Foto Friday

This week's pic was taken in Fairfield, Connecticut from my friend's back yard. We'd just finished having a braai and were about to go inside when I noticed the colourful sunset.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Niagara Photos

Some of our Niagara photos. Enjoy! We certainly did!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Red-eye

It's just after midnight and we're sitting in JFK Airport in New York. We arrived here an hour ago from Buffalo. Our next flight is in 5 hours, so we're spending the night in the airport. Luckily the wireless is free. Unfortunately, I have 20 minutes of battery left on my laptop with not a power point in sight!

Toronto was nice. Niagara Falls were amazing!!! We visited the Canadian side on Friday and the American side yesterday (Saturday). The view from Canada is much better as you can clearly see both the American and Horseshoe Falls from here. We took some awesome photos (coming soon) and to top it all, we took the 'Maid of the Mist' ride from the American side to within spitting distance of the cascading water!

Photos will be up soon.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Foto Friday

One of my favourites so far from New York. The Manhattan Skyline, taken on Monday.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

New York pics

Some photos to whet your appetite.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

New York - Day 3

Day 3 of the big trip "home". Be aware, this is a loooooooooong post!

After a 10 hour flight and a 1 hour bus trip (next time it will be a taxi!), we finally checked into our 'loftstel'. It may have looked good on the net, but it's a hole! It's disgustingly dirty! The bath still had hair and a dirty ring in it from the previous guests! Anyway, we're cutting our stay short and checking out tomorrow!

After checking in at 4pm on Saturday, we went out to buy some food, came home, cooked some dinner and then went straight to bed at around 8.30pm.

Next morning we were up at 5.30am! We had some breakfast and then made the journey to Grand Central Station. (New Yorkers will tell you that it's a terminal, not a station 'cos all trains terminate here!) We caught a train out to Fairfield in Connecticut to visit an old friend of mine. We spent a fantastic day with them, braai-ing some juicy lamb chops and eating ice-cream on the beach. Unfortunately, reality came rushing back when we had to come home to our (still) dirty apartment.

Today was a sightseeing day in the Big Apple. Our first stop was Chinatown. Smelly fish markets and crowded veg stalls abound. We dodged our way down Mott Street and took a left into Godfatherland; Little Italy. Our $11.00 breakfast of coffee and... well, just coffee, was going to have to last until lunch time.

Next we caught the subway to the ferry terminal at South Ferry, hoping to sail out to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. But neither Deb nor I was willing to brave the 3 hour queue that had already formed! We took some photos, then walked the five blocks to Ground Zero.

This was quite a sight. Not only was the place crawling with workmen rebuilding the area, but the number of policemen, memorials and tourists (did I forget to mention that it is school break over here) was amazing.

Our next stop was Central Park for lunch, but we couldn't find anything to eat. After a short rest in the park, we caught the bus and the subway back down to Times Square for a bite of McDonald's (it had to be done!). We did some shopping on 5th Avenue before walking south to the Empire State Building.

The 3 of us headed straight to the top - 102 floors up! What an awesome view from the glass observatory. We caught the elevator down to the 86th floor to view the city from the outdoor area. Again, eye-popping.

After dinner at a local brewery and a quick stop at Madison Square Gardens, we caught the subway home for a 10pm finish.

More adventure tomorrow.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Travel talk

While I sort through my 700 photos, I thought I'd tell you a little more about the good, the bad and the ugly from my trip.

The good:
The food - American's sure know how to eat! Cheap food, fast food, HUGE portions!
The shopping - one word: "cheap". Everything. But especially food and electronics. Ipods over there are half the price they are over here. Same with digital cameras and laptops. I was in geek heaven!
Miami Beach - We spent 2 days here before sailing off to the Caribbean. It's unlike any other city I have visited. Very Latino. Some shops even have signs in the window which read "English spoken here!"
Convenience - London has some 24 hour corner shops and nightclubs, but Miami had 24 hour restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, shops, pharmacies and more.
Beaches - In the Caribbean. Not one bad experience. They were all amazing, but my favourites were Barbados and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas (a private island owned by the cruise line)

The bad:
Madrid Airport - Even though we were in transit, we had to pass through passport control. Fine, except that I had bought a litre of Jim Beam in the UK duty free shops and since you can't travel with more than 100ml of liquid through European airports, the b@$t@£d$ at customs took it off me! "Drink it or we must destroy it". I was tempted, but it was 8am! On the way back to the UK, a bunch of South Africans on the flight were caught out 'cos they didn't have Schengen visas to enter Spain! But they weren't actually entering Spain, they were in transit to the UK!
US Taxis - Besides the rip-off prices (all up we spent around US$250 in airport transfers), we always had trouble finding cabs that would carry us 'cos we had a baby and they won't take you without a baby seat in the cab. :-(
Pedlars - the only thing that I didn't like about Barbados. On the beach you never got a minutes peace and quiet. "You wanna buy jewlry ma'n?", "You wanna go snorkelling ma'n?", "You wanna...?"
Sea sickness - Not me. But while we were out on the dive boat, 3 of the other divers fed the fish. LOL

The ugly:
Iberia - We travelled with the Spanish national airline. Never again! The service wasn't bad 'cos it was non existent. The food wasn't very nice. There were no TVs in the back of the seats, only communal ones. My earphones didn't work anyway, so it didn't matter. There wasn't even any running water in the toilets on the way back from the USA! Somebody threw up in one of the toilets and the stewards left it. You can imagine the smell permeating through the plane!

I have posted some photos on my photoblog to whet your appetite while I resize the rest for the web.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Back in town

I'm back. Back to work tomorrow. Soooo looking forward to all that catch-up. Emails, paperwork, orders. I have to recruit new staff and my assistant manager is leaving too for greener pastures.

Now that you all feel sorry for me (not!), I'll tell you what a fantastic time I had! Beautiful white sand beaches, warm Caribbean waters, 5* service on the cruise ship, free food served 24-7 (I ate pizza at least once every day!), cheap booze. It all adds up to a great holiday, great tan and an extra 5kg on the waistline!

I scuba dived on one of the best wreck dives in the world and I even managed to do some geocaches!

I promise that the pics will be posted soon.

Chat soon,
DelBoy