travel - Wheels on the Go

November 24, 2025 – Australia – Sydney to Cairns – Travel Day and Seafood Pizza!

November 24, 2025November 29, 2025Lmnei

Again, we were up in good time to have a wonderful breakfast at the Pier One Hotel and then we departed, via Uber for the Sydney Airport to travel on Virgin Airlines to Cairns. We had a very nice Uber driver and on the way, I had booked to drop one piece of luggage off for storage as Andrew and I will be back at the airport on December 6th to overnight prior to flying to Singapore. No issues with Virgin Airlines moving our pre-assigned seats this time and got onto the plane just fine! It was just under a 3 hour flight to Cairns, which included a 1 hour time change with surprised us. Sydney, Australia area recently switched to Daylight Savings time however we soon found out that Queensland, where we are heading up north, does not switch and remains on the standard time. There are funny time zone changes all over Australia – sort of a bit like Canada – Newfoundland and in the Interior of BC.

Arrival at Cairns Airport was MUCH more smooth than the last time I was here 27 years ago! They actually have air bridges ways now! Once we found my walker (I do not think it is common for walkers and wheelchairs to be brought to the plane door in Australia and I seem to remember now Karen having that issue when traveling) we were able to walk through the airport – which it is a nice compact airport and out into the HEAT to get our rental car! Holy smokes! The humidity and heat was like walking into a hair dryer on the highest hot setting! We looked up the temperature and it was about 39 degrees and it was 6 pm in the evening! We got our rental car and made it to the Mantra Hotel which I had elected to stay in for our 1st night prior to driving to Port Douglas and the resort that we were headed for. I had done that for 2 reasons – not to tire Andrew out from traveling and then driving and 2nd, I thought driving to a village named Kuranda would be a nice option on the way to Port Douglas instead – we would get some mountain driving in!

We had a ocean view, kind of, from our hotel room. More like a tree top view! Cairns has changed QUITE a bit from what I remember of it 27 years ago. I picked this hotel for its location which was next to the Cairns Night Markets which Karen and I explored last time we were here however the waterfront of Cairns has now fully been filled in and a huge swimming pool installed! It looked really great from our balcony other than all the trees that have now grown into the area!

It was time to find some dinner so we decided to go for a walk and find someplace to eat along the boardwalk. Prior to getting to the boardwalk though we walked around the area that used to be beach and a pier (that I remember) and saw this beautiful swimming HUGE swimming pool that now fronts onto the beach with a walkway in front of it. The pool starts with a very narrow end and the slopes down deeper with some sand and different pool areas at the end as you can see.

We actually parked the car in front of the hotel in the daily parking bays, as it seems that the accessible parking had no time limit on parking there – such as overnight! The hotel required a checkout by 10 am so we thought the car would be just fine and we could see it from our room too! Tomorrow – back to the village of Kuranda!

That tastes REALLY good…

April 22, 2022April 25, 2022Lmnei

Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food – Hippocrates

This is our 5th cruise with Holland America. We have also cruised with other lines and find that Holland America does the best job at exceeding my expectations on how to serve those needing gluten free food for medical reasons.

I cannot even remember all the meals that the chefs have created for me that each time seem to top each other. From mini Baked Alaska’s to fish and chips (before we had fish and chips shops in Vancouver where I live) to comfort food like macaroni and cheese they seem to be willing to create anything that you desire!

When it comes to gluten free (gf) food on board, when cruising in North America, it seems mainly to be Kinnikinnick gf products – muffins (blueberry and chocolate), waffles, pancake mix, variety of breads, bagels, the new English muffins and hamburger buns. They also carry gf Catelli pasta. As we are currently cruising from North America to Europe, I am told, that our next “heavy supplies stop” which is Barcelona, we will be getting more gf food – however European brands. I am suspecting that will be Schar types of products. Then as we progress to Rome, where we will be getting off I will have mixture of brands that I will be served.

So in over 85 cruising days, I have never been glutened which I find a particularly good statistic for having no control over the food that I am served. Until today. I made a very bad assumption and boy am I paying the piper now!

I do not normally eat gf foods at home like muffins, breads and bagels. However we are on a cruise, enjoying fresh air, exercising and I have been really hungry in the morning due to going through a plethora of time zones, so yesterday, I decided to order a gf chocolate muffin from the room service menu for breakfast, along with the gf frittata that they already offer. What arrived? A gf hamburger bun and gluten filled chocolate chip cookies! Huh? Okay, I will talk to the head waiter at dinner about this amusing delivery.

At dinner, Aziz, head waiter, and I had a discussion and as they already understand that I am serious about being GF (more on that later) and I mentioned what I received for breakfast. He said he called the In Room Dining manager and that a gf muffin would be sent to me in the morning with the breakfast that I requested. Breakfast arrived – no muffin – however the gf frittata was there! So I called and they apologized and sent up the muffin – instead of one they sent one chocolate and one blue berry. I looked at them and thought – boy! Kinnikinnick has sure improved their product – it is bigger now! I knew that Kinnikinnick had recently increased their bread size so I figured that they now made bigger muffins – it has been about 3 years since I have had one. So I decided to eat the blueberry one. The ONE thing that I know is that Kinnikinnick muffins have paper wrapper on them and these did not. No idea why I did not put two and two together.

I put the chocolate one aside in our room and began our day. About an hour later I was not feeling well so I decided to fill up my water bottle – often thirst is my first sign of problems – so I walked through the Lido deck and around the pastry section to the beverage section and what did I see? The SAME blueberry and chocolate muffins that had been sent to me displayed en masse! Oh no, the sinking feeling that I felt (nothing to do with the ship) was horrid! It has been AGES since I have been glutened! Needless to say I spent the afternoon in our stateroom and became very enthralled with the workings of the bathroom!

Not to hold me back – we did make it to dinner that night – with a chocolate muffin! Aziz was horrified when he looked at the muffin and knew EXACTLY what the problem is – he said the paper was missing! Duh – if I had been that smart! So out he marched the In Room Dining manager to apologize to me and then they informed the chef that I had gotten sick, just in case I needed medical attention.

Three days later I am fine now – still a bit sore as I have not eaten that much gluten in many decades and my intestines were having quite the conniption! It goes to show to know the product that you are eating and ALWAYS question products that do not look “right” to you instead of trying to justify them in your mind.

The “positive” that has come out of this is that it has shown HAL just how sick a person with Celiac Disease can get. I am also only served in the dining room by the Head Waiter assigned to my section. They are being very careful too with my food – which they should be!

Baptism by Fire….

April 21, 2022April 25, 2022Lmnei

Learn continually – there is always “one more thing” to learn. Steve Jobs

Okay, so maybe setting out to blog the way through our trip was a lofty goal, when I have never really blogged before nor used blogging software! I am pretty adept at figuring things out though and I had the beautiful gift of this website name already chosen for me – so why not? I am never at a loss for something to say!

MANY years ago I took a Word Press course however how it has changed in the last decade! Yikes! Good that it has become more plug and play our I would be lost at this moment. After setting up the website (thank goodness I still can do that!) and playing around a tiny bit when at home, I have to thank Lisa Hislop @thshrtstryedtr for her patience and tour of Word Press when I got discombobulated! Now I know where the Dashboard is and how to post and I was off with my first and second posts until I met….

Satellite Internet on the Nieuw Statendam! Despite upgrading to a faster speed (the “regular service we got free through our booking package”) so that I could stream and do all these WONDERFUL things could I upload a picture and have it take less than 30 minutes? Nope! I am even having issues sending e-mails on a regular basis from my phone….

Frustration then set in. I had typed up many a post but my pictures were holding me back….

Then good old Andrew (well he is good but not that old) and showed me the setting in Photo Editor where I can change the setting to reduce the size of my pictures! So instead of leaving my computer running all night *hoping* my pictures would upload to the webpage (they did not) I can now upload them in a few minutes!

I have gotten a few other settings under control too with regards to blog posts showing up out of order – yes – what date I create them vs. what date I post them counts and FINALLY now that we have been at sea for 5 days I am up and running I think…. you never know when technology is involved!

Talk to you soon!

Our Day in Fort Lauderdale – what a view!

April 16, 2022April 24, 2022Lmnei

We need to be the authors of our own life – Peter Senge

Oh I have forgotten from my travel days what it is like to wake up with 3 hours of jet lag! Yikes! Luckily the hotel is on the main drive for Fort Lauderdale beach (some will call that unlucky) and the traffic started and I was awake! So off we went for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We had coupons for breakfast which was a fruit plate plus croissant (they gladly substituted GF bread for me which was awesome!) and I added 2 corn tortilla’s with eggs and cheese to get some protein into my body.

Really fun to sit out on the patio and have it be WARM enough for short sleeved shirts! After breakfast we decided to walk to a local market which was about 6-7 blocks away. As we walked along the side streets, people were looking at us strangely. It was fairly humid and we were in about 28 C. heat. Got to the store – eMarket, which was NOT accessible and picked up some drinks plus some goodies like a beer for Andrew and chocolate milk to take with my medication and walked back along the beach walk. Again, not many people out walking, however as it was a Saturday, LOTS of people at the beach! Each hotel has their own beach “area” and while the Westin Fort Lauderdale did have their own beach area it was not accessible like farther up the beach- stairs to go down and no beach mat like in Vancouver at Kits Beach in order to get to the hotel’s beach chairs. They offered to put a chair next to the shower for me so all I had to do was go down the stairs but I declined – being next to someone showering is not my idea of fun!

We went back into the hotel via the elevator and overpass and passed by the bursting at the seams pool (there was a Jewish Passover group in the hotel and all the kids were in the pool it seemed) and decided to go hang out in our ocean view room.

What a pleasure to do some volunteering moderating Facebook while looking at such a nice view! Facebook was a bit out of control however at the desk with the view of Fort Lauderdale Beach, I was perfectly relaxed! Check this out!