Miami and Caribbean

Oct 19 to Oct 23 = South Miami beach, nice beaches, glorious weather, a few nice restaurants and interesting locals, one who sang 1 in a million about me to Caro to get her takeaway food from her as a gift…... We met little Snitcovsky, Carla’s sister who lives in Miami for the past 10 years and her partner Renato.

Oct 24 to Oct 31 = Providenciales, or Provo to the locals, which we now count as after ‘living’ there for 7 glorious days. Bad start of rain downpour on the back end of a hurricane in Honduras and my bag being broken open by the TSA in Miami and left open in the hold of the plane, was made up for by the upgrade to the premium new suite in Italian Village (thanks Sharon in New Jersey) The rains stopped and we had 7 glorious days of crystal blue, warm waters and 33 degree days interrupted only by eating in one of the 18 restaurants and drinking a few different rum vodka cocktails on the white powdery sand. No laptop, no blackberry, no blog, no phone calls…. A relaxed chilled out break with some very friendly people. We made a few friends along the way, hi to Mike and Jen from Maine who got married there. Really nice couple and we shared a few dinners and drinks and even had a crack at Karaoke. Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop me now’ will never be the same again. In a good way ;-)

On day 1 we went out on a Hobie-Cat light sail-boat with Caro as the skipper. I won’t say I was scared because a local named Jack moved around just in time to stop us flip over J

We snorkeled over amazing reefs off a boat for 3 days running and on day 2 Caro found, or rather was found by, a large manta ray floating effortlessly and silently beneath her. She waved for me to come see and when I did he scurried for cover as he had either never seen such an effort-filled swim or someone so good-looking (you decide)

We played tennis, we had a food and wine pairing event and a little booze cruise one evening.

On our last day we went for one last swim in the stunning ocean, waved goodbye to Big-Bird and to Elmo, to Beverly who serviced our room so well and a really nice lady, our travel agent Sharon who visited from New Jersey and one of the beaches managers Andre who offered us a limo to the airport. It’s good to be well connected…..

Mau and Sis get married!!!

Oct 14 to 17 = Destination Camburi beach

Near Sao Paulo in Brazil for Carolina’s little sister Gabriela’s wedding to Mauricio the Corinthians fan. We landed in Sao Paulo after getting a nice move to Emergency Exit by a darling United manager in JFK and Alcides (Caro’s wonderful dad) was there to meet us after 9 hours of flying followed by a 2 hour drive to the beach. The torrential rain along the way took a little from the tropical landscape, but luckily the weather cleared for the wedding, which was right on the beach at Camburi. The next day it was unfortunately back to raining, which eased the sunburn opportunities sufficiently.

Caro: The wedding was amazing, starting with the weather, everyone at the beach. The venue was a restaurant by the sand and the ocean. All were beautiful, happy and relaxed, even bride and groom who in fact had tied the not at a private ceremony in SP. The day was only celebration all round. Delicious food, drinks, lots of dancing and a very personal ceremony that saw friends and family saying their most caring and tender words. I'm happy my sister found her beloved match!! Welcome to the family cunhado!!

Dec: We got to meet Caro’s bro, mum, uncles and aunts from both sides as well as many cousins and of course eat her mum’s great food and help her dad with the 6 kegs of Heineken he had brought for the occasion. Throw in a bbq by her dad on day 2 and the Brazil rapido trip was good until we return in November.

Last night in Sao Paulo before rejoining the rtw itinerary back into Miami, 5.30am start in Sao Paulo after a 1.30am finish when Caro’s friend Andrea called over to kill me for keeping her best friend in Australia. Crazy girl but likeable. We’ll see her later in the trip when she has told us she will join us on our trip... We paid for extra legroom on the flight to Miami and got good service from TAM who moved us to a direct flight!!

Goodbye for now.

NYC & Bronx

Hello Times Square & 42^nd street and Broadway, welcome to Bloomingdales and 5^th Avenue (which had a massive interesting Columbus Day parade), around Rockefeller centre to see the skating rink and 10 guides, strolled Central Park, from Grand Central Station to Lexington Ave to see the Chrysler Building, Park Ave eating at Spark’s great Steak restaurant downtown.

We met Lee & Cara Coomber for an Italian dinner in Soho and met Robbo and her man who were visiting.

Visit was short but sweet and left us wanting to go back for more.

The Bronx

Getting Uncle Charlie’s GPS and computer working the way he wants. Getting to know some of the local treats and locals in the Bronx (Italian bread), deli cold cuts and getting Caro’s nails done $8 and Dec’s Vanilla Ice haircut $12. Caro’s home cooking of pasta & soup to help me get over my traded flu. Mum & Dad visiting for the last day from Ireland.

From Caro: Shame we didn't get to spend more time with Ambrose and Eileen, but their visit won us a delicious Turkey dinner before we left, yum!!

OKTOBERFEST!!!

Not having booked a spot in any of the tents, we were told it would be impossible to sit down and eat/drink so when we got in there at 10:30am and got a place at a Beer Garden we did not move. It wasn’t busy at all then and we thought we might have a boring two or three ours missing all the fun… we couldn’t have been more wrong!!

After making some really nice new friends, eating some great organic chicken and drinking litres and litres of beer life was fun and good! I think we left at 7:30pm, no point asking Dec as he didn’t even know who I was!! We walked back to the hotel where apparently we must have got our keys and bags and crashed after a bath. Next days was pretty much written off along with my stomach… The funniest part was walking out of the room into the corridor and not knowing which way to go to find the lifts!! My body hated me for about 5 days and made me feel the pain I inflicted on it.

Train to Frankfurt where I thought I lost my handbag with all the passports (shock and heart attack!!) and then off to the USA…

France and Germany

Strasbourg is a beautiful little town, the old town is an ‘island’ in the middle of the canals. It feels like walking in the past… The cathedral with it amazing apostles’ clock that comes to life everyday at 12 noon, the restaurants by the canal, the old bridges… it’s beautiful. We had some amazing food, despite some rude and poor service in one of the restaurants.

From there into Germany through the Black Forest. Every single road with took had a detour sending s a different way. For a while we thought we would never leave Villingen-Schwenningen after going round and round in circles for about an hour… Aaahhhhhhh!!!

Konstanz is in the border of Germany with Switzerland, so before heading out we went for a walk across the border. Fun. Forty minutes later we were having lunch in Austria, the joys of driving through Europe.

Funny thing happened, we hit traffic on the main road and took a random exit, the town was pack jammed because of the same traffic so after a mini wrong way bit of road we ended up in a small country road. Dec was buried in the map while I drove, I sign came up and I said “Dec, Plan C”. He was like “What are you talking about you insane Brazilian, we don’t even have a plan B”… the road was heading to PLANSEE!!! Which by the way was the best detour we took as it is an amazing huge green lake amongst the mountains in the border with Austria. Cool!!

Fussen and Schwangau (right beside Wank mountain!!!!!) pardon my French…

Stunning part of the world. Lakes, mountains, crops, castles. After exploring Schwangau on foot and having a nice dinner and beers, we call it a day.

Up early and fresh next morning we headed to the fairytale castle at Neuschwanstein. Built by King Ludwig II, it was never finished because he was ‘diagnosed’ mad and mysteriously drowned alongside the psychiatrist.

Onto Garmisch-Partenkirchen for a day and then Munich.

California dreaming...

Who would've thought that the fog would take an autumn holiday and leave San Francisco during our stay? Super!

We arrived on a weekday and were welcomed by Dec's cousin MaryEllen and her daugther Lilly.

What a host!! ME showed us around San Francisco, mostly those amazing spots you don't get to see as a tourist without a car! We had a lovely brunch by the ocean, walked around the park, saw whales playing by the coast and then drove over the Golden Gate bridge.

Dec spotted Hulk Hogan sitting by his chopper and being friend to fans - all a bit surreal!

Other than that, we walked a lot, got the cable cars, took photos on Lambard street, ate at some really nice restaurants and had a special visit from Oregon: David Sheehan, Dec's mate from Uni who drove 9 hours only to see him after 11 years! Good man!!

On our last day we went to San Jose to visit Great American Park, for all of you 'amusement park fans', we had a ball. The park was very empty as far as those places go, and we got to go on every roller coaster or scary ride of sort soooo many times! Funnnnnn!

Up early the next morning to collect our truck!! We had booked a Mid-SUV but got given a Grand Cherokee Laredo. We drove south to Highway 1 on the coast, saw amazing places like Big Sur, a waterfall that end on the beach sands, had lunch in Carmel, and ended up in Santa Barbara for the evening.

The next day saw us driving even further south to San Diego where we stayed at a resort in the middle of Mission Bay. Pretty cool. We visited Mission and Pacific beaches where we had lemonades and walked the promenade (almost got run over by a thousand cyclist), had traditional Mexican in the old town, used the pool and the spa, relaxed, slept and had a few margaritas. Our hotel bar had manta rays, little sharks and other amusing creatures in its 'pond'.

All relaxed and ready, we headed to Los Angeles. Hollywood, here we come!! An afternoon of chasing stars and driving the big city ended with a super nice dinner at an uber cool burger place in Santa Monica.

Next day, more parks!!! Six Flags Magic Mountain was the best I've ever been too. But if you ever go, make sure to save and go Platinum, it's worth it every penny. And don't miss the X2!!

To end our Californian dream, we caught up with Dec's Dunbar mate Phil who has been living in LA for a while. Had some well deserved drinks and dinner and closed that chapter of our trip with a golden key!!

Off to Nevada folks... also known for VEGAS!!!

TORNADO IN ARIZONA!!!

The headline of this blog should be "clueless"...
... that's Dec and I in the past 2 days driving through a tornado in Arizona.
Two days ago, 15 minutes ahead of us on freeway 40 a truck got turned over by hail and winds, we stopped for lunch and your man came in afterwards with details of what happened.
This morning we heard how some of the roads were closed due to the tornado, houses destroyed, cars and caravans turned.
We thought we were just driving through really bad rain, well, and hail and snow...
Well, family and friends, we're in Utah now, safe and sound (except for my tornado flu or would it be a Vegas flu??) in Zyon Canyon and we promise that tomorrow when we go for our trek, we'll avoid the flash flood areas.
Mwah!