May 19, 2011 - Journal Through May 12-18 (RCB)`

May 12, 2011 The trip began at JFK Airport, specifically Terminal 3, a concrete and drywall afterthought to the slightly more upscale terminals where the non-budget flyers land. Terminal 3 boasts two baggage carousels, in a drab walk-in basement entered via one way doors leading from the crowded, chaotic mess of the arrival gates and food court: once you leave the c.c.m. behind, it's just you and the whine of the rubber belt scraping endlessly against the scuffed, smeared grey metal border of carousel number 1 and carousel number 2. When...

May 17, 2011 - Brecon, Wales (KSB)

We spent the morning wandering around Brecon. We went to the Brecknock Museum and Art Gallery. One of the displays was a courtroom scene (some of the figures were mechanized, they moved, it was very interesting. It was difficult to always understand what was said, due to the accents and a lot of school children being present. However,,, we had read about the trial so had some knowledge of the "case". Also, there was a fun display of an old fashioned school room and a kitchen. In previous generations the women sure had to work hard just to...

Mar 31, 2010 - A sidetrip

Strictly speaking this is not an "Ecuador" trip as I am away with the Explorers. We are in Mid Wales, just outside the Brecon Beacons and I am leading a group who are doing their Cheif Scout Challenge hike. We are going out for 3 days and making a couple of "wild camps" in the hills. On the first day we set out about lunchtime and had a fairly easy walk up from base camp around Llanbedr Hill befor making camp. The second day was weird, we were going to make a late start so that we arrived at the camp as close to diusk as we could make it....

Sep 16, 2008 - Wales (16th September 2008)

Well this is just a new entry so we can trace it onto the map. Todays day trip was to Wales ..... just because we felt we should. Despite the weather we jumped in the car and headed across the bridge into Wales. Fortunately in Wales the weather picked up a little as we took a stroll along the waterways. Once again we threw caution to the wind and headed out with nothing but tourist brochures showing the way ..... the rough plan to start with was to head across the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains to Brecon. On the way we stopped at a...

Jun 8, 2006 - Hay Festival and Brighton Wedding

Paul: Dear Friends It was very goot do recieve your comments on the photos from Peru. The journey to england was enhanced by 20 hours in New York. An absolute blast of the brash, the bubble and the possible. The green, temperate land of Britain was a fine place to relax among good friends and family. The role of joint best man at Andy and Jean's wedding was an honoured pleasure with real traditional festive blast. My best man's speech carefully avoided comments on the institution of marriage and the power and beauty of love for although I...

May 26, 2006 - Off to Wales - Happy Bday Susanne!

We woke up this morning to pouring rain. Got checked out of the hostel after eating breakfast and walked over to the Busabout station for 7:15am with our backpacks. Our bus tour was mostly aussie couples and other aussies and a few of us Canadians. Our tour guy was Debs and our driver was Kate. Once on the road we all had to gt up on the microphone one by one and introduce ourselves. Traffic in London is so bad and it took an hour to get out of the city. Our first stop was Chepstow to check out a castle and to stand between the border of...

May 26, 2006 - Update afrom Wales with pictures

Dear All Here we are in 'sunny' UK - since arriving on 13 May we have had all of 3 days sun. It has been very wet and cold. Our little motor home is keeping us snug and warm though. We are in Wales at the moment today in the town of Brecon, an old coal mining area apparently though we see no sign of it now. It is set in a beautiful valley, surrounded by the Brecon Brecon mountains, beautiful slopes of green fields dotted with sheep and lambs (apparently subsidised industry), Lamb is very expensive as is most things in the UK, but we find...

Mar 5, 2006 - Builth Wells, Powys, Wales, UK

I'm home! Got back just after 7pm tonight. It was a bit of a surprise for everyone, Jamie answered the door and then Dad came out and I went upstairs to see Mum! I'm not quite sure what else to write now?! I feel that I want to give a big summing up of my travels, but I am not exactly sure what to say. I think that I will leave things as they are and let everyone else draw their own conclusions from what I have written over the last 9 months. I just hope that it has provided a small amount of entertainment. It will be my record of my...

May 26, 2005 - Still in Builth!

Hello! Unfortunately I'm not at Heathrow now, I think most people are now aware of the reasons why. I don't really want to go into that now as I am looking ahead to leaving on Tuesday 31st May. The flight time remains the same - 10pm and all the rearrangements have now been made to start things from the 1st June in Bangkok. I'll add another entry for Heathrow, but as I was too late to reschedule the launch of this site it is now active. Just a quick mention of my injuries, everything is ok, the swelling around my eye has gone down and the...

Jan 27, 2005 - Wales

Hi everyone!! Well on Sunday night Ben drove Toby and I up to Goring, near Reading to meet Toby´s aunty Sue and his cousin Fran. It was so beautiful, large rolling hills as far as you can see. We did this huge treck up this really big hill that gave us an awesome view of the English countryside. By the time we got down Toby was just about ready to fall over.. it´s difficult to exercise when your sinuses are blocked. But we got him into a cafe and after sum yummy lunch he was back to his partially ill self. I had my first English breakfast...

Jul 21, 2004 - Cwmdu - WALES

Arrived here in Wales and the small (30 odd buildings) town (Hamlett??) of Cwmdu in the Breacon Beacons of Wales. Rolling Hills and small roads and wedding preparations. Grant (Mason) and Claire (Block) were in full wedding preparation with just 2 days until the big event and there was a rag tag fugitive fleet (yes simular to Battlestar Galactica) of Aussies arriving uniforms and travel stories in tow. Wedding pictures on a latter entry. Malin and I settled in to the 'Farmers Arms Pub' for what was to be 5 days of Welsh hospitality, a few...