Planes, Trains & Automobiles - Travelling in Your 70s

Around the World in 85 days

Posted on January 10, 2023February 6, 2023 by Roberta Hill

This is the story of our 85-day trip around the world going westward. We started our trip on September 28, 2022, and arrived home on December 21, 2022, in time for Christmas – 20 plane legs later. I hope you’ll join us on this journey, and you can join us on our adventures by going to DAY ONE or joining at any point by looking at the individual days listed to the right. You may have to scroll down a little. We’d miss travelling since Covid, but that wasn’t the reason. Last June, having turned 70 recently and seeing health…

The Hidden Dangers of Underground Parking – A Comedy of Errors

Posted on January 3, 2023January 21, 2023 by Roberta Hill

You are bound to be forced to use underground parking on your travels. It may be because of the hotel, shopping malls, or a crowded city centre. They can be nerve-racking at the best of times, but the first time is always the most challenging. For this reason, I prefer to rent a smaller car than a bigger one in Europe. Let this story be a lesson to us all! Let me preface my comments by saying that Place des Arts is a wonderful venue, and I have been many times. If you have an event there, it is in…

Day 32 – The Golden Circle Tour of O’ahu

Posted on October 29, 2022February 11, 2023 by Roberta Hill

Renting a car in Honolulu is costly; parking alone is $35 a night at the hotel. Others told us we didn’t have a car, as buses could go all around the island. No one told us it would be hours and hours going around the island. I convinced Louise to take the Golden Circle Tour of O‘ahu, which meant getting up a little earlier than we liked. It was nine hours long, had 12 stops, and was inexpensive. They did advertize that they would pick us up at our hotel, but they didn’t. The meeting point was only a five-minute…

Day 24 – Farewell San Francisco and the Mission District

Posted on October 21, 2022January 25, 2023 by Roberta Hill

The only thing we hadn’t done that was still on Louise‘s list was visiting the mission district. Packed and ready to check out our hotel, we still had three hours to spend in San Francisco before picking up our taxi to the airport. Mission District is relatively spread out. I found the Women’s Building we passed the most fascinating. One of San Francisco’s largest and best known murals, MaestraPeace and serves as a visual testament to the courageous contributions of women through time and around the world. Every day, the mural attracts the awe and cameras of tourists from…

Around the world start Louise and Roberta

Day 1 of our world trip started well but . . .

Posted on September 28, 2022January 17, 2023 by Roberta Hill

My brother dropped us off for the start of our world trip at the airport in plenty of time. It felt like our suitcases were bursting at the seams and were overweight, but each piece of luggage was around 17 kg, and our carry-on backpacks were around 5 kg. At our age, this was still hard on our bodies and proved to be more so as our journeys continued. The place seemed empty, and the check-in went smoothly. Good for us, but terrible for the travellers going to Florida: at least five flights had been cancelled due to hurricane Ian….