August to October 2015
A trip from West to East and North to South. We were away for just over 7 weeks on a cruise from Barcelona to Singapore. We flew from Toronto to Barcelona and boarded the ship there. We got off again in Singapore with a flight back to Toronto via Amsterdam where we stopped off for a visit with Richard’s brother.
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Mediterranean
Barcelona, Spain
We started our journey in Barcelona, a city we know fairly well. This time we explored the waterfront towards Barceloneta. No museums but quite a bit of walking in a “real” neighbourhood. And it started out the way we went on - very hot!
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Middle East
Aqaba (Petra), Jordan
What a fantastic day yesterday but totally exhausting! And we had the tail end of a sand storm. Our group left at 6:50 am for the two hour drive to Petra.
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India
Mumbai, India
Mumbai - Incredible, noisy, busy, friendly, car honking, colourful. What a place!
We used Mumbai Magic, a tour company that is run by women and seems to be quite organized. Sancia, our tour guide met us just off the ship.
Myanmar
We had two and a half days here and one of our first sights was a small boat with some animals on board!
We were lucky enough to get a trip to Bagan to see the famous temples. This is an hour and 15 minute flight away from Rangoon (Yangon).
Singapore
Our last port of call on the cruise. We disembarked and went to our hotel, the Novotel at Clarke Quay.
Singapore seems to be a youthful city - multicultural and lots of ex-pats. They have four official languages including English. A young country - just celebrating 50 years.
Amsterdam
We finished our holiday with four nights in Amsterdam at the Hotel Clemens, with Richard’s brother and sister-in-law from the UK.
The weather was a bit of a shock after the heat of Singapore - we dropped about 25 C to 6C!
We had a busy museum-filled visit, walking everywhere!