Tony & Mary’s Travel Blog

Random Thoughts

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:29:33 -0700

Home.. It is so nice to be home.

The things that I miss are:

Freedom - after being in Russia and seeing the lack of personal happiness.
My Cats
My Bed - a real California King bed
My pillow
My shower - where I can actually get wet and turn around without hitting the walls
Driving on the proper side of the road
Real American toilets
Rubio’s Fish Tacos

We had a great time. We had great weather (except for England). We saw countries that we never thought we would see. It really makes you miss the freedom that we have in the States. We take it for granted but when you see people who have lived through wars and oppression it really makes you be thankful.

The bad - People, rude people, Ugly Americans. A particular group was a family consisting of Grandma, 2 daughters with husbands, and kids. We had the unfortunate pleasure of being on a couple of tours with them. The grandma was a total pain, a know-it-all. The daughters were nice but she was rude.

We found that our fellow travelers were just rude. Mary and I would be in line at the buffet and a hand would come in between us. Soon there was a shoulder then a body shoving us out of the way.

We had a great time with Dave and Lisa from New Jersey. We could learn from them. They have that East Coast attitude. If someone pisses you off you blow and then get over it. Us Left Coasters just deal with it quietly and stew. Life would be less stressful.

That’s it. Thanks for reading.

Tony B

The Long Trip Home

Sat, 9 Aug 2008 16:58:24 -0700

The vacation is ending...

We got up at 5:45 so we could take a bus to Heathrow airport. Mary reminded me that our travel time today will be 22 hours. Now that is something to look forward to!

We called a taxi to take us to the street where the bus will pick us up. Plenty of time to spare, this is a good omen, right? OK, bag check, where is the computer and camera? “I don’t have it!” “<insert Tony’s favorite bad word here>!!” What to do? Call her sister and have her call the taxi company. No answer at her house. I see a taxi down the street and ask the driver if he can call the office and get in touch with the other driver. After a little while he is able to get word to the dispatcher. A few minutes later the original taxi shows up with the notebook and camera. Whew! The bus is here and we are off.

The trip to Heathrow was uneventful. We got there with a couple of hours to spare. We got checked in and went to the Admiral's Club. Heathrow is a pit but American Airlines has a really nice club. Since we are using frequent flier miles to fly Business Class we get to use the club. This club is much nicer than Dallas. Everything here is free. We sat in the big leather chairs and waited for the flight to board.

The flight to Dallas is a Boeing 777, my favorite. The Business Class seats are incredible, the food is awesome, and I have my own entertainment center. I ended up watching 8 episodes of a great show, The Office, that I don’t normally watch. This was a great way to waste a lot of time on the 9-hour flight. We both managed to get some sleep. Life was perfect until the dude across the aisle from Mary started having a very bad case of Sleep Gas. The SBD type. Holy Crap! We spent a lot of time smelling the spines of our books. The flight attendant came by and gave us a funny look until she too smelled it. She did a u-turn and split. Eventually the guy was empty and we returned to normal.

We got in to Dallas and had to collect our luggage and go through Customs. This was not bad except for our stupid, rude fellow travelers. We rode the Skyway tram to our flight home. We only had about 30 minutes so we passed on the Admiral’s Club. As it turns out, the flight was delayed, the gate was changed, but we didn’t really care. We just went with the flow. We were on one of my least favorite planes, a MD 80. We were in First Class so it was OK. We snoozed some more on the way home.

We had a car waiting to take us home. She saw a huge yacht on the way to the airport and asked if we were up for a drive-by. Sure! San Diego is courting the Mega Yacht business. The first yacht was the Princess Mariana. This is an amazing yacht complete with a helicopter on top.
Here is a link to some info - click here

If you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket you can charter this for$606,000 a week!

We got home and the cats were waiting for us:
Our neighbor, Misty had stocked the fridge so we did not have to make a mad dash to the store. That was awesome. We unloaded most of the luggage and started to catch up with the mail. Mia was really happy to have her Mommy back. She followed Mary around. Mocha had a ‘tude and tried to act like it was no big deal but her purr box gave her away.

We managed to stay up until about 11:00 P.M. Tomorrow.. The laundry.

Cambridge - Day 2

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 22:09:26 -0700

Today was a weird weather day. Sun, rain, wind.. You just wait a little while and the weather changes. Last night there was a very rare tornado a couple of towns away.

Today we went to a pub for a proper fish and chips lunch. After that we walked around some of the colleges. It was amazing to see where students have been learning for 800 years. You look at the worn stone steps and can imagine how many footsteps have passed.
This is a diagram of the town

Cambridge - Day 1

Thu, 7 Aug 2008 23:53:24 -0700

Today, Ann, Mary, and I toured Cambridge. This is one very large University consisting of many Colleges. Next year they are celebrating their 800th anniversary.

The first order of business was to return the rental car. I had printed a Google map of the place to return it. We also had the navigation system. They were in conflict with each other. We decided on Plan C and promptly had a scenic tour. After getting completely confused we decided to let the lady in the navigation system get us there. We managed to get the car back in one piece. We then realized that the map that I printed was for a different town. It seems like every town has a Newmarket street. The rental return place was actually VERY close to the house.

We hopped on a bus back to the city center. We walked around and then decided to take the Hop On, Hop Off bus. This is a sightseeing tour of the whole area.

We went out to an American Cemetery where soldiers from WW1 and WW2 are buried. This is a piece of land that Cambridge has given the U.S. It is quite the impressive place. There is a building that has the State seals from all the states and a map showing the strategy and attack plan used in the second World War.

We continued the bus tour and I noticed in the map book that there was a coupon for a free bottle of wine with lunch at a Sicilian place. I very seldom pass up free wine. The restaurant is brand new and appears to be owned by someone well-known. They are in the middle of a new mall and the guy’s face s on a bunch of cookbooks. After all the places that we have eaten on vacation I was shocked to find that the best place was in a mall restaurant. They make their own mozzarella and it was like nothing that I have had before. I had caprese salad and spinach gnocchi in a gorgonzola cream sauce. It was truly brilliant!

We continued the bus tour and then headed back to the house. We had a nice dinner and Fletcher and I watched some really different British shows and Mary and Ann put a jigsaw puzzle together.

Here are some random shots:

Dover to Cambridge

Wed, 6 Aug 2008 14:25:13 -0700

We arrived back at Dover this morning. We really were not ready to go. Who will turn down our sheets and leave us chocolate? Who will feed us?

We could not find a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to get to Cambridge where Mary’s sister lives so we decided to rent a car. This should be fun, driving on the other side of the road through roundabouts.

We picked up our car, something called an Astra, and punched Dover Castle in to the Satellite navigation. A very short trip. We managed to get there with only one trip over a curb, no damage.

We visited the castle for a couple of hours and then started the 2 hour drive to Cambridge. It is very weird to drive on the ‘other’ side of the road. I managed not to kill us and made it. Once we got there we parked the car and walked around the town. This is a very cool college town. We stopped at a pub for a pint and then headed back to the house for a BBQ.

Tomorrow morning we get to return the rental car and find our way back.

We left a surprise for the cabin steward in the closet
The Carnival Splendor from Dover Castle

Tony & Mary’s Travel Blog

Random Thoughts

The Long Trip Home

Cambridge - Day 2

Cambridge - Day 1

Dover to Cambridge

Tony & Mary’s Travel Blog