Stratford Upon Avon

Went to Stratford checked out Shakespeare country, always surprising as you don’t expect to see really old houses right next door to modern ones.









It hasn’t changed much since I was there over 10 years ago but as its been very similiar since shakespeares time so I shouldn’t be too surprised!

Warwick

Spent the day in Warwick, the castle is superb well worth a day trip from London. It's owned by the Tussaud’s group so its really easy to appreciate what it must have been like in medieval times.




Gorgeous crisp winters day, it's meant to be snowing again very soon so i made the most of every second of sunshine.





On a totally different subject if you get the chance go and see Slumdog Millionaire, and Wicked the musical both are fantastic.

Bahamas – Nassau and New Providence

After arriving earlier than check in we spent the afternoon lounging on our vessel the Regal Empress, after setting sail and having Pina Coladas it was all go for New Years Eve at sea. The boat had lots of entertainment and huge amounts of food, it was literally food 24/7.

We saw in the New Year dancing around the pool with 940 other people, what a way to start the year.

We arrived into Nassau in the Bahamas by dawn, V and I found a tour guide outside the boat and got a tour of the whole of New Providence for $US35 with Dr Phil Bahamas style. He was hugely entertaining and well worth the money. There was a huge extremes of wealth on New Providence between the rich and the poor, it was great to be shown both sides.




We visited Atlantis which is a resort with its own beaches, aquarium and lagoon. The room starts from $500 a night to $100,000 for four nights, it has to be seen to be believed.






The Queens staircase and the Fort Fincastle that was used for defense were complete contrasts to the resorts. When we arrived back at Nassau there was a parade happening (like Mardi Gras) on the main streets of the town. Really colourful costumes, the dancing and enthusiasm were just breathtaking.








It was full steam back to the US and yet more food and entertainment made the rest of our short cruise pass very quickly!

Florida, USA

What better way to see in my Birthday, Christmas and the New Year than heading to the warmth of the US of A with three friends, Veronica, Terresa and Chi.

The temperature a balmy 26c, our first few days were spent in Disney World, we managed to cram in Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Blizzard Beach over (phew) three days.

Christmas Day was spent at Blizzard Beach, racing down all manner of slides on inner tubes and mats and relaxing in wave pools, next up was MGM, The Tower of Terror was by far the scariest ride in Disney World. The screams that you heard as you were getting close appeared to be manufactured until you rode it and realised they were real baby. The Osbourne festival of lights was a real surprise and a high light of my trip. Lastly it was back to the Magic Kingdom for the fireworks over the castle.
Animal Kingdom was great, the kali river rapids, Harambe safari and the Gorrillas were real highlights.





Our road trip began and it was Daytona Beach first up, gorgeous beach that you can drive on and park, very weird. The Nascar experience at the Daytona 500 is amazing, that race track is huge and the corners are four stories tall.















Next up was Fort Lauderdale , we did a day trip to Miami and the driving was truly a new experience for me six lanes of traffic in either direction all constantly changing , driving on the wrong side of the road and their indicators are red a wee bit scary.
Next up was a cruise to the Bahamas for New Years Eve.




We drove to the Keys and stopped briefly in Key Largo before continuing onto Key West for a beautiful sunset. Don’t try to drive from Fort Lauderdale to Key West and back in one day a mammoth drive.




The airboat ride thru the Everglades was great fun on the airboat, beautiful scenery and lots of gators.



We ended our trip at Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Sea World and Arabian Nights. Universal Studios and IOS were my favourite rides the rollercoaster (Hulk, Kraken and Duelling Dragons), Spiderman, Simpsons and the Mummy rides all were the best.



The Whale and Dolphin show at Seaworld was breathtaking if you get to Seaworld be sure to not miss this one as it was way better than the Believe show (Orca’s).







An amazing way to spend the holiday break and it was a shock to discover that the UK had been suffering from sub zero temperatures while we were away. Starbucks rocks in the US, V and I should have planned our trip by starbucks stores gotta love that coffee!