Jetlag is a terrible thing and we were awake at 3 am this morning. Nevertheless, it's amazing how time flies and we were only down in the lobby a few minutes before we were due to check in for our trip on the Rocky Mountaineer. Once issued with our boarding passes we boarded the coach for a short trip to the railway station and our first glimpse of the train, very impressive! To our amazement we had a 'welcome aboard’ ceremony which included toots on a trai...

Up early again! Is 4 am early enough for you? No point in trying to sleep anymore when you just can't so we whiled away the time by catching up on emails, blog, photos etc until a more reasonable hour. We took a short walk up the road in search of breakfast and came across the Edelweiss Café, a wonderful little Mom and Pop establishment where the Asian proprietors were proud to tell us that they had been there for 20 years. We both had an amazing breakfast: ...

We didn't sleep that well as the time difference was messing with our heads. Seven hours from Hong Kong to UK and another eight to Vancouver makes a mighty 15 hours to deal with! At 6am a cruise ship pulled in just outside our window, bellowing instructions to passengers over a very loud tannoy system. At the same time the hotel staff started setting up the spa deck just below our window so we gave up all attempts at sleep and watched Australia play the Netherlan...

We began our trip with a nice surprise as we were upgraded to business class because they were over-booked. This was especially gratifying as they had been trying to tempt us for at least the last month with a 'cheap' upgrade of £425 a head which we had stoically resisted. We had a lovely flight and, due to the vagaries of time difference, descended into Vancouver in the early afternoon only a couple of hours after we left London. After long queues at immig...

We have spent an amazing week at Club Med Sahoro on the island of Hokkaido in Japan. Simon, Sonia and myself (Amanda) have had such fun! On the slopes we have experienced all weathers and conditions from blue skies and sunshine and crisp, crunchy snow to swirling arctic storms and two feet of powder. We have benefited from having excellent lessons from many different instructors, skiing for Simon and Amanda, and snowboarding for Sonia, and with their help we have...