England, USA & Canada : 2 May - 4 July 1995

This page describes a trip by Paul Kilfoil (accompanied by Gail Hanson) to the United States of America (USA), Canada and England. Check out my travelogues page for details of other trips I've done.

If you enjoyed reading this, please send me an email. All correspondence is appreciated!

[Tuesday 2 May 1995 : Cape Town, South Africa] Flew from Cape Town to Paris via Johannesburg on UTA French Airlines ; in Johannesburg we endured a tedious two hour layover while ground staff cleaned the plane. At Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris we changed planes and flew to London Heathrow, also on UTA.

[Wednesday 3 May : London, England] From Heathrow Airport we took the Underground (London's commuter train system, also called the "Tube") to Earl's Court, and went to tons of cut-price travel agents (bucket shops). After walking up and down Earl's Court Road, visiting many agents and phoning several more from advertisements we found in TNT magazine, we eventually found the best deal at a tiny one-roomed shop at the top of a steep flight of stairs, right next to the entrance to Earl's Court station. An affable Pakistani sold us return tickets to New York the next day for 200 Pounds each on Kuwait Airlines - at first he said there were no seats left on the plane at that price, but when I pulled out my credit card and said we'd pay in full right now he got on the telephone and after a protracted conversation two confirmed reservations magically appeared. It was a really good deal, although we could have got the tickets for as little as 154 Pounds from a different agent if we had been prepared to go on standby.

[Thursday 4 May : New York, USA] At Heathrow Airport the next day we found that post-Gulf War paranoia was still alive and well and comfortably ensconced at Kuwait Airlines. All of our bags were meticulously searched, although they stopped short of a full-body search (as is done for any flight going to Israel). The poles for my tent were a particular cause for alarm, but eventually the security guy realized they were harmless and they allowed us onto the plane.

After that experience we weren't expecting much, but Kuwait Airlines were actually extremely good, with fantastic food and professional, efficient air hostesses. Our cross-Atlantic flight to the USA was thus very pleasant indeed. We landed at John F Kennedy airport in New York quite late, at 9 PM, so rather than taking the Subway (New York's commuter train system) we went on the Carey Bus to Grand Central Station in Manhattan. From Grand Central Station we caught a cab across town to First Avenue, where we stayed with a friend in her cramped apartment for the next four nights.

[Friday 5 May : New York, USA] Explored New York City. This is a BIG place, with BIG buildings. You get neck-ache from looking up at the skyscrapers from street level. Went to the top of the Empire State Building, visited Madison Square Garden and window-shopped in Fifth Avenue.

[Saturday 6 May : New York, USA] Took the ferry to Liberty Island and climbed the Statue of Liberty ; its a LONG way up, with a seemingly endless weekend queue of people. Afterwards we explored the downtown area - Wall Street and the World Trade Centres. The view from the 107'th floor observation deck of the World Trade Centre has to be seen to be believed [Aside : the twin World Trade Centres in New York were destroyed on Tuesday 11 September 2001 by Arab terrorists, who hijacked commercial airliners and crashed them into the buildings].

[Sunday 7 May : New York, USA] Walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, explored Pier 66 on the Hudson River (a smart new centre containing shops and restaurants) and walked around Central Park.

[Monday 8 May : Washington DC, USA] Took a Trailways bus south to the federal capital (Washington), which is not in any "state" but instead exists in its own "district" (the District of Columbia, or DC). It was a pleasant four and half hour ride through rolling green countryside.

Statue of Liberty, New York

[Tuesday 9 May : Washington DC, USA] Walked around Washington DC. Its a clean, neat place, a total contrast with New York. The streets are wide, with large pedestrian areas and plenty of trees everywhere. Almost all of the attractions are free. On our ramblings round the city we saw the Capitol Building on Capitol Hill (seat of the Federal government), the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (a polished black stone wall containing the names of 58 132 Americans who died in the Vietnam War) and the US Holocaust Memorial.

[Wednesday 10 May : Washington DC, USA] We visited the White House, which (amazingly) is free and very easy to do - you just put your name down for one of their regular guided tours. What the guide shows you inside the White House depends on whether the president is there and what meetings are taking place ; we did not see much activity and certainly did not see the president. Spent the rest of the day in the Smithsonian Institution, a series of museums (and all free). There are so many museums, and each one contains so much, that you would need weeks to see them all. I chose the National Air and Space Museum, which was fascinating.

[Thursday 11 May : Washington DC, USA] On our last day in Washington we bought all-day tickets for the Metro (underground train system) and visited many of the sights that were a little beyond walking distance from the city centre. The Washington DC metro is a delight - modern, fast and efficient, with spotlessly clean trains and stations. First stop was Arlington Cemetery, where we saw the sombre grave of the Unknown Soldier with its eternal flame, the graves of the seven members of the crew of Challenger (the space shuttle that disintegrated 73 seconds after take-off on 28 January 1986) and many other graves of famous people in American history. We also visited the Pentagon and the George Washington monument.

We ended the day by collecting our gear from the guest house where we'd left it and taking the Metro to Union Station, Washington DC's main train station. Union Station is an amazing place, with glitzy shops and restaurants. After looking around for a while we boarded our overnight train south to Florida.

[Friday 12 May : Daytona Beach, USA] After a long night on the train travelling south through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, we got off at Jacksonville in Florida. The station was in the middle of nowhere so we had to take a taxi to the airport where we collected the rental car we'd booked for the next two weeks. From Jacksonville airport we drove a short distance south to Daytona Beach where we found a cheap motel for the night ; the rain bucketed down all afternoon and most of the evening.

During the next two weeks we traversed Florida clock-wise, south down the east coast and north up the west coast. On the east coast we mainly stayed on the A1A, a road on the narrow strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intra-Coastal Waterway. The Intra-Coastal Waterway is a sort of lagoon that extends for miles up the east coast of Florida ; it is used extensively for recreational boating and allows for 3 sets of water-frontage real estate (both sides of the waterway plus the Atlantic Ocean). There are 4 main north-south roads on the east coast of Florida - the A1A next to the sea and east of the Intra-Coastal Waterway, US-1 on the mainland west of the Intra-Coastal Waterway, the interstate highway (I-95) and the Florida Turnpike (motorway or freeway). The Florida Turnpike is a toll road, fast and boring. The I-95 (interstate highway) isn't tolled but is similarly uninteresting. All the best scenery is on US-1 and the A1A, so although these are a lot slower due to traffic lights, stop-streets and lots of cars we kept to these two roads for our entire trip down the east coast.

There is also a rail line extending from Orlando all the way to Miami. The railway used to continue south from Miami to Key West but this ambitious venture came to an end in 1935 when several of the bridges carrying the rails over the sea to the islands (keys) were destroyed by a hurricane.

The Capitol, Washington DC

[Saturday 13 May : Melbourne Beach, USA] Visited the Daytona International Speedway (used for Indy Car racing) then drove south through Titusville and over the NASA Causeway to Cape Canaveral, where we visited the Kennedy Space Centre. We went inside the disused space shuttle Explorer. Later on we swam in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean at Cocoa Beach.

[Sunday 14 May : Boca Raton, USA] A blazing hot day as we headed south via Vero Beach and West Palm Beach - opulence, mansions and private beaches, with parking meters that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We visited the Seguso-Bassett Tennis Centre in Boca Raton where a friend of ours (Stanford Boster) had been coaching - it's an impressive place.

[Monday 15 May : Miami, USA] Drove south to Fort Lauderdale and had a great swim at the public beach, but missed feeding the parking meter by 1 minute and got a $15 fine. In Fort Lauderdale we went to Bahia Mar Marina and saw slip F-18, where author John D MacDonald's fictional character Travis McGee moored his boat, The Busted Flush. At slip F-18 there is a bronze plaque commemorating John D MacDonald (he died in 1987) ; it is classified as a literary landmark by the American Literary Society. Fort Lauderdale is a very posh place, with massive yachts in the marina and smart shops. Quite different from the cockroach-infested hotel we stayed in that night in North Miami ...

[Tuesday 16 May : Marathon (Florida Keys), USA] Briefly explored Miami - South Beach and its Art Deco district, Bayside Marketplace over the MacArthur Causeway, Coral Gables and Coconut Grove. We then headed on to the Florida Keys, through Key Largo, Islamaroda, Conch Key, Grassy Key and many others until we found a self-catering chalet ("efficiency" as the Americans call them) in Marathon at mile marker 50 for the next 3 nights.

[Wednesday 17 May : Marathon (Florida Keys), USA] Drove over the huge and impressive 7-mile bridge to Deer Key, where we went snorkelling with a bunch of other people on a dive-boat. We snorkelled at 2 sites in Looe Key Marine Sanctuary, which was about a 20 minute ride from shore. A fabulous day, very hot.

[Thursday 18 May : Marathon (Florida Keys), USA] Spent the day in Key West, the south-western tip of the Keys. We visited Ernest Hemingway's house (now a museum), Sloppy Joe's Bar (one of the many, many places where Hemingway used to drink), the southernmost point in the continental USA and watched the sun set from a tiki bar just off Mallory Square.

[Friday 19 May : North Port, USA] We left the Keys and drove north and then west on the Tamiami Trail through the Everglades to the west coast of Florida. We crossed the wide Caloosahatchee River near Fort Myers, went through Port Charlotte and spent the night in our tent in a rather run-down trailer park (camping site).

[Saturday 20 May : Tampa, USA] Continued heading north up the west coast of Florida through the attractive city of Sarasota to Bradenton Beach, where we swam in the Gulf of Mexico - the water wasn't as warm the Atlantic on the east coast but still much warmer than Cape Town. Crossed the huge expanse of Tampa Bay over the Sunshine Skyway, a massive bridge with a huge arch in the middle to allow ships to pass underneath. After setting up the tent in rather upmarket campsite we drove into Tampa and explored Ybor City, a bohemian, cosmopolitan part of town teeming with bars, nightclubs and restaurants.

Abandoned railroad bridge, Bahia Honda, Florida

[Sunday 21 May : Kissimmee, USA] Drove north-east from Tampa to Orlando and then south to the suburb of Kissimmee, where we booked into a recently-renovated motel for the next 5 nights for the incredible price of $21-95 a night (for both of us). The place had a fridge, microwave and air-conditioning. Spent the afternoon in the motel swimming pool.

[Monday 22 May : Kissimmee, USA] Had an "all you can eat" breakfast for $2-50 then we went to Walt Disney World's "Magic Kingdom" theme park. It's HUGE - you have to take a tram from the parking lot to the monorail station and then a monorail train to the park itself. There were long, frustrating queues at all of the rides, most of which are quite tame. Went on the Jungle Queen cruise, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Railroad, Space mountain and many more. A long day, VERY hot, very tiring.

[Tuesday 23 May : Kissimmee, USA] Visited Walt Disney World's EPCOT centre (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), but found it be quite an overrated place. Came back again later for the evening laser light and fireworks display on the lagoon.

[Wednesday 24 May : Kissimmee, USA] Visited Universal Studios and went on several rides based on movies - King Kong, Jaws, Earthquake (very impressive), Back to the Future and others. Also saw a live display put on by stuntmen, the Wild, Wild West Stunt Show and an amazing exhibition by trained film animals (cats, dogs, ducks and others).

[Thursday 25 May : Kissimmee, USA] Went to "Wet 'n Wild", a water-based theme park. Spent the whole day going down slides and swimming in artificial waves and rivers. There was one slide that is vertical drop straight down, with 2 variants - "Der Stuka" and "Bomb Bay". Quite unnerving at first, but I went down "Der Stuka" several times and "Bomb Bay" once.

[Friday 26 May : Orlando, USA] Checked out of the motel and drove to the Amtrak train station in Orlando. I left Gail and all our luggage there then drove to the airport and returned the rental car. I took the free shuttle from the rental office to Orlando airport then a city bus from there back to town and the train station. That afternoon we caught the overnight train to New Orleans - The Sunset Limited, which had come north from Miami.

Bourban Street, New Orleans

[Saturday 27 May : New Orleans, USA] Spent the night on the train as we rolled north then west through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, getting to New Orleans at about 11:30 AM. On the way in to New Orleans we passed a cemetery and saw the above-ground graves for which the city is famous - New Orleans is below sea-level so graves fill with water ; people have to be buried above the ground. That night we went to the French Quarter and walked down Bourbon Street - incredible number of bars, cafes, restaurants and clubs, with people everywhere.

[Sunday 28 May : New Orleans, USA] Walked down Canal Street and took the free ferry across the Mississippi River to Algiers Point and "Mardi Gras World". Spent the rest of the day exploring New Orleans.

[Monday 29 May : New Orleans, USA] Took the train to Los Angeles in California. It was the same train we'd come in on two days earlier, The Sunset Limited from Miami via Orlando, and we knew we were in for a LONG trip (two days and nights to the west coast).

[Tuesday 30 May] A boring day on the train, although American long-distance trains are very comfortable, with big lounge cars and movies. Watched "Forrest Gump" as we rolled westwards through the endless expanses of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. At one point, not far from El Paso the train tracks run right next to the border with Mexico.

[Wednesday 31 May : Las Vegas, USA] After 2 nights and 3 time zones on the train we eventually rolled through southern California to Los Angeles. From Union Station we took a bus to the airport (called "LAX" by locals) and collected the rental car we'd previously booked. We headed straight out of the city on the most mind-boggling set of interconnecting freeways, eventually finding our way to the I-15 interstate road to Las Vegas in Nevada. It was a 5-hour drive to Las Vegas through searing desert heat. After finding a cheap motel on Las Vegas Boulevard (also known as "The Strip") we explored Caesar's Palace and Treasure Island Casino - the whole place is crass, glitzy and completely tasteless.

The beach at Santa Monica, Los Angeles

[Thursday 1 June : Las Vegas, USA] Spent the day visiting various casinos and redeeming all of the many coupons we picked up for free stuff like peaked caps, mugs, playing cards, drinks, popcorn and hot-dogs. Las Vegas is a budget backpackers' paradise - everything is unbelievably cheap (or free) and open 24 hours a day. The valet at Caesar's Palace will even park your car for free in their free multi-storey parking garage !

[Friday 2 June : Los Angeles, USA] Had a HUGE breakfast for 99 cents at the Holiday Inn then drove back down the I-15 to the outskirts of Los Angeles. We arrived in the dark and spent the night in a campsite next to a field where rock group "Bad Company" were performing live - a VERY noisy night.

[Saturday 3 June : Los Angeles, USA] Drove north up the west coast of California on the Pacific Coast Highway towards Los Angeles, through Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach. California beaches are long, straight and wide, with big waves, but the water is cold (unlike Florida). The beachfronts near Los Angeles are extremely run-down, with decrepit clapboard houses facing the sea. The north-south road next to the sea (the Pacific Coast Highway) is typically about 4 rows of houses INLAND from the sea, with a pedestrian walk on the sea side of the last row of houses and many short cul-de-sac roads leading to the pedestrian walk. Thus many of the sea-facing houses are inaccessible by car. On the whole the California coast was a disappointment - it wasn’t blazing hot like Florida, the water is cold, you can’t park anywhere and most beachfronts are run-down and tacky. Stayed the night in a flea-bag motel in Long Beach, a run-down, mostly Hispanic part of Los Angeles.

[Sunday 4 June : Los Angeles, USA] Explored Hollywood and Beverley Hills. Hollywood is rather run-down, but Beverley Hills is plush and opulent in the extreme. We bought a "star map" and visited a few movie stars' houses (Charles Bronson, Barbara Streisand and others) - police cars patrol the streets and ensure that tourists do not stop and gawk over walls. Drove down Sunset Boulevard and spent the night in a hotel in Santa Monica.

[Monday 5 June : Los Angeles, USA] Walked around Venice Beach, location of the famous open-air "Muscle Beach" gym. We made the mistake of parking our rental car on Pacific Coast Boulevard, and while we were walking around it was broken into and all our gear was stolen. Luckily we had our valuables with us (passport, money, etc), but our backpacks and all our clothes were taken, as well as all the cheap CDs we'd accumulated over the past several weeks. All we had left was a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and a towel each.

We reported the break-in at the police station on the beach ; the officer we spoke to told us that there are often five or more car break-ins on Pacific Coast Boulevard every day. The thieves are Guatamalen and Cuban gangs who operate in groups of three - one guy in a pick-up truck who drives slowly alongside a line of parked cars, a second guy who rips open the boots of the parked cars with a crowbar and a third who heaves the contents of each car's boot into the back of the truck. They hit as many cars as they can before the alarm goes up then they scarper at high speed. The police station is less than a block away but by the time the police get there the thieves have gone and they are seldom caught.

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

The police were a bit of shambles and could not give us an official case number for the crime (which we needed for our insurance) - they had to send the paperwork to the main police station to be captured or some other story. They gave us a phone number in Los Angeles to call the next day to get the case number. After all that we spent the rest of the day buying clothes and essentials like toothpaste. That night we returned the rental car and caught a bus to the train station ; unfortunately the next train to San Francisco was only at 1:45 AM the next morning so we had quite a long wait.

[Tuesday 6 June : San Francisco, USA] We boarded the early-morning train north to San Francisco. For some reason trains from Los Angeles weren't running from Union Station itself so we were taken on a long tedious trip to Bakersfield by bus and got on the train there. The train arrived in Oakland (the nearest station to San Francisco if you arrive from the south) at around 7 AM, with the two of us half frozen after an extremely cold night with very few warm clothes ; remember that all our gear had been stolen at Venice Beach in Los Angeles the day before.

We were taken by bus from Oakland across the Bay to San Francisco - there are no railway tracks directly into San Francisco itself. We walked up Market Street in the weak sunshine, trying to get warm, and found a place to stay a few blocks up from the Embarcadero. After settling in we strolled round the Embarcadero, past Valaincourt Fountain to Pier 39 where there are shops and restaurants. San Francisco is VERY cold compared to Los Angeles, and the wind off the bay is icy - what happened to sunny California? I thought June was supposed to be summer ...

[Wednesday 7 June : San Francisco, USA] Rode the cable-car from Market Street over the hill and caught the ferry to Alcatraz Island, which was formerly a notorious high-security prison but is now a national park. The prison buildings are derelict, dilapidated and falling down in places, and the whole island is cold, foggy and depressing. Back in San Francisco we walked around the edge of the Bay, through the Presidio (a military area) and onto the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge is a huge, impressive piece of red-painted iron, and we only had the energy to walk part-way across.

[Thursday 8 June : San Francisco, USA] Explored San Francisco on foot, seeing (inter alia) the crookedest street in the world (which has no less than eight U-turns in the space of a city block), the Trans-America Pyramid and Ghirardelli Square.

Fantastic scenery on the train from San Francisco to Seattle

[Friday 9 June : Francisco, USA] Caught the bus over the Oakland Bay Bridge to Emeryville, where we boarded the overnight train (The Coast Starlight) to Seattle in Washington state. The Oakland Bay Bridge is a beautiful piece of engineering - its a "double-decker" bridge, with incoming traffic from the Bay area on the upper level and outgoing traffic from San Francisco on the lower level. Emeryville station was brand new and spotless, which was great because we had to wait there quite a long time.

[Saturday 10 June : Seattle, USA] Spent a long day on the train, although much of the scenery was quite stunning. In Oregon the tracks run next to plunging ravines and through thick forests. The train was very comfortable, with an observation coach that had large windows all the way round allowing uninterrupted views of the spectacular countryside.

We arrived in Seattle at about 8 PM and found a place to stay for the night quite near the station. Big mistake - after looking round the hotel lobby and the room we were given we quickly realized that the place was a flea-pit, frequented by what looked like drug dealers, pimps and prostitutes. So we walked straight out and caught a taxi the short distance into Seattle city centre. By now it was quite late and dark, but we eventually found a room at the Moore Hotel, a great little budget hotel right in the middle of town, within walking distance of the waterfront and Pike Place Market.

[Sunday 11 June : Seattle, USA] Seattle is a very pleasant city (although it rains a LOT, with only 58 days of clear sky per year on average). Despite being a relative backwater in the remote north-west corner of the United States, Seattle has become well-known for a variety of reasons - Starbucks, the international chain of coffee shops, was started in Seattle ; Frazier, the popular television comedy series, was set in Seattle, as was the movie Sleepless in Seattle starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Microsoft, a huge software company started by billionaire Bill Gates, is based in Seattle.

Buses in Seattle's central city area are all free, which is great for getting around. We took the monorail to the Space Needle and walked around the waterfront area.

[Monday 12 June : Seattle, USA] Relaxed and did nothing much other than having an "eat all you can" pizza lunch for the astounding price of only $3-99 each. We went to see the famous "fish flingers" in action at Pike Place Fish Market at the waterfront. The place is amazing - there is a counter in the front where a guy takes orders from customers, he shouts the order to a guy in the back who prepares the fish, wraps it and literally throws it across the shop to the front guy. In the meantime the front guy collects the money from the customer, hands over any change, turns round to catch the wrapped fish hurtling through the air towards him and hands it over to the customer. There were crowds of people there, most of whom were tourists like us taking photographs (rather than actually buying fish).

1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, Seattle

[Tuesday 13 June : Seattle, USA] Took a bus into the suburbs to Redmond and found Microsoft's head office at number 1 Microsoft Way. Microsoft consists of several low buildings in a leafy, tree-lined suburb, and looks like a really pleasant place to work. On the way back we got off the bus at a shopping centre where there was a huge electronics store selling all CDs for $8-88 or less ; we bought several each. After days of phoning the police in Los Angeles and trying to get a case number from when our car was broken into a week before, we gave up on the useless LAPD and simply reported the crime all over again on the phone. This time they said they'd fax the official crime report document to us at our hotel, but of course by the time we left Seattle it had not yet arrived.

[Wednesday 14 June : Victoria, Canada] Took the ferry from Seattle across Puget Sound and up the coast of the USA to Vancouver Island in Canada. It was short walk from the ferry terminal to Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia. Victoria is a charming place, more of a town than a city. It is VERY British compared to the USA. We stayed in a hotel that had a bar called the "Sticky Wicket Pub".

[Thursday 15 June : Vancouver, Canada] Strolled around Victoria ; it has the narrowest road in Canada, "Fan Tan Alley". That afternoon we took the commuter ferry from Swartz Bay (north of Victoria) to Tsawassen on the Canadian mainland, and from the ferry terminal we caught a crowded bus to Vancouver. In Vancouver we checked into the "Hotel California" (odd name for an hotel in Canada). That afternoon, after yet another expensive phone call to the Los Angeles police, we finally received a faxed copy of the report of when our rental car was broken into on Venice Beach - no less than 10 days previously. The LAPD were utterly useless and inspired no confidence whatsoever ; I feel sorry for the people of Los Angeles who have to rely on them to solve more serious crimes.

[Friday 16 June : Vancouver, Canada] Explored downtown Vancouver, a very nice city. We saw the world's skinniest building (about a metre and a half wide), the statue of "Gassy Jack" Deighton (who opened the first saloon in Vancouver), the only steam-powered clock in North America and went up the "Lookout!" tower for a panoramic view of the city. Stayed for the next two nights with Thomas Dirkse, a friend and former colleague who had moved to Canada a couple of years before.

[Saturday 17 June : Vancouver, Canada] Watched the SA-France Rugby World Cup semi-final match on TV (which SA won 19-15) then went for a long walk through Stanley Park to the Seawall Promenade, Lion's Gate Bridge and North Shore, round Prospect Point and Ferguson Point. Back in the city we marvelled at the huge multi-level underground shopping arcades that exist beneath the streets of Vancouver ; there are relatively few street-level shops in the city centre.

[Sunday 18 June : Vancouver, Canada] Caught a late-night flight from Vancouver east to Toronto. The thieving airport authorities in Vancouver ripped us off just as we were about to board the plane with a cash-only airport departure tax. Swines.

[Monday 19 June : Niagara Falls, Canada] After a brief stop in Calgary we got to Toronto at about 7 AM, and were lucky enough to find a bus that would take us directly from the airport to Niagara Falls without having to go into Toronto itself. In Niagara Falls (the Canadian side) we stored our backpacks in a locker at the bus station then went to look at the falls - a STAGGERING volume of water. We walked across the river over the Rainbow Bridge to the USA (a pedestrian bridge for which you have to pay a 25 cent toll), looked at the American Falls from the observation tower and Goat Island then walked back again to the Canadian side (the Horseshoe Falls are in Canada). Turns out that the day before we arrived a couple had gone over the falls in a barrel and survived, the first time ever that a couple had successfully managed this crazy (and pointless) stunt. That night we caught a bus to Boston in the USA, which entailed getting out at Buffalo in New York state at about 2 AM to have our passports checked and to change buses.

Vancouver city centre, Canada

[Tuesday 20 June : Boston, USA] After a LONG, ROUGH overnight trip on the bus we arrived in Boston (in Massachusetts, on the east coast of the USA) knackered after two nights virtually without sleep (one on a plane, one on a bus). We checked into a guesthouse on Beacon Street and slept like the dead. That afternoon we only had enough energy to visit the Dunkin' Donuts take-out just up the road and stuff ourselves silly on doughnuts and coffee - they had a special on, two doughnuts for the price of one after 8 PM.

[Wednesday 21 June : Boston, USA] Explored Boston thoroughly on foot. We followed the "Freedom Trail", a line painted on roads and sidewalks in red that goes past all the important sights. We climbed 294 steps to the top of the Bunker Hill monument and watched a musket firing demonstration by a park ranger dressed as a colonial militiaman. There is a replica of the original Boston Tea Party ship moored in the waterfront area. Also visited the Bull & Finch bar in Beacon Street, setting for the famous and long-running TV series "Cheers". It looks exactly the same from across the road but inside it's completely different.

[Thursday 22 June : Boston, USA] Walked across the Charles River and had a look around MIT (Massachusettes Institute of Technology) and Harvard, two of the most prestigious universities in the world. Nearby we found Boston's Hard Rock Cafe, called the "Massachusetts Institute of Rock" - guess that would be MIR, not MIT.

[Friday 23 June : New York, USA] Took the "T" (Boston's efficient partly-underground tram system) to the bus station and caught a greyhound bus south to New York ; strange route we took, through The Bronx and Haarlem - loads of crumbling tenements and desolate housing projects. In Manhattan we walked around Central Park one last time.

Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada

[Saturday 24 June : New York, USA] Our last day in North America ; we went to an Irish pub called McCormack's and watched the Rugby World Cup Final between South Africa and New Zealand, which SA won 15-12 after extra time. The place was packed with happy South Africans and glum Kiwis. Later that day we took the subway to John F Kennedy Airport outside New York (a LONG trip) and flew back to London on Kuwait Airways.

[Sunday 25 June : London, England] Arrived in London at 11 AM. That afternoon we went to Lord's Cricket Ground and watched part of the England-West Indies test match. The first streaker ever at Lord's (a buxom, lively young girl) ran onto the pitch while England were batting and precipitated a minor collapse by the home team! She was stark naked and evaded capture for several minutes and managed to run down the length of the pitch and vault over the stumps at each end ; she got more of a cheer than the England batsmen. After the close of play we walked onto the hallowed turf of the home of cricket.

[Monday 26 June : London, England] Took a VERY early bus to Wimbledon and queued for hours to get into the tennis stadium for the first day's play of the 1995 All England Championships. Late in the day we were lucky enough to get onto centre court and watched the end of a ladies' singles match involving Gabriela Sabatini.

[Tuesday 27 June : London, England] Queued for hours again, and again eventually managed to get into Wimbledon for the second day's play. Very hot, very tiring.

[Wednesday 28 June : London, England] I couldn't face another day in the endless queue to get into Wimbledon so I merely watched on TV.

[Thursday 29 June : Cambridge, England] Took a bus (or coach, as they call long-distance buses in the UK) to Cambridge and spent the night in a B&B in this delightful town. On the way out of London the coach driver managed to hit a stationary car and was later stopped by a traffic policeman, which caused a lengthy delay and meant we only reached Cambridge quite late.

[Friday 30 June : London, England] Took the coach back to London (horrors, it was the same driver from the day before, can't believe he wasn't suspended) after ambling round the village.

[Saturday 1 July : London, England] We had luckily managed to get two free tickets to Wimbledon ; it was great to walk in just before play started without having spent 4 hours queueing.

[Sunday 2 July : London, England] Visited some of the sights of London I'd not yet seen. We took the Docklands Light Railway to Island Gardens via the huge new Canary Wharf office and shopping complex and walked under the Thames River through the Greenwich foot tunnel (wet, dripping and eerie). On the south side of the Thames we saw the Cutty Sark, Greenwich Pier and the international date line (the meridian) at the old Royal Observatory. Further down the river we saw the Thames Barrier (built to prevent flooding up-river) and the captured Russian submarine permanently moored nearby. We went to Petticoat Lane, but by the time we got there all the stalls were already shut.

[Monday 3 July : London, England] Took the Underground ("tube") to Heathrow and flew back to Cape Town via Paris. Pieter Dirk-Uys was on the same flight as us, in economy class too.

[Tuesday 4 July 1995 : Cape Town, South Africa] Arrived back to rain and wind in Cape Town at mid-morning. Next stop the UK and Austria in 1996.