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Harriet (my wife) and I have been travelling overseas every two years to see the world. In between, we have been seeing parts of Australia which is a very large country. We are also a member of Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific (a holiday share organisation) where we have available free accommodation in 4-star apartments around Australia. These are largely free of cost.
We are able to go on these trips because we have no mortgage and I receive a lifetime Income Protection Policy Payment I receive every month for life.
I shouldn’t be here. In December 1995 (twenty-eight years ago from 2023), I had a very severe brain injury falling off a boogie-board in shallow water in the surf at Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia.
See my story at: A life-changing situation.
We both love history and art and it is very profound to us. People express their ideas on life in the way they build and arrange their living spaces. It is a bit hard to go back to 79 A.D. when Pompeii was a thriving Roman city and was buried with so little warning by 5-6 metre of volcanic ash from Mt. Vesuvius. Pompeii was literally frozen in time.
You can easily spend a whole day walking the original stone cobbled streets looking at all the houses, temples, public baths, and shop fronts.
People express their ideas on life in the way they build and arrange their living spaces. They may be largely ignorant of you and the way you live and where you even live. Here are some years and countries we have been to:
| Trip No. | Year | Trip Length | Trip Destination | ||
| Trip 1 | 2003 | England | |||
| Trip 2 | 2004 | Port Douglas in Queensland, Australia | |||
| Trip 3 | 2005 | Italy | |||
| Trip 4 | 2007 | France | |||
| Trip 5 | 2008 | Canada | |||
| Trip 6 | 2009 | England again | |||
| Trip 7 | 2010 | The South Island of New Zealand | |||
| Trip 8 | 2011 | China trip | |||
| Trip 9 | 2012 | two weeks | The Kimberleys in Western Australia | ||
| Trip 10 | 2013 | Scenic Tours: Amsterdam for two days then a river cruise for 14 days from Amsterdam | |||
| to Budapest on the Rhine river with Scenic Tours. See this website. We then personally caught | |||||
| a train to Prague (six hours), stayed for two days, and then we flew home via Singapore after 3.5 weeks | |||||
| Trip 11 | 2014 | South Africa and Madagascar | |||
| Trip 12 | 2015 a | Voyages to Antiquity … Cruises to Ancient Civilisations | |||
| Trip 13 | 2015 b | 27th November – 13th December |
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| Trip 14 | 2016 | 23rd September – 8th November | THE USA HOLIDAY | ||
| Trip 15 | 2017 | 4 – 19th August | 16 days | Japan | |
| Trip 16 |
2018 | September | 17 days | Voyages to Antiquity: … Cruises to Ancient Civilisations | |
| We sailed from Lisbon (in Portugal) to Rome over 17 days across the top of the Mediterranean Sea … we saw: | |||||
| SPAIN: Cadiz, Malanga, Valencia, Barcelona | |||||
| FRANCE: Carcassonne, Marseilles, French Rivera | |||||
| ITALY: Florence (by bus), Rome …. Colosseum etc. |
When the trip finished in Rome, Harriet and I took another week going up by train to Lake Como then down to Milan for two days. Then we flew home to Brisbane via a night in Dubai. It was six hours from Milan to Dubai and thirteen hours from Dubai to Brisbane ….. a long way to travel.
On the way up to Lake Como, we stopped off at Assisi for two days then Verona for two days then Bellagio, Lake Como for two days. Then we went down to Milan for two days on our way home. I came back home with about 5,250 ++ photos …….. there was so much to see !!
| Trip 17 |
2018 | September | 3 weeks | Albatross tours |