Lynn – Page 6 – Lynn's Travel Adventures

Cape Town Waterfront

Before I get into today’s adventure (which involved spending a ton of money) let me post a few pics from yesterday. I couldn’t find the card reader for my camera, so I only had the pics from my phone to post. I bought a new card reader today so here are a few photos I took yesterday with my camera.

The wind in this area is so strong, the trees are bent at this extreme angle. The wind actually comes from the opposite direction, but it bounces off the buildings and causes the trees to bend. I wonder how many years it took for this to happen.

Today started with a harbor cruise that was part of the 2-day hop on/hop off tickets. I took an early cruise, which wasn’t the best time as it was a little foggy, but it was still very nice.

Hop On/Hop Off had their own cruise boat.

Found this guy hanging out in a tire along the pier. He’s a Cape Town otter. I saw the tails of two big ones in the center of the harbor.

The harbor side of my hotel, the Victoria and Alfred Hotel. Before the building was a hotel, it was a rope storage facility.

The cruise was only about 30 minutes long but by the time it was over, the early fog had cleared, and it was quite nice.

Table Mountain with its “tablecloth” of clouds. It was very cool.

Then it was time for a healthy lunch.

A raspberry, meringue and cream milkshake.

OK, so it may not have been very healthy, but it was delicious. Milkshakes are something else I tend to avoid as they’re usually more like smoothies than milkshakes. But I found a place called Gibson’s which has over 250 different flavors, including Sweet and Salted Popcorn, Rice Crispies Breakfast Shake and Waffle and Maple Syrup. Seriously, who does that to a milkshake? Anyway, it had real ice cream and, while different from an American shake, it was still very good. And, with tip, it cost a grand total of $5.47 so it was very inexpensive lunch.

After my shake it was time for me to do my part to help the South African economy and support local artisans. And, oh boy, did I help! I spent so much I got a fraud alert warning from the credit card asking if it was really me. Unfortunately, it was. But I got some very cool things including some jewelry (of course I did), a hand carved mask and a beautiful piece of artwork.

This is the mask I bought. It’s hand carved and painted. It’s really pretty.

I forgot to take a picture of my artwork before it was wrapped up but it’s similar to this piece, only smaller. It’s a piece of buffalo hide tacked on a wood frame with the images of the big 5 (lion, rhino, water buffalo, elephant and leopard) etched on with a solder iron. It’s a very cool effect.

I had to ship the mask and artwork home which cost almost as much as the items but there was no other way to get it home. I could have probably gotten the mask into my backpack but there was no way to get the artwork home as it is about 24″ wide.

Part of the market where I shopped. It was mostly handicrafts, clothes, linens and jewelry. It had some beautiful things.

While recovering from my shopping spree, I took a short stroll around the neighborhood and found Somerset Hospital. It was originally built in 1818 and is still in operation.

Then it was back to the hotel to defrizz my hair (humidity is 85%) before meeting with my representative from Timbuktu Travel, Jonty. As you may remember, Peter and I first planned and booked this trip in Jan 22 before he had any ALS symptoms. Jonty was very understanding and flexible as our plans, and lives, changed over the next 18 months. He came to the hotel to meet me, and we had a lovely chat over drinks. It was wonderful to meet him after 28 months of planning this trip.

No, I wasn’t standing in a hole. Jonty really is that big.

Since I had only had a milkshake for lunch, I decided to save the ham/cheese sandwich I made from the breakfast buffet for tomorrow and went to Quay Four for dinner. I had seen it from the Harbor Cruise and since it’s just around the corner from the hotel I thought I’d check it out.

The Quay Four restaurant is just to the left of Cape Union Mart.

The restaurant’s claim to fame is selling the most beer in a day than any other restaurant or bar in the southern hemisphere. The southern hemisphere is everything south of the Equator including 90% of South America, Australia, New Zealand, the islands in the South Pacific and the lower third of Africa. That’s a lot of countries. The record occurred after South Africa won one of their 4 rugby world cup titles. The Quay Four sold over 19,000 liters (over 5,000 gallons) of draft beer that day. That’s a lot of beer.

Total cost of dinner, including tip, was just over $12. The same meal in London was over $30.

Tomorrow I’m off to wine country with a day trip to Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. The trip includes 3 winery stops and lunch. It’s a small group (only 13 people) and I’ve heard the countryside is beautiful. It should be fun. I’ll let you know.

Have a good night, everyone!!

Day 1 in South Africa

I am so glad I discovered that Windsor was so close to Heathrow. In the taxi I was at Heathrow in less time than it would have taken to walk to the train station. After I got to the airport, I took the tube to Covent Gardens. I went there because, first, I’d never been there. And second, the Picadilly line that goes to Covent Garden dead ends into Heathrow terminal 5, which is where I needed to be for my flight. I left my roller duffle and backpack in left luggage and headed out for the one-hour ride into central London.

I decided on a mini spa day with a mani/pedi and a massage. They were all wonderful! After that I headed to the shopping/restaurant area for lunch.

I had another British standard, Shepard’s Pie. I thought one of the items in the dish on the left were potatoes. They weren’t….they were parsnips…eew.

One of several markets in Covent Garden.

After wandering the markets, I headed to the Royal Opera House for a “behind the scenes” tour. No photos were allowed in the theater but here are a few of the public areas.

This is the entrance to the theater and is original from the 1858 theater.

This entire glass area was raised from the ground floor to the mezzanine.

After the tour I was exhausted from all the walking/standing in the 90-minute tour, so I headed back to Heathrow.

Here’s a string quintet playing in one of the markets. I saw them on the way to the restaurant and they were still playing hours later when I went back to the tube after the tour.

My flight from London went off without a hitch. It was 11 1/2 hours but, with the help of Ambien, I slept for 6 of them! The lay flat seat was a little more comfortable on AA than on the BA flight, but I was so tired I don’t think it really mattered.

Delicious dinner of pork and potatoes on my flight.

We landed in Cape Town on time, and it was more emotional than I expected. As soon as we touched down, I remembered how badly Peter wanted to take this trip and I got a bit teary. I’ll be thinking of him a lot over the next 10 days, but I know he’d be glad I am here.

Table Mountain (flat mountain) and Devil’s Peak (pointy mountain to the right) from the plane.

When I arrived, there was a representative from the travel company met me plane side, and he got me through immigrations very quickly. He handed me over to the driver who brought me to the pretty Victoria and Alfred Hotel at the waterfront. Alfred was Queen Victoria’s second son and he helped develop the waterfront.

My room is lovely with a nice sitting area.

As it was only about noon, the room wasn’t ready, so I checked my luggage with the bellman and headed out to the hop on/hop off bus.

My first stop was Table Mountain. It was a beautiful day with low winds, so it was good time to take the cable car to the top.

Following the cable car line up the mountain. The top is about 3500 feet.

My next stop on the bus was Camp’s Bay.

Lunch was sliders. The location was convenient as the restaurant was across the street from the bus stop.

While a little well done for my taste, they were still good.

Then it was back to the hotel to check in, get to the room, change clothes (clouds had rolled in and it was getting chilly so out of capris and into jeans) then back out again to catch the 4:45pm sunset bus tour that came with my 2-day hop on hop off bus ticket. Unfortunately, it got foggy so by the time we got to the top of Signal Peak, here’s what we saw.

When the driver stopped, she told us to be back in 30 minutes. Seriously??? What exactly were we supposed to look at for 30 minutes? It took about a minute to grab this pic then it was back on the bus as it had gotten cold. I did get a little bit of sunset on the way up, though.

Once back at the hotel, I stopped into the restaurant for a light dinner.

The prawns and rice were delicious except the little suckers looked at me the entire time I was eating them.

Seriously, I’ve been traveling internationally for 40 years. Why do I keep forgetting that if I order seafood anywhere other than the U.S., it comes complete with heads, eyes, tails, etc.? They were at least 3 inches long and there were only 2 tiny bites of edible seafood on them. Luckily, the rice was filling so I’ll be okay until breakfast. Note to self: avoid seafood!

It’s now after 9pm and I’m getting tired, so I’ll close for now. Thanks for traveling with me and I’ll report in tomorrow.

On My Way Again

Next stop….Cape Town.

A Leisurely Sunday

After waking at about 3:30am (which I do all the time at home) I went back to sleep a few hours later and slept until almost 10!! Yikes, I never do that. But it felt great. I decided not to play golf, so I just hung around the house in the morning. I’m still not able to get the stovetop lit and decided against microwaving the eggs (eew), so, about noon I headed back out for the afternoon. I stopped at Franco Manca on the main pedestrian street for sourdough pizza.

Margherita pizza and a Peroni-like beer. Both were quite good.

After lunch I headed to the river for a leisurely stroll. On the way I passed the Windsor Royal Shopping Center.

I found this inside the mall but there was no explanation as to what it is, but I thought it looked cool.

Once at the river, I found the Diamond Jubilee Fountain. It was commissioned in 2012 to celebrate Elizabeth’s 60 years on the throne. The fountain was designed after the crown jewels. I don’t really see it, but ok.

There were signs all around the fountain forbidding playing in the fountain. As you can see, everyone ignored the warning.

I found this across the street from the fountain.

Not wild about heights so it should come as no surprise that I didn’t take a ride.

The narration on yesterday’s river cruise explained why this plane was in the middle of the park, but I don’t remember. Sorry.

Did you know that all the swans in England are owned by the monarch? Yeah, I didn’t either.

Here are two of Charles’ swans. There were tons of them all along the bank. But I don’t think he owns the ducks.

Because I didn’t have enough calories in the pizza and beer, I stopped for ice cream.

The banana toffee ice cream was delicious.

Then it was back to the flat, once more walking down Peascod street.

Peascod Street is the main shopping street in Windsor.

I was home by 3pm so it was a short day, but I still walked about 9,000 steps Once home I did a small load of laundry and watched reruns of the Great British Bake Off. While I repacked, I watched the Cubs beat the Pirates (barely, the bullpen really tried to blow the game…. again).

Tomorrow it’s back to Heathrow for my overnight flight to Cape Town. My original plan had been to take the train back to London (20-minute walk on cobblestone streets to station; one hour ride to Paddington Station) and take the train to Heathrow (another hour). But last night I discovered that Windsor is only 15 minutes from Heathrow!! So, I’m taking a cab which eliminates the long schlep back to the train station and dragging my bags on two trains. I’ll drop my luggage at the Left Luggage and head back into London for day. I have to be out of the flat by 10, so I’ll get to London by late morning. I have nothing special to do but I’m sure I’ll find something to keep me busy.

Speaking of London, here’s a video I took on Friday of a street performer. Enjoy and I’ll post again once I get to Cape Town on Tuesday. Till then…

This is a video of a street performer from Trafalgar Square on Friday. He was quite good.

Beautiful Day in Windsor

It was a bit of a cloudy morning but by the time I got to Windsor at about 11AM the sun was shining. The main reason for visiting Windsor is to see the castle which is right in the middle of the town. Actually, the castle was here first, and the town built up around it.

Near the front entrance of the castle, the lines were crazy long.

Luckily, since I saw the castle with Peter in 2022, I wasn’t interested in going in, so I bypassed the lines and headed straight to the host of the Airbnb flat. This flat is professionally managed and as late as yesterday my contact at the office said it would be no problem to bring my bags to the office until check in time at 3pm. Unfortunately, when I got to the office (after climbing a fairly steep hill from the train station to the castle, and dragging the roller duffle through cobblestone streets), I found the office closed. I called the number on the door and after getting disconnected a couple of times, I finally reached someone who said he’d try to find someone to come to the office. Eventually he called me back to say that I could check into the flat early. I think it was just a matter of no one wanting to come into the office not just once, but twice. Once to drop off my bags and once to pick them back up. Alls well, though, as I was able to get into the house before noon and rest for a bit before heading back out to check out the town.

I found a nice outside tearoom for lunch, the Nell Gwynn. Nell was the mistress of King Charles II, who was the king after the monarchy was restored in 1660. Apparently, there was a tunnel connecting the Castle to Nell’s house, which is where the tearoom is now located.

I had a light lunch of ham, cheese and tomato panini.

Of course, I had to stop in at a church. This one was the Village Church of Windsor with its beautiful altar.

Then I strolled to the river and crossed to the Eton College side of town. A British college is for kids aged 13-18. Like Oxford and Cambridge Universities, the buildings of Eton are scattered around town, mostly without signage.

This was on the other side of the Thames looking in the direction of Eton. I don’t know if these buildings are part of the college or not, but it was pretty.

Before heading back across the river, I took a 40-minute ride on the Thames.

The boys jumped off the bridge every time another boat went past. There were a lot of boats, so they spent a great deal of time jumping in and climbing out of the water.

According to the narration, the Thames goes all the way out to Oxford, but it would take 2 days as there are 24 locks between the two cities.

Just before we docked, we got a great view of the castle compound.

After the cruise I went back to the castle for Evensong in St. George’s Chapel. I thought it would be interesting to experience an Anglican service. It was just over 30 minutes long and the best part was the choir. There were only 9 singers, but they sounded like a 30-person chorus. The acoustics were absolutely incredible. Photographs aren’t allowed in the chapel, but I found this one online.

Once the service ended, I stopped at the market on my way back to the flat. Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to turn on the stove top. It’s a gas stove so you would think all I need to do is turn the knob, but nope. I hear the gas but there’s no flame. Of course, no one is answering email at the management office, so I just ate a sandwich for dinner. I’m not sure how I’m going to cook my eggs in the morning, but I’ll figure something out.

Anyway, that was my day. I walked another 15,000 steps but so far both the left foot (with heel spurs) and my relatively new left knee are doing great.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow. Maybe play golf in the afternoon if I can get a tee time. There’s a golf club on the other side of the castle but I would need a cab. I’ll see what I feel like doing tomorrow. Maybe I’ll just hang out at the flat and rest. I’ve been doing a lot of walking the last 3 days and Monday will be a long day with an 11 1/2 hour late evening flight to Cape Town. It might be wise to hang close to home and just go out for lunch. We’ll see.

Love from the UK.

6.5 Miles in London

I made it until 8:45pm before falling asleep and, luckily, slept until 5:15 this morning. I’m still a bit tired but I think another good night’s sleep will do it. The morning started leisurely as the National Gallery doesn’t open until 10:00am so it was a nice breakfast buffet at the hotel. I set out for the tube around 9:30 and for someone who didn’t have much to do today, I sure did walk a lot….15,000 steps which is about 6.5 miles.

The National Gallery had a special exhibit of Caravaggio’s last painting, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, painted in 1610. I was there right after the doors opened so there was no wait to see it but by the time I left the queue was about 20-30 minutes long.

Once out of the special exhibit, I made a beeline for the Dutch Masters which are my favorite painters. There was only one Vermeer, A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal.

There were 8 painting by Van Gogh, including the famous Sunflowers.

There were a couple of unfinished works by Michaelangelo, including this one.

That is just a few of the many gorgeous works of art in this beautiful museum.

Beautiful galleries of the National Gallery

Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery in the background

After the museum, I stumbled into to St. James Park. London is a very green city, with both large and small parks throughout. St. James is a gigantic park adjacent to Buckingham Palace.

Then it was off to lunch at the Red Lion Pub which stands on the site of a medieval tavern called the Hopping Hall. On the way I passed 10 Downing Street, home and office of the Prime Minister. On my first trip to London in 1990, you were able to walk right up to the door but now the entrance is behind gates.

Anyway, back to the Red Lion. Because of its location between 10 Downing Street and the Houses of Parliments, it’s a very popular watering hole for politicians. It was also the favorite dining spot of Charles Dickens. Peter and I really enjoyed eating there in 2022, so I decided to go back. It’s always crazy crowded but I made a reservation, so I got in with only a short wait.

Once again, I had the Steak and Ale pie, and it was just as delicious the second time around.

The “lump” on the left are mashed potatoes. I could drink the sauce with a straw…it is so good.

After lunch I headed to the Imperial War Museum. I visited in 1990 and we planned to go in 2022, but Peter tired very quickly so we didn’t get the chance to visit. It was just a short bus ride and about a 10-minute walk from the bus.

It’s a pretty small museum so it didn’t take long to walk through the exhibits and since it contained the “usual” military exhibits I didn’t take many pictures either. I thought this was interesting though.

Finally, it was a long trek back to the hotel. When I got back, I asked the concierge about how to get to the train for Windsor. He told me that rail workers are on strike, but he thinks the trains will run tomorrow. If not, I’m not sure how I’ll get to Windsor (where I’ve booked an Airbnb flat for the weekend) as it’s an almost 2-hour cab, which will cost a fortune. But I guess that’s a problem for tomorrow. For now, I think I’ll head to the lounge and spend the 10-pound coupon I got for skipping housekeeping services today. I had a gigantic lunch so dinner will be whatever my 10 pounds will buy and the sandwich I made from the breakfast buffet.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Windsor. At least, I hope so.

Welcome Back to London

I hadn’t planned to post tonight but it’s only 6:30pm and I’m desperately trying to stay awake for a few more hours so I thought this would keep me busy for a while.

The flight was very comfortable and uneventful. Sitting in Polaris class was like having my own little travel pod. Even though the seat laid flat and was quite comfortable, I still didn’t sleep. The timing just didn’t work. I don’t usually sleep on planes unless I’m drugged and by the time we had dinner and it got late enough to be sleepy, we only had another 4-5 hours to go, not enough time to take an Ambien. I dozed a little but didn’t really sleep.

We landed a little early at 11am and I breezed through immigrations in less than a minute. But it took an hour to get my bag, another 20 minutes for my driver to arrive and about 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to the hotel. I could have taken the express train from Heathrow but in the past I’ve found it easier to hire a car. Well, not today. Traffic was a nightmare so by the time I got to the hotel it was over 3 1/2 hours after we landed. The good news is that it was late enough to be able to check into the hotel.

After a shower and a bit of a rest, I headed out for dinner at the Traitor’s Gate Pub just a few blocks from the Doubletree…

….where I had a delicious dinner of fish and chips and a Strawberry Bellini.

Fish and Chips minus the smashed peas. Eew….who does that to fish and chips.

After dinner I took a walk, partly to walk off the dinner and partly because it was still only 5pm and way too early to go back to the hotel. I strolled to All Hallows by the Tower, the oldest church in the city of London, opening in 675AD. John Adams once went to service here. Pretty cool.

Then it was a walk across the Tower Bridge where I caught a nice picture of the Tower of London. I’ll visit that in June when I’m back with my niece and her daughters.

Ok, well this didn’t take as long as I had hoped….it’s only 6:45. Rats. But, I found Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on TV so hopefully that will keep me awake for a few more hours.

As always, thanks for following my adventures and I’ll post again soon. Love to all.

Away I Go

I’m all settled into my Polaris Class seat. I tell you, I can get used to traveling like this. Talk with you in London. Love, Lynn

Fabulous Day in Ensenada

Yesterday (Sunday) was another fun day at sea. We planned to play putt-putt golf, but it was crazy windy on the top deck, so we bailed and went back to the pool bar.

My streak of never in my life winning at Bingo is intact, as I lost all three games we played. But one of the 2 lottery tickets I got when I bought my Bingo cards was a $10 winner, so I guess I did okay.

Last night after a delicious dinner, we had an after-dinner drink in our favorite bar – Alchemy Bar. We love the duo that plays there so we had a fun time dancing the evening away.

Today was our day in Ensenada. Luckily, we were able to just walk off instead of tendering like in Cabo on Saturday.

We had arranged to take a tuk-tuk tour of the city and a gourmet lunch.

We drove by a fish market that had some amazing looking fresh seafood.

Then it was a short stop at the beach. The only way to access the beach was either to walk down a dozen very big steps (without a handrail) or to walk down a very steep boat ramp. Since we didn’t want to do either of those things, we enjoyed the view from the top.

Our plan was to visit the cathedral but, sadly, it wasn’t open. So, we only stayed a few minutes to get pictures of the outside.

Our next stop was to the Santo Tomas Winery which has been in Ensenada for 135 years.

Bev, Jill and Ann enjoying the wine tasting.

Our final stop before lunch was main street for a little shopping. I got a new travel purse as the one I had was just a bit too small. This one is a little bigger and real leather so it should hold out well on all my future trips.

Our tour included a “gourmet lunch” of tacos at a local restaurant. I’m not sure I would have called it a gourmet lunch, but the tacos were delicious.

Before heading back to the ship, we made one more stop for a tequila tasting. Ann, Colleen and I sat that one out, but the other girls had a great time tasting their SEVEN shots of tequila. I would have needed to be carried out, but they did just fine.

Jill, Bev and Allie enjoying their shots.

All in all, it was a fabulous day in Ensenada. We have one more night at sea before leaving the ship tomorrow morning in Long Beach. Then it’s the trek home. Our flight isn’t until 1:40 so we’ll have a bit of time at the airport but I’m sure we’ll find something to do.

My next trip begins in less than 2 months when I head to London on my way to South Africa for the long-delayed safari. I hope to see you there.

Wonderful Day in Cabo

Friday was a fun day at sea. Ann & I had a wonderful breakfast in the main dining room than spent most of the day on the sun deck with the girls.

Bev, Allie and Ann hanging by the pool on our fun sea day on Friday.

After a delicious dinner in the Bacchus Dining Room, we headed to the Phantom Theater for the evening show….Rock and Roll Piano Show. It was fabulous! I took some videos but the internet connection on the ship is too slow to upload so I’ll post those when I get home on Tuesday.

Today we had all kinds of time zone challenges as the ship doesn’t change time, but our watches and phone do. Cabo is back in Mountain Central Time while the ship is still on Pacific Time. That will change tonight though when the clocks spring forward an hour.

Because of the time zone issue, we had to cancel our Land’s End Experience we booked with a local vendor. They tour started at 10:45 mountain standard time and we didn’t even dock until almost 11:00 MST (but 10:00 ship time)….yes it’s confusing. Luckily, we figured it out yesterday, so Jill and I spent about 45 minutes figuring out how to get a refund for the day trip. Everything was taken care of, but it was a pretty frustrating experience.

Instead, we just went into the tourist shopping area for browsing, a little buying (I got a new hat) and more than a little liquid refreshment.

We had a delicious lunch at a place that had 2 for 1 drinks so…why not?!?

The red snapper fish and chips were incredible.

We never got further than the immediate area around the bay, but I think that was really all there was to see.

We got back to the ship fairly early and are now resting before dinner. We sail out at 7pm (local time)/6pm (ship time), then tomorrow it’s another fun day at sea.

We’re having a great time! I think this pic says it all.