Travelodge Hemel Hempstead

8th Feb, Day 18, Sapa Seeing as we splashed out for a lavish tour of Ha Long Bay, we tightened our belts and opted for a cheaper (but not the cheapest) tour of Sapa. The bus we caught the night before was supposed to pick us up at 7, but arrived at 8 15. The sleeper train was nice (thank god, TSJ's definitely recommends the sleeper train). Sapa...

Okay! First - this is just a test entry to see if I can get this darned 'cyber-blog-thing' to work, all seems to be going well so far... quite exciting this 'computer magic'... Second - I hope you (dear reader(s)*) enjoy reading this... there will be no refunds provided for wasting your time or eyesight. Anyway, Ill try and keep this thing updat...

Our ferry crossing back to England was very uneventful apart from the fact that Spud got the deal of the century. 2x24 packs of 500ml cans of Stella for 24 Euro! I did politely remind my husband that we were actually leaving the country in just over a week and did he think we could drink them all...never mind that it's a bargin, so as we got bac...

Team toured famous home of cricket, Lords, in 2 x groups today. Well organised tour which attracts cricket tragics from all over the globe...indeed ours had people from downunder, NZ, sub-continent, etc. A very learned, elderly chap opened proceedings by addressing the group for about 15 minutes with fascinating & humourous facts, after whic...

Ok, so I had a busy couple of days and am just now getting some time to write stuff down. This is probably because most of you are still asleep and aren't asking me a million questions about how my trip is going. Oh, and also because I'm stuck in an airport cafe because the baggage guy won't take my baggage yet. Ok, so where do I start? Monday: ...

Typed this on the 29th, pasting it in now since I haven't had internet: Hi all, I'm writing this on the train from Venice to Rome. It's my first European train ride which went much better than my first European flight... the British National Rail train from London to Gatwick airport broke down due to "engineering work", and all the passengers ha...

I wanted to update this. I will change all the dates on here also, in order that they refect my travels. At present I am back in the UK . I flew into Heathrow yesterday ( even after a delay, we made up time and arrived on time), and managed to bypass the baggage chaos, the environmental protesters I hear about in the British newspapers and afetr...

May 2nd, 2007 Hello everyone! Currently I am on a national train, on my way from London to Liverpool. We are going to stay with Amanda's friend, Stephanie, tonight and then catch our flight to Alicante, Spain, tomorrow afternoon. Amanda and Stephanie got here around 2pm on Monday. We got into our dorm and than took off to see some more of London...

I guess I'm now experiencing "true British weather". Damp and chilly and foggy. But there was no wind. I can't remember the last time I've experienced that. Usually when it's this cold out, it's accompanied by wind, making it way more bitter. Here, you know it's cold, but it's not biting cold... so you're not that uncomfortable walking in it. In...

I keep reminding myself that this is a city of about 80,000 people. It doesn't seem like it. Where we are staying, it sometimes seems closer to the much smaller town I grew up in. Not much out on the streets, a ****** hotel room with no internet (it seems sort of odd to expect this, but it's 2005, man, and I'm on a business trip!) and a phone th...