. But they weren’t working today. There is a massive screen hanging down from the roof, that I can’t remember how big it is, but it is the biggest in the world. The stadium is the biggest dome in the world – there is not one pillar in the way of any seat. There is a retractable roof – and yes, you’ve guessed it, it is the biggest and quickest retractable roof in the world. It is an amazing structure. We went into the “club” seats, which have access to a private club for the day as well as having a seat. Very posh – not a bit like our football stadiums. Then we went into the private suites that are for hire on ten or twenty year leases – absolutely the seats that I would like to have if I went to a game. I bet they are a pound or two to buy!

Then we went into the locker rooms. The cheerleaders have their own locker room, with the current years team all marked up with their names and photographs on each locker. The Dallas Cowboys have their own locker room with each locker costing in the region of $1000. Again, each locker is named so everyone has their own. It looks more like a bedroom than a football locker room. The away team, apparently, doesn’t have anywhere near such a nice room. We then went out onto the pitch – not real grass but something that can be rolled up and stored when the stadium is used for something else. Each different game needs a different pitch, so even if it is college football rather than NFL they have to roll up the pitch and put another one down. Was a bit special being on the pitch though – I will have to now watch a Dallas Cowboys game.

We went from there back to Downtown Dallas. The guide book I had bought had a self guided walking tour of downtown in, so we decided to do that this afternoon. It started at the Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK from the sixth floor. The sixth floor has actually been turned into a museum now, called the Sixth Floor Museum funnily enough. We bought tickets to go in - $16 each – and got the audio equipment as it was about an hour of background, the actual shooting, and what happened next.

It was really interesting. The pictures and films that they had set the scene, the window that he shot through was set up as it was then, and it went through all the events as they happened. Unless, of course, you believe the conspiracy theories that Lee Harvey Oswald wasn’t working on his own. Who knows? We left the museum and walked to the Grassy Knoll that the conspiracy theorists said one of the shots came from, and all around the area.  The window that he was shot from is just above Paul's left ear - not the top floor the one below it.  There are two white crosses on the road – one for each of the shots where he was shot. From there we walked past Dealy Plaza, named after the man that founded the Dallas Morning News. From there we could see a huge tower that housed a revolving restaurant. I think we might try that tonight!

Our walk took about two hours, and took us past a mixture of old and new buildings. There is a really bizarre memorial for John F Kennedy – a lump of concrete in a box like structure with openings on two sides. Not pretty at all – but is called a “brooding structure”. Hmm. We then passed a building that houses the Conspiracy Museum – but it looks as if the museum has closed. Perhaps they have given up! There is “the worlds largest ensemble of bronze steers and horseback riders”, but you could actually give this one a miss. Reminds me of Milton Keynes! One of the tallest buildings in Dallas is here – 72 stories of Bank of America. Loads of lovely glass bank buildings around here – can’t be that bad in the banking industry at present then.

There are train tracks on some of the roads. The DART transportation system has trains on several routes that seems to be very efficient. We touched the Arts District and the West End during the walk. Fountain Place is one of the tallest buildings in Dallas, that has “an oasis of bubbling fountains” in it’s grounds. But it must be national no fountain day today, as none of them were working either. Bizarre. We passed an area that was full of weird little black birds – they were everywhere on the electricity lines and in the trees. All squawking and making a fuss! Just after this, every person we saw happened to be black, and an awful lot of them. I think we might have just wandered into the wrong part of the city! No problem – it wasn’t long before we found where we had parked the car. And it was still in one piece!

A quick change at the hotel after the concierge made us reservations for the 560 restaurant by Wolfgang Puck – the revolving restaurant that we had seen earlier. I googled him when we got back – a very famous chef with a lot of fine dining restaurants. We took a cab – Paul was having withdrawal symptoms from wine, and I didn’t think I would be able to see over the great big hump in the bonnet of the car. The elevator whisked us up the fifty floors very quickly – one side was glass so the view was great even on the way up. We met a banker in the lift – so I knew that the menu was likely to be quite costly at this point! We were there then, so hey ho.
The food was absolutely delightful – one of the best meals I have ever had. The flavours were amazing – and the service was excellent. A good choice for our last night in Dallas!

Dallas - 21st October 2012




Funny old start to the day. We went out to the car to drive to our Uptown Dallas Food and Cultural Walking Tour that I had prebooked to find that someone had tried to break in and had slashed the soft top. Oh dear. We went back to the hotel and security came out and took some pictures. The car park is massive, and it was really full when we got back last night so had parked quite a way from the hotel building. There is a secure fence all the way round – but obviously not secure enough. Thought it better to get a cab to join the tour, instead of leaving it somewhere else public where another person could have a go!


We started the tour about fifteen minutes away from the Renaissance at 11.15am in the West Village Shopping District of Dallas at a restaurant called Baboush – a mix of Moroccan and Lebanese. We had three dips – a tomato, a hummus and an eggplant – to go with the hot pitta bread to start. It was really tasty – and as we hadn’t had breakfast it went down well. There were a total of ten people on the tour – mostly American apart from us and a couple of Mexican girls that we were watching with interest from the window trying to park their car and hitting the one behind several times. They got out, and never even looked to see if there was any damage then walked over to join us in the restaurant. We then had a meat dish in another sort of bread – can’t pronounce the name. It was lovely.

We then left there, and crossed the road to get on the trolley. This is a free service that has a limited route. They found the tracks under the road twenty or so years ago, and decided to start the trolley route again. There are four cars in use – all originals that have been restored. The one we rode came from Melbourne in Australia. We got off a couple of stops later, and walked into the oldest district of Dallas called State Thomas. This has been deemed a historic area where the old houses are preserved – old as in a couple of hundred years at the most. Most of Dallas’ history doesn’t go back more than one hundred years. We went into a bed & breakfast to have a quick look at the rooms (can’t quite work out why) and then went on to the next food stop called the Red Mango, which specialises in speciality frozen yoghurts. We had taster cups of the Red Velvet, Pomegranite, Nutty Potion and Peanut Butter – all natural and really, really good.
We then walked past the McKinney Avenue Tavern – the place it is rumoured that Jack Ruby drank at the night before he shot Lee Harvey Oswald. We are struggling for places of interest I think! Dallas is not a good walking city – I had read this before, and struggled to find any walking tours at all. It is a city that you definitely need to have a car, as everywhere is on main roads with no sidewalks. But, Vanessa the Tour Guide had a large red “Stop” sign that she boldly held up in the middle of the road whenever we needed to cross!
We moved to the next restaurant, the Ketchup Burger Bar. Well, I am certainly trying things here that I would not normally have. We were served with deep fried pickles (yuk) and two sorts of fries, one with white truffle parmesan cheese coating. These then had to be dipped in the four ketchups that are famously made here. For someone that never has ketchup, it was really nice. The spicy one was delicious – not a bit like Heinz tomato ketchup that I was expecting.
Onwards now to the TexMex, Primos. This was really popular – it was heaving. There was a Dallas Cowboys football match on live – that might have had something to do with it! We had nachos with a dip, then a plate of various texmex dishes that were superb. This is a really good way of trying new food that you wouldn’t really order. The jalapeno pepper was a bit hot, but the rest was lovely, with a gorgeous cheese dip that was poured all over it. And it came with one of their famous Marguerita’s! We left with the Cowboys in the lead – unfortunately it was an away game in the Carolinas otherwise I would have loved to have tickets.
We then made our way to the area where we started, and finished with a “dessert to go” from a really, really busy restaurant called Breadwinners Café. It was either a strawberry or chocolate cake ball – sounds awful but was absolutely delicious. This restaurant is famous for its desserts – and the rest is probably not bad considering how many people were sitting down to eat. This concluded the tour, and we got a taxi back to the hotel to collect our poor car and take back to the Hertz office. This will sort out how good the insurance is!
The journey back to the airport was a little over twenty minutes, very easy with the Satnav. Paul did comment that his petrol usage was better than the guy who rented it before – it had gone up from thirteen miles per gallon to fourteen. Good job we only had it for a couple of days. We pulled up, and the attendant looked at us with an open mouth. “Oh my” he said. Quite! We had to go and fill in an Accident Form – they only have the one form, irrelevant if it was an accident or not. That filled in, we were given the keys to new car and off we went. Seemed too easy!
We went to bay 177, and Paul smiled when he saw a lovely blue mustang with a white badger stripe all the way down the middle. Let’s hope we bring this one back in good order! We drove back to the hotel, and I think I know which one he prefers. No lorries overtook us this time!
We then had a couple of hours before we had to get ready for the Madonna Concert. An ideal opportunity to use the roof terrace and pool – it was now 91 degrees – a beautiful day. It soon went, and we left the hotel at just after 7pm for the short journey to the American Airlines Centre where the concert was being held – we had heard nothing to the contrary so far! We got a taxi, thought it better than trying to find somewhere to park. We collected the tickets at the “Will Call” desk, bought a horrendously priced $30 programme, and took our seats. Really good seats – and the stadium was amazing. It was supposed to start at 8pm, and around 8.30pm a chap called Benny Benassi came on and played records. No idea who he was – Paul thought we had gone to Ibiza! Most around us seemed to know him – I did google him and he is a famous Italian DJ that has a net worth of about 14 million dollars. Hmm. Not too bad then.
He was on for about an hour, and then we had another hour of nothing. I was beginning to think the laryngitis had set in again and we weren’t going to see anything. By this time it was after 10.30pm and I was ready for bed! Then she came on – and what a show. She was on for two hours – and it went like a shot. She put some of the youngsters to shame with her energy and enthusiasm, and the pure spectacle of the whole thing. Apart from a couple of very tall young people right in front of me the view was great. I got some good shots – even though the woman’s hand in front featured in a good many of them! She was also very political – making several comments on voting for President Obama. This in deep George Bush country. Didn’t seem to make much difference – everyone loved it. I think this ranks as the best live show I have seen – and Paul enjoyed it too. Good job, as it was his birthday present!

We left with the thousands of other people, and walked part way back to the hotel before we found a taxi. We arrived back and went to back at nearly 2am – surprised I was still awake, but was still buzzing. What a spectacular night!

Saturday 20 October 2012

Dallas - 20th October 2012



After a full twelve hours sleep I woke up at 8.00am and my body clock in the zoned that it should be in. Excellent!

After a lovely shower and a quick look around the facilities of the hotel we got in the car and set off for South Fork Ranch. We set the satnav – without putting the hood down this down – and it said we had about three quarters of an hour drive. The weather is beautiful. Clear blue skies and 76 degrees at 10.00am. I think it was a good idea we got the satnav – we seemed to have change roads rather a lot of times, and I am sure we would have got lost had we not had our little lady telling us where to get off! Dallas seems to be a rather sprawling city – lots of high rises, freeways and shopping malls. Most of the journey was fairly built up, and it was only when we were a lot nearer that the landscape changed. Very upmarket housing estates though, not the large open spaces that I had imagined. When we had about a mile to go, Paul got a CD out and put it in to play. I did wonder what on earth he was doing – he had got Seb to burn the Dallas theme tune onto a CD so we came along the road with that blaring out. It did set the scene though – I had to laugh.
We pulled into the driveway (not the driveway, one next to it) and drove up to the visitors centre. The tickets for the tour were $10.75 plus tax – it goes every thirty minutes. There is a walk through to get to the tram – photos are taken for a souvenir in front of a Dallas neon sign. If I looked anything like any of the Ewing women I might have bought it, but sadly just being there didn’t do anything for me at all! The walls were full of pictures of the cast at various junctures between the 1978 start of the series, and the end in 1991. There is now a couple more showing how old they all look as the new series has just started again. The gun that shot JR is in a cabinet, along with a few hats and other props. And a huge gas barbeque – it was apparently Dallas that launched gas barbeques into being. As they always ate outside, a barbeque company was tasked with providing a large gas one that was scaled down to go on sale to the general public.

A tractor then pulled a couple of tram coaches around the grounds and over to the Ewing Mansion. Nothing looked as big as I thought it would. The grounds were quite compact, and the house was only a tad larger than a normal house. The grounds were laid out for a wedding – there was apparently one this afternoon, but it was the same place as they filmed when one of the Ewing family members got married at the ranch. We were treated to a background talk by a very eccentric lady who knew all there was to know about South Fork – from the beginning when they had to get the original owners permission to use it for filming, to the next owners that went bust and then to the present owners that have turned it into a tourist attraction and conference centre.
We were then given a tour of the house, the main rooms and the bedrooms. It really didn’t look that small on the telly! The bedrooms were tiny. But I think most of the indoor filming was done in a studio rather than here. The outside part and the swimming pool were as I remembered them. I will have to buy the DVD’s and watch it all over again! All thirteen years worth, plus the new ones. Paul and I had our picture taken outside the front door – still didn’t look like Bobby and Pamela though!

After that, we were free to wander around for as long as we wanted. We went into Miss Ellie’s Porch Deli and had a sandwich and a hot chocolate, and then wandered around the grounds. We took a picture of the drive that was shown on the opening scenes of the show – that was apparently done in so many takes it made the drive look about three miles long when it is only probably about 500 yards. They also used to put talcum powder on the drive so it looked as though the cars were throwing up dust. Tricks of the trade.
There was a few cattle and horses grazing in the fields, and so all the stables and cattle barns are actually used for the animals. Elenor’s cottage in the new series is just at the end of the drive as well. We went back to the car, and drove down to the driveway that was used for the opening shots and took a couple of pictures – well, as we were there…

We drove back to Dallas downtown, and thought we would try the Texas State Fair that the rental car bus driver had told us about yesterday. We did happen to hear that Madonna had cancelled her concert due for tonight as she has laryngitis. Is that something that can get better after a day? Hope so, otherwise we have come a long way for a cancelled concert. It is a three week long fair, and is in a place called Fair Park. The satnav was programmed again, and it took us directly to the Fair. We parked in a little car park for $15 – someone was making good money whilst this was on – and walked about ten minutes to the entrance. There were hundreds of people going in – it apparently has around three million visitors over the time that it is on. And the place is huge – massive. It is like the Suffolk Show, but about ten times bigger. Well, we are in Texas.
There was a big building full of cars – virtually every new car that you can buy. One beetle had a map of Texas painted on its bonnet. That kept Paul busy for a minute or two. Then there was an actual fair part – so many stalls and fluffy toys to win. But they weren’t small fluffy toys – one of them was as tall as the man that won it! The amount of food stalls, and rides just kept on and on. And kept getting bigger and bigger. There was a huge ferris wheel and a skyway that took you completely over the top of everything. Then there were the scary rides – and there were loads of them that threw you upside down and round the corner. Reminded Paul of the flight over the Bungle Bungles. Won’t be going on any of them then!

We then watched a BMX stunt show – they had a couple of world champions there so not just some kid they had paid a couple of quid to do a turn or two. Very good – got some good action shots. Then we went to see some Pig Racing. Yes, that is not a spelling mistake. We watched pigs racing – for oreo cookies. Bizarre, but quite funny. They ran so fast all my pictures got were blurred images. They even put a jump in one of the races.

We watched a horse show, and went through some of the cattle sheds, but our feet were now beginning to tell us that we had been on them for hours. It was such a good Fair, and there was so much going on, we could have stayed for a good few more hours. There was a huge stage, and later on the Commodores were on. But even that didn’t tempt – especially as Lionel Richie is playing in Birmingham tonight, and I have no doubt the others may not be the originals either! We had one last wander through a California Redwood that has been turned into a three room mobile home (the chap that lived in it was there to tell the story) before we headed back to the hotel. Madam satnav did her stuff, and we were back in about fifteen minutes. And there was a message on the phone saying that the Mustang was ready….

Dallas - 19th October 2012




We flew from London Heathrow on the British Airways direct service to Dallas Fort Worth that left at 11.45am. We decided to travel down the night before, as the check in was still early if there was a delay on the M25. Hilton have a new hotel at Terminal 5 – although this is a little like a Ryanair flight. The terminal 5 part of the address is definitely poetic licence – after travelling around terminal 5 and then up and down the motorway we eventually found it the other side of the M25. I suppose you could say it was fairly near – as near as Ryanair flying you into a city and then putting you on a bus to actually get there. Then “we” had to park the car – another new car park called Click Park. Another one at Terminal 5. Apart from the concierge in the Hilton having never heard of it, and nobody actually knowing where it was, the manager resorted to google maps and printed one off for Paul – who at this point was not happy with his travel agent! Not only did he have to park the car, he then had to get back to the terminal, and then back to the hotel. After planning to arrive at 9pm, it was now 10.30pm – well it is us we are talking about! Off he went with the car – I hoped he would be back in time for breakfast. Only half an hour later he arrived saying that went better than expected. A few palms had to be crossed with silver, but he persuaded the car park transfer to take him back to the Hilton – who also had never heard of it and insisted that it was at Terminal 4. Never mind – alls well that ends well.


The flight – spent unfortunately in economy – was not too bad. It was on time, the entertainment system worked, and we had three seats between the two of us. Can’t ask for more really. We landed at 3.15pm local time, and had a relatively short queue to get through immigration. Only a customs form to fill out, as the ESTA has now replaced the green visa waiver form. Finger prints and photo taken, and the bags appeared on the carousel as soon as we got there. That is where the “smooth” bit finished. The queue to get through customs with the bags took about half an hour – Dallas is the third busiest airport in the world, and it sure seemed like it when everyone had to go through security with their form.

We then had to get on the rental car bus, which arrived within about five minutes. A ten minute journey to the rental car building – all major renters are in the same place here – and the only one that had a queue was Hertz. Who had we rented with? Hertz. Paul wanted a Mustang like Steve McQueen had, so I booked him one. Or so I thought. When we got to the front of the queue, it seems they were missing a Mustang. After much tooing and froing they offered us a Chevrolet Camero soft top. “This is much more expensive” said Raschid. “Irrelevant, when you don’t want one” says I. So, the manager thought she knew where a Mustang was, and went to look for it. An hour and a half later we left the rental place in the Camero – Paul wasn’t too upset as this was the car used in the Transformers movie and was his second choice. Had to put the roof down to get the bags in the back seat though, as there wasn’t much of a boot! And we had the promise of a phone call to swap it over as soon as a Mustang appeared. Ha!
We set up the sat nav, which I got them to throw in as we had been waiting for so long, to get to the Renaissance Hotel in Dallas. It said about thirty minutes, so not too long. After a couple of wrong turns, and a good tour all around the airport vicinity, we got on the freeway towards the hotel. Surprised me when we were overtook by a lorry though – we had over 6 litres under the bonnet. I bet he laughed. It didn’t take us long to get there, and we found it quite easily when we got used to the satnav. The difficult bit was we couldn’t hear it very well with the top down, and the sun was shining directly on it so you couldn’t see it very well either. Hey ho.

We checked in, chucked the cases in the room, and went to the bar for a campari. It was about 1.00am on our body clocks, but thirst took over from tiredness. They had campari in the bar, so the hotel passed the first test! The rest of it was not too bad either, but will leave the grand tour until tomorrow!

Thursday 5 July 2012

Australia to Singapore



We just had one quick overnight in Sydney. The flight we had to go to Singapore was at 3.45pm, so just one morning really. We walked to the Opera House – one of the icons that never fails to catch my attention. I can walk around this building time and time again. I wanted to get a guided walking tour around the Rocks area – something I didn’t manage to fit in last time in I was here – but the timing just didn’t work out. Instead, we bought a little guide book that gave us a self guided walk and we did about three quarters of it. It is a very historical part of Sydney, and I am sorry that we couldn’t get guide to elaborate on the areas with stories and facts that would have brought it more to life. But it was good in the short time we had anyway. As usual, we bought our presents at the airport – and Paul bought a new hat!




We flew to Singapore with Lenny Henry, sort of. If I had been Annette I would have had him telling me his life story, but being just me I just smiled when I went past. I am sure he gets loads of random people annoying him. But he did annoy Paul. He say behind him, and kept kicking his seat – even in first class you can feel people kicking your seat. He had a friend in business class that came and chatted for a couple of hours, and Paul could hear them over his ear phones. He is rather tall though – he didn’t have to go on tip toes to get his hand luggage out of the overhead locker. He had apparently been on a sell out tour of Australia – I googled it! This flight didn’t quite come up to the standard we had got used to – none of the entertainment systems worked in the whole aircraft, so they had to put a few films on a loop. No movies on demand! This was the only long flight we had that wasn’t a night flight – typical!



We had a transfer arranged with the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, so had a little man waiting for us to take us the twenty odd minutes from the airport to the hotel. It was 11pm when we got there, 1pm on our body clocks. We had a delightful lady waiting for us at the Valley Wing entrance, who immediately took us to our room and completed the check in there. Perfect! We were given a beautiful orchid that will hopefully make it all the way back to the UK. The room is stunning – there is even a TV in the bath room! The curtains are opened and closed with the push of a button – Paul was not in a good mood but there wasn’t a button to close him down! The flight had been a bit bumpy as well as getting his seat kicked, and the transfer man played the radio too loud – and it wasn’t his type of music!



The morning came, and so did the clouds. We had a beautiful, serene, fantastic breakfast in the Summit Room – the staff here really do go the extra mile. It started to drizzle, and then rain, and then pour. By the time we got back to our room it was monsoon weather. Bearing in mind that I hadn’t got any waterproofs, it was a bit difficult to decide what to do. There is a complimentary shuttle bus that takes you to the MRT station on Orchard Road once an hour, and from there we could find the hop on hop off bus that we thought would be a good idea. It was still coming down in buckets as we left. The bus dropped us off virtually in the middle of Orchard Road. I know this place is known for its shopping, but I really didn’t expect what we found. All the shopping was in malls, and all was under cover. Which was the order of the day for that moment. Paul went to take a picture of the torrents of water coming off the roofs but his camera card said it was full, so we decided to do some shopping and get a new one,



We went into the first mall that we came to, and passed shop upon shop of designer clothes. At the end was a department store that sold electronics. We had to go in through handbags – I had never seen as many handbags in one place. He went up to the fifth floor to get a camera card, and I just wandered round the handbag department. My purse broke a few months ago, and I spent ages looking for a new one, as the selection at home was pretty poor. There were racks upon racks of purses here. I could have spent the whole day here – Paul came back and said that the electronics department is as good as the handbag department.



It was still raining really hard. He had found out that the Lucky Plaza Mall was good for cameras – each of the malls seem to have a theme, although I think you can probably get a little of something in all of them. This was just across the road from where we were – pedestrians crossed via an underpass so we didn’t even have to get wet crossing the road. I had been looking for a new lens for my camera before we came out, but the zoom that I wanted was too heavy to carry so stuck with what I already had. We came across a small booth type shop that stocked Nikon lenses, so went in. This is where we met Joe – the salesman – who knew everything there is to know about Nikon lenses (I hope!). He showed us a small 55-300 lens – at the moment my lens goes up to 200 – that was only as big as the one I had on the camera now. But, I really wanted more zoom than an extra 100, so he pulled out a lens that triples the zoom – ie 900. Paul had not heard of it – and they both pontificated about things that were going over my head. We took some photos, put them on his computer to see the quality, but as it was raining it was hard to tell.



We hummed and harred for probably over an hour, taking photos, looking at them on the computer, googling reviews on the lens etc etc. I was not sure, so left it up to Paul, who wasn’t sure either. He could probably see the sale walking out the door, so did us a really good price – including filters, a new bag and a converter so it can fit on Harriet’s camera as well. Done! The rain was then beginning to stop – Joe said that it wouldn’t rain anymore today. “In Singapore it only rains once a day, and for an hour. Today was a bit longer, but that is unusual”. I wondered if he was right. I decided that if he was right about that, he would be right about the camera lens. Time will tell. He pointed us in the right direction for the hop on hop off bus, so off we went with our purchases.



We bought tickets for the bus – 48 hours for $39 Singapore each (around £20) that includes three different routes and a river cruise. Not bad. The bus came shortly afterwards, and we went upstairs and sat on wet seats. I was sure we would dry off, because “it wasn’t going to rain again today”! The first route we took was the City route, that took us down Orchard Road, around the Singapore Flyer (similar to the London Eye) around the Marina, through the skyscraper business and commercial districts and then up to the Botanical Gardens. We got off here, and walked around the gardens. There was a huge Orchid Garden that we walked around – I have never seen as many different orchids in as many different colours and shapes and sizes. It was absolutely beautiful. We walked back through the gardens to the bus stop, and got on for one stop which dropped us a ten minute walk back to the hotel. Time to shower and change, and just about right for the complimentary cocktails and canapés. There was so much choice, that we decided to use that as our evening meal (skinflints)! We have eaten quite royally on this trip, so it is time to start being sensible again.



We then decided to go for a Singapore Sling in Raffles – it just had to be done. The hop on hop off bus could take us there – but it didn’t because we just watched the last one pull away before we got there. It had nothing to do with Paul turning the wrong way out of the hotel first of all, of course! We waited for half an hour or so, realised there wasn’t another one so got a taxi. Around £5 – don’t know why we waited so long for the bus!



We got to the Raffles Hotel, but couldn’t go in through the main entrance – that is for hotel residents only. Can’t blame them I suppose – they would have a myriad of tourists traipsing through the lobby all day long if it was open to all and sundry. We were directed around the side, through the Raffles Courtyard of shops to the Long Bar, which is up on the second floor. We were directed to a table, where I promptly slipped and ended up on the floor. There were empty peanut shells everywhere on the floor – it is supposedly in keeping with how it was in the old days. After being hauled up – that made everyone in the bar stop talking and look – I ordered my Singapore Sling at $26 + 10% service charge. At £15ish, I had just the one. Paul pushed the boat out and had a beer – plus added to the growing pile of peanut shells on the floor. Singapore Slings were definitely the order of the day – the barman stacked up the glasses time and time again on the bar. It was an experience not to be missed though. We treated ourselves to another taxi to get home.



The next day when we were having breakfast it started to rain again. “Oh good” I said, hoping that Joe was correct in his analogy that it rained once a day only for an hour. Let’s get it over with so by the time we would be ready to go out, it would have stopped. And it did! We walked down to the bus stop and got on the City route again until the hub at Suntec City Shopping Mall. This one comprises five huge skyscraper towers – does anyone ever manage to get to every shop in town? We then changed to the Heritage Route, which took us through Little India, Chinatown, as well as a couple of areas we had already been to. We got off at the Marina, and went to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel – the iconic new hotel with three large towers and the ship shape resting on the top of all three. We bought a ticket to get to the 56th floor, and up in the lift we went fairly quickly. The views from the top were amazing over the whole of Singapore and even over to Malaysia. The weather was dry, but there were still huge dark clouds hovering overhead, which made all the pictures quite grey unfortunately. But it was worth the trip up to look at the vastness of the city. The middle of the “ship” was the swimming pool for the residents of the hotel. Wonder if it is the highest swimming pool in the world?



We then walked over to the Marina Bay Shopping Mall (another one!) and through to the Singapore River and the stop for the River Cruise. The sun then came out, and it was really hot. The river trip took just under an hour, and like the hop on hop off bus, you could hop on and hop off this as well. We didn’t, as we were running out of time, but the cruise itself was very sedate and we could see the other sides of buildings that we had seen on the bus.



We got on the bus again, and the last stop we made was to Fort Canning Park, and The Battle Box. This is an underground cave that was made into the forces headquarters for World War II. It has been made into a commentary of the last couple of days before the Japanese occupied Singapore in 1942. There was a video of the news reels for the few months leading up to the Japanese invasion to give you the background. Each of the underground rooms had the equipment in for sending the morse code messages, and how the information was relayed from the different areas and to and from each General and his troops. This information was then assimilated on a large map of the area which plotted the Japanese aircraft and ground troops. Would have been a lot easier with mobile phones!



We then went back to the hotel for cocktails and canapés before heading out to the airport for our final flight home. We just got a taxi this time - $30. Bargain. Last time in the First Class Lounge, last time to be given priority to board the aircraft and for them to greet you by name. I could easily get used to this. The plane was a new plane – excellent I thought. Wrong. The seats were not made for short people like me. The seats on this plane did not have any foot rests – they were tucked in the far corner and converted to a seat if you had anyone wanted to come and chat with you. But I couldn’t reach. The light on the chair instead of being a spotlight was on the chair upright, and had a lamp shade on it which completely blocked my view out of the

window. I did have another window, but that was full of condensation for the whole trip. Amazing how picky you can get – and how I will wish for a condensed window next time I am flying in economy.



Back to the UK – the end of an amazing trip. The IRIS scanner didn’t work and the baggage was delayed because of problems getting it off the plane.

Welcome home!

Monday 2 July 2012

Australia - Heron Island





We flew from Brisbane to Gladstone for our week on Heron Island with my daughter, her partner, the twelve year old daughter of her ex husband and her six year old daughter. Complicated! This was just over an hours flight, on a fairly small de Havilland plane. When we arrived at Gladstone, a tiny little airport on the Queensland coast, we had a transfer bus to the port, and then a launch over to Heron. The Heron Islander is a catamaran, that holds probably just over one hundred people. Today, it was less than half full. This is the only way to get over to the island, apart from a helicopter transfer. Heron Island time is an hour ahead of Queensland time, so watches had to be put forward one hour.



Unfortunately, the good weather we had been experiencing up to now had not followed us. The clouds got heavier and greyer, and by the time we boarded the boat at 11.30am it was looking and feeling very rough. The wind had got up to 30 knots per hour. To start with, the rocking of the launch was a bit of fun. Slowly but surely nearly all of the passengers succumbed to having to aim carefully into the little white sick bags that were scattered liberally around the place. I think there was probably three or four people that weren’t ill, and by the time we reached the island just under two hours later, there were a few white and green faces. Didn’t affect me at all much to Paul’s disgust! The staff on the ship were very good, mainly going round to all the tables collecting full bags and disposing of them. If I can say one good thing, there were loads of sick bags, so at least if you were ill it was quickly taken from you so that you didn’t have to look and smell what you had that morning for breakfast! The weather was absolutely appalling. When we left the launch, the rain was lashing down and the wind was howling. This was not what I had ordered for our week of relaxation!



We were shown into the Wistari Room – which was used in wet weather for the showing of films as they had a large screen. We had a lovely cold drink – could have done with a hot chocolate at this point though – before going to the Shearwater Restaurant for a late lunch. We all tucked into the buffet lunch – most had recovered from the boat trauma quite quickly – except Paul. He really did suffer on the way over. At the first sign of the rough weather he took himself out on deck, and stayed there for the whole two hours. When we arrived, we did wonder if he was still going to be there, as the boat had lurched from side to side it was hard to see how anyone could still be standing. But he was, albeit dripping from head to foot, and with a look that said “you know I don’t travel well”. Not my fault! He took himself immediately to the room to have a hot shower and change out of his soaking clothes and to generally feel sorry for himself. He soon got over it!



The week at Heron was certainly a week of two halves. From the Sunday to the Thursday lunchtime it was awful weather. Cold, wet and windy. It was so windy that the dive boat didn’t go out, and when it did, the visibility was so poor and the sea so rough it wasn’t enjoyable. I didn’t partake until Wednesday morning when the wind had dropped a little. There are regular information walks each day – Bird Walk, Reef Walk, Research Station Walk, Island Walk and Star Gazing – the latter not happening due to the lack of stars! Each lasts around an hour, and has a guide telling all about the subject. We did the Bird Walk on the first day – during a spell of drier weather. The bird life on the island may not be extensively varied, but is certainly extensive. The amount of Shearwaters and Egrets alone are huge. There was always three or four outside of our house every morning, or walking around the bar or other areas. And very tame as well. They do like pinching your food or drink if you don’t have your wits about you.



There is also a very extensive Research Station on the island. It was the very first to be set up in this area many years ago, but burned down a few years ago and was rebuilt with state of the art equipment. It houses around ten full time staff, with up to one hundred students or other research bodies at a time on various projects. Their work on turtles and global warming of the seas is extremely valuable. With the Research Station walk, we were only walked around the outside of the buildings, but it was really interesting to hear about what they do there. They are on Queensland time, so half of this tiny little island is out of kilter with the other half by an hour!



The Island Walk consisted of walking half way around the island by way of the beach, and then cutting back though the forest. It was explained that the island was fairly unique in that it was never part of the mainland, but was a totally coral cay. Over the years, the way that the teardrop shaped reef has formed the island is by the wind and tides putting all of the corals into the small bit of the teardrop. Over thousands of years, the island has been building up very slowly, until it is as it is now. A limited amount of vegetation can grow on islands such as these – but looking at this island now it is very well established. Only the hardiest of plants and trees can withstand the low levels of nutrients in the soil, and these are the ones that have taken root. Very interesting. We also learned that the island had its own desalination plant that turned sea water into drinking water, as it uses over 100,000 litres of water a day to run the resort.



Georgina, my six year old granddaughter, joined the Junior Rangers programme. This was held between 11am and 12am each day, as well as 3.30pm to 5pm. Each session was on a different subject, learning all about the island, its fish, birds, plant life as well as other general topics. Each subject was in a workbook, which, when finished, meant that she got her badge. If she completed all of the subjects, which she did, she got her Junior Rangers badge. She did really well, and is now officially a Heron Island Junior Ranger. What a good idea – it is educational and fun. All of the guides on this and all of the walks are marine biologists with an extensive knowledge of the island and its workings.



The reef, as I explained before, goes all around the island, but is closer in some points than others. The tide is about 2 metres in height between low and high tide, and on the low tide the water is only a maximum of knee high for about half a mile in parts of the island. This is when you can do the Reef Walk. The guide will point out all of the creatures that can be seen that live on the reef, as well as the fish that swim around here. It is not a game of chance – the reef is so full of living creatures it is like looking in a fish tank. There are star fish and sea cucumbers everywhere you look. Take a step, and there is one type of fish or another. It is absolutely amazing. At high tide, this is when snorkelling takes over. And the fish then are in their thousands. All different types, from the tiniest to large rays and reef sharks. It isn’t an odd occasion that you will see the larger fish either – just walking along the beach at high tide you can see the shapes of the rays swimming just metres from the shore, or a sharks fin patrolling the area with thousands of small fish jumping out of the water so they don’t become dinner!



By Wednesday I had taken the decision to start diving – Paul had decided to see if I came back alive before he made that bold move though! I made my first dive on a cloudy, but not too windy morning. The visibility could have been better, but it wasn’t too bad. The underwater world that came into view though was worth it. The coral was fantastic and the fish were so plentiful and varied. I saw the biggest turtle that I have ever seen – it was huge. Around two metres in length I would say – but who knows, my judgement on size might be a bit out. I really must swat up on my fish species, because I know what I see but have no idea what they are called. I know the Nemo clown fish, but not a lot else. Take my word for it – this is one of the best places in the world that I have dived in.



With that knowledge, Paul decided that he would have a go too. So on Thursday we both dived. We saw a fairly large shark, and then saw a school of four rays majestically swimming past. I can’t put into words how magical that actually feels. He was glad that he “took the plunge” – excuse the pun – as he agreed that it was fantastic diving. He had dived in Cairns on a previous trip, and said that this was so much better in comparison.



Thursday was the start of the second half of the week – in more ways than one. The first thing that happened was that the desalination plant broke down. When we got back from the mornings dive at 12.45pm, we were told that there was no water on the island, and we were free to leave should we choose to. The launch was leaving at 2.00pm, so not a lot of chance of that. Also, where would we stay? With the breakdown of the plant also came the arrival of the sun. Everything looked so much more idyllic with the sun shining on it. Even if we had just dived and got a lovely salt water layer on our skin and no way of getting rid of it. No water to shower, wash, or flush the toilets in the public toilets.



We had a conference about staying or going the next day, and decided that we would stick it out. Unfortunately, the water plant was broken until at least Saturday. Memories of our Nepal trip and no showers came to mind – at least everyone was in the same boat here as well. We were issued with bottled water to clean our teeth with – and I had a few wipes that would suffice for washing. I know a few teenagers that would relish the fact that they didn’t have to wash! On Thursday evening the toilet in our house gave up the ghost – even though the toilets were supposed to be on a different system so that they could keep going with sea water being pumped into them. Paul, as always the boy scout, utilised the waster paper bin and made regular journeys to the sea to fill it up to flush the toilet. OK when the tide was in, but a bit of a trek when it was out – and quite hazardous at night if the tide was out as there were rocks and coral to contend with before getting to the wet stuff.



The island was not taking any new arrivals at this point, as they couldn’t provide a full restaurant service, as they couldn’t do any washing up. Any food that used water in the preparation was either very limited or not on offer. We had plastic knives and forks to eat with, and were “issued” with one plate per person. The food did get very repetitive. To be honest, the food was very average to start with compared to what we had been used to. I think that this is probably a little unfair, as the food we had for the previous three and half weeks was exceptional, but I wonder if I would have thought that anyway. No laundry could be done either, so we got no clean sheets or towels – by Saturday they were nearly standing up on their own! The public toilets closed, as they were disgusting.



The staff seemed to be mainly young people with no real direction. They were all friendly enough, but seemed to lack initiative to give a good service. Many of them had only been on the island for a few weeks, or even days, and there didn’t seem to be a maitre d’ to take charge. That wouldn’t have happened if Gabor had been here. Things would be running like clockwork!



The sun, once it had shown itself, did not go away. The whole of Friday, Saturday and Sunday was absolutely perfect weather. It was probably in the high twenties centigrade, with the wind dropping to a whisper. Paul had been checking the wind speeds every day – he was determined not to go back on the launch if the weather was in any way going to be inclement. The forecast for Sunday was 10 knots, and another beautiful sunny day, so decided to risk it by sea. With the option to change to helicopter should anything not happen as it was supposed to!



The island took on a whole new look with the changed weather. Our loungers from our balcony were moved to the beach – we had a wooden walkway from our balcony to the beach which was under tree canopy. It was an absolutely ideal spot. Each morning I would take my camera and sit on the lounger and take photos of all the wildlife – birds and fish, both were plentiful. It was also so peaceful. I think the island was running at about 37% occupancy, as many had decided to leave and no new arrivals had come since Wednesday. Perfect! Had we been able to shower, had clean linen and good food,



On Saturday after our last dive we took a walk all around the island by beach. If we had walked briskly I think it would have probably taken us about twenty minutes. We wandered, looking at all the rays and sharks – and a creature that had a sharks face and a rays middle and back. Weird. There were heaps of them. Then a sharks fin came up, and chased big fish that were chasing little fish and the whole ocean came alive. What an experience to see all of this just by taking a walk. When we got three quarters of the way around the island, we came across an Australian couple that was sitting and having a beer. It turns out that he was the Maintenance Manager on the island, so Paul had to get the full ins and outs of how the desalination plant works, and how it went wrong. Whilst this was going on, just the other side of the reef there was some blowing of water, and a whole line of humpback whales went past. We must have been watching for about twenty minutes – they just kept coming. There is another reef further out than the Heron Island reef, and the two reefs form a funnel shape between islands. The annual migration of whales takes place every year between June and September, and around 40,000 whales pass the island. Wow! What a sight.



All in all this island has the potential to be the most idyllic spot in the world. No TV’s, no internet access and no phone signal. Nothing to disturb a few days of complete getting away from it all. The resort leaves a little to be desired – it has changed hands in the last year or so, so maybe they haven’t quite got their act together yet. But I would have no hesitation in coming back. The island itself is a perfect piece of paradise.

Sunday was the day we were due to leave. The weather was perfect, so Paul decided that he would stick with the launch. The launch arrived at 2.30pm, and we duly left at 3.00pm. The two crossings couldn’t have been more different. As we were leaving the island, we had two lots of whales passing by our side. The two hour crossing was as calm as calm. Hardly a ripple on the sea. We sat on the outside deck for the whole crossing – the downside to that was that it looked like I still had my sunglasses on even after I had taken them off. My face got a teeny weeny bit burned. We then got the shuttle bus from the port back to the airport for our flight to Brisbane and then on to Sydney for our last night in Australia. We said goodbye to Fran and her family in Brisbane, and then waited for our delayed flight to Sydney. Apparently the whole Qantas reservation system had crashed earlier on in the day which caused delays throughout the whole day. It wasn’t too bad – just an hour. But that did mean we didn’t arrived into Sydney until 10.30pm and got to the hotel at 11.30pm. Late night for me!

Friday 22 June 2012

Australia Day 24 – Friday 22nd June



Well, that was an interesting nights sleep. Or not, for Paul. I didn’t sleep too bad, but the train was not smooth and silent. There was some straps that stopped me from falling out of the top bunk – don’t think they were used. I was quite happy up there – had a reading light and a little shelf to put my things on. I woke up at about 7.00am – breakfast was at 7.30am so good timing. I leaned over the top, and asked Paul if he had slept well.; “No” was the answer. “Too hot, bed was too small, covers came untucked, train was too jerky and too noisy”. Oh dear!




I did contemplate taking a shower when Alistair said that he thought he had a hairdryer. But then he couldn’t find it, so decided against it. Look a bit like the wreck of the Hesperus, so will have to sort that out when we get to Brisbane. It looks really grey and cloudy now – think Paul might have to buy a jumper!



Breakfast was again excellent – Paul had full English, I had poached eggs on toast. Eggs came any way we wanted (should have tried the omelette here!) together with pastries, toast, fruit, cereals etc. Whilst we were at breakfast, the beds were put away and the compartment made into seating again. The first main stop was Bundaberg – four hours drive from Brisbane, but a bit longer than that on the train. About six hours to go I think.



The smaller little towns and villages that we have passed through look very much like a scene out of the Wild West. The further we get to Brisbane, the flatter the land. Some of the houses look as if they are in the middle of nowhere. They probably are. We passed the Glasshouse Mountains – named by Captain Cook as he sailed past because they reminded him of the Glass Houses at home. One of them looks more like King Kong than a glass house.



We seem to have gone rather slowly today – having to stop several times to let a tilt train go past. There is only one track, with several passing places, so if another train is either coming faster from behind or the other way one of the trains has to go onto the siding. One of our travelling companions was the station master at Brisbane Roma Street Station, so we got all the ins and outs of the Queensland Railway System.



Lunch was a two course meal – hot quiche and salad, followed by espresso terrine and tia maria cream. Again, an excellent meal. After then, it should have been a couple of hours until we got to Brisbane, due to arrive at 15.55pm. Unfortunately, because of the stoppages, we were running about thirty minutes late. Because of this, another tilt train had been allocated our platform, so we couldn’t pull into the station until 5.00pm. According to our Station Master, this used to happen all the time.



We slowly chugged into Roma Street Station just over an hour late. Fran, Georgina and Madison were there to meet us on the platform. What a lovely surprise! We got the luggage from the luggage car and hopped in a taxi for the short distance to the Sofitel. $6 so it wasn’t far. We checked in, checked out the room, had a lovely shower and then went into the city for dinner. We walked through the centre and then along the river to the South Bank. There is a Brisbane Wheel, similar to the London Eye, and most bizarrely a man playing the bagpipes. A bit like Covent Garden. We had something to eat around here, and then got a taxi back to the hotel as the children were getting tired. Gave Fran a lovely bag of washing to take back with her – nice to get a bit of payback for the years of washing I had to pick up from her bedroom floor! She wasn’t too impressed with the bag – said it made her look like a homeless person. Let’s hope she makes it through the Sofitel Lobby without getting thrown out then!!



Australia Day 23 – Thursday 21st June



Another early start today, to be checked out and left the hotel by 7.30am for our transfer to Cairns Central Railway Station. Breakfast was a meal that we had on our own – the scrambled eggs that were there at 6.30am no doubt would still be there for the customers arriving at 8! Not many people eat this early on holiday out of choice.




It took around half an hour to get to the station – plenty of time for our 09.15am departure of the Sunlander Train from Cairns to Brisbane. We checked in main bags into the baggage car – having to unpack 3kg out of one of them, as they can “only lift a maximum of 20kg due to health and safety”. We had a bag of wet clothes from yesterday that hadn’t dried out from the white water rafting that didn’t help! They did give us an extra bag though – might come in handy at some point.



We are travelling Queenslander Class – and met out Maitre d’ Alistair on the platform, who directed us to our cabin. We have a two berth cabin, that is seating during the day, and converts to bunk beds at night. Wonder who will be getting the top bunk? It is a very long train, but only two carriages of Queenslander Class, some normal sleeper carriages, and some seated carriages. We have a washbasin concealed in the wall, two very slim wardrobes and room for the bags under the seat. There is a shower and toilet at the end of the carriage – no hairdryer though. Might have to rough it on here! But, we also have complimentary robes to take away with us and a bag of toiletries. Didn’t really need to bring anything with us at all.



We pull out of the station at 9.15am exactly – well we aren’t on British Rail are we! No sooner have we pulled out, then Alistair invites us to the Lounge car for our welcome drink. Looks like there is about fourteen of us altogether. We are served orange juice, and then invited to go to the dining car for morning scones and coffee. Can see I might be waddling off this train! The scones were straight from the oven – and served with jam and cream. Paul reckons the best scones he has ever tasted – I will have to get the recipe.



The Sunlander travels between Cairns and Brisbane and vice versa twice a week. You can get on or off at any of the stops inbetween – Townsville, Airlie Beach, Mackay, Yeppon, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Bundaberg or Maryborough being the main ones, but loads of other little stops as well. The distance travelled is 1600 kilometres over 30 odd hours, so it isn’t a fast train. It is regarded as one of the most scenic rail journeys in the world, being constantly voted in the top 25. It commenced in 1953 – the year of the Queen’s coronation, so quite apt that we should be taking it in 2012 just as she has commemorated her diamond jubilee. The Queenslander Class was added ten years ago, for customers that appreciate those “extra comforts” – like me. One of the hallmarks of this service is the fine dining, with food freshly prepared onboard. There is also commentary when we pass something significant. It is quite an old train, so none of the new fangled gizmos like wifi. They are, apparently, due for a new train in 2014 which will bring it up to date.



As we travel southwards from Cairns, we pass through sugar cane fields, banana tree fields, and seem to be travelling besides the main road –the A1 or Bruce Highway. The cars are overtaking us though! We pass peoples back gardens – it seems banana trees are in back gardens, like apple trees are in our back gardens. The mountains are always in the background, and surprisingly there is no sign of the coast at all.



Lunch is served at 1pm. We had a seafood platter – and wow, what a platter it was. If I had had my camera with me, I would have taken a picture. Eight of the biggest prawns I have ever seen, a whole bug (and for those, like me, that did not know what bugs were, it is a lobster type thing) crab, oysters, fresh fruit and salad. Rather a messy affair – but bowls of water on the table helped. And then apple and rhubard crumble and macadamia ice cream for pudding. I had to leave some!



The afternoon was spent leisurely travelling through the countryside. Paul chatted in the lounge car – I read my kindle now I have some decent books. We are the youngest in this section by some way. One couple have actually brought their car with them. You can drive it on, and then drive it off at the other end!



Dinner was at 7.00pm – and again was lovely. It isn’t the same as the Orient Express, but it still is really good. Whilst we were at dinner, the bunks were made up – and I was right. It was me up the ladder!