The arrival

Winchester

Crofts Castle

Leominster

Salisbury

Hereford

Well here we are in the UK having arrived a week ago on the 23rd. We were all rather sad to be leaving our home at sea as we had such a wonderful time on board. Now the adventure was to begin.

In one week we have seen so many places,sites, castles,cathedrals,medieval cities,manors and pubs that we have forgotten what we have done. Here's a run down on what we remember in no particular order:

New Forest Ponies wandering in the town

New Forest Ponies in New Forest

-New Forest-New Forest ponies roaming where ever they like from the roads to the main streets of the towns the ponies have right of way in this area.
-Winchester a lovely town that has a catherdral
-Salisbury,lovely city and has an enourmous cathedral, here we ran into some passengers from the ship!!
-Romsey another lovely little town
-Stone Henge-we did a drive by as you can get a reasonable look at it from the road
-Wood Henge,not far from Stone henge, we walked around this one
-Avesbury Henge and Manor, totally cool little town built in the henge, fascinating how and why the ancients built these mounded walls, corridors of stone, stone circles,long barrows(where they buried people). The Manor was beautiful and the gardens were superb. This is a more interesting site than Stone Henge and a lot larger
-Watford,to see Allyson and go to the Warner Bros Harry Potter studios
-Bath, amazing,beautiful city. We toured the Roman Baths and saw the city from an open top bus. We stayed with our new friend Dale and her family the night. We enjoyed a great Chinese meal and lovely company
-Glimpsed Windsor castle as we drove down the motorway
- Visited Crofts castle and Barrington Manor
-Thatched cottages,tudor cottages and houses,beautiful catherdrals
-Hereford,where we think is a possibility to live. It has all the things we are looking for except it's quite far from London and Allyson
-Driven down the narrowest two way roads that barely fit one car let alone two. The sides are lined with hedgerows and you cannot see what is coming until you are face to face with it.
-We've dined in very very old pubs and Grahame is loving trying all the English beers he has never seen before
-The greenest grass you have ever seen and just when you think it can't get any greener, we then entered North Wales and stunning green,green,green. The grass is so perfect in the paddocks it looks like lawn,amazing.
-Beautiful and stunning countryside, words cannot describe how stunning the scenery is.
-So many beautiful towns and villages,driving down tiny cobblestoned streets and lanes with amazing shopfronts and buildings

That's just what I can remember off the top of my head.

Right now we are in far North Wales in a most stunning wee little  village called Beddgelert. It's part of the Snowdonia National Park. We are here on an amazing opportunity. Grahame and Elliott are working as assistants on a film shoot for a documentary. I know this sounds crazy as we have only been in country 7 days.
The ship turned out to be a great networking opportunity. We met Dale (as mentioned earlier), she is a TV film producer and to cut a long story short she offered this to Grahame as she knew he is looking for work. Although this gig is voluntary the type of work is something that Grahame is interested in doing, that is location organisation,safety and security (basically). So here we are. We have been put up in a beautiful 400 year old stone cottage perched on the side of a hill with a most glorious view. Right now Grahame and Elliott are up at the summit of the mountain and then into a copper mine with the production team filming what will hopefully be Precious Planet. A doco series about the earths precious metals,gems etc etc.

Beddgelert,North Wales

Beddgelert

We also met another couple who, Neil, coincidently happens to have a film production company that produces Tv commercials. His wife,Debs is a jewellery designer. Neil has offered Harison do to a screen test as Harison wants to be an actor. It would be great fun for Harison to have a go and learn about the production side of the indusrty. We are catching up with them in West London next week sometime.

So it's a bit of a 180 degree turn for us Butlers. It's been amazing meeting the people we have. There are more but that can wait 'till later, don't want to sound too much of a name dropper.

We will be in Milton Keynes for 4 days this long weekend. We are going to a wedding, the son of friends we met in Malaysia when we lived there. Stefan and Allyson went to school together so that's how we know them. Grahame was part of a school expedition that Stefan participated in when they climbed one of the highest peaks in Malaysia. Stefan credits Grahame for getting the team up the mountain.

Romsey

Milton Keynes is also on the possibility list of places to live. Grahame has been there before. So once Ellz, Haz and I have looked at it we'll see if it's still on the list.

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury

Avesbury Henge

Avesbury Henge

Roman Baths

Bath

Bath

Ponta Delgada

Ponta Delgada Azores

Today we arrived in the stunning waters of the Azores. The Azores is a group of Islands off the coast of Portugal and are officially Portuguese.  On arriving we were greeted with vistas of green rollings hills as the backdrop and quaint European style architecture next to the water. We were off the ship early to take advantage of the sun shine as apparently the weather here is very changeable. Lucky for us though the whole day was superb weather wise. The sun shone and it was about 16 deg c, perfect weather for strolling around. All the roads are cobbled stone and the buildings are european looking with fancy doors ,window shutters,Juliette balconies and the doors open right onto the street.

We found a park that the boys could explore and kept them entertained them for two hours. The park was built in 1861 and had an old fort,tunnels,grottos,hidden paths and dungeons for the boys to get lost in. And it had free WiFi so we were able to skype Timothy and talk to him properly for the first time since we left Australia.

We then headed to the local mall  in fact it’s the only mall on the island and had a brief look around. We checked out the food court as we were a little hungry. What struck me was that everything was made to order and each food outlet was impeccably clean. Coffee only comes in a china cup, no take away coffee cups here, harks back to the good ol’ days. Coffee was about $2 AU. No super-sized coffees just a normal size coffee cup.

We didn’t look at the shops although Harison had a quick look in a pet shop. Next we headed to yet another park that had beautiful gardens and trees from all over the world. The boy love running around the parks and hiding in the giant bamboo or trying to clim the roots of giant Moreton Bay fig trees. I love that even though they are teenagers they are still young enough to play like kids in a park and prefer that to being inside. After covering every square inch of the park we walked back through the town to the ship. By this time it was 2.15pm.  After a quick stop at that ship to dump our things we didn’t need we the headed out again  to take an hour long bus tour . By now the clouds had started to come in but it still hadn’t rained and we really hoped it wouldn’t rain as we were seated in an open top bus. The tour was a great way to see things we wouldn’t have time to walk to.

The reason the countryside is so green is due to the high humidity and high rainfall even though the average temperature is only 19 deg c all year. The country side is gorgeous.

At 4pm we had finished the tour and Grahame wanted to try a local beer so next stop was a cafe . By 4.45pm we were back at the ship. It was a wonderful day here and the town is beautiful. What I liked about Ponta Delgada was that the Mall housed the fancy shops, the brands, the advertising. The local shops were in the buldings that lined the streets but just in random places. Not shop after shop after shop. The shops were tiny and quaint and there were no glary advertising or big signs. It was just lovely, old fashioned almost, the way it should be.

We all really enjoyed this port of call. Our last sadly before we head to South Hampton.

Antigua

Antigua, West Indies

What a gorgeous day we’ve had today.  The ship docked in a great location, a bit like Sydney Harbour with everything just off the gangway. It was very busy as another cruise ship was in town too. We were off the ship rather early and headed to the beach. We are one of those families that like to “find” our way to our chosen destination. Most people get a taxi or bus but not us. We walk for miles to experience the character of the town. Antigua is very charming in a scruffy kind of way. As we walked the streets heading to the beach the locals were friendly and helpful with directions. 

Some of the areas were quite run down and rather untidy with an accumulation of rubbish. The housing often being tiny and I mean  teeny tiny little weather board shacks, some just plonked on top of concrete blocks looking like they’d blow over in a strong wind. We wandered through some dubious looking areas and questioning Grahame’s judgement on the tourist beach we were supposed to be heading too. None the less beyond the disheveled and ramshackle streets a beautiful almost deserted beach was beckoning. Gorgeous clear blue waters and soft white sands. The boys and I stripped to our togs and dived in. Apart from a few locals, some horse and would you believe some cows, we had the beach to ourselves. It was well worth the long hot walk. Even though there was no snorkeling the boys enjoyed swimming for a few hours. We managed to get a taxi ride back as one has just dropped off some other tourists.

We came back to our home on the sea for lunch before heading out to explore the local town. It was lovely and charming as I said . The cricket was also on England verses West Indies which quite a few passengers went to. With two ships in town the bars and cafes were doing a roaring trade and the WiFi almost impossible to use. A really lovely day that ticked all the boxes on what we wanted to do here. Off to the Azores tonight which is off the coast of Portugal.

Panama Canal

PANAMA CANAL

Today we were up at 5.30am for the approach into the Panama Canal. It was a beautiful early morning and we saw the sunrise over the ocean and the stunning view of Panama City. The harbour was busy with all the ships waiting to take their turn. Only 2 can go through the canals locks at a time and only in the same direction. The cost for the ship to transit through today is 250,000 British pounds !!!!!

The transit took all day and was very slow. A  (Panamanian)pilot has to hop on board and take control of the ship. It’s hard to explain but in short the ship travels along with tugs at the ready on a specific course. Then the ship goes up through 3 locks in a space just wide enough for a ship of this size to get through. The ship is guide by mechanical “mules’ through the locks. This takes quite some time. Once through then it sails through a water way of lakes and manmade canals. Then another 3 locks to take it back down to sea level at the Atlantic end. At the beginning of our journey through the canal the scenery looked  like roads works on the banks of the canal. On one side of the canal there is enormous construction going on to build another canal and lock. So for a part of the journey the scenery was very ordinairey. Further through the canal  we saw beautiful  Panamanian jungle. It was picturesque and we saw monkeys but no crocodiles, lots of birds and colourful trees. That was after we elbowed the Poms out of the way to get a look. I think the whole ship was on decks today. It was very quite inside. It was a fascinating look at an engineering achievement. The whole canal operates today as it did when it was built back in 1913 and looks exactly the same.

It was a long day today but a good one and now we are headed to Antigua in the Caribbean.

These images are not mine but it gives you a look at what it looks like from different parts of the canal.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica

It’s hard to believe we are in Central America. Today we woke up to find ourselves alongside in Punta Arenas and finally at a beach where we don’t have to walk. But to our disappointment we are advised it’s best not to swim at this beach as the water is polluted.

It is very hot and humid today, we are reasonably close to the equator. 

This little town is the real deal. No tourist shops, no high rise hotels and no Mc Donald's. We ventured into the township and had a walk around. To be honest there wasn’t much to see in terms of attractions. We walked around a few streets and looked at a church and a small gallery and checked out the library. We got a little glimpse into how Costa Ricans live here. It was so damn hot that we didn’t spend a lot of time here only about 2 hours before heading back to the ship. We’ve been told the Costa Rican jungle is spectacular but we didn’t venture out there. Some people did though. Having lived in Malaysia for 2 years we were surrounded by  jungle and monkeys in our backyard so I don’t think we missed out too much.

It was a pleasant visit. The view was lovely from the ship looking out to the mountains. It was a shame about the polluted water as the beach was right where we stopped.

Cruising

WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT CRUISING ANYWAY?

Everything. I love it. You leave the world behind you and you just relax. You do not have to worry about anything. This is really living in the moment and being fully present in your own life. 

There is no internet to distract you. Well that’s not quite true. There is internet but you have to pay a ridiculous amount for it and it’s obviously satellite internet and the connection is not always good. Suffice to say we only check it every few days for about 7 minutes.

We certainly do not miss the internet, the kids don’t miss it either and you can actually live without it for the most part.

No mobile phones, no texting.

No news, no newspapers feeding you their negative views on the world and life.

No shopping, no cooking, no cleaning, no making beds. The only “chore’ that needs to been done is washing of clothes. I leave that to Grahame as that’s his specialty. The washers and dryers are free and you only need your own washing powder.

You can choose to participate in an activity or attend a show.

You can eat where and when ever you like.

Dinner is like going to a fancy restaurant every night and you can eat as much as you want.

Cabo San Lucas Mexico

Mexico Cabo San Lucas

Today we arrived in sunny Mexico and once again greeted by a few whales. The landscape is completely different from the tropical paradises we have already visited. This was no surprise however, having lived in Sierra Vista in Arizona, the landscape is very similar. The harbour was a hive of activity with boats, kayaks, standup paddlers, jet ski, birds, sea lions and swimmers. Having realised once we got off the ship that it is American spring break time so there was a lot of American college aged kids around. 

This area was hit by a cat 4 hurricane last September and it was evident that this had happened. The hotels all look remarkably the same. I don’t know if they were re-constructed in haste of if they were there prior to the hurricane. The architecture is rather bland and boring. The shopping area on the marina clearly caters to an American market. There is no authentic looking Mexico here. The menus although had mexican food on them were aimed at the American market too. Starbucks was a feature and even though a didn’t spy the Golden arches I saw rubbish from Macca’s in the gutter. This is the disappointing part of being a tourist looking for an authentic experience of a country.

We walked to the beach in the searing heat. The beach front was full of hawkers trying to sell their wares. However as the hotels are on the beach front they have areas roped off where the hawkers can’t go. Like a lot of beaches there was no shade and we weren’t prepared to “buy “shade in the form of a hired umbrella. So we sat whilst the kids had a quick swim. Harison was stung by a jelly fish so that put an end to his swimming. Then we packed up and walked around a bit before heading back to the tender to take us back to the ship. We saw some dolphins in a marine pool that you could pay an exorbitant  fee to go swimming with.  We witnessed an authentic Mexican tradition of 4 men dressed in Mexican costume climb a very high pole and perform a stunt where they wrap a rope around the top of the pole and them some how unravel the rope and they are hanging off the side and swinging around as they descend to the ground whilst playing mexican type of flute or piccolo. Quite impressive.

On the tender ride back we saw sea lions clinging to the back of small boats in hope of being fed some fish. It was funny to see them launch themselves on the back of the boats. Obviously they do this all the time as the people on the boats fed some fish to them.

We saw some very impressive luxury liners in the marina. Some old money bags had one with it’s own helicopter. Very slick looking piece of marine luxury.

Overall Cabo San Lucas was an interesting place to visit but not some where I would come back to. It didn’t seem to have much to offer that you couldn’t get else where. Not sure why Americans come here as it’s very similar to Southern California, same landscape, same beaches and same food.I guess it’s a whole lot cheaper and their money goes further here.

Days at sea

DAYS AT  SEA.

You may be wondering what we do all day when at sea. Somedays I can’t believe how quickly the day goes by and how I can’t fit in everything into the day that I want to. I usually start the day by walking the deck and listening to podcasts for at least an hour. Some mornings I will go to the gym or I’ll go in the afternoon. Then it’s brekky time. We sometimes eat brekky together or by ourselves depending on what time we all get up. The boys will usually go to the kids club at 10 am, although sometimes Elliott will go to the gym or have a swim. At 11am Elliott goes to an hour long Spanish class that is on every sea day. There may be an interesting talk to go to before lunch. We meet up for lunch usually at 12 or so. The kids do their school work for a few hours. After lunch there could be more talks by guest speakers or a singer or band playing or the theatre show may be on. We spend some time reading or going to the library.  There could be a movie on in the arvo. We have dinner at 6pm and we get all dressed up and head to the restaurant. On black tie night we have a pre-dinner drink and the boys think that’s special having a fancy mock-tail. After dinner it could be a show or a movie. The boys are usually back at the kids club again until 10.30.

Then we do it all again.

Other activities that might entice you are; yoga, art classes, play bridge, trivia quizzes, table tennis comps, golf comps, play tennis, knit and natter, casino, dance classes, choir, board games, sit around the pool and fry yourself (like all the Poms do), go to the spa if you have money to burn, shop if you have any money left over after the spa, drink, eat , drink some more and chat or have a nana nap. There is quite a lot of activities you can be involved in if you choose. The one thing we all do every day a million times over is climb all the bloody stairs. We are on the 5th floor in the middle. The gym is on the 11th, the casual eating is on the 12th rear, the library is on 13th front, kids club 8th rear, theatres and movies 7 & 8th front, restaurant 6th. Walking decks either 7th or 12th. We made a vow not to use the lifts at all. So we don’t and it’s so much quicker anyway than waiting for a lift. It’s great exercise but tedious when you have just come down and then you need to go back up again. And sometimes we run them just for fun!! 

San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO

DAY 1

Oh what a day. We woke up early  to see the Golden Gate Bridge pass over us as the ship entered the harbour. It was still dark and the sun hadn’t started to rise yet. It was a lovely sight entering the harbour at this hour and seeing the sun rise over the city. We docked  alongside at Pier 35 which was not a container terminal and near the downtown area.

We left the ship at about 7.45am and started our walk. First on the list was to find San Francisco CrossFit to buy Tim a T-shirt. It ended up being quite a long walk up and down some VERY steep hills. It was in an area called The Presidio which after all the steep hills was on the flat. We also stumbled along the Palace of Fine Arts which was an amazing outdoor structure set in beautiful gardens and lake. This was close to the water and to the Golden Gate Bridge. 

After this we headed back along the way we had come and stopped at an American Diner to show the boys and let them have some dinky die American food.

Grahame and I ordered a cappuccino each and it was virtually the size of a soup bowl with a handle on it - making it a very large mug. The boys had hotdogs, fries and milk shakes. I was actually surprised by the price. It would seem American prices have caught up with Australian prices. When we lived in the US food was very cheap, that was also a long time ago too but I was surprised.

Harison found a $5 note on our walk which made him happy. We continued on to see the house from the Mrs Doubtfire movie. So back up the steep hills. Then onto the house and park that is from the Full House series (think Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen). Then onto the Painted Ladies, a row of beautifully maintained Victorian period homes that always feature in movies and synonymous with San Francisco pictures and tourism. Then we walked to the city hall area and library. Union square was next. There was a lot of homeless people around this area which was quite disturbing to see. Now we used to see homelessness a lot in Melbourne CBD but the amount of people on the street here was crazy. Very sad to see. I actually felt a bit unnerved in this area and was happy when we left . The fancy shops were in this part of the town not unlike Swanston, Bourke and Collins Streets in Melbourne.

We started to head back to the ship then decided to hop on a cable car and walk back down through the famous Lombard street that is so incredibly steep that 9 switch backs are in place. The cable ride was fun and of course up the steep California St. Once we got off we had to walk to Lombard St and we were walking slightly down hill then turning into Lombard St we had another huge climb to get to the notorious zig zag part of the street. Then the downhill part was all steps then at the bottom it was another climb up again. Our poor aching legs. The final stretch to the ship was downhill to the flat. By the time we got back it was 5pm. We walked nearly all day. We had beautiful weather and saw lots of interesting sights. It was a truly great day and we all enjoyed it.

From our map Elliott calculated that we walked approximately 20 kms. And I can tell you our legs certainly know how far we travelled and how unbelievably steep those hills were.

Tomorrow we do it all again!!

SAN FRANCISCO - Day 2

I had the worst sleep ever.  I obviously pulled a muscle doing all that walking yesterday (it was probably from trying to race Elliott up one of the steep hills and my hip was really really really sore (the kids and Grahame think I am pretending).  Grahame and the boys were raring to go to walk another 20km, but I was in pain.  I could barley walk.  So my kind considerate loving husband (his words) decided that he and the kids wouldn’t walk; and he organised for all of us to tour the city on an “open aired” double decker  tourist bus.  So we spent the best part of about 4 hours on the bus taking in all the city had to offer, including a quick drive by of where San Francisco meets the Pacific Ocean.  We certainly have the better side of the Pacific in Australia.  The beach in San Fran was really windy, cold, and the sand was grey.  The tour took us through the fantastic Golden Gate Park. what an amazing place, I’m sure nothing like this exists in Australia. It was a completely man made park with every single tree hand planted and all the lakes man made too. The California Science Academy was here, a museum, botanical gardens, Japanese Tea Gardens, meditation gardens, playing fields for all sorts of sports, lakes to practice fishing in, lakes for remote controlled boats, dog parks, play equipment for kids, golf course,walking and cycling paths everywhere. It had 5 windmills that used to pump water for watering the whole park. the windmills are still standing. A truly beautiful peaceful place in the middle of the hustle and bustle of a city.

We learnt about the different styles of architecture and famous buildings. There are too many beautiful homes for one city. We learnt that that flat parts of SF are all re-claimed as they were once marshes. The beautiful City Hall building has had its foundation re-constructed on water and barrel type of construction and can move 4 feet in any direction. This is to help it stay upright and not crumble  in the event of an earthquake. We drove through an area that is known as the “hippy” suburb. It’s all peace,love and drugs there and it has not moved on since 1967, stuck in a time warp. Overall, the tour was an excellent way to see the city and I was able to come along as all I had to do was sit and listen to the tour guide’s commentary.  Thankfully my darling husband booked the tour so I wouldn’t miss out on our last day in San Francisco. I would recommend doing this in San Francisco if you are short on time. Although you can walk, the hills are savage, though great exercise at the same time.