December 28, 2019 – January 4, 2020.

While we were slaving away in Raleigh running the hotels, we made holiday plans with the kids and our relatives. We planned to visit family in Baltimore and Dover, Delaware, New York City, and the Boston, Mass area. We did this via car staying either at a family home or hotels along the way.

We headed up from Ft. Myers, Florida to Dover, Delaware to visit my aunt Elaine and my cousin Paul and his family. We usually manage to see them every couple of years as we head up and down the east coast.

We also went to visit my mother’s grave and inspect her grave marker for the first time.

It was off to Baltimore after paying our respects to my mother. We went to visit my daughter Jessica and her husband Vijay and Mars, their dog. Jessica is expecting their first child (and our first grandchild) in March. Mars is about to be supplanted as the number one focus in their household.

After Baltimore, it was off to New York City to visit son Todd and his girlfriend Li and their dog Ruby. Jessica, Vijay, and Mars to come up a few days later. We all planned to spend New Year’s Eve in Todd’s apartment waiting for the ball drop. We all made it to midnight, which impressed Andrea and me alot.

The next day it was some sightseeing and dinner and a jazz show in Greenwich Village.

After a great few days in New York, it was off to Boston. We planned to visit with my aunt Annie and cousin Ellie. We also wanted to do some genealogy research on my father’s side of the family, as he was born and raised in Boston.

We visited the Chelsea City Hall and Library to try to find some records on my great grandparents, John and Elizabeth Goodell. Unfortunately, no luck. We did find my grand father’s and step grandmother’s grave site in Maple Cemetery in Peabody, Ma.

The next day it was off to explore Salem, MA, the site of the famous witch trials and witch burnings in the 1680’s until 1692. We visited the graveyard that has many of the graves of the “witches” and other notables of the times.

That night we had dinner with my 87 year old aunt Annie. My cousin Ellie was sick unfortunately, but we still had a wonderful time with Annie, again exploring our family history and hearing some new stories about my father and my uncles.

The next day we started the drive back to Florida. This time we were heading for Orlando to stay in our friend Chuck’s condo as our Ft. Myers condo had been rented out for the Florida winter season. Hey, more traveling money, right?

November 1 – December 13, 2019

We had just gotten back from our 4 month European trip and were driving our rental car from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fl to Orlando, Florida to pick up our personal car and head to our condo in Ft. Myers, Florida for a bit. As we were driving north on the Florida Turnpike, I got a phone call from an old friend and former boss, Tom. He wanted to know if I would be interested in doing a consulting job in Raleigh, NC to help him take over a couple of hotels in the area that his company was about to start managing. I thanked him, explained that Andrea and I were now primarily traveling, and asked him to call me back in about 3 years. We might be done traveling by then and interested in working a bit.

I disconnected the call and then told Andrea about the offer. She immediately said “Call him back. We just spent 4 months traveling around Europe. We could use the extra cash.”

So, I called Tom back and he laughed as he answered the phone, “How did 3 years turn into 3 minutes?” he said. Oh well, Andrea had a point. It never hurts to earn some money if you can.

So, it turns out that we were to help him take over a Days Inn by the Raleigh, NC airport and a Microtel Inn in nearby Hillsborough, NC. We would go on site and stay until Tom could find a permanent General Manager for the properties. No problem we thought. Keep an eye on the hotels and staff, install some new policies and procedures, and go to the bank every now and then to deposit hotel’s money. Boy, were we wrong!

To back up a bit, both Andrea and I had been in the hotel business for many decades before we retired. We have run single and multiple property operations that ran the gamut from extended stay hotels to major franchised full service properties. We are what is known as “old pros” in the hotel biz.

So, the prospect of spending a month or two helping out an old friend (and earning a few bucks along the way) did not seen particularly daunting. As we drove up to Raleigh from Ft. Myers we figured that as long as there were enough staff to cover the shifts, we would be fine and making easy money. Famous last words!

We arrived at the Days Inn, along with Tom and his other company representatives to do the take over. We quickly found out that the reason for the take over was that the previous management team had been doing a terrible job at managing the hotels, including severely under staffing them. So right from the beginning, Andrea and I spent many, many, hours and days covering shifts for absent workers, workers that quit as soon as we took over, workers that suddenly took unexpected vacations, and workers that just didn’t show up. This was for 2 properties, mind you. We worked more shifts in the time we were at these hotels then we had done for years running our own properties before retirement. So much for some easy consulting money.

We were in Raleigh for about 6 weeks. In those 6 weeks we had 2 weekends off. We worked 10 and 12 days straight on a regular basis. Again, this was just to cover shifts and keep the doors open. We did manage to install the policies and procedures they wanted us to, but not nearly as efficiently as we wanted to.

We also dealt with several major issues with the properties and failed inspections from the local fire department. Back in April 2019 the Days Inn had failed it’s annual fire inspection. The fire department gave the managers at the time 90 days to fix the issues. They did not do this. The 3rd day we were on site, the fire inspector came back to check on the progress of the repairs, of which there were none. The fire marshal threatened to close the hotel if we did not do the bare minimum of the requirements. He gave us 48 hours to do the repairs or he would close the hotel. Luckily, Andrea and one hotel maintenance person managed to clean up and repair the items in time. The darn fire marshal actually showed up before the deadline expecting to shut down the hotel, but Andrea had completed the work early, thank goodness.

In the 6 weeks we were in Raleigh, we did manage a day or two of sightseeing and travel. Andrea went to visit a friend of her’s in Virginia, a few hours away. My friend Tom is a major college basketball fan. Duke University is just minutes away from the Microtel in Hillsborough. One day when he was up for a visit, we snuck away and visited the campus. It was pretty exciting.

We even got real lucky and managed to tag along on a Cameron Arena private tour and got to walk out onto the basketball court.

Andrea and manged to get away one Sunday to visit downtown Raleigh and a nearby park and art museum.

After the museum, it was off to the nearby North Carolina Museum of Art. This facility also had a very nice park with sculptures.

After 5 weeks on the job, Tom found his general manager. She came up from Florida and worked with us for a week. We then returned back to sunny Florida, tired and weary, but with a few more bucks in the bank account. Tom thanked us and told us we did a great job. His only concern was that we wouldn’t want to do the consulting thing again because this one was such a pain in the butt. He explained that he has these situations come up on a fairly regular basis.

We told him, “We’ll see”

You never know.

September 30 – October 8, 2019

After Lisbon, Portugal we were supposed to head a bit west and visit the Azore Islands. Unfortunately, we were scheduled to arrive on October 2, 2019 at the same time that category 5 Hurricane Lorenzo was scheduled to arrive at the islands. Needless to say, the captain cancelled that port (our 2nd port cancellation of this cruise) and headed straight southwest to sunny Florida.

The next day out of Lisbon, we were approaching the Madeira Islands, just off the coast of Africa, about 360 miles straight west of Morocco. We were hoping that the captain would stop here as a way to make up for missing the Azores. No such luck. However, we did get very close to the islands in order to perform another emergency medical evacuation off the ship to the Madeira Islands coast guard.

Now, just because the captain headed south did not mean we were not affected by the hurricane. After one day out from Lisbon we were feeling the effects of the hurricane, even though we were hundreds of miles away. So, guess what? Another few days of rocking and rolling on the Crown Princess. Again we got stuck in 30 – 40 mile per hour winds and 15 – 20 foot seas.

The really bad part was even on the good days, beautiful days, with bright, warm, sunny conditions and very smooth seas; the Crown Princess never stopped rolling. I looked into the design of the hull and saw that it had virtually no stabilization at all. Most of the big ships have big wings underneath the hull that actually sail through the water, keeping the ship level and to prevent rolling. The Crown Princess had 2 little bitty wings that did not do the job.

So, we had a lot of days that looked like the following:

I also think the the rough seas led to this……..

So, we spent the last 7 days of our great trip sloshing around the Crown Princess as we bumped along to Ft. Lauderdale. Just to add insult to injury, we ran into a tropical depression a few days outside of the US. We simply could not catch a break on this trip.

The ship was pretty comfortable, except for the constant movement.

Finally, into the Port of Everglades and the good ol’ USA.

We collected our luggage, got through customs, took a taxi to the car rental in the airport, and drove back to Orlando to pick up our personal car.

All in all, a trip of a lifetime. We were on 4 different continents in 4 months. We started in North America, went to Europe, on to Egypt in Africa and Jordan in Asia, then back. Let’s see what is next on the travel agenda for Andrea and Randy!

Map progress – Lisbon, Portugal to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA by ship.

September 29, 2019

After another bumpy sea day, we arrived at the Port of Lisbon, Portual. Andrea and I have been to Lisbon before and remembered it as a lively and exciting city. This time we had the day to ourselves and jumped on another Hop On, Hop Off bus to explore some parts of town we had not seen before.

The Belem District is the primary spot in Lisbon for historical sights and to wander along the banks of the Tagus River.

After spending the day wandering and riding through the city, it was time to head back to the ship and out to the Atlantic Ocean.

We headed out into the ocean, into a gorgeous sunset.

Good bye Lisbon, off the the New World across the pond.

Map progress, Bilbao, Spain to Lisbon, Portugal by boat.

September 26 – 27, 2019

After losing our opportunity to dock in Portsmouth, England the captain headed west, then south, out of the English channel into the Bay of Biscay to dock in Le Verdon in the Bordeax area of France. We arrived there the next day.

We decided to take in the seaside town of Le Verdon and spent the day on the beach watching the winds whip the sand around and generally make a mess of things.

This seaside port is pretty laid back. Again, as mentioned in previous posts, we are here at the end of the summer tourist season. So, it is pretty quiet.

The port itself around the ship is quite pretty with some sailboats enjoying the high winds around the entrance to the harbor and the lighthouse.

Later that day we are back on the ship and headed south again. This time we land in Bilboa, Spain the next day. Bilboa is a bigger and livelier town than Le Verdon, pretty much a small city. The city itself has some interesting architecture and art work, featuring a giant dog that seems to be made out of flowers.

Later that day, it is off to sea again, heading to Portugal.

Map progress – England to Bordeaux, France. Then on to Bilboa, Spain by boat.

September 22, 2019

We spent the night in Southampton, getting ready to board our Crown Princess cruise ship. Over the past 4 months we have already been on 2 cruises. One, a Viking Ocean cruise through the Adriatic and the other a Viking River cruise on the Nile River in Egypt. Now it was time for the big one!

Last year while planning how to get back home to the US after the Egypt River cruise and post excursion to Jordan; we found it was extremely expensive to fly directly from Jordan back to the US. So, we decided to continue the adventure and work our way slowly westward. By piecing together airplane hops back through Europe, visiting our friends Mike and Stephanie in England and other sights; we discovered that we could book a transatlantic cruise to get us back home for roughly the same cost of flying back directly from Jordan. It seemed like the perfect way to end our trip.

The reason the cost was so reasonable for this 16 day cruise is because the ship was repositioning itself. It had just finished it’s summer Mediterranean cruises and was heading south to do the winter cruises in the Caribbean. So, the cost was very reasonable for this one way journey.

The itinerary was 16 days, 6 ports of call, and 10 sea days. It looked like a great way to go home. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had different plans for us. After all, we were heading out into the North Atlantic Ocean in the fall. Kind of a rough time of year.

Everything started off just fine. We dropped of the rental car at the Southampton Airport the night before the cruise. It was a good thing that we did as the route was very confusing and full of traffic. The morning of the cruise we just booked a cab from the hotel to take us directly to the ship. Easy, peasy.

Part of the reason for this good price that we got for the cruise was the fact that we booked a “partially obstructed” cabin. They would not let us pick the exact cabin when we did the original booking. A week before we were to leave, we got an email stating that our partially obstructed cabin had become a totally obstructed cabin. We had visions of being stuck behind a life boat or some structure that would prohibit us from any kind of a view out of the cabin.

When we boarded, we found it wasn’t a total disaster. Our view was blocked by a railing and a walkway outside of our cabin. Not the best view on the boat, but still better than an interior cabin.

The original cruise itinerary stated we would have port calls in Zeebruge Belgium, Portland England, Le Verdon (Bourdeaux) France, Bilbao Spain, Lison Portugal, and the Azore Islands (a Portuguese territory). Unfortunately, we ran into Hurricane Humberto, Hurricane Lorenzo, and a tropical depression on the way to Ft. Lauderdale. It made for a very long and bumpy boat ride. It also caused us to miss two ports, which just increased the number of sea days in the rough seas. Kind of a giant pain in the neck. Not to mention the good possibility of being seasick the entire trip.

The trip started off fine. We left Southampton early evening and headed across the English Channel to the port of Zeebruge, Belgium. We docked early in the morning and loaded up on a bus that took us into the adjoining seaside town of Blankenberge.

Just off the bus, we walk around a little garden and head into town towards the beach.

We walked up to the pier you see in the background and had a nice lunch and a drink or two. This is in September, so their summer season is over. We saw many vendors and attractions breaking apart their rides, shops, etc. to store them for the winter until next spring.

After a fun day at the beach, it was back to the ship. We were supposed to recross the English Channel and dock at the Port of Portland, England.

This was kind of a big deal to a lot of the passengers, as one of the excursions from Portland was to see the Stonehenge prehistoric monument. As Andrea and I have both seen this fascinating site, we were planning to just go into town again and explore the area.

Unfortunately, Hurricane Humberto changed our plans. Humberto had rocked Florida and the Eastern Coast of the U.S. and worked his way up to the UK. He was still a tropical storm when he arrived in Portland at the same time we did.

Early in the morning, when we should have been docking, we felt the boat getting hammered by the waves and winds. Finally around 8AM the captain made a ship wide announcement that he just couldn’t get into port to dock. So, for the safety of the ship, crew, and passengers he aborted the landing and started to head south. This was not the last change in our travel plans that we had this trip.

So now, we are in the ship getting rocked by 20-25 foot seas and 45 mile per hour winds. Not a real pleasant ride.

See the attached video to experience these seas in the boat, on the deck, and in our cabin.

Map progress – Southampton, England to Zeebruge, Belgium by ship.

September 20 – 21, 2019

After a great week with our friends Mike and Stephanie in Filey, England, it was time to wind our way to southern England. We planned to take a transatlantic cruise back to the United States. But more on that in later posts.

First we drove south west towards Thirsk, England. We have a good friend, Rich West in the US, who is an Englishman and was born and raised in this area. We decided to drive by his old stomping grounds and also see the Kilburn White Horse.

First we had to drive to the top of North York Moors National Park. It is not a huge mountain, but it has a great view of the surrounding valleys and farmlands.

Next it was time to drive around the mountain to get to the Kilburn White Horse statue. This was built in 1857 by sculpting directly into the side of the mountain.

After this great view, it was back on the road, heading to Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare.

Along the way we passed a few other English classic locations.

That night we made it to the Hallmark Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon and just relaxed for the evening.

The next day it was off to see the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Supposedly Randy is related to the bard through his mother’s side. She claimed that we are his very distant cousins. Oh well, who knows? It sounds good anyway.

Startford-upon-Avon is exactly what the name implies. The town of Stratford located on the Avon River. The river gently winds through the town and provides a lot of local flavor and serenity.

The highlight of Stratford-upon-Avon is obviously William Shakespeare’s birthplace. Shakespeare was born in this house in 1564. The house was expanded by his father, John Shapespeare several times. It is basically 3 houses joined into one.

While John was alive, the house was used as a glover’s shop. Upon John’s death in 1601 William Shakespeare inherited the house. As he was already wealthy by then, he turned a portion of the house into the Swan and Maidenhead Inn. The Inn stayed in the house until 1847. The house was in turn inherited by Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna, who in turn left it to her daughter Elizabeth.

After exploring the town and house, we then moved on to Warwick Castle, just a few minutes down the road from Stratford-upon-Avon.

Andrea has many fond memories of Warwick Castle, as she and her family used to go there on a regular basis when she was a child, growing up in England. It was a lot of fun for both her and me to revisit the Castle and walk in her foot steps from many years ago.

The castle is quite large and features extensive grounds, wild life, and culinary treats.

We were able to explore inside the castle and then see a great bird show featuring hawks, eagles, and buzzards.

Warwick Castle was built in 1068 by William the Conqueror as a wooden fort. The current structure was built in the 12th century and strengthened and rebuilt over the next few hundred years.

The interesting fact about the current castle is that it was purchased by the creators of the Madame Toussaud museums in 1978. The owner at the time, the Earl of Warwick, was no longer able to financially keep the castle open and just sold out. He got a mere 2.5 million pounds for the property.

As the Toussauds Group is a major entertainment company, they introduced wax sculptures of famous inhabitants and guests of the castle. These wax figures add a very unique and fascinating view of life in the castle over the years.

At the end of the day, it is off to our hotel in Southampton to get ready to board the Crown Princess cruise ship. Once aboard we will begin our 16 day transatlantic cruise from Southampton, England to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We were really looking forward to the experience. Spoiler alert, be careful of what you wish for!

Map progress – Filey, England to Stratford-upon-Avon by car, then off to Southampton, England.

September 19, 2019

In our continuing adventures with our friends Mike and Steph Driscoll in Filey, England; Mike and I went to Scarborough one day for him to visit his doctor to check up on his hip replacement. The doctor’s appointment went very quickly, so we had time to explore the town and the prom a bit.

Scarborough is a seaside town on the North Sea and is home to the 12th century Scarborough Castle. We stayed in the prom area (beach promenade for the US folks). There was a lot more beer joints there.

The tide in this North Sea area is very dramatic, probably 25 feet difference between low and high tide. It is so dramatic, the boats are literally in the sea bottom at low tide.

The next day, it was off on a grand adventure on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. This old time railway features reconditioned steam engines that make runs up and down the North Yorkshire Moors railway. This area is made up of a very large National Park and many working farms. Sheep and crops dominate the countryside.

We took the train from Pickering up to Whitby, with several stops along the way. It is about 23 miles between the two cities. The rail roads we went on are used for the national rail system for much longer runs, but the steam engines we traveled on were primarily for tourist and train enthusiast passengers.

The NYMR features the same equipment and feel of the old time railways.

After busting our butts to get to the train station on time, our train finally arrives, about 30 minutes late. Hey, better late than never.

We had a very pleasant train ride through the Moors and reached our destination of Whitby, about an hour later. We wanted to stop off in 2 places on the way back, so we just stayed on the train and headed south again.

The first stop was Grosmont. We had lunch there and saw the train yard where they worked on the trains. We also got to see some real live train maneuvering in action.

After Grosmont, we stopped in Goatland. Goatland station is one of the film locations of the first Harry Potter movie. The scene where Harry, Hermione, and Ron get off the Hogwart’s Express and meet Hagred at Hogwarts’s castle was filmed here. To say it was underwhelming, was an understatement. Still kind of old England interesting though.

We made it back on the train and back to Pickering. All in all, a very interesting and unusual day.

Map progress – none, still in Filey, England.

September 14 – 20. 2019

We took off from Dublin, Ireland on good ol’ Ryan Air and landed in Manchester, England a few hours later. We were met at the airport by our good friend Michael Driscoll, who drove us to his and his wife Stephanie’s house in Filey, England. There we reunited with Max the retriever, their four cats and the new retriever addition to the family. Us four humans are very good friends and have been traveling companions around the continents. We have been on trips with Mike and Steph several times in the last few years, but have not seen the animals since we visited them all when they were living Cypress about 5 years ago.

After bumming around their lovely home for a few days and visiting the lovely seaside town of Filey and their prom on the water; we decided to take a day trip to York, England. This was a short train ride away.

After a 45 minute train ride, we arrive in York.

The area of York has been inhabited by humans since 7,000 BC. It has been recognized as the City of York since Roman times since 71 AD.

The city has several major features including the city wall, York Minster, and Shambles.

The city wall still surrounds, and used to protect, the entire city.

The wall is still in use as a residential pathway and has numerous bars and restaurants in what used to be the defensive towers.

The York Minster Cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous churches in England. The original church was built in 672 AD and underwent several periods of decay and then fires and then destruction by invading armies . Around 1,200 AD the current structure was built. It has been renovated and enlarged over the last 800 years. Most recently it was renovated in 1971 at a cost of 2,000,000 pounds to deal with the structural issues the building had.

The Minster is home to the grave and shrine of St William. Pilgrims have been coming to this site since the 1,200’s AD to pay homage to him.

York Minster houses the graves and shrines of many known, and many now forgotten, noblemen, clergy and influential people through the ages.

One of the most important figures in the history of the Minster was Archbishop Walter de Gray. He oversaw a lot of the renovations during his time and was one of the most powerful archbishops of his era.

After exploring the Minster, it was time to wander about and get some lunch. We had lunch at the world famous Betty’s Tea Room. An English classic if there ever was one.

We then were directed to go the the area known as the Shamble by another English friend of ours, Rich West. The Shambles is the street that inspired Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter novels.

It was now time to get back to the train. While crossing a bridge over the River Ouse we saw a sight you don’t see every day.

Then back on the train to Filey and dinner.

Map progress – Dublin, Ireland to Manchester, England by plane. Manchester, England to Filey, England courtesy of a car ride by Michael Driscoll.

September, 14, 2019

On our final day in Dublin, we had some time to spare in the morning. Our flight over to Manchester, England did not leave until 5:30PM, so we had most of the day to continue our exploration of Dublin.

What better use of time can you do then visit a distillery and get some free samples of Irish Whiskey?

Now, let’s get a few facts straight about Irish Whiskey. It is very good stuff. Somewhere between Scotch and Kentucky bourbon. Also, we really like Jameson Irish Whiskey. We have consumed a bottle or two over the years.

However, before we can do the fun stuff, we decide to get educated a bit. We head off to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. For those of you that have not heard of the Book of Kells (like me up until the day before we went there), it is a book written by a bunch of monks during the 9th century AD. It contains the best illustrated version of the first four books of the New Testament of the Bible. The Book of Kells is on permanent display at Trinity College in Dublin. The college itself is very historic having been founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I of England. Some of it’s more notable graduates are Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift (who wrote Gulliver’s Travels) and Bram Stoker. You may recall, avid reader, that we spent many weeks in Romania tracing the steps of Vlad the Impaler, who was the inspiration for Stoker’s Dracula.

We walk through the old historic campus and get into the library. Once again, we bought tickets on line the night before and missed the 30 minute wait for the rookies who bought tickets the day of.

We wander through the building on the way to the exhibit and into the main library in the college. It is like a scene out of a Harry Potter novel.

You can’t take pictures of the actual books, but they are fascinating. The colors and details have survived extremely well over the last 1,100 years.

After our stint at being cultured, it was off to the whiskey!

This particular location used to be the original site of the distillery from 1780 until 1971 when the company expanded into it’s current facilities outside the city. This location is the historical preservation of the building and the primary tourist site for the company.

We finally get to the good stuff. The tasting room.

After the distillery tour, we wandered around the area for a bit. We chanced upon the Dublin Gardens. It is a very historical portion of the city that houses, of all things, the grave of Jonathan Swift.

Among the various paths and garden areas was this very interesting sculpture. Look familiar to you?

Finally we came across the grave of Jonathan Swift. Nice place to spend eternity, Jonathan.

Finally, we ran out of time and had to head off to the airport. Goodbye Dublin. We are off to England!

Map progress – none, still in Dublin.