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Category: FEATURED CONTENT

California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 11: Sausalito, the Castro and North Beach revisited

16 March 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

Trip to Sausalito Today’s breakfast was at a nearby Blue Bottle Café, and this was followed by our usual shower routine before the day got underway in earnest. One notable

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 10: San Francisco on Foot

6 March 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

Today began at a leisurely pace: we had a very light Starbucks breakfast and returned to base for showers. The first real event was our 1130 reservation for dim sum

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 9: Arrival in San Francisco

2 March 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

Emeryville – San Francisco Today’s objective was delightfully simple: to relocate across the bay to San Francisco and get settled in for the longest and most luxurious hotel stay of

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 8: An Amtrak Thanksgiving

1 March 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

Los Angeles – Emeryville It was Thanksgiving Day – and our big Amtrak day! It began with a little bit of early-morning stress, but we eventually succeeded in finding a

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 7: From San Diego to Los Angeles

26 February 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

Morning walk in San Diego Once again, it was the same early-morning start for Bruce. After breakfast and showers, we took a morning walk in glorious sunshine, through downtown and

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 6: Walking in San Diego

23 February 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

Gaslamp Quarter to Balboa Park Bruce again had his early-starting half-day at work. As previously, he popped out at 9am to pick up some breakfast for both of us, this

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 5: Day Trip to Carlsbad

18 February 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, North & Central America, USA

Downtown San Diego Bruce was working Boston-time half-days until Thanksgiving, which meant 0530-0900 Pacific – clearly an alarm was essential! At the end of his stint we had a Starbucks

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Days 3&4: Our Outbound Flying-Fest

16 February 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Featured Flight, North & Central America, USA

London-Helsinki on Finnair Once again, we followed the recently established pattern of no pre-departure breakfast, due to our proximity to the airport. Catching the Piccadilly Line to the airport, we

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 2: And now, erm … back to the UK!

16 February 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, England, Europe, UK

Schiphol-Heathrow Today started by following a similar approach to that used on Thursday: we left the hotel without eating, intending to have some form of breakfast in the lounge. In

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Day 1: Quick Visit to Amsterdam

16 February 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Europe, Netherlands

Heathrow-Schiphol The trip was now underway in earnest, and you join me as Bruce & I enter the so-called ‘First’ lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5, which in reality is for

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Diary Prologue

16 February 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry

As the first travelling day of this trip was purely a positioning exercise to London Heathrow, with no sightseeing component at all, I thought of it as ‘Day Zero’ rather

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California, Here We Come! (2021): Introduction

16 February 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Intro, England, Europe, France, Netherlands, North & Central America, UK, USA

Yes, California here we come … but forgive us if we take the scenic route. (See above categories, and there are a further two countries that we merely transited!) 2021

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England Grand Tour (2021): Day 20: Going Home

31 July 2021 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, England, Europe, Scotland, UK

With today being the final day of the trip for me, we decided to go out for a slightly more substantial breakfast than usual. The venue was Boston Tea Party

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England Grand Tour (2021): Days 18-19: Return to Bristol & A day in Bath

30 July 2021 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, England, Europe, UK

Day 18: Monday Today was probably the most low-key day of the trip. We drove from Borehamwood back to Bristol Airport, returned the rental car and completed the journey to

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England Grand Tour (2021): Day 17: Bletchley Park & St Albans

28 July 2021 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, England, Europe, UK

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is a country house and estate which is now within the boundaries of Milton Keynes, the largest town in Buckinghamshire. It became the main centre for

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England Grand Tour (2021): Day 16: Cambridge and more

22 July 2021 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, England, Europe, UK

Beautiful Cambridge Our first true destination in this second ‘road trip within a trip’ was a new one for Bruce: the beautiful university city of Cambridge. Although I had visited

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England Grand Tour (2021): Days 12-15: Based in Bristol & On the Road once more

13 July 2021 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, England, Europe, UK

Day 12: Tuesday The day began with another complimentary Hilton breakfast, and we both reverted to the ‘full English’ option. In due course, we took the Central Line from Holland

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England Grand Tour (2021): Day 11: South Bank to East End

11 July 2021 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, England, Europe, UK

Bank Holiday Monday got underway with another complimentary breakfast, thanks to Bruce’s status with Hilton. This time, we both decided on a lighter, more continental approach to the first meal

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