Day 55 - The last day away of this trip

In many respects, this was a wasted day, with nothing planned and a 9:30pm flight from the nearby LAX.  Had we been younger and new to LA, then maybe we might have crammed something in, but we’d already decided we’d just laze around, which is exactly what we did - though we did opt for an over-priced hotel breakfast of eggs and Canadian bacon.  Canadian?  In other words, not that thin, crispy, streaky bacon, so beloved of Americans.  What we actually got was some form of circular reformed bacon.  It was OK.

Final packing was straightforward before sliding out of the room at midday, taking the last two photographs from our window, and settling down by the pool, in the shade. The temperature in the sun was again quite high and with two skin cancers to be removed two days after our return, the shade was the sensible option.  A noisy mob of children shouting and screaming in and around the pool wasn’t ideal, but kids will be kids.

At least there was free Wi-Fi there (not in the room…) and we relaxed with a mixture of Codebreaker puzzles and Wordsearch on the mobiles.  Although we have to guess many of the words, it is a reasonable way to waste time.

An easy shuttle ride to the Tom Bradley terminal and the usual efficient Air NZ check in, before heading for immigration and security scanning.  We smiled as we passed the 50m long queue for QANTAS economy check in, just across in the eating area,  a gentleman with a bright red sweater caught my eye.  That looks just like Colin I thought, and spying a blonde lady with her back to me, I took a second glance.  Sure enough, it was our good friends Col & Jude from Sydney, who had just left the Circle Pacific cruise and been dumped at the airport a good ten hours before their flight. 

Needless to say, we chatted for a while and then we said we’d catch up with them again after we’d had a bite and they’d got through security.

It wasn’t to be.  Bearing in mind we were in the fast track queue for scanning, it still took us a good 40 minutes.  What a contrast to the outward journey.  Hard to believe it was the same airport.  Plenty of staff around jumping up and down exhorting everyone to totally empty their pockets, take off shoes, belts, watches, etc., but as far as I could tell, out of the 5 scanners there, only two were working.   When you take off all this gear and have to take stuff out of your carry on (computer etc.), instead of using up 1 plastic tray, you use three at least, so naturally enough, it takes at least three times as long.  With just the two scanners working, it just makes it even worse.  No wonder many people try to avoid flying through the USA.  Had it not been for the fact that Air NZ doesn’t fly all the way through to the UK via Singapore, we would probably have gone that way, as it is so hassle free at Singapore and also very fast, in or out. 

We headed for the Star Alliance lounge and from the balcony, tried to keep an eye out for Col and Jude.  No luck.  Once again, the peace out on that balcony was shattered by musicians playing on the floor below.

Onto the aircraft Ok and away on time and as always, a great Air NZ cabin crew for the journey home, arriving about 5:30am, to a damp and miserable Auckland.

Smart passport/immigration - no delay.  Luggage collection - no delay. 

At Auckland airport, there are now three options on arrival when it comes to getting through the MAF check.  (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) who are there to ensure there is no risk to NZ with what passengers bring in.  The green line – Australian & NZ passport holders with nothing to declare. The yellow line – Aus & NZ passport holders with something to declare. The red line, other passport holders and with something to declare.

The queue for the yellow line was about 100m long.  The queue for the red line (ours!), just two people.  We were declaring chocolate (even though we know it isn’t an issue, but the declaration does say food), plus a juniper pot stand from Estonia – and a half eaten tube of Pringles!

“What flavour are they?”, asked the officer.

“Sour cream and chives.”

“Drat, if they’d been salt and vinegar I would have enjoyed confiscating them…”

Straight to the scanner (no queue) and out to catch the prepaid shuttle home.

So that is it for this trip, but we have another 1 week trip planned for October - another dance competition for Paula - in Hawaii.
* Due to a health hiccup, two weeks after we returned, we had to not only cancel the dancing in Hawaii, but sadly, next year's World Cruise. That was devastating as we were really looking forward to it as so many cruiser friends were already booked and we know we usually add more with each cruise.
 

My next post should have been a summary of the cruises on the Crown Princess, but life got in the way.  Much of that due to the cancelled Hawaiian trip.

Day 54 - HoHo to Hollywood - Hot On, Hot Off...

Once again, awake in the middle of the night!  Going to bed too early does not work with us as we are normally 11:30pm plus, not 10:30.

We’d set the alarm for just after 7am, but we were awake early.  Just a coffee and a banana then outside to the bus stop, just 50m back down Century Boulevard, to catch the HoHo bus – Black line. For anyone staying at the LAX hotels, there are two link buses on the HoHo system, the Orange line, which goes to Fisherman’s village, where you then transfer to the Green line for Santa Monica and then the Yellow line and then the Red line for Hollywood! Needless to say, that is not very quick… 

The alternative is a twice per day run straight to Hollywood, but that is 7:34am and 8:34am only.

The bus arrived at spot on 8:34, with driver Damon in good form.  We paid our $49US each which covered all routes, 24 hours.  (There is also a purple route going up to Universal Studios and I think, to the central city.)

Traffic around LA is notoriously slow and this link route doesn’t pass anywhere of real importance, so there is no recorded commentary – so Damon did his own.  We were up on the open top deck and even at that time of the day, it was starting get pretty warm.

Due to roadworks, some of it due to extending the Metro line, we had a bit of a diversion through streets with overhanging trees, but at least Damon warned us.

Once at Hollywood, we transferred straight to the Red route, but stayed down below, out of the heat and hopped off at stop #10, for the Petersen Museum (also the stop for the Tar Pits) at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard.

This is one stunning looking museum, having had a $90m upgrade to the exterior and interior.

According to the time stamp on my first photograph, it was 11:05… So exactly two and a half hours on the bus. (About the time by car from Heathrow to Nottingham…)

Even the exhibits in the foyer were impressive and one of the first was a McLaren.  A beautifully presented museum and they do keep changing the exhibits.  Down below, they have a vault.  You can partake in a guided tour for an extra fee, but you are not allowed to take photographs.

We paid the seniors fee of $12, which is more than reasonable, for 3 floors of exhibits.

For plenty of pics of the exhibits, hook into my TRS message board thread –

Just-A-Mix-Of-Pics-Ray-Green-52

We exited the museum and dived into their restaurant.  Not your usual snacks, but a proper Italian restaurant (Drago) where ironically, their pasta dishes were about the same price as a burger at the Marriott.  We were lucky to get a seat as it appears to be very popular for a business lunch, with locals not visiting the museum.  A very nice meal, though as in the Blackpool Italian, a bit more sauce on the carbonara would have been nice.  For Italians, it is all about the pasta.  For us non-Italians, it is as much about the sauce.

Anyway, we ambled outside to catch the HoHo again at about 1pm and were not at all impressed with the bus.  The downstairs exterior windows were totally blanked out by the exterior paintwork – not the perforated stuff that you can see through.  It was now over 90f and there was no way we were sitting up on the top deck, getting scorched.  For the country that invented air-conditioning and prides itself on its tourism industry, this was torture.

Back then to the Yellow route to Santa Monica, where we caught the BBB back to the LAX area.

I think we got back about 5pm, so most of the day was spent on a bus.

We opted for a burger meal, but not at the hotel.  Our choices within 3 or 4 minutes were either Burger King or Carl’s Junior.  Never having had a Carl’s burger before, we gave that a try.  I don’t think we’d do that again.

Suitably tired, we just crashed – too early again, but this is our last night in a hotel, as tomorrow night, we fly home, to a NZ winter, so our sleep patterns will be disrupted again anyway.

     

Day 53 - Santa Monica

As is usual for these larger time changes, after a long flight, the sleep patterns are all over the place.  So watching an ancient episode of ‘Married With Children’ in the middle of the night isn’t at all unusual.  Paula had a cuppa and a biscuit before we wandered outside, to catch the BBB (Big Blue Bus) to Santa Monica.  As the Starbucks isn’t working, $5 for a Nespresso from the temporary coffee cart was easy to ignore.

We paid the full fare of $1.25, not realising that for the over 62’s with ID, it is only 50c, but still very cheap for the 40 minute ride.  We hadn’t been on a Wednesday before and we found streets closed for their weekly farmers’ market.  Although there were plenty of stalls, this was a fairly genuine farmers’ market, but as most were selling just fruit and vegetables, (which also looked horrendously expensive, organic or not), there was nothing to interest us.

We wandered down 3^rd street and as I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink, Starbucks beckoned.  A very tasty bite and a decent coffee, but my name had been changed from Ray to Rye!

Suitably fortified, we then wandered to the Santa Monica Pier, surely, one of the most visited piers anywhere in the world.  This is where the cross country Route 66 does end.

By now, it was getting rather warm so we sat for a while in the shade watching the equally famous carousel.  Oh how times have changed.  No music and the kids on the prancing horses (and 1 prancing pig!) wearing safety belts.   A carousel without a fairground organ is like a fairground hot dog without onions.

We then headed for the new food court at the southern end of 3^rd street for a refreshing lemonade, before catching the bus back.

Since our last call in December, the bus stops seem to have changed, as the bus no longer has a stop just before the hotel, as it loops behind it but that suited us as we needed to grab a drink and a yoghurt from the shop at the service station.  A hefty $3.25 for a small yoghurt was eye wateringly expensive but we added a lemonade and a couple of bananas.  As far as we know, there isn’t a supermarket close by.

Despite the high prices in the hotel, we decided we’d eat there as the only local alternatives are a Burger King, Carl’s Junior and Denny’s.  Paula had a turkey burger and I had a (hot) chicken sandwich.  Total bill, $33 plus tax plus tip, so not what you’d call good value for money.  It certainly makes eating out in the UK look cheap.

We still crashed fairly early, after watching the sun go down as a continuous stream of aircraft landed on the shorter, northern runway.

We set the alarm for 7am and we want to catch the Ho-Ho bus, black route at 8:34am tomorrow.  More of that on the next soporific instalment.

We are now back in NZ… 

 

Day 52 - We're off! But honestly, who is the real Pauline Green?

Premier Inns promise a good night’s sleep, but what they really mean is a quiet night and there is a substantial difference.  It was certainly quiet and we were in no rush to get up anyway.  As we’d paid for the full breakfast, we tried our best to take full advantage.

Although there were scrambled eggs on a help yourself basis, the staff were quite happy to take orders for poached, fried, omelettes etc.

There were plenty of toast options (DiY) including some artisan breads, large pikelets (or crumpets depending on where you grew up)  and some fresh Danish pastries.  Although the coffee was from a machine, it was the first machine I have ever seen that offered a 'white Americano' and it proved to be just about the best machine coffee I have ever had.  Had we not wanted a full breakfast or continental breakfast, there was a Costa kiosk in the lobby.

Would we stay again?  Too right we would.

All we had to do then was finalise the packing ready for the flight and fill up the rental car before returning it.  Part one was easy.  Finding a fuel station proved less easy, as the one I headed for, next to the SixT car hire depot, was closed!  We headed on towards Staines on the A30, past my old stomping ground of Ashford, but to no avail.  A ‘U-turn at Wraysbury and we headed back and up towards Colnbrook (birthplace of McLaren cars) and into the airport's North perimeter road – still no luck. Back out again, past the Hertz depot and back along the A4 again towards Colnbrook and finally, we found one.   Just £25 worth of diesel for the 3 days and at a guess, a fuel consumption of almost 50mpg.

Back once again into the airport area and we dropped off the car.  A Hertz shuttle to terminal 2 and the usual wait for the lifts.  Another revamped terminal but the designers specified lifts that are both too small and too few, as they have to service 5 floors and most people need trolleys for their luggage.

A easy friendly check in (Air NZ of course), with my case weighing the same as the trip out and Paula’s weighing more (plus our loaded sports bag) and then the long walk to lounge B2 (Singapore Airlines) for a last local cider (Magners) and a very nice chicken curry.

We left on time and after a trouble free flight, (though a bit of turbulence), a slightly early arrival at LA.  So far so good.  Bear in mind we have now been through LA 3 times on our current passports (4 times for me) and what is supposed to happen is that if you have travelled through before, on that passport, you should get a speedy exit. However, the last two times, Paula has been ‘rejected’, meaning we have to join what can be a very long queue, to get processed by immigration.

Fortunately, the queue wasn’t too long this time so we asked the very friendly officer why Paula is getting ‘rejected’ each time.  Apparently, there is a Pauline Green who is on their ‘wanted’ list, also with a birthday in August...  The system therefore rejects Paula so that the birthday and details can be checked…  Very frustrating, so we hope the wanted woman is soon caught or we may have to write to the US to try and get it resolved in their system.

Once through, a doddle to collect the luggage and get out, where the Marriott shuttle picked us up after just a few minutes. 

Sadly for us, the renovations to the lobby and Starbucks are yet to be completed but at least our room on the 7^th floor is a refurbished one, this time, facing the pool, though we can see aircraft landing on the smaller runway (north).

Day 51 - A Premier day.

The morning TV had an old Roger Moore ‘Saint’ episode I hadn’t seen before, where the ‘star’ car was a TVR he was driving in a rally and one of the other cars featured was a Marcos.  I must check to see if that episode is on YouTube.  Some good actual rally clips.

Another excellent breakfast, before loading up and setting the SatNav for Cheam railway station, where we’d agreed to meet Richard.  When we set off, the SatNav showed our expected arrival time to be 12:05, but due to traffic delays, one of which was due to someone with a flat tyre parking their car in the middle of the left lane, instead of pulling off the road, we arrived at a little before 12:30.

Now here is a current annoyance in the UK.  I mentioned before that the old £5 notes now have to be paid into a bank and the new £10 notes are due in about October, but they have also updated the £1 coins. However, some coin machines, such as the one in the station car park at Cheam, doesn’t accept the new coins!  A fat lot of use when it is an unattended car park, but still subject to the traffic wardens checking up.  Luckily, we managed to find a parking spot out on the street with a 2 hour limit. 

Richard duly arrived just after 1pm and we then drove around to Cheam Park where Olya joined us.  A very pleasant natter and drinks for about 2 or 3 hours and then we headed off for our stay at the brand new Premier Inn near terminal 4, on Heathrow airport’s south perimeter road.

That was easier said than done.  We knew where the road was and it is just past the Hatton Cross tube station (by about 500m), and there it was.  Getting in?  A different proposition altogether.  We slowed, only to find a one way exit road, but no entrance!  We passed it, still looking.  Nothing.  A U-turn and back again – still nothing.  Another U – turn and this time, just after the hotel, we took a left, up a ramp, another hard left, then another left, finally getting the entrance to the car park.  We were met at the barrier by a staff member, who checked to see it we’d booked a car space.  We hadn’t.  Fortunately, she was able to allocate us a space and it was about then that it dawned on us that although this Premier Inn is new and large, there were some glaring design deficiencies.  Access and car parking were the first to be noticed.

Check in was straightforward and comprehensive, inasmuch as the staff member covered all the bases.

We were in room 201 and by my calculations, this hotel may have up to 90 rooms per floor and 7 floors.  That is quite a few rooms.  Number of car spaces?  Just 50…  Room rate booked well in advance - £29.50.  Car parking?  A staggering £25 – a day or even part of a day.  There is a pedestrian tunnel access straight to terminal 4 (though we didn’t look for it) and the designers assumed that most guests wouldn’t need car parking.  However, there is no shuttle to the other terminals, no access for a shuttle either (roof height for the car park is just 2.1 metres) and no parking bay for a coach drop off.  Someone in the design side goofed, big time.  We are flying out of terminal 2 anyway, not 4.

Our comprehensive receptionist persuaded us to take the meal package, two courses, a drink (restricted) and a full breakfast, for £26.50 each.  What could have been a cheap stay was now not so cheap!  However, the room was superb.  As a brand new hotel, the electrics weren’t quite as good as the Marriott in LA, but the room was immaculate, with a totally sound proof window, despite the proximity to the aircraft landing.  Premier pride themselves on ‘a good night’s sleep, or your money back’.  The bathroom as expected was also immaculate and for only the second time on this strip, liquid soap and no hard soap.

Another chicken curry, but the meal deal included drink, didn’t include cider, even though it was on tap, nor did the soft drinks include anything other than fizzy drinks. Pity and somewhat short sighted of the Premier group.  I opted for the cheeseboard for my second course and that was a very good choice and substantial.

A large modern TV and a fair sized bed and we crashed for our last UK night, happy enough, as we’d had another fine day.  We certainly couldn’t complain at the weather as for the 50 days so far, just 5 or 6 days have actually been wet.

Off to LA tomorrow and the trip home really does start.

Day 50 - Route 66 - in Bournemouth?

We were down for breakfast on time (of course) and thoroughly enjoyed it. Freshly cooked with really nice toast and the best bacon we have had in ages, but the bonus was a hot, metal plunger coffee pot, with decent coffee.  Such a simple luxury.

There was no rush but we ambled out to see brother Malc and headed off to what was advertised as a Route 66 show, which to me, meant Americana, out near Bournemouth airport.

The £10 entry fee was a bit steep, but there were more exhibits and people inside than visitors!

There was a certainly a good variety with a native American Indian reservation set up – right next to a group of cowboys, lawnmower racing, mobile displays, dodgems (at £3 a go) and even a wrestling ring for later.  I did make a purchase from a model seller – a limited edition boxed set of 3 Austin A35s, which I managed to get for £20.

It didn’t take too long to wander around, but miraculously, after yesterday’s problems with my knee, all pain had gone.  My suspicion is that I had slept awkwardly Friday night and hadn’t loosened the bed covers enough.  The knee support may have helped.

Afterwards, to the ‘Blossom’ garden centre where the roast dinner looked really good and was very popular, but Paula and I opted for a ploughman’s lunch between us.  The chunk of cheese was more than generous (as was the mountain of lettuce).  We drank a toast to our much loved late Dad, who would have been 104 today.

We dropped Malc off at home so that he could relax out in the warm sun for the afternoon and we headed back to the Dean Park Inn, picking up a magnum (ice cream) on the way.

Back out to Malc again and this time to a Harvester (chain) pub/eatery at Tuckton, near Christchurch, down on the river.  Another good meal and my ‘chicken trio’ of a Cajun spiced ½ chicken beast, ¼ chicken and a grilled ½ chicken breast with jacket potato and coleslaw plus their salad bar, was filling.  A glass of Stowford cider went down well too.  We noted the ‘Tommy’ award on the door and considered that appropriate considering the birthday we were toasting.

On the way back to the Dean Court, which is just a few yards past a very busy junction, we found the junction sealed off by the police after a road accident. One ambulance, plus 8 police vehicles and a police photographer in attendance and we had to detour quite a way to get back to the Wimborne Road to get to the Inn.  Just as we got out, there was  a lot of yelling and shouting as one dumb motorist drove through the police tapes and right over the debris!  I don’t think the police were very impressed.

Staying at these older places is fine, just as long as in the UK particularly, you accept that the ensuite bathrooms are a late conversion, most do not have a fridge, nor air-conditioning and apparently, all wooden floors squeak.  The shower at the Dean Park for example, whilst clean, is tiny, with half opening doors at 90 degrees, and with no rack for the shower supplies. Bending down to pick up the shampoo was nigh on impossible for either of us - and we had to enter and exit sideways.  Incidentally, why is it that most purveyors of those small bottles of shampoo/conditioner/gel, use such tiny print on their labels?   

It was a warm evening after the day-time temperatures of around 25c and we expect a warm night, before heading off towards Heathrow tomorrow and a catch up in Cheam, with Paula’s previous dance teacher Richard, and his wife, Olya.  Paula is really looking forward to that, as Richard was as much a mentor to her as a teacher.  

Day 49 - Southampton to Bournemouth - I didn't kneed that...

We didn’t sleep particularly well, but at bedtime, we’d come across an excellent programme on the ‘Legend of Robin Hood’, where the American researcher was trying to establish the truth, or otherwise.  It was an interesting programme which we’d never seen before, but it was on so late, we missed the ending.

Anyway, we first woke about 4am and we had lights not too far from the shore on the port side, so we assumed we were well on the way in.  Back to sleep for a while, then up to the Horizon Court for the last time.  Although it looked a bit misty, I hadn’t realised until I went for my coffee, that it was in fact drizzling.  Welcome back to England…

We vacated the cabin about 7:40am and headed for Club Fusion, where Barbara was there to check us in. 

She also managed to get us out, first of our batch on time.  The luggage is sensibly stacked so that the first group is nearest the exit, so it was easy enough to grab our bags and a trolley and straight out to the taxi tank.  No waiting at all and thankfully, no rain either.

Off to Southampton Airport, a £23 ride.  Into the Hertz Firefly desk. (The car rental offices aren’t exactly well signposted from the drop off point, but they are to the right of the airport main entrance from the car park/drop off area.)  No queue and we emerged at 8:30am with a Nissan Qashqai – not too dissimilar to our normal drive.  Now at the moment, there is a lot of discussion in NZ about foreign drivers being a menace on the road and the rental companies need to do more.  We were simply handed the keys and told our vehicle was in bay 22.  And that was it.  Not a lot of room for our luggage for such a large vehicle.  The Skoda Octavia we had a couple of years ago was much better.  The handbrake was a bit of a weird system, and I managed to stall a couple of times during the day. 

Off then towards Bournemouth and an easy run before the grockles clogged the roads.  Grockles?  Local terminology for tourists.

We were obviously way too early to check in to our accommodation, so called at a shopping centre, Castlepoint, just to waste time.  It was about then that my right knee started playing up and I have no idea why.

Paula had a dance lesson booked for 1pm at Winton Methodist church so we checked out the location then headed for the Dean Court Inn.  Although it was still only 12 noon, a warm welcome and our room was ready.  (The proprietor got married on the Emerald Princess – in Venice…)  As with other buildings of this age, the ensuite was quite small and the shower, very small, no fridge and no air conditioning.  We were happy enough to be away from air conditioning anyway.  Our room was at the rear of the property, away from the road, so very quiet.  As they are full and breakfasts cooked to order, we accepted a 9am slot.   

By now, my knee was getting worse, so we left the large cases in the car, as lugging them up to the first floor wasn’t going to be easy.  Back to Winton for Paula’s lesson with Simon.  (Eat your hearts out Blackpool dancers!)  My intention was to walk to Charminster, but after less than 100m, I had to turn back, as I really was struggling.

As expected, Paula thoroughly enjoyed her lesson.  Pity Simon is so far away.

We then popped into Winton to grab a sandwich and also visit the Poundland shop.  Our purchases included a fold-away rucksack (£1), 2 cans of drink (£1), and a waterproof bucket hat(£1), plus a bag of mints.

Back at the Inn, for a freshen up and we decided to return to Winton to grab a knee support.  By now, I could only manage 50 metres at a time.  It was just as well I wasn’t the one with a dance lesson. 

Later, out to brother Malc then a carvery meal at Toby’s – the same structure as the Toby’s back at Nottingham.  A nice glass of Stowford cider, by Westons and a filling meal, for which Malc insisted on paying.

We were flagging a bit by 10pm so crashed fairly early.  Oh, yes, another bathroom with a squeaky floor…

 

 

 

  

Day 48 - The last day at sea - for this year

The routine, as for any last day at sea, was eat; trivia (no win); pack; eat; pack most of the remainder; eat; trivia (no win and I’m sure the winners were using an electronic device – they were the day before); panic - because the last of the laundry hasn’t been returned; put the cases out (once it has arrived), and the sports bag full of vacuum packed items, for collection; eat; say our farewells to two of our table mates, our great waiters, Rocky and Jelena, our previous waiters, Stanford and Soccoro (he’d be nicknamed Socceroo if we’d been Aussies…); the Royal Variety Performance (pic is of Paul leading the Mexican wave, before his starring role as Andy Murray) and the farewell to our Welsh table mates, who hope to be in NZ in November.

In a nutshell, that was our day.

The ship was batting along in mainly smooth seas and the clocks are back 1 hour tonight to put us back onto GB time – 1 hour ahead of GMT.  

For future newbie cruisers, you fill in a form the week before, saying what time you’d like to get off and a couple of days before, you get colour coded and numbered luggage tags, such as orange #2, brown #3 etc.  With these tags comes an explanation of the procedure and a list of the coloured tags with the meeting place and the disembarkation times.

Elite and Platinum guests get a separate meeting point, where there is tea, coffee, juice etc. available.

So another decent cruise, though I will summarise a day or two after we have landed back in NZ.  I can say that overall, apart from the more modern theatre on the Crown, we still prefer the Sun and Sea Princess, hands down, though as yet, I don’t think the Sea Princess has the International Café facility in the Atrium.

Bedtime was fairly late and the alarm is set for 6am, our expected docking time, but we have had no notification as to any changes to disembarkation times.  Ours is at 8:05am, orange #2 – straight after the ‘walk off with your own luggage’ and the Princess coach tours to Gatwick and to Heathrow. Hopefully, the queue for taxis won’t be very long, as we are heading to Southampton Airport to pick up our rental car.