We caught the China Bus to Washington - very cheap and full of students! - which put us out in Chinatown so we had to find our way to Dupont Circle where we had booked our hotel. A short metro ride and a walk across the bridge over the Rock Creek Valley looked easy except we missed the street and walked another half km at least with a wheelie bag and backpack each before we asked and had to retrace our steps! We used the Hop On Hop Off Bus for 2 days to get aro...

After a good flight to JFK Airport we were met by Mona and set off for Philadelphia to meet up with Marj & Celene (we met all 3 on our tour of Syria & Jordan) who had organized a very busy few days for us . Marj lives in a lovely 2 storey terrace in South Philly close to the Italian Market. Both Marj & Celene had been teachers and, now retired, they enjoyed travel as well as history, arts etc so we had an excellent tour of old Philadelphia - the Liber...

Janet came with us to the Peak District, so called because of the very undulating land with rocky peaks quarries and mines. It was the May long weekend, one of the first weekends leading into summer, weather was lovely and warm and people were seen in shorts, but proper Englishmen were still well dressed in coat and tie when picking up their morning papers. We had a very nice B&B located in a small village called Oakamoor for the two nights. Interestingly the...

On the Great Union Canal travelling on a narrow boat with Ray & Esme Lloyd of Balmain. A "narrow boat" not a "long boat" as a long boat is what the Viking used to invade Britain with. We arrived at Berkemsted by train, picked up some wine at Waitrose (a smart supermarket) which was located on the canal bank metres from where the boat was waiting for us. It was great to catch up with some friends from Birchgrove! We moved off quite quickly ...

St Petersburg our last port adjoined a new motorway bridge similar to the Anzac Bridge and ahydrofoil base where they were refurbishing the 40 year old hydrofoils and putting them back in the water for the tourist season. The refurbished boats do not fly the hammer and sickle flag, now just the red, blue and white striped flag of Russia. Our city tour included many palaces, St Isaac's Cathedral , the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Singer building. This is now a ...