We had a walking tour booked for today which would have been perfect had the temperature not expected to get to 38 degrees. Fortunately the guide contacted me overnight and we decided to do the walking bit first thing in the morning and then do have a car drive us to other key locations in the afternoon. We started at the Volksgarten park which is … Continue reading Day 7 – Kings (& Queens) and Palaces
We landed in Vienna at about 5.30 in the morning and everyone was immediately surprised with how bright the sun already was – it felt like it should be about 9.30 in the morning instead. There is a severe heat warning in place as the temperatures are expected to get up to 34 degrees today. We had been worried about the new immigration system in … Continue reading Day 6 – Arrival into Vienna
And just like that its our final day in Bangkok. We didn’t have an early start and hence had a “lazier” morning which gave us a chance to start repacking for our onward journey. After breakfast we took a “Grab” to the Jurassic World Experience. Set up on multiple levels, combining videos with animatronics, it realistically simulates the atmosphere of the famous movies. We started … Continue reading Day 5 – Jurassic Experience
One of the things we look forward to the most is a food tour wherever we visit – especially ones that take us to local eateries rather than tourist destinations. We end up going to places where you would never otherwise frequent. We had a similar tour booked for tonight, which also included getting around the city in a tuk-tuk. Not only was it a … Continue reading Food Tour in a Tuk Tuk
We started the day with a visit to the Golden Buddha temple. It is the largest Golden Buddha in the world measuring over 15ft high and weighing over 5 tons. History had it that it was covered in plaster to protect it from the invading Chinese. Its value and worth was forgotten and it was left in the fields for decades till after the temple … Continue reading Day 4 – Pansies, Palaces and Prayers
Originally I was going to add our dinner excursion as part of the overall post for Day 2, however given the experience we had it deserved a post in its own right. I had planned for us to visit a restaurant called “Mocking Tales” which is themed on Harry Potter and has strong wizarding world vibes. As Uber isn’t prevalent in Thailand I downloaded the … Continue reading Dinner, Show and Drama
We all seemed to have slept quite well and no one got up too early in the morning. Hopefully keeping everyone awake till a normal bedtime last night helped us acclimatize to the change in time zones. We headed down to breakfast and were suitably impressed by the expansive buffet. I couldn’t go past a Masala Dosa followed by dumplings, while the kids tried a … Continue reading Day 2 – The Ancient City
We left home yesterday after school and drove up to Sydney for the bought as we had an earlier departure today. Coincidentally Ben had the night off work and so he came down from Newcastle to join us for dinner. We visited our regular Japanese restaurant which has become a bit of a staple before it trips. It was a rushed morning and we were … Continue reading Day 1 – Getting to Bangkok
Later this month we embark on our 4 week trip to Europe where we will be visiting 6 countries. The following is our full itinerary trying to cover all the major attractions in each of the cities. Continue reading Europe – Here we come
And just like that it’s the final day of our holidays. The morning was spent making sure everything was packed across both the rooms. One of the advantages in the US is that normal checkout at hotels is quite late in the morning, and in this case we didn’t need to leave till nearly 11. We decided to spend the day at the Vancouver Aquarium … Continue reading Goodbye Vancouver
We had one last food tour organised for Vancouver which was going to be focussed on the Asian food in the city. It wasn’t an early start so the kids had an opportunity to do their journals after breakfast. As part of the tour we went to 4 different restaurants and sampled different Asian foods. We started at a Chinese “fine dining” restaurant and sampled … Continue reading Final Food Tour
We had a lazy start this morning and didn’t need to be out the door till 10.30. We have a tour booked called the “North Shore Discovery Tour” which takes us out of the city of Vancouver and up to the north shore. We started the day at a Salmon Hatchery where we learnt about the life and migratory habits of the Pacific Salmon. A … Continue reading Vancouver Tour
Given we didn’t end up in our hotel rooms till well after midnight it was a lazy start for everyone. I went by across the street and got some milk for breakfast and slowly everyone dragged themselves out of bed. We had 2 rooms with 2 bedrooms each, so there is ample space, however the rooms are on different floors which makes communications a bit … Continue reading Food, food and more food
We spent 2 days on the Rocky Mountaineer travelling from Banff to Vancouver via Kamloops. We arrived at the “station” by 8 and were greeted on board by the crew. I use the term “station” very loosely as it appears most of the stations we went through don’t actually have platforms. Our bus brought us right next to the carriage and we boarded from ground … Continue reading Rocky Mountaineer
I woke up early today because I wanted to take some photos of the sunrise from our hotel window and I wasn’t disappointed. Over the course of the hour the sky blossomed and the mountain ranges changed shades. We started the day with a Gondola ride up Sulphur. It was a 10 minute ride up the top and we had a pretty spectacular view of … Continue reading Picturesque Banff
We end the US part of our trip today as we depart Seattle for Calgary in Canada. The morning was a Hove of activity as we did our final packing and headed to the airport. The lines for check-in were quite long but we were there with enough time to still have time for lunch before we boarded. We were on a brand new Boeing … Continue reading Goodbye Seattle, Hello Canada
Today we had two tours booked that I have been looking forward to the most on this trip. In the morning we visited the Boeing Factory for a tour. Unfortunately they didn’t allow any cameras on the tour so we don’t have any photos of the actual workshop. The factory/assembly line floor is the largest single building in the world. Once inside you can see … Continue reading High Above and Down Below
We had organised a private walking tour of Seattle and met our guide at 9 in the morning. Right next to our hotel is the first train station built in Seattle and it was reminiscent of an old colonial library or bank. Seattle has a complex history which includes a gold rush in the 19th century, native american settlements, Spanish and British influence as well … Continue reading Walking around Seattle
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