Today we set off on a 52-day round-the-world trip. After very little sleep for Andrea and no sleep last night for Keith, we left home at 6:00 am and headed for the airport. We got to the airport around 6:45 am.
We were late getting to bed last night but we did have a really good sleep. We got up around 9:30 am and got downstairs to breakfast about 10:15am. After breakfast we had our car brought around and we set off for Santa Monica.
After a good sleep we surfaced at about 8:00 am this morning. We got downstairs around 9:00 am for a leisurely breakfast. After breakfast we headed back upstairs to pack our suitcases.
After getting off to sleep at about 4:00 am this morning in our still-without-power hotel room, we were woken at 4:50 am when power was restored across the city and the lights came on in our room! We drifted back to sleep and the next thing we knew there was a knock on the door from the housekeeping staff at 10:30 am to make up our room! We declined to have our room made up and slowly got ourselves organised to go downstairs for breakfast (well, brunch really).
We got off to a pretty slow start again today. We got down to breakfast around 11:15 am. The hotel's restaurant was busy so we sat at the bar, which was nice.
We got up around 8:00 am this morning after a slightly disjointed sleep (which we attribute to the rather rich dinner we had last night!).
After a late night last night, we were a bit slow to get going this morning. Earl and Sue met us mid-morning in the hotel and we lingered over a long brunch, which was very enjoyable. It was about 1:45 pm by the time we left the hotel to walk around the beautiful city of Chicago.
After not enough sleep, we were up at 5:30 am this morning to get organised to get to the airport for our flight to New Orleans.
We had a good sleep last night and didn't get up until around 9:00 am. We got downstairs around 10:00 am and discussed plans for the day over a lovely breakfast (including some excellent griddle cakes with curd!). We decided that we'd start with a tour of the city.
We had planned to be up early today but that didn't happen. We ended up getting down to breafast around 10:00 am.
After a good sleep last night we got downstairs mid-morning for a leisurely breakfast. After breakfast we decided that we'd spend the rest of the morning relaxing in the hotel.
Combining the one-hour move forward in time zones, the switch to daylight savings time overnight, and an accrued lack of sleep, meant that we didn't exactly spring out of bed early this morning.
We had a leisurely start to the day today. We started with a nice breakfast downstairs in the hotel. After breakfast we returned to our room to pack our suitcases before checking out and getting an Uber to Terminal J at the Port of Miami, to board the Regent Seven Seas Navigator for a ten-day cruise around the Caribbean.
After sleeping very soundly last night, today was a day for rest and relaxation on the ship. Andrea was up a bit (a lot!) earlier than Keith and headed to the gym.
We were sound asleep when the alarm went off at 8:30 am this morning. But we were excited to get up and get organised for our visit to Puerto Plata in The Dominican Republic.
We slept well last night. We both felt the ship moving around during the night but still woke up pretty refreshed. We decided to start the day by going to the gym rather than indulging in a big breakfast.
This morning the alarm clock went off at 9:00 am. We took a little while to get going and left our room around 10:15 am.
This morning we were woken around 9:45 am by the cruise director's announcement over the PA system, telling us that we had arrived at the port of Roseau in Dominica.
We were woken this morning at 8:15 am by the cruise director announcing that we had arrived in Antigua and Barbuda.
Ay 7:30 am this morning we were roused from sleep by the unwelcome sound of the alarm. Still, we got up and got prepared to go out and explore Philipsburg (where we had docked this morning) and beyond. Philipsburg is the capital of Sint Maarten, a constituent country of the Netherlands.
This morning we indulged in a lovely sleep-in. It was a little before midday when we left our room.
The wind was blowing and the swell was up last night. As a result, we had a pretty restless sleep.
We felt a bit fragile this morning after not enough sleep last night. We were up early and out of our room by 8:00 am.
We were up at a reasonably respectable time this morning and downstairs by about 9:00 am for a lovely breakfast. We left the hotel around 10:00 am and hailed a cab to take us to our first stop of the day, B&H Photo.
After a lot of walking yesterday, we slept well and didn't get up until around 9:00 am. We got organised and headed downstairs for breakfast, where we discussed the agenda for the day. We had a little bit of shopping to do, so we set off down Madison Avenue, on our way to the beautiful Bloomingdale's department store.
We spent last night on a very turbulent six-hour flight from New York to Casablanca. It was so bumpy that we couldn't even get a glass of water until about three hours into the flight.
The good sleep we had hoped for last night didn't quite happen. The combination of going to bed at 4:00 pm New York time (which is where our body clock was!), loud calls to prayer over the loudspeaker from a very close-by mosque (late at night and very early in the morning), and a noisy rooster not too far away, all conspired to cause a very interrupted sleep.
When the alarm went off at 7:30 am this morning, we didn't exactly spring out of bed. It turns out that having a mosque just outside our room was good for taking pictures but not good for getting a decent night's sleep.
We got a good night's sleep last night but were jolted out of our slumber at 7:00 am by our alarm.
We slept moderately well last night. We were up at around 7:15 am and down to breakfast a little before 8:00 am.
After a pretty good night's sleep last night, we got up around 8:00 am this morning, got organised, and headed downstairs for a nice breakfast. At 9:00 am we set off with Mohamed and Dawad on a drive of about and hour and a half, to the small town of Imlil in the Atlas Mountains. Separating the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the Atlas Mountains extend over 2,500 km through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.
We were up at 6:15 am this morning for an early morning departure to Casablanca. We got downstairs around 7:15 am and enjoyed a light breakfast out in the fresh morning air. We left the hotel at 7:45 am and, after a pleasant drive, we were in Casablanca by about 10:30 am.
After a pleasant five-hour flight, we landed in Cairo at 5:15 am (3:15 am Moroccan time!) this morning.
We slept well last night and were up early to have breakfast before heading out for a big day of exploring around Cairo. We finished breakfast, went back to our room to get organised, and then headed to the lobby at 8:00 am to meet Sally, our guide for the day, and Hachem, our driver. Our first stop was the Giza pyramid area on the edge of the Western Desert (part of the Sahara), a drive of only 20 kilometres from our hotel in downtown Cairo.
This morning we were up at the ungodly time of 3:45 am to get ready for a 4:30 am departure from our hotel to Cairo airport to catch a flight to Luxor.
We got up around 7:00 am this morning and got downstairs to breakfast at about 7:45 am. Since we were flying out of Cairo later in the day, we had only a quick breakfast, so we could make the most of the morning. At 8:30 am we hopped into a taxi for the short ride to the Egyptian Museum, where we had planned to spend the morning.
After a good night's sleep last night, we were up around 7:30 am and downstairs by 8:00 am, ready to contemplate an very impressive selection of pastries and cakes (although we were admirably restrained!).
Today we were up at 6:45 am and downstairs to breakfast by 7:30 am. It would be easy to over-indulge at the hotel's breakfast, such was the impressive selection. Despite the array of pastries and cakes on offer, we opted for a relatively healthy breakfast. After breakfast, we headed upstairs to finish packing, before checking out and getting on the road by 9:00 am for a big travel day.
We slept reasonably well last night and were up early, so we could have a quick breakfast before heading into the old city of Petra. Just before 8:00 am we met Daoud in the lobby of our hotel, and we walked across the road to the entrance to the Petra ruins.
As expected, after a big day of walking in the heat yesterday, we slept solidly last night. We were up at about 7:15 am to make sure we had time to have breakfast, pack, and check out. By 9:00 am, we were on the road for a two-hour drive to the Wadi Rum Desert, in the southwest corner of Jordan (about 25 km from the border with Saudi Arabia).
We slept pretty well last night, considering that we were in a tent! We got up around 6:30 am, showered, packed, and got to breakfast by about 7:30 am. By 8:30 am, we had checked out, and were ready for the trip back across the Wadi Rum Desert to the local township. When we got back to the Wadi Rum township, Daoud and Nabil (our driver) were waiting to meet us.
We had a good sleep last night, rising around 8:00 am this morning. It took some time to locate the restaurant for breakfast, such is the size of the hotel.
After waking to the sound of the alarm at 6:15 am this morning, we got ourselves organised, and headed off to an early breakfast.
We had a wonderful sleep last night in the extremely comfortable bed at the Ham Yard Hotel. We got up around 9:00 am and made our way downstairs for breakfast at about 9:45 am. After breakfast, we headed back to the room and relaxed there until late in the afternoon, when we left the hotel to catch a cab to see a local doctor.
We are sleeping very well in the lovely Ham Yard Hotel. As a result, it was about 10:15 am before we got downstairs to breakfast.
After another good night's sleep, we got downstairs to breakfast at about 10:00 am. After a lovely breakfast, we went upstairs to pack our suitcases.
We slept well last night and got downstairs around 10:15 am to enjoy a leisurely Sunday-morning breakfast. We decided that we still wanted to come home via India, so we headed back upstairs to our room to investigate flight options and determine the quickest way to get our visa situation resolved.
We didn't sleep last night as well as we might. We're both fighting off cough and cold symptoms, so our sleep was a bit interrupted.
We slept a little better than the night before but not as well as we'd have liked. The effects of whatever bug we've caught are still with us, but there are places to see so there was no time for lingering.
After a better (but still not brilliant) night's sleep, we got up around 9:00 am this morning.
Despite getting a pretty good night's sleep last night, the 8:00 am alarm this morning was still less than welcome.
We had a sleep-in this morning, and got downstairs to breakfast around 10:15 am. After enjoying breakfast, we went back upstairs to our room.
With nothing on the agenda for this morning, we had a nice sleep-in, and got downstairs to breakfast at around 10:15 am. After breakfast, we headed back to our room to try to fit everything back into our suitcases.
We managed to get a few hours of sleep on the plane before landing at around 8:45 am this morning in New Delhi.
This morning we were up at the obscene time of 4:30 am so, needless to say, we were a bit sketchy getting going.
We were able to sleep in a bit this morning, since we had nothing much to do this morning before heading back to New Delhi to fly home.
We landed in Melbourne at around 1:15 pm today, 56 days after we left on our around-the-world trip. After flying, cruising, and driving about 50,000 kilometres across five continents, it's been a big trip.