11. Gavle - Sweden - Sept 2001

The Day after the tragedy of 9/11, Rob and his Mother flew from Heathrow (UK) to Stockholm in Sweden. The Security at Heathrow was extremely tight but all the ground staff were very helpful. Rob recalls all the US flights were grounded at the terminal.












Rob and Val then caught the train up to Gavle where Mandy was waiting to pick us up. 
On our first day we showed Val around the town and did some shopping.

On our second day we drove out to Bonan and had a picnic by the water.
We visited the Gavle concert hall.

10.Gavle -Sweden -2001

Rob flew from London Heathrow(UK) to Stockholm in Sweden and caught a train to Gavle.














The GavleFest was taking place we walked around the various stall and n the evening  and we went to watch the old 60's British group the Swinging Blue Jeans.

 

 

9. The Island of Crete - 2001

In July, we flew from Cardiff (UK) to the Island of Crete and took a coach to the coastal town of Gouves. Our base for our visit to Crete was the Marie Kelly apartments.

We spent quite a bit of this trip just relaxing on the coast and around the complex's swimming pool.

We joined a coach tour to the East of the island and visited the town of Spinalona and the site of an old Lepor colony.








We also visited Elouda and Agious Nikolas.

8. Gavle - Sweden - 2001

Rob flew over to Stockholm from the UK and then caught a train to the coastal town of Gavle. Mandy met Rob and showed him around the town.

We took a ride out to Hemlingby nature park, we also visited the country area of Iggen.

7. Stockholm - Sweden- 2001

On a cold weekend in March we spent another weekend in Stockholm. Our base for our visit to Sweden's capital City was the "Alexandra Hotel".

We made a visit to the National Maritime museum, visited the TV tower and had dinner at the "Charles Dickens".
We went to watch the move Hannibal and a girl in front of us fainted.

We visited the Vasa museum which was fascinating. The Vasa museum is located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged.

6. Mango Bay - Barbados -2001

Our Base for our stay in Barbados was the Mango Bay hotel on the Western side of the Island in Holetown. After checking in we had lunch and met Paul and Norma from Worcester. In the evening we strolled over to Ragamuffins to watch a drag show.

We decided to hire a taxi for a half day tour of the island. Our driver, Vaughan took us firstly to Gun Hill which has great views of the island. We moved on to St John's church and the rugged coast of Bathsheba, Cattle wash and an area called Scotland.

The following day we went into Bridgetown, Rob and Paul went to watch the cricket at Kensington oval and the girls went shopping.













The next day we caught the local bus into Bridgetown, hopped in a cab and went to the Garrison Savanah racecourse. We spent a lovely afternoon at the races and Mandy managed to pick out a couple of winners.

On the Sunday we packed our cases expecting to leave in the afternoon but we were informed by the Thomson's rep that our flight had be delayed and that we would have to stay an extra night.

5. A Caribbean cruise -2001

From London Gatwick airport ( UK) we flew on Britannia Airways to Bridgetown Barbados where we boarded the Thomson cruise ship " The Emerald".

Our first port of call was St Marteen, where we spent the day wandering the small town and relaxing on a local beach Returning to the ship we went to watch the Mac and mable show in the show lounge.

We then sailed onto Road Town, Tortola in the British Virgin Isles, we strolled around the town admiring some of the wonderful houses on the hillside.

On the Thursday we docked in Antigua, we walked into town and visited the cathedral, in the afternoon we boarded the Jolly Roger party boat and siled to a local beach and drank rum. 

The following day we docked in Portsmouth, Dominica, we took a stroll to town that was surrounded by lush vegetation. We chatted with one of the local who told us about how a recent hurricane had caused so much damage. 

The final island we visited was St Lucia, we hopped in a taxi that took us to Rodney bay we swam and sunbathed on the beach before having lunch at Spinnakers. We then reboarded The Emerald for our return to Barbados