From New York to Newport - and that bus ride

After a hectic 4 days in New York we left by the very fast Amtrak train to Providence.

It was midday Sunday, very warm and sunny. The station at Providence was newish spacious, and with very few people about. The buildings around the station were of light orange/beige brick and looked newish. A newer building was advertising luxury apartments, which overlooked a very small river. After looking everywhere for street signs we finally located the bus center and strolled over, to join a variety of people who were waiting for the bus.

Eventually it arrived, late, and with a lot of friendly bantering, everybody got on. The bus driver seemed to know everyone, and it felt as if we were all going on a Sunday jaunt.

Then with a jerk, we roared off!The good homour and commoraderie continued as we lurched here, sped there, stopped at the lights, and at most of the bus stops on the way as we picked up and dropped off passengers.

Then "Driver - there is Miss Jackson!You must stop for her!!" We lurched to a stop and the elderly Miss Jackson, who was dressed all in white, even to white stockings over her dark skinned legs, was helped onto the bus. The then ensured a long friendly debate over whether the bus was late, or the next schedulled one, early. Finally some sort of conclusion was reached and we all held on as the bus took off again and sped off.

Speed limit? What speed limit? This bus had one speed and that was fast! We - the only tourists on the bus had to keep our eyes open without blinking so we could enjoy the scenery as we beetled along.

Finally, after travelling through several long single street towns, we finally reached Newport Rhode Island.

And that is another story.....

The Swedish Winter holiday Adventure

Today I am looking out of the window at the ice covered Arlando Airport in Stockholm,, Sweden on a beautiful cold sunny morning, awaiting our flight to London.

We flew into Goteburg, a city of around 700,000 inhabitants on the west coast of Sweden, four days ago, and stayed with newly found relatives, Hans and Eva. Eva is a great cook, and I am sure that her wonderful cuisine helped my sinus cold to clear up in record time. Hans and Eva took us for a tour around Goteburg, along the street where my late Grandfather, Alfred walked before he emigrated to New Zealand in 1903 and around the spacious city centre. Then we viewed the large harbour which is dotted with islands and reefs, which are the bain of sailors. In the hot summer Goteburg is famous for sailing and boating events, including, I understand the Volvo Round the world event. But on this very cold day there was no evidence of any boating at all. Gotenburg used to have some large ship building yards, which no longer exist. Today it has the second largest tertiary education center in Sweden. A very nice place, I felt, and with all the trees everywhere, would look beautiful in spring, summer and autumn.

The weather in Sweden during our visit, has been settled, due to a ridge of high pressure over the area, so we have seen Goteburg, probably at its winter best, and without the mist that apparently covers the area in winter.

There was frost everywhere, and when we departed Goteberg for Stockholm by train, we glided through a white frost world, white trees, white fields, white streets and white, steep roofed houses.

At Last!! 10 snow ploughs have cleared the runway so it is time to go......