Sandy and I are now flying at 37,000 feet and have we have just crossed the coast of Africa between the border of Tunisia and Libya. The turquoise water is in stark contrast with the desert city of Tripoli.
This was no ordinary vacation; instead our Cosmos (around the world) journey with our kids was a lifestyle change that lasted over four months, from September 2003 to January 2004.
One of the big splurges on our trip was a transatlantic cruise on the Queen Elizabeth II. The ship made its last regularly scheduled crossings across the Atlantic Ocean in 2003, which made the cruise even more special.
Now that we’ve been in London for a few days, I thought it would be fun to compare the subway systems of New York and London.
Today, we visited the Royal Observatory in the town of Greenwich (as in “Greenwich Mean Time”) just outside of London. This is the location of the Prime Meridian or Longitude 0 degrees.
When we went on a walking tour in London, we saw some interesting things. We saw the Rosetta Stone and many cool old works of ancient times.
We are now in route from South Africa to Namibia (about 4 hours into a 21-hour bus trip). It is a fairly comfortable vehicle with 2 stories, air-conditioning, a bathroom and fairly frequent stops to stretch one’s legs.
After an all-night flight from London, we first arrived in Johannesburg and then took a short flight to Cape Town. We spent one entire day touring the Cape Pennisula, seeing penguins and visiting the Cape of Good Hope.
Today we are in Livingstone, Zambia, near Victoria Falls. We happened to arrive here on the country’s Independence Day. They are 39 years old today, having gained their independence from Britain in 1964.
We are currently on an all-night train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. This is the sixth night we will spend on a train during our journey.
