Skip to content
Retired and Restless.scot

Retired and Restless.scot

Exploring Scotland, Europe and the World

  • Home
  • Big Trips
    • Browse All Big Trip Intros
    • 2020
      • Japan in Winter
    • 2021
      • England Grand Tour
      • California, Here We Come!
    • 2022
      • Thailand Contrasts
  • About This Site
  • 2004-2019 Archive
  • Search Guide

Tag: Hilton Group

Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 17: One Night in Bangkok

20 December 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

Although largely dedicated to relocation, today still managed to be reasonably interesting and enjoyable. Breakfast was a little different and considerably more colourful than usual as the hotel was hosting

Continue reading

Thailand Contrasts (2022): Days 8-11: At Leisure on Phuket

28 November 2022 RandR.scot Asia, Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Thailand

Our room Our Phuket hotel, where Bruce had arrived on schedule on the first day of the new month, was the Hilton Arcadia Resort & Spa, situated at Karon Beach.

Continue reading

Thailand Contrasts (2022): Days 3-5: Last few hours in Amsterdam … or so I thought!

7 November 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Europe, Netherlands

The reason why I’m treating this as a block of three days will become clear soon enough. Today started out well enough and initially ran as planned. After checking out

Continue reading

Thailand Contrasts (2022): Day 1: Getting started with a North Sea hop

7 November 2022 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, Europe, Netherlands, Scotland, UK

It was the most unassuming of starts to an intercontinental trip: a short hop to Amsterdam in Economy. Regular readers will know that this is not necessarily unusual for me.

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

August 2021: London: Westminster Abbey

17 October 2021 RandR.scot England, Europe, UK

Accommodation The previous night’s accommodation was at the Hilton Paddington. Bruce needed to leave for home in the morning, but I had use of the room until 4pm. This provided

Continue reading

June 2021: London in Summer (Part 2)

8 August 2021 RandR.scot England, Europe, UK

Hotel 2: Conrad St James Our base for the second group of two nights was the elegant Conrad London St James, across the street from St James’s Park underground station.

Continue reading

England Grand Tour (2021): Day 9: And so to London

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

We hit the jackpot with this morning’s breakfast, which was at The Coffee Shop in tiny Sherfield on Loddon. The venue turned out to be a lovely, welcoming place attached

Continue reading

England Grand Tour (2021): Day 5: Winchester and More

29 June 2021 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry, England, Europe, UK

Onwards to Winchester Today’s breakfast was at Caffè Nero on Marlborough’s High Street, after which it was back to the Premier Inn for showers and packing. Our next destination was

Continue reading

December 2020: Christmas Cheer(s) in London

20 February 2021 RandR.scot England, Europe, UK

Arrival The last trip of 2020, and for an as yet indeterminate period thereafter, was once again to London. Outbound travel was on Sunday 13 December. The first two nights

Continue reading

September 2020: Berlin (Part 1)

4 November 2020 RandR.scot Europe, Germany

Ku’damm / Zoo area May as well start with where we were based! We were delighted to spend our four-night stay at the brand-new Hampton by Hilton Berlin City West,

Continue reading

March 2020: Three Cities: 2. London

27 August 2020 RandR.scot England, Europe, UK

I arrived in London from Amsterdam, unusually, and a little later than planned (thanks to issues with the GWR service from Bristol), met up with Bruce at our base for

Continue reading
Lounge decor

Japan in Winter (2020): Diary Epilogue

9 August 2020 RandR.scot Big Trip, Big Trip Diary Entry

While the main part of the trip was over at this point, it would take another four days for me to make my fairly leisurely way back to Edinburgh. Saturday

Continue reading
Text and photos copyright © 2020-23. All rights reserved.