Author archive
15 June 2004
After a simple breakfast of cereal and tea in bed, we spoke to Kim’s mother who rang from New Zealand. We bought a travel pass each which gave us access to the tram, metro and bus so we could explore Warsaw. Hopping on the tram southbound into town, we didn’t know where to get off. […]
14 June 2004
Milan to London We woke at 0700 and took breakfast at the hotel. Described as a “lavish” breakfast, it wasn’t really. Italians aren’t big on breakfast so the fact that they had some ham and cheese in addition to pastries and biscuits made it lavish I suppose. At check-out, we made a last attempt to […]
13 June 2004
Hotel hassles We drove from Stresa to Milan today, a journey of about 90 mins via the highway and then through the streets of the city. We had a little shock with the tolls on the highway en route. The first one was paid on credit card just fine at the exit based on distance […]
12 June 2004
Above: Isola San Giulio as seen from Sacro Monte. Breakfast at the Elena Hotel wasn’t as sumptuous compared to Hotel du Parc but it was adequate. We got talking to three older English gentlemen. They’re on motorcycle road-trip travelling all the way to Corsica. They seem to be focused on getting to Corsica and not […]
11 June 2004
Shifting Breakfast at Hotel du Parc was good with a good selection of muesli, pastries, bread, cheese and cold cuts. But the place was a little over our budget. We just needed to book somewhere for the first night to give us certainty, since we had a long day coming from Downham Market. We walked […]
10 June 2004
Above: Hotel du Parc, Stresa. Leaving England We woke at 0515 at Wendy’s place and drove to my sister’s place at Downham Market, getting there at 0620. We said goodbye to sis and Mike. [Edit: This turned out to be the last time I saw her.] Mum and step-dad joined us for the ride to […]
6 June 2004
With the somewhat diametrically opposite time-zone from New Zealand, I woke at 0400, as I did yesterday. Fortunately, I was able to sleep again till 0800 unaided, whereas yesterday I needed half a sleeping pill. We lazed at Wendy’s place till around 1100 before driving to my sister’s place in Downham Market for lunch. Mike […]
5 June 2004
Again, I didn’t sleep a wink on the flight from Los Angeles to London. After landing around 1100, we had to wait about 45 mins for a Gulf Air A330 to vacate our allocated gate. That was the last thing we needed after about 24h in a plane. We collected our rental car from Avis. […]
4 June 2004
I didn’t sleep a wink on the flight to Los Angeles. Before landing at 1440, the crew on board, knowing that we have a tight standby-connection onwards to London, shifted us to the front of economy class so we could disembark quickly. We cleared arrival formalities including the relatively new fingerprinting and photographing requirements fairly […]
4 June 2004
Today we travel from Auckland fly to London in order to spend time with my sister who is terminally ill, then have a short European holiday in some places that are new to me. We’re flying standby on staff tickets on this route which is an experience I term as “double jeopardy”. We will on […]