Bondi Beach - on a Sunday

Another day of rain and overcast in Sydney....but I might add the temperatures have been in the 70's during the day...so shorts and sandals are still in order.  I have acclimated to the weather very quickly...well who would not..right!!

Okay off to Bondi....here is the Post in Bondi which is the mail delivery system for Australia.  I might add that in the Post you can buy books, cards, seasonal wrapping paper, xerox services, as well as all the mail delivery system ingredients.

Bondi Beach is like a suburb of Sydney....a mere 25 minutes driving from downtown Sydney.  It is well known for it's beautiful beach areas as well as great surfing.....

So as you can see....even on a cloudy and intermittent rain the beach is still a beautiful place and one that attacks the hearty surfer/beach goer.

There are many homes in the hills around Bondi Beach that have million dollar views.....for example...

So as you can see the day was not a total washout....the beauty of Bondi Beach and Sydney are still out there.  I will leave Sydney tomorrow and return on March 1st....I will be heading to New Zealand to visit a week in each of the North and South Islands.   A lot of good photo opportunities should be waiting for me.  But I leave you today with this little guy who came up to me today in Hyde Park across from my hotel....

Sydney on a Rainy overcast day.....

Well after a 8 hr nap...could have stretched that to 10 hrs very easily...I decide to "hop on the bus" and take in Sydney sights....first one is a view from my hotel balcony of the Australian War Memorial in Hyde Park.

This is the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge....while you can climb up I did not the last time I was here and also have chosen the advice of my monkey to skip it!! Oprah and all her gang did the climb when she was here last month filming her shows.

St James Catholic Church....the largest Catholic Church in Australia.   It can be seen from my balcony as well....

This is one interesting piece of art.  It is two matches.  One has burned...the other is not yet lit!!

Sydney Skyline....lots of great buildings...and good use of steel and windows. 

And speaking of great buildings....this is Sydney's greatest....The Opera House.  Very unique in design and a beautiful sight in the harbor.

Another interesting piece of art.  In a round-about an auto damaged by a falling rock!!  Now...was the damage caused by accident from another car before the rock fell....and where did the rock come from?  Chicken Little...help us out here!!

Well of course Prince Albert has a statute...on horseback as usual!!

And of course Queen Victoria has her own building....she has many statutes here in Sydney and it appears they still love her.

I leave you with dedication in picture of who is making all this possible....Apple!!  This is the Apple store in Sydney...another gathering place for young genius..These people know their stuff and are so willing to share that knowledge.

Okay...that is it for today....off to the Beach tomorrow...hopefully it will not be raining!!

This is beyond my expectations...

I arrive at LAX and have 5 hours to kill....well I really killed it....because I spent 3 hours trying to upload pictures into my blog.  No success....what....are you kidding me....no...(BTW...this is the monkey taking back to me...see the previous blog and note the monkey attached to my backpack.....that is him....my travel buddy).   I was oh so frustrated and decided the first thing I do when I hit Sydney is the Apple store!!

Needless to say before I go any further...the issue was resolved.  The previous blog and this one are being done at the Apple store in Sydney.....I have been in town for 3 hours!!!

Back to LAX....I go to gate 123A....and here she is....the A380...

It is 7 stories high ---well 70 feet off the ground from wheel to top of the aircraft....can hold 500 passengers....and has a first class suite configuration....and here I am prior to take off...

The Qantas people are tops in the business of passenger service....the food, wine, and ambiance....superior.  One of the amazing things to me was the take off....at LAX the runway is not that long for such a huge aircraft....so they need maximum thrust.  The maximum thrust issue kept the LAX to SYD flights on hold till they were assured by Rolls Royce and the safety board in Australia that it could be accomplished without loss of power or disruption to the engine.

The take off....WOW....double WOW...because not only could you feel the power of this huge plane racing down the runway...it gave another boast when the wheels left the ground and it accelerated to a level that you were pulled back in your seat....AWESOME.

Here are some photos taken of the SKYCAM as we prepare to land in Sydney....

Oh BTW....Qantas has reduced the number of crew members by one....so I decided to try out....for pilot of course.....well needless to say I did not make it...maybe it was the hat...ummm

On the Road

Finally.....the day has arrived.  And what could be more appropriate than a Champagne toast...

Yep...there we are sipping the bubbly just before Nan and Jeanette drive me to the airport.  What a great send off from two of the greatest!!!

So out the door I go....bye bye 514 1/2 till I see you in May.....

We arrived at the airport...and I check in for the first class journey to Aussie Land.....

But wait....you need to get those shoes shined boy.....(my monkey told me that....you can see he is right on top of things)....

Okay....see you all in LAX and the transfer to the A380...YEAH....

Time is flying.....and I will be in just a few more days!

I have my watch set for Australia....the time in Aussie land is 16 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight time.  As I progress on my journey the top portion of my watch will always reflect my home, and the bottom portion that country/city I am visiting

Speaking of time....I can hardly believe that it has been a month since I retired!!  What in the World have I been doing with all my free time.  Well 6 days in Chicago, 1 day on the roundtrip road trip to nowhere, packing, unpacking, arranging for Comcast to do a Seasonal Vacation....whoa...wait a minute...lets talk about this.  I call Comcast on a Monday and arrange for the vacation to begin February 10th.  In less than 5 minutes I have no internet service.  I spent 3 hours that Monday afternoon getting my service back to "normal".  Tuesday morning and I have no internet service....vacation has begun anew.  Two hours....wow shaved and hour off of Monday's time...and I am back in business.  Wednesday morning...you guessed it...no internet service....okay, let's get serious...I need to cancel this Seasonal Vacation!  No, I am convinced by a Comcast representative that everything is now working properly....yeah!  Thursday morning...okay I give up...cancel the Seasonal Vacation...back to the basics....and yes...I have now gone 3 consecutive days with full service!!!!!

I notice at times I do take one step forward and two backward...like chipping a dental crown....YIKES...thank goodness it was in Washington DC and not in a remote village in Thailand.  And then the one giant step towards securing a visa for India...very smooth operation for dropping off your documents and extremely efficient.  But wait...you do have to return to pick up the visa...when..between 4:30 and 6:30 PM the next day....I arrive at 4:30 thinking this will be a walk in the park.  Wrong....the line is out the door...which is not opened until 4:30 on the nose.   Then it took me until after 6:00 to wait in line and watch total chaos before my very eyes with the clerks sorting thru hundreds of passports (literally)...to find each and every customer's passport.

I have also adopted the Apple store.  Tutorial classes....one on one sessions...photo workshops...all in the interest of using my Apple "toys" to there fullest...with IPad, IPhone and MacAir all talking the same talk and walking the sane walk.  Believe me it is a little different than calling IT services and telling them to fix it.  In my new job...Retirement....I am on my own with this technology bit.  However, so far so good and if only all this electronic gear were about 10 pounds lighter....sounds like my Cardiologist talking!!

This will be the final blog edition before I head out on February 9th.  I am planning on 'blogging' from my Qantas Airbus 380....with photos...but until then I will leave you with a photo of each country I will be visiting on my Round The World trip.  See you in the friendly skies.....

Where will Bob be in April? What about November?

Off we go....into the wild blue yonder...still waiting on word from Qantas on the fate of my first flight on the A380.  But, A380 or 747 I will be headed "down under" come Wednesday, February 9, 2011!

"Where are  you going?"  "When can we see your itinerary?".....I hear those questions a lot...and as promised in my December Blog I will give you the " Where in the World is Bob today...."

February/March 2011....

Beginning in Sydney Australia for a few days then headed to New Zealand to tour the North as well as South Islands.  I plan to spend about 9 days in each...Christchurch will be the embarkation point for a South tour of New Zealand's Alpine Grandeur.  I will be visiting Christchurch, Queenstown, Dunddin as well as Milford Sound.  The Interisland Rail and Ferry will take me from Christchurch to Wellington in the North Island.  I will begin a Northern Exposure tour of the Island  visiting Wellington, Taupo, Rotorua, Bay of Islands, Whangare and Auckland.

Flying from Auckland to Sydney I will spend a week in Sydney taking in Mardi Gras and the carnival atmosphere of this capital city of New South Wales.  Staggering out of Sydney .....I head south to Melbourne, Capital of the State of Victoria.

 Leaving Melbourne and on to Tasmania (my favorite place in all of Australia)..Spending 10 days there will be very easy touring from Hobart to Port Arthur, Tarreleah, Peppermint Bay, Bay of Fires and Cradle Mountain.  I will leave Tasmania from Hobart to head back to Melbourne to sadly leave Australia.

After a few precious days in Melbourne I leave for Bangkok, Thailand.  A few days in Bangkok and then an excursion to India to visit the Taj Mahal and then returning to Thailand for some much needed beach and sun time in Phuket Thailand.  Ten days should suffice wouldn't you say....well maybe an extra day.

April/May 2011

Fasten your seat belts...this is going to be a jam packed month plus...thankful to have the 10 days of beach life...now to Hong Kong and some dedicated shopping (yes...Virginia I do shop..a lot...well let's say Bob bargains...and no better place for me than Hong Kong.)  From Hong Kong a short hop over to Dubai to meet up with my good friend and former OCC colleague Bryan Stirewalt.  Leaving Dubai I head to the UK...taking in as much as I can in a month by BritRail...i.e., Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Dublin, Cardiff and London. 

May 2011

Time to head home for a few months to catch my breath...and get ready for round 2 beginning in September...

September/October 2011

Headed back to London to take on Europe for a month by Eurorail...how about Paris?.....then on to Madrid and Barcelona for 8 days...next up..Italy - Milano, Napoli, Roma and Firenze..13 days worth... now on to Germany for Munich and Berlin with 7 days in the former East/West German City.  Now heading back to London I stop off in Amsterdam and Paris for a couple days each....

November 2011

Let's head to South America....leave London for Buenos Aires for 10 days of enjoying this fantastic city and area of Argentina.  Plus a couple days to just rest up from Europe...and before heading over to Guayaquil Ecuador and a 7 day tour in the Galapagos Islands....ARE YOU KIDDING ME...Is that not the greatest....the Galapagos...WOW!!! Okay...sorry I got carried away there!! 

Leaving from the Galapagos I head to Peru...and a week taking in Lima, Lake Titicaca, Cuzco and Machu Picchu....but only for a week....time to move on to Santiago

December 2011
Santiago, Chile.....but only for a day ...for I have always wanted to go to Easter Island.  I am in Chile....so why not...so off to Easter Island out in the Pacific for 3 days and then back to Santiago for 3 more days. 

Next up....Sao Paulo!!  Wait...wait ...how could I go to Brazil without visiting Rio de Janeiro?  I could not...so why not...I head there for 4 days...to partake in my own Carnival to celebrate my birthday...Rio style!!! (Have you guessed that this boy is sometimes a party animal? )

Returning to Sao Paulo I spend a few days to absorb the last of my South American adventure...then it is back to the USA!!

And where could we begin....DALLAS of course!!  And I am hoping that Cowboys will be playing a home game in the 5 days I am there....please Jerry...please...just for me???

Finally I wrap up my tour in Chicago to spend Christmas with my Daughter,Son-In-Law and my two grandchildren....Back in Washington for New Years 2012!!

WHEW......now lstart thinking about your 2012 travel plans...ummmmm  Italy and Greece are on my list already!!

Happy New Year...

p.s.  Now, you need to re-read the Blog and decide where you would like to meet me on this World tour...some have already signed on to Sydney...Berlin...and Buenos Aires!!

Electronics galore......

Okay....Steve Jobs is not going on this RTW junket.  But, Apple is ....by providing via my purchase plenty of toys to accompany me.  Let's just take a look at this assortment of electronic gear that will go into my backpack....

First we have the Apple(s) of my eyes.....starting with the IPhone...a gem that provides many functional uses for the journey.  It has my TripIt information with all reservations and booking numbers.  Currency converter...all my music on ITunes....language converter...contacts...etc....this is a MUST!  Then up from that is the IPad...a large "I" device without a phone.  But, it has capability for videos...my books (similar to the Kindle)..and most important WiFi capability to connect Worldwide with my service provider or by changing the SIM Card any one of many other Worldwide providers in the countries I visit.  Finally up top on the picture above is my newest electronic addition...The MacBook Air....11 inches and 2 pounds of mighty computer.  I got this to accommodate posting my Blog with pictures as I make my way around the World.  It also has all my Microsoft applications that I would have on my desktop at home.  It as well as the IPad provide ready storage for the multitude of photos that I anticipate taking.  So those are the Steve Job tools for travel.

Next up....the rest of the gear....cameras, binoculars, headset and other miscellaneous necessities for the journey...lets see what we have ....

 The Bose headset - Acoustic Noise Cancelling - awesome piece of gear.  The sound quality and the quiet of outside noise is well worth the price of this headset.  Great for movies, videos, music as well as to just block out the sound.

Next we have the Cameras - Nikon D5000....my primary camera with a Tamron 18 to 270 all purpose lens....okay let's face it I don't know anymore about all those numbers than most people....for me it is a point and shoot camera.  Use the Auto settings for this camera most of the time, but have experimented with night pics and hope to experiment more on this RTW journey.  One more addition to the camera gear is a pocket
camera, Fujifilm EXR modelk, with a 10x wide lens...powerful littlle thing and easy to carry in your pocket with capability of providing great pictures.  Then we have Nikon binocular....a must for all the grandeur of such locations as New Zealand....the Galapagos....and Machu Picchu. 

Also you will notice my extra supply of batteries as well as two pouches full of connections not only for in-flight charging, but also adapters for the various parts of the World.  I added a  mini surge protector which can provide connection for 3  devices at one time plus 2 USB ports.

So there you have it....the total weight is under 7 pounds.  All of this will fit into my carry-on backpack and be readily available to take pictures...listen to music...watch videos...or scan the horizon. 

Next month....the infamous itinerary...where is he going...when will he be there....for all those who have asked and then thought maybe...just maybe they would join me in some exotic place....look for it in December....