When we opened the curtains in the morning we noticed that our Viking Orion ship was already docked nearby. It arrived early in the morning on the last leg of its cruise from Sydney, the reverse of our itinerary. Passengers would have one Auckland day before they would disembark and we would board. It’s pretty …
We arrived in Auckland’s airport at 6am, pretty quickly found our luggage and escaped customs despite being shamed into declaring that we brought roasted nuts into New Zealand. Notices from the flight attendants and at the airport made it very clear that New Zealand was strict about what they allowed to be brought in – …
I arranged for a car to take us to Dulles Airport rather than drive and park ourselves. I especially didn’t want to have to deal with driving a car home after nearly 24 hours of flying back to Dulles. The car from Columbia Taxi Service (actually Columbia Limousine Service, as it turned out) showed up …
Part 10 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Saturday, June 20 – Shanghai and Pudong For our final full day in China, Rick and I rose early and headed out to explore some of my old stomping grounds and other parts of Shanghai. The ladies slept in and indulged in the …
Part 9 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Thursday, June 18 – Arrival in Shanghai We reluctantly checked out of the Four Seasons Hong Kong and made our way back to the airport for our flight to Shanghai. This was my first time back in Shanghai since 1988 for one day …
Part 8 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Wednesday, June 17 – Bus to Stanley Market, Sunset at Four Seasons For old times’ sake, we took the #6 bus from the Star Ferry terminal across the island toward Stanley, passing our hold homes and haunts. This was a chance to show …
Part 7 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Sunday, June 14 – Xian to Hong Kong We split off from the Speizmans for the next few days. They headed toward the karst mountains and river valleys near Yangshuo and Guilin while Allie, Barb and I headed to Hong Kong. This was …
Part 6 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Saturday, June 13 – Xian The highlight and main purpose for visiting Xian was to see the Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. I remembered being amazed by our first visit in 1988. I was eager to show Allie and the Speizmans …
Part 5 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Friday, June 12 – Beijing to Xian We got ourselves checked out of the Raffles and transported back to the fancy new Beijing airport. We had enough time to relax a little and explore the amenities. It beat any airport we could think …
Our long-awaited trip to attend Sara’s wedding. Wednesday, November 8 Barb and I flew to Denver nonstop on Southwest without incident, departing at 12:45pm and arriving before 3pm, civilized hours on both ends. We arrived at the Denver airport which somehow seemed even larger than before. It took us 30 minutes from landing until we …