Astrid and Ronnies travels

  Japan Cruise 2018 Tuesday 25th Sept 2018  Took off from Ben Gurion at 10pm. in a brand new Dreamliner. You could smell the newness of the plastic and everyone seemed to be coughing. Every seat had a touch screen TV and the flight was 10 hours over Turkey, Uzbekistan and China. We landed in Hong Kong at the airport which was the last big project done there by the British. From HK we had a 4 hour flight to Tokyo on Cathay Pacific and the pilot had a strong South African accent, not surprising as SA Airways went bankrupt. The first thing you notice at the Tokyo airport is the toilets which have temp controlled seats and a spray for men and douche for women all with temp control. Even urinals are better designed so you don't leak on the floor.  . 27th Sept Breakfast at the hotel you can look out and see dozens of trains and you see the walkways to get you over the streets to the overhead railway or down to the metro. We walked to the fish market where we saw huge chunks of fresh tuna

  Cruise from Lisbon to Barcelona 2019       10/11/19 We flew out of Ben Gurion airport on Thur. 24/10/19 on El Al and the airport was packed even though it is supposed to be the quiet season. The plane was filled almost totally with Hebrew speakers. One group was going on an organized tour of Oporto another was flying on to the Azores.  Israeli tourists seem to  like Portugal. We walked out of the airport  stayed at the airport hotel. Next day took a direct bus from our airport  to Amaroriers  a big shopping centre near our hotel.  Astrid sprained her ankle after we had shopped for toys for the grandchildren, I took her back to the hotel and I went to Baxo Chado by Metro which is the centre of Lisbon. Most of the roads here have been turned into malls crowded with restaurants. In the market you see a lot of fruit from Brazil. There are a number of open squares with statues on pedestals so high you need binoculars to see what they are. I then took the small old trams that go up and dow

   Trip to Oxford, Gover Wales and London June 2019 Sat 8th We get to Ben Gurion airport to discover that EasyJet had technical problems and the plane was delayed .  In all our travels with EasyJet this is the first time we had a problem. They gave us all big sandwiches and bottles of water while we were waiting. Then we had to land in Milan to change crew as they are not allowed to work too many extra hours. So we got to Luton at 4am only 4 hours late and  when we walked into the airport hotel, people were starting to get up for breakfast.  Took the 11am bus to Oxford and when we got there were not taxis as they were on Sunday lunch break, but luckily we knew how to find the bus to our hotel. We spent 5 nights in Oxford and spent most of the time at Brenda. We bought ready lunch and frozen food at  M&S and took it to Brenda. There is such a variety of good ready food and it does not cost much more than your own cooking . Later  Evan arrived and he ordered Lebanese take away for su