Travel

Wow! Finally… Set is here.

This is a 16 mega pixel stitch of Monaco, taken from a wheelchair viewing area.

I’m currently in Australia (Loxton, to be precise) after making an emergency trip from the States for my Grandpa’s funeral. As far as funerals go, it was awesome. What was even more awesome is that we drank the club, where refreshments were served after the funeral, out of port. I contributed in no small way to that. Of course, my love of port comes from Grandpa himself and his influence on me when I grew up with him as a kid. Many frequent trips were made by him to the stash of flagons out by the shed, and every now and then I guess I’d try a sample of the Tawny as well (Tawnys made by Penfolds, Yalumba or Seppelts are a good start). Good times. (-: ...

Photos from Prague are online. St. Vitus Cathedral: Silhouette of Church of St. Nicholas: Old town square: Adriana and the guard: ...

Berlin Cathedral Neuschwanstein Castle Neuschwanstein Castle Berlin Wall Old mill near Nechern, where the Doecke side of my family came from ...

Some photos have been online for a little while now. First up, France Night Light At the Louvre Eiffel Tower Eiffel View ...

Everything is almost planned for the trip to Europe that Adriana and I are going on later this month. It is certainly going to be one fast-tracked experience, with visits to Paris, Rouen, Caen, Milan, Nice, Monaco (F1 Grand Prix), Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Munich and London in the space of three weeks. I’m trying not to get flustered about it (and some people who know me well enough could imagine what I’m like right now), but it’s difficult not to. Part of me wishes that the organising part of the trip was finished a couple of months ago. Unfortunately things happen, schedules must be changed, and that is what I’m going through right now. ...

So for the past few days I’ve found myself in Las Vegas, catching up with a friend who is in the US on a work assignment with some of his colleagues. This place is a LOT of fun. “I don’t gamble”, but I have been playing a few blackjack tables here and there and doing okay. Last night though at the Hard Rock casino my mind finally gave up on me and I could not even add together 7 and 4. No, I lie. I could add that together fine, it’s just that 5 seconds later I forgot what the total was. After realising that wasn’t helping me (I forgot I came to that conclusion several times) I decided to have an early night (4 am) and reboot my mind. Looking forward to doing it all over again tonight!

I’ve created a new set called ‘views from a plane’ on Flickr as I saw some interesting stuff when I last visited Australia. Here are some of the pictures (more to come). Set link is here.

This is a bit of a weird one. Currently I’m sitting on the upper deck (business) of a 747, awaiting takeoff to LAX, leeching the wifi signal from the Auckland international airport terminal. An explanation. Just under two weeks ago I got asked if I would like to fly to Australia for a work trip, helping the customer in Melbourne with testing of one of our new products. I had two days to prepare everything, and I spent a pretty hectic week in Melbourne with work related stuff. I was in Adelaide for about a day total and spent a couple of days back in rural SA catching up with family members. My brother and I staged quite a surprise for mum, thank God she’s still around, we thought we’d nearly sent her to an early grave there for a while. I’ll just say that she wasn’t expecting either of us there when she walked into the kitchen. ...