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Rome to Barcelona Cruise October 2024 on Celebrity, Constellation.

  Friday 25th Oct 2024 flew El Al to Leonardo de Vinci Airport Rome, from where we had an organized taxi to the old port of  Rome called Citavechia. (old city) Our hotel was a family run place on ground floor above us were apartments. One of the things you are aware of in most smaller towns in Italy especially the South that their population is shrinking and their are empty protected buildings. Some have a roof around them protecting the pavement from falling masonry. This old walled city and some of the walls have later been made into parts of new buildings, including a city gate tower and a turret that is part of a  4 story block of flats. Walking along the dockland there are fishing  boats ,   yachts as well as the cruise ship docks. A memorial to those who died in the Great War looks like a statue to ancient dying  Roman legionnaires.   A statue of  Giacomo Matteotti     1885 to 1924  a socialist  politician who was assassinated  by the fascists near Rome. It caused a political cri
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Japan Cruise 2024 from 29th April till 17th May

  We flew El Al directly from Israel to Narita Airport near Tokyo. This was an 13 hour flight and it flew eastwards into the Mediterranean over Turkey then crossed Azerbaijan the Caspian Sea north of Iran over China the Gobi Dessert, Mongolia over Beijing southwards over South Korea and northwards to Tokyo.   The food on the plane was still Kosher le Pessach.  On arriving the airport you get photographed while you put your index fingers on a pad when you show your passport. We took a taxi to Yokohama. Astrid was feeling jet lagged and went to sleep while I took walks in Yokohama.  In Japan Streets do not have names. I walked into the Yokohama City Opening Memorial Hall that commemorates the opening of the city built in 1909. In 1923 the Great Kanto earthquake struck the city and the dome had to be reconstructed. You have stained glass windows of Commandor Perry's ships arrival in 1853 as well as painting of early Yokohama. I walked to Chinatown which is a great attraction to visito
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Canary Islands 28th Sept to 12 Oct 2023

We arrived in Southampton  where we stayed 2 nights at the holiday Inn and did some shopping there but in the afternoon I went off to see the Air Museum of the Solent. Flying boats started in 1913 and ended in the 1950s.  From London you had to take a train to Southampton the Laker River harbours. The Solent is between this part of the coast and the Isle of White between Pourtsmith and Poole. The boat makers realized that working with boats, wood and  canvas that they were skilled at and could produce the airplanes. Because airports had not been built and everywhere they needed to go had a place of smooth water. I923 the first passenger service began. In 1940 the main Spitfire factory was bombed but the machines were saved. Lord Beaverbrook  the head of supplies and munitions, insisted that they find a quick solution so they transferred the machine tools to the surrounding factories and within 5 days the parts were being produced and the planes were being assembled elsewhere.  The lead
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Oxford Folk Music Festival and visit to Oxford Transport Museum 2023

   We flew to Heathrow by El Al on 13/4/23 and took the coach to Oxford. Astrid made the booking some time ago. The purpose was to visit Brenda but she passed away, so it left a vacuum in our visit.   The folk music festival was very good and took us to many venues in Oxford where  the concerts were, at the Quaker Society which is a building in the middle of the city but when you go through to the hall there is a large colourful garden in between. The Old Fire Station has been turned into a theater with a restaurant. The third venue where  you had to book the concert was The Wall in Summertown which includes an art gallery. Other places you could arrive at causally and enter free  were at the covered market but it was very drafty and poor escustics where we sat. The library at the Westgate Shopping Centre also had a concerts but the most interesting place was the Blackwell Book Shop where you have to walk through the whole store and up old wooden steps to finally get there on the top f
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Oct 2022 Cruise to Atlantic Spain and France

  28th Sept at the crack of dawn we took a taxi to Ben Gurion Airport and with 2 hand luggage suitcases were able carry  on to  the plane.  The El Al Dream Liner jet has a very good TV and movie program so it kept most people busy during the flight. The guy next to me had been in Israel in the Irish junior soccer team that lost to Israel the night before. Astrid could look him up by the tattoos on his arms Aaron Connelly has played for Brighton/Hove for 7 years. Through Booking.com Astrid arranged a taxi to Southampton as the coach was not running at a  suitable time. Just as we got onto the highway a truck hit the back side of our wheel which burst , the hippie looking driver stopped to show his papers. Our driver a Pole named Conrad  phoned his sister Viola to take up on the journey but she hardly spoke English. Southampton I walked through the old walled city of Southampton and visited the Tudor museum there, a building so old that it is all bucked and a fortune had to be spend to r
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Trip to Hereford Hay on Wye festival 2018

  19th May 2018 we watched the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle.  20th May left Israel on Easy Jet an flew into Luton where we stayed the night at Holiday Express and the next day took a coach to Oxford.  The driver stopped at High Wickem for a 2 minute smoke break and I found out that this is Buckinghamshire and has a big student population as the Buckingham University is there. Visited Brenda and Frank and walked to our rented flat and then bought enough ready food for 3 days. I always think that the English bathroom is too big and a waste of space. A great pleasure  about England is that is that it is always green and at this time of the year there are some very big trees in bloom. Oxford is a bicycle city and most people wear helmets. There is a bike hire system and you can leave the bike anywhere in the street and it has a self locking system when you sign out. Astrid was at Boswells and they gave her an out of date 10 Pound banknote and denied it was from them and we had
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