Model Railway Enthusiasts Will Think They Have Died And Gone To Heaven

Posted on December 20, 2011 by tony

You have to give it to the Germans, when they do something they do it well and with style. This is exactly true of the Miniatur Wunderland exhibition in Hamburg in Germany.

This amazing computer controlled exhibition is located in a historic warehouse district in the centre of Hamburg, and features dozens of working trains, a full working airport with planes taking off and landing, fire engines attending a fire, a cruise ship sailing up the river, a football stadium, and so many other features that are too many to list.

Currently the layouts, which span 3 floors and 6,400 sq.metres have over 950 trains alone. The statistics on this place and it’s features are unbelievable, and countless hours of work have gone into it. Take a look HERE at what this exhibition includes.

Any lover of model railways and miniature layouts on seeing this must think that they have died and gone to heaven. It’s definitely worth making a trip to Hamburg for don’t you think?

Below is a 5 minute short video of some of the items that are in this exhibition. It must be even more amazing to see first hand. I know it’s on my bucket list.

A Day Out In The Purbeck Hills

Posted on September 27, 2011 by tony

If you have never been to The Purbeck Hills in Dorset on the south coast of England, it’s hard to describe the wonderful scenery that you are going to find here.

The Purbeck Hills are an impressive chalk ridge that runs from Studland in the east, through the village of Corfe Castle, then continuing west, providing a natural defence for the rest of the county of Dorset from invasion for thousands of years.

There are only two gaps in the hills, the Ulwell gap in the east that allows traffic to pass from the seaside town of Swanage north to Studland, and further west the gap at Corfe, with the ruins of Corfe Castle set on a high mound in the middle of the gap.

It was here that we decided to take a day out over the weekend, since we hadn’t been for a few years, and it’s a wonderfully picturesque part of Britain, close to where I grew up.

Corfe Castle itself must have been truly impressive in it’s prime, but it was destroyed during the English Civil War, and even though many buildings in the surrounding village of Corfe Castle have been built with stones that were cannibalised from the castle, it still stands tall on top of it’s mound, and is one of the most scenic castles in the south of England.

The castle is operated by the National Trust, who have done an excellent job of preserving the ruins, without adding any of the trashy elements that you all too often find at other historic sites.

Goats and sheep roam the castle grounds, and provide another opportunity for amateur photographers like myself to snap away and hopefully get a classic shot. They are also funny to watch as they scamper over the ruins, trying to find vegetation to munch on.

The view from the top of the mound and the Keep is impressive, with not only views over the castle and the village, but of the steam railway that runs from Swanage through the gap alongside the castle to Wareham.

The weather on Saturday was practically perfect, and we enjoyed walking around the castle, and looking inside one of the largest National Trust gift shops, which has a lot of nice local items for sale.

There was another reason for visiting Corfe Castle this past weekend though, and that was to visit The Ginger Pop Shop, an Enid Blyton themed shop. Enid Blyton was a well known author of children’s books, who holidayed on The Purbeck Hills and who found inspiration from Corfe Castle and many other locations in the area for her books, and she published over 800 of them during her 40 years of writing.

I have recently completed a page on Squidoo about Enid Blyton, whose books I read when I was growing up, and I went on many wonderful adventures with The Famous Five, one of the series that she wrote.

Having visited the shops and toured the castle, we had a Ploughman’s Lunch in one of the old inns in the village, then drove to the town of Swanage on the coast, where we sat by the beach, had an ice cream, and walked around the shops there.

After we headed to Studland and the ferry at Sandbanks, on our way back home, but stopped off at Studland and walked the half a mile or so across the sand dunes to the famous nudist beach there.

Yes it’s a nudist beach, and it’s been there for a number of years, but there are two wonderful things that it has – aside from naked people! Firstly it’s a lovely spot, quiet and peaceful, not filled with hordes of families with screaming kids. Secondly the view across the bay to Old Harry Rocks and on a clear day like Saturday to The Needles on the Isle Of Wight is just great.

We sat there for a good half hour, then wandered our way back home.

We highly recommend visiting Dorset, and especially The Purbeck Hills. There is so much to see there, especially if you enjoy walking along the cliff paths, collecting fossils, visiting old castles, riding on steam trains etc. You can also visit the nearby Tank Museum at Bovington, go to the beach at Sandbanks and mix with the Jet Set, or get an all over tan at Studland on the nudist beach.

The Purbecks has it all.

More Information Can Be Found Here:

The Purbeck Hills (Wikipedia)

The Isle Of Purbeck

The Purbecks

Tony And Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Six

Posted on August 23, 2011 by tony

Part 6 of our holiday in Florida sees me injured while Ice Skating, doing a Belly Flop on the ice, and then continuing with a stormy week in Hollywood. If you haven’t read the previous articles in this series, you might enjoy starting at the beginning HERE.

A Belly Flop On The Ice

On Tuesday of the second week I took the girls to Pines Ice Arena in Pembroke Pines, since they enjoy learning to skate, and hadn’t been there since I last took them 18 months ago.

We had a good time, until my eldest challenged me to a race, and seconds later I was headed flat on the ice in what can only be described as a belly flop! Being in my 50’s and overweight, putting my arms out did little to soften my fall, and as a result 2 weeks later I am still very sore with bruised ribs and pulled stomach muscles.

It’s hard to sleep at night because I can only lie on my side, and so I get woken up by a sore/numb shoulder and arm, which causes me to struggle to sit up, twist around and lie on the other side. I still cannot pie on my front or back even after 2 weeks, it’s that painful.

I guess next time I take them skating I will have learned my lesson, and therefore absolutely no racing. If they are skating better on their own too by then, I might just let them do more while I sit and watch.

Dragonflies

We took the next few days quietly, since I was hurting, and the girls spent lots of time in the pool while I tried to walk around in it, but found lifting my arms up too painful to allow me to swim unfortunately.

It stormed a lot the next couple of days as well, and before the rain on several days the sky was filled with thousands of dragonflies. It was quite amazing to watch, and if you click on the picture here and look at the sky, those are not specks of dirt that you can see, it’s dragonflies.

Fortunately they rarely came close to us, and we aren’t scared of them either, but if you were then it might not be too pleasant. I did manage to capture one that was perched on a wall, which I posted to Fine Art America. I wonder if I will get any sales?

Thunder And The Smurfs

One day we took the girls to one of our favourite places to eat, Sweet Tomatoes, and then since it was set to rain again, to see the Smurfs movie.

We opted to not see the 3D version, since neither of them really enjoy that, but managed to get good seats at the back of the theatre and settled down to watch the film.

About halfway through we could hear what sounded like thunder, and although I thought at first it was sound coming through from one of the other 17 theatres in the location, we soon found out that it wasn’t, as we began to hear the rain pounding on the roof.

Then, as so often happens in Florida, the power went out, and we all sat in virtual darkness for about 20 minutes until they could get everything back to normal. During this time we were making noises, sound effects, singing the Smurf song, and others in the audience were repeating it, so it was quite funny really, and the time passed quickly.

I wouldn’t say the movie was great, but it wasn’t awful either, kind of cute really.

The Last Night And A Full Moon

It’s funny isn’t it how the first part of a holiday goes slowly, and then as time goes on the days just whiz past. So before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to the girls and to fly home to the UK.

My youngest decided to go home to her Mom on Friday night, as she was feeling homesick, but my eldest stayed with us and helped us to pack on the Saturday morning.

Friday night there was a full moon, and we went for a walk along the broadwalk at Hollywood Beach as the sun was setting to catch a glimpse, but there were thick clouds along the horizon and it was clear that the moon would have to rise quite a lot before anyone could see it.

However, about an hour later I was able to catch some good pictures of the full moon as it rose through the palm trees.

Goodbye Hollywood Beach

All too soon it came time for my ex to pick up my eldest, and for us to give the girls hugs and kisses and say goodbye.

Then time to complete the packing, loading of the car, and to leisurely drive to the airport in Miami, return the car, and wait for the flight home.

With my ribs being sore, having to try and lift the bags in and out of the condo, the car, and a shuttle bus, then into the overhead bins on the plane, I was really hurting.

It was actually for once not so bad trying to spend the night sitting half upright instead of trying to lie down, but after landing at Heathrow airport, and lugging the bags on and off another shuttle and into the car, I was about all in.

I had to grip the steering wheel all the way home to try and take some pressure off my ribs, but fortunately with it being Sunday morning the traffic was light, and the journey took just over an hour.

Once home, a quick check to make sure everything was ok, then off to bed for a couple of hours, to try and catch up on a bit of sleep, and to prepare for the reality of going back to work the following morning.

Well that is the story of our trip to Florida. I hope you enjoyed it, and if so any Shares/Tweets or a Google|+1 would be much appreciated.

Tony and Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Five

Posted on August 22, 2011 by tony

This is the 5^th part of our holiday in Florida, and covers a trip to the Miami Metro Zoo. If you would like to read about our trip from the beginning, you can start HERE.

A Day At Miami Metro Zoo

Miami Metro Zoo Logo Although I had lived in South Florida for 4 years before returning to the UK, I had never been to Miami Metro Zoo, and despite living in Hollywood all their lives, neither had my daughters, so this seemed to be a good choice of location for a day out as a treat for their upcoming birthdays.

Much of southern Miami Dade County has been rebuilt since Hurricane Andrew hit the area in August 1992, the zoo being just one of the locations that suffered enormous damage.

Miami Metro Zoo lies well south and west of downtown Miami, over 40 miles from Hollywood, and if driving by car you do need to be aware that the toll sections of the Florida Turnpike in South Florida no longer accept cash, so you either have to have a Sunpass transponder, or face hefty fines. We opted to take the old road, US1 from where I95 ends just south of downtown, and despite having to go through a number of red light intersections, the journey wasn’t too bad.

The first thing that is noticeable about the zoo is the sheer space that it occupies and the open layout. The parking lot is enormous, and we were thankful that on the day we went there were few other visitors, since trying to walk around the zoo on a hot sticky day with 20,000 others is not my idea of a fun day out.

The other thing is that all the pathways and trails through the zoo are very wide, allowing for lots of visitors on foot, as well as for the 4-wheeled cycles that you can rent, albeit at a hefty price. As well as walking around the zoo, you can take the road train, or the air-conditioned monorail.

On arriving at the zoo we could already see the dark storm clouds looming in the distance, and we knew that the storms had arrived early that day, and soon after going into the zoo we were almost certainly going to have to find shelter.

We were not wrong, as within 15 minutes of beginning out walk around the zoo, the rain began to fall, and it came down in torrents for a good hour, during which we sheltered at an excellent exhibit hall, which had a lot of hands-on items, as well as a children’s library that my youngest daughter took an interest in, reading several books while we waited in there for over an hour for the rain to stop.

Well the rain kept on coming down in torrents, and fortunately there was enough in the building to keep the girls occupied, my eldest spending time doing some puzzles, while my youngest sat and read, and Debbie sat and waited.

Finally the rain slowed to a light drizzle, and we decided to venture forth into the outside, which by this time was very wet, but we managed ok, being optimistic and upbeat, while the drizzle just continued.

By the time we got around what I estimate to be about 1/3 of the zoo, we decided that it would be a good idea to try and find somewhere to eat lunch, since we were now soaked through, having neither rain wear or an umbrella with us. However, the main restaurant was closed for remodelling, a second grill was not cooking anything because the grill was in the open and therefore exposed to the rain. There was a third facility by the children’s zoo, which just sold well overpriced burgers, so we decided to make the best of it, to wander around what we could, and then made our way back to the car.

It must have rained for most of the 4 ½ hours that we were there at the zoo, and looking at the guide just now there is a lot that we missed, so maybe next time we are in Florida we will return to Miami Metro Zoo.

It would have been nice to just have a rain shower, since it kept many of the visitors away, and it was actually nice not being surrounded by hordes of screaming kids, however not being able to see everything and with so many sections closed, it was a bad choice for us to go there on the day that we did.

The zoo is highly rated though, and with the animals having for the most part a lot of space and no cages, it would make a good family day out provided that the weather co-operated. In the event that it’s extremely hot, the zoo does have places where you can get misted with a fine spray of water, which does help to cool you down. Nobody seems to mind getting wet on a hot day in Florida, however there are limits, and walking around the zoo in a downpour is never any fun.

CLICK HERE for the Sixth and final part of our trip to Florida.

Tony and Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Four

Posted on August 19, 2011 by tony

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy reading about our vacation in Florida. This is the 4^th post about our trip. If you would like to start at the beginning, just click HERE.

A Trip To The Nature Center

The Anne Kolb Nature Center is situated just across the intra-coastal waterway from Hollywood Beach, and although it’s close to the beach and where I used to live, I had never been there. We thought this might be a good place to take the girls as a change from the pool and the beach, and educational at the same time.

The center is located in the middle of a mangrove swamp, with walkways that allow visitors to walk out into the swamp and to explore the wildlife close up, which includes various species of mangroves, and land crabs that can be seen climbing trees as well.

As well as the walks, the center does have organised boat rides through the swamp and evening excursions to see the turtles hatching in the summer months, but the latter are fully booked about a year in advance.

The only problem was that on the morning that we decided to visit, it was 95 degrees and extremely humid, in other words a typical summer day in South Florida, so by the time we had taken a walk we were all ready to cool off.

We followed up with a refreshing dip in the pool, dinner, and then in the evening a nice walk along the broadwalk, which was fairly quiet for a change. Sometimes the beach area gets really busy, especially at the weekends, and where they rent cycles and carriages that you pedal, it can be a bit of a nightmare, since many of the users don’t keep to the lane that is set out for them.

With the girls having been with us a few days now, time began to pass quicker, as it always does, and before we knew it, it was Thursday evening, and their Mom came to pick them up, as they had an Irish Dancing competition in Georgia at the weekend.

So while the girls spent the weekend being driven all the way to Georgia and back, Debbie and I prepared to see friends of ours in Deerfield Beach and to do some planned shopping, since many items are much cheaper to buy in the USA than in the UK, as well as there being a lot more choice.

Visiting Friends In Deerfield Beach

Before I moved back to the UK I spent 2 years living in Deer Creek, which is a development in Deerfield Beach, between Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. We went back to see some friends there, and if you would like to see what it’s like, you can take a Walk Around Deer Creek on a Squidoo lens that I created before I moved.

It was good to see my landlord again, as well as some of the other people that we had become friendly with, including an elderly couple who had made sure that Debbie was ok when she came over to visit and I had to go to work.

We spent several hours by the pool, then had dinner with my landlord, and got an invitation to go out to dinner on Sunday at a typical Jewish New York Style Diner in Boca Raton to experience traditional Jewish food from New York.

A Day Of Shopping

With the girls away in Georgia, that left us free on Saturday to go shopping. We usually stock up on things which are cheaper in the USA, or that we just can’t get in the UK.

The day began with a trip to one of our favourite breakfast places, Golden Corral. It may not be everyone’s choice, and does attract the “Wal-Mart crowd” if you know what I mean, but the food is good and it’s excellent value.

Then a trip to Ross Dress For Less to see what they had in the way of bargains, and after that Kohls, a store that I have always liked, not only for their choice of items but their prices and special offers. Kohls had special discounts this weekend for their store card holders, so we both purchased some items, including gifts for the kids.

Next off to Wal-Mart again to stock up on food etc, and back to the condo as the heavens decided to open. It’s rather sad that we spent a nice day shopping and then when we would have liked to go in the pool it rained, but that’s summer in Florida for you.

Sunday we relaxed by the pool and then headed up to Deerfield Beach, firstly to see my landlord who has a shop at the Festival Flea Market and to get some cosmetics for Debbie as there are some discount stores there.

Dinner At A New York Style Jewish Restaurant

Our friends from Deerfield took us to Ben’s Kosher Deli in Boca Raton so that Debbie and I could experience some traditional New York Jewish food, and the place was buzzing, despite it raining.

Service was excellent, and as well as munching on pickles and trying pickled green tomatoes for the first time, we got to try Matzo Ball Soup and some real corned beef.

The meal was good, as was the company, and the atmosphere was wonderful too. The walls of the restaurant are covered with humorous quotes, for example this one:

Moses led us through the desert for 40 years until we came to the only place in the Middle East without any oil.

It was good to see our friends again, and with them being in their 80’s, you never know what the next year may bring as far as health, so it was good to spend some time with them.

Then after dinner we rushed back to the beach condo, in time for the girls to be dropped off to us after their long trip to Georgia. They didn’t get back until after 9:30pm, and I had promised them ice cream before bed, so of course having driven down from Georgia and had a late night, both were ready for a good sleep.

Coming Up Next Time

CLICK HERE for Part Five and join us next time for a trip to the Miami Metro Zoo.

Tony and Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Three

Posted on August 18, 2011 by tony

This is the third part of our vacation in Florida. If you missed the previous parts, here are the links to parts ONE and TWO.

Shopping And Relaxing

Since my daughters were not coming to stay with us until the evening, that allowed us to have a lie in after our first night in Florida, and to try and overcome some of the jet lag before they arrived, since adding an extra 5 hours to the day having flown from the UK and then going to bed late, catches up with you sooner or later.

Much of the day was already planned, and I had looked up the location of an IHOP restaurant for breakfast (Debbie’s choice) and also the nearest Super Wal-Mart, which is the cheapest and best place to shop. Although I had lived in Florida for 4 years, the decent Wal-Mart stores that I know are all north of Fort Lauderdale and further away, so we had to do some exploring and make our way to Miami Gardens, not the best of locations, but the drive was simpler than it looked on the map, and made easier because the store was right next door to Dolphin Stadium.

We had an enjoyable breakfast at IHOP, stocked up on groceries at Wal-Mart, then relaxed around the pool until it was time for me to pick up my daughters.

My How They Have Grown

The girls were so pleased to see me and I got some wonderful hugs and kisses from them. it was really hard not being able to see them for 18 months, a combination of not having enough money for the trip and Debbie getting sick, and despite having seen them regularly on Skype, it’s only when you see them in the flesh that you realise just how much they have grown.

My eldest daughter will be 11 next week, and it won’t be long before she is as tall as I am. Her younger sister, who will be 7 in a few weeks time, is not too far behind her either.

This trip was very special in another way, since it’s the first time that their Mom has allowed them to stay over with us, so the first time I have been able to tuck them into bed in 4 years, and it felt really good. We brought some books over for them, both are excellent readers, and so before bed we managed to read some stories, which was nice.

The following day the girls woke up early, and I took them to the beach early, allowing Debbie to have a lie in and to get ready.

We spent the morning in the pool and then the afternoon at the beach, the girls having a great time playing in the ocean, something that they rarely get a chance to do, despite living only 20 minutes from the beach.

Topeekeegee Yugnee Park

Better known locally as “TY Park”, this is a large park in Hollywood that I usually take the girls to, and which has a children’s playground, water park, a large lake, and lots of paths to walk.

We decided to go here the next day, to make a change from the pool and the beach, but as so often happens in Florida it was hot and humid and at times just too hot!

Fortunately there are shady patches in TY Park, and when you walk close to the lake it’s large enough for there to be a cooling breeze. The City of Hollywood also provides plenty of drinking fountains with chilled water, as well as water misting stations to help cool you off.

The girls had a great time there, and we returned to the condo exhausted.

Birthday Time

The next day, since the girl’s birthdays are coming up and we won’t be there to celebrate with them, we took them to the movies, to see Monte Carlo, starring Selena Gomez who they both like. This was a fun teen movie, which they both enjoyed, and was followed by a surprise trip to Toys R Us where they were given an allowance each to spend on birthday pressies. Then back to the condo for dinner, followed by an ice cream cake.

Coming Up Next

CLICK HERE for Part Four and join us for a trip to a Nature Reserve and to the Zoo.

Tony and Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Two

Posted on August 17, 2011 by tony

This is the second article about our trip to Florida, you can find the first part HERE.

The reason that we picked Hollywood Beach in Florida for our vacation is that I used to live there, and more importantly this is where my daughters live with their Mom, and returning toFlorida is the only way that I can see them.

On Arriving

We arrived on the Friday evening, rather later than expected due to the hold up in immigration, and although we were tired, we decided to head off to the beach and take a walk instead of going straight to bed.

Of course by the time we unpacked our bags and changed ready for a walk along the beach it was 8pm, which was 1am by our body clocks, but we still wanted to unwind and to stretch our legs a bit before heading off to bed.

Hollywood Beach

For those who are not familiar with Hollywood Beach, it’s a long stretch of beach between Miami and Fort Lauderdale on the east coast of Florida, on a strip of land that is separated from the mainland by the intra-coastal waterway.

Hollywood Beach still consists of a number of older buildings, some of which date back to the art-deco period, as well as some newer high rise condominiums and hotels. Many of the older buildings are apartments and motels that are rented out to tourists, and although some have been modernised, others definitely show their age. Nevertheless,Hollywood Beach does provide a relatively cheap place for “snowbirds” to spend the winter, and during the winter season it’s heaving with French Canadians and New Yorkers.

However, the summer months, which are hot and humid, and often troubled by tropical storms, are the low season, where prices are cheaper, and if you are lucky it’s a fairly quiet place to spend a summer vacation.

As part of the modernisation program undertaken by the City of Hollywood, the whole stretch of the Broardwalk that runs along the beach has now been rebuilt, with a nice promenade for walking, a lane for cyclists and skaters, the beach on one side and restaurants and gift shops on the other side.

For our first evening we decided to take a fairly short stroll along the broadwalk, and the smells from one of the restaurants made Debbie feel peckish, so we stopped for a bite to eat, Debbie having a Philly Cheesesteak while I had a Meatball Sub. Many of the restaurants cater to the New Yorkers who come to visit, and so you do find a number of them selling New Yorks tyle pizza and other Italian foods.

Having satisfied our food cravings, we headed back to the condo, and settled down for a good sleep, in what fortunately turned out to be a really comfortable bed.

Coming Up Next Time

CLICK HERE for Part Three, where we have a day to ourselves and go shopping and stock up on essentials ready for the arrival of my daughters the following evening.

Tony and Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part One

Posted on August 16, 2011 by tony

This is the story of our vacation in Hollywood, Florida, which was a trip to see my two daughters, who I had not seen for 18 months because we had to cancel our plans to travel last Christmas due to Debbie not being well.

The Outbound Journey

Since our flight left London Heathrow at 9:30am, we decided to stay overnight at one of the hotels close to the airport, and use their parking service, which worked out very reasonable as compared with the regular airport parking charges.

This allowed me to work the previous day, and to travel up to London in the evening, missing the horrendous rush hour traffic on the M25, and fortunately the traffic was fairly light on this occasion.

We had opted for a “Mystery Hotel”, since this was cheaper to book, and it turned out to be the Holiday Inn Ariel, which was well located, and serviced by the shuttle buses that take you to the terminals.

The hotel room was comfortable, and despite being on the north perimeter of the airport, we didn’t hear a single plane during the night, and managed to get a reasonable sleep, even though we still had to get up early to be on time for our flight.

Check in at the airport was fairly straightforward, and having passed through the scanners we headed off to find somewhere to eat breakfast. Places to eat at Heathrow Terminal 4 were sadly fairly limited, and everything was horribly overpriced. However we did manage to find somewhere that did a Full English Breakfast, and that set us up for our flight.

The flight with Delta left on time, and as usual the cabin crew were friendly and helpful. We have usually tried to fly with American Airlines before, but since our air miles have now expired (due to cancelling our previous trip) and their prices were far more expensive this time, we opted for Delta, which had the best prices as well as the best flight options. The other great thing with Delta is that unlike many other airlines, your air miles do NOT expire, so all the miles that I have built up with Northwest Airlines in the last 10 years are now carried forward and I won’t lose them.

The flight to Miami was fairly smooth, other than some moderate turbulence in mid-Atlantic, and we arrived early, however as usual for us, things do not always go smoothly on arrival.

Held Up In Immigration Again

Since I now have US Citizenship we opted to both enter through the US Citizen lane, and thought we were all clear, until the agent directed us to the holding area, where we sat for two hours before being allowed in. It seems that Debbie is likely to get pulled aside every time she enters the USA now, even though she has a 10 year visa in her passport. It’s a long story, one that you can read HERE if you wish, and it seems that her problems getting a visa are going to continue to trouble us, especially if we enter the USA via Miami.

So two hours later than expected, we picked up our baggage, took the shuttle to the car rental centre, a new centralised multi-level facility that will soon be connected to the airport terminals by monorail, picked up our car, and were off on our way.

If you are travelling to the USA I highly recommend using Car Hire 3000, since the rental rates are less than half what I would have paid if I tried to rent directly in the USA. The only condition is that you must have a non-US drivers licence and passport. The rental company is a mystery until you purchase, but they use the main car rental companies, and in our case it was Dollar, who I have used a number of times in the past.

Since they were short of mid-sized cars we got a free upgrade to a Jeep Patriot, which I didn’t really want since it uses more fuel, however in the end it did turn out to be handy.

Off To Hollywood Beach

So off we set for Hollywood Beach and the condo that we had rented, several hours later than expected and in the middle of the Miami rush hour, which I had hoped to avoid.

Fortunately, having lived in South Florida for 4 years, I know the highways pretty well, which helped a lot, and it took us less than an hour to reach our destination.

Finding a place to rent in Hollywood is not easy, especially if you are on a tight budget. There are always hotels and motels away from the beach, but some can be in bad neighbourhoods and not that well located for what we wanted.

Debbie is an expert at finding great places to stay however, and she found a condo for us that was not only a reasonable price, but it had a pool and was also only 100 yards from Hollywood Beach. Luckily the summer months are actually low season in South Florida, so not only were we able to find a good place to rent, many of the other condos were empty, so much of the time it was quiet and we had the pool to ourselves.

The pool was only 10 feet from the condo entrance, as you can see in the photo, and ours was only one of four condos that faced the pool, and these also had the only four parking spaces on the road as well. Debbie really did find us a great place to stay.

Next Time

CLICK HERE for Part Two to see how things went with our vacation in Hollywood Beach.

We Found A Really Cheap Way To Call South Africa From The UK

Posted on June 5, 2011 by tony

Debbie calls her daughter in South Africa regularly, and she has been using Skype, which is 8p/min, but her daughter’s laptop has finally packed up, and to call a mobile phone costs 13p/min (about 20cents in the US). OUCH!

We found a great calling card today while searching around, the IDT Gold Card, and this has lowered the cost of her calls to 7.67p/min, which is practically half price!

The card is practically perfect – you can register your home/mobile phone so you just have to enter their access number and it will recognize your account (Pinless Dialling), and it rounds up every minute too, so if you go a few seconds over a minute when calling, you don’t get charged for another 3 minutes like some cards.

Best of all there is no additional charge when you make a call (unless from a payphone), no maintenance fee, and having purchased the card it stays active for a whole year after the purchase date or the date that you recharged it.

I looked at their cards, and the rates are really good. If you make any international phone calls, even just a few times a year, this ought to save you a fair amount of money.

They have a variety of rates and cards for calling from and to most countries in the world as far as I can see.

L Is For Lime Cay In Jamaica

Posted on April 14, 2011 by tony

This is the third and final part of three articles that describe my first trip to Jamaica, which was to install a computer system for one of the petroleum companies.

You can find a link to the first part of the story under J Is For Jamaica.

Where we left off last time, the three of us who were working together in Jamaica had spent a weekend touring around Jamaica, taking in Dunn RiverFalls, Montego Bay and Negril, and had headed back to Kingston for a second busy week in the office.

We had enjoyed our previous weekend and were eager to not waste a minute of our second one, so on the Saturday morning we got into the car and headed off around the harbour to explore what was left of Port Royal, the old pirate town from the days of Captain Henry Morgan, and featured in just about every pirate movie.

Port Royal, which you can learn more about in The History Of Port Royal, was probably the most ill reputed place in the Caribbean by far, worse than South Beach in Miami even, but it all came to an end one summer day in 1692 when a strong earthquake and tsunami sent most of the town to the bottom of the ocean.

There are some interesting ruins here, old fortifications and other buildings, and a place that everyone ought to visit at least once, the Giddy House, which used to be the Royal Artillery Store, and which was tilted at a very odd angle by the earthquake. You can read a lot more about Port Royal and see some splendid photographs HERE.

The Giddy House Port Royal Jamaica The Giddy House is tilted in all axes, so that walking inside it gives you a really giddy sensation. Normally as we walk up a slope, the walls of the building that we are in are vertical, but in the Giddy House they are at an angle, and the floor tilts both up as well as to the right, confusing the brain and making you feel off balance. It’s a really odd sensation.

We found out that from Port Royal you could get a boat ride over to Lime Cay, which is about as close to a stereo-typical cartoon style desert island as you can get, and it’s only about 15 minutes off Port Royal, so we decided to return the following day.

On our way back to Kingston we stopped at Morgan’s Harbour, a marina and resort that had some jaw dropping yachts tied up, and we spent a couple of hours enjoying drinks, local food and the music of Bob Marley.

Other than my friend Jorge and myself, the third person was from the software house that had written the system we were installing, and since he did not swim, he decided to stay behind in the hotel on the Sunday while Jorge and I packed our snorkeling gear and drove back to Port Royal.

There we obtained the services of a fisherman who took us out to Lime Cay, and promised to come pick us up in a few hours.

Lime Cay Port Royal Jamaica

Lime Cay is wonderful! It’s a small island off from Port Royal, and the sea was fairly calm as we were motored across to it, in an open boat that was about 15 feet long and was powered by an outboard.

There were quite a few people on Lime Cay when we arrived, and a handful of nice cabin cruisers anchored as well. We found out that Sundays is the most popular day there for the locals, and some people had brought over the typical Jamaican oil drum barbecues and were offering Jerk Chicken with Rice and Peas to eat. Others had coolers with beers and soft drinks. Saturdays are less busy, and apparently during the week when it’s really quiet, it’s clothing optional too!

The island is small, surrounded by soft fine white sand, and has a clump of palm trees and other vegetation in the middle that offer some form of shade. With it being 380 meters long and only 80 meters wide, it’s definitely small, but on a hot sunny day it was pretty close to paradise.

Jorge and I snorkeled around the whole island in several goes, saw a Barracuda and plenty of other sea life, including Rays, Snapper, Kingfish etc. I got a nasty sting off some coral, but it was a perfect day.

Finally the boat came to pick us up, and it also picked up a few other people. It was barely better than a rowing boat, with low sides, and as the waves had got up by then, the sides of the boat were a scary 6 inches above the water at times. Spray kept coming over the front of the boat, and since there was no protection, those who were in the front half of the boat just got soaked, period!

We got back to the hotel tired and burnt, but having had a fantastic day.

We had a night flight back to London the following Saturday, but decided that we ought to not waste the day, and the two of us drove out to Lime Cay again, this time for an adventure.

With it being Saturday the island was almost deserted, and there was no food or drink to be had either. The boy who took us over there looked barely 13, but we got there, and had some good snorkeling, even though the sea was not quite as smooth as the previous Sunday.

By the time the boat arrived to pick us up about mid afternoon, we were wary that the clock was ticking and that we needed to get back to the hotel, to pack our bags, and be ready to head to the airport for our flight home.

We got under way, and had only made it about halfway back to Port Royal when the engine stopped. That left us bobbing about in the ocean, and although the boy claimed that he had enough fuel, when Jorge shook the tank it was obvious that it was empty. So GREAT, stuck in a small boat in the middle of the ocean, bobbing up and down and out of fuel.

Time after time the boy tried to start the engine without fail, but without fuel we knew it wasn’t going to work. Several other boats went past, but a good way off, and despite our waving to try and get their attention, it was a good half hour or more before we finally did get someone to come over, explained the problem, and got a tow back to Port Royal.

Off back to the hotel, to pack our bags, check out, and off to the airport.

This was my first trip to the Caribbean, and the first of 4 in total to Jamaica for work, but a wonderful experience that served only to heighten the travel bug in me.

Stay tuned for more travel stories…

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