OZDUCK
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2010
- Posts
- 4,896
In 1976 my wife and I, married 1975, did our first overseas trip together. We booked a "Ship Jet" ticket to London. In those days that was the cheapest way to get there from Perth. It involved travelling on an early 1950's Dutch built, Indonesian flagged vessel chartered by a Russian company from Perth to Singapore. You spent a night or two there and then flew to Gatwick on a British Caledonian DC8. Unfortunately our ship damaged a propeller so we were flown to Singapore on a chartered QF B707.
I had been given 12 months 'leave without pay' from Customs so we were able to spend a little over 8 months in the UK and also spent another 3 months touring Western Europe from Norway to Greece in a 1972 Ford Cortina wagon which was also our accommodation. We have not been back since early 1977.
This year we will attend a reunion of the German side of my wife's ancestry in Cambridge. The last reunion was in Berlin in 2022. We fly out of Perth early Saturday morning (5/9) using points to redeem J tickets on SQ. Then we spend about 39 hours in Singapore before flying in J on QR to Manchester. We are catching up on some places we never saw on our last trip. So we have 6 nights in Manchester with various day trips planned. Then we have 5 nights in London where we will meet up with some of the other attendees - especially our German friends. After that we go to Cambridge for 3 nights for the actual reunion. York is our next stop for 7 nights again with day trips planned. After York we will have two nights in Leeds before spending the last night at a Manchester Airport hotel. We fly QR J again to Singapore for a 3 nights stopover and then ScootPlus to Perth on 4/10.
I will try to post some commentary photos on here as we go but as always I will create the majority of the TR when we get back home.
I had been given 12 months 'leave without pay' from Customs so we were able to spend a little over 8 months in the UK and also spent another 3 months touring Western Europe from Norway to Greece in a 1972 Ford Cortina wagon which was also our accommodation. We have not been back since early 1977.
This year we will attend a reunion of the German side of my wife's ancestry in Cambridge. The last reunion was in Berlin in 2022. We fly out of Perth early Saturday morning (5/9) using points to redeem J tickets on SQ. Then we spend about 39 hours in Singapore before flying in J on QR to Manchester. We are catching up on some places we never saw on our last trip. So we have 6 nights in Manchester with various day trips planned. Then we have 5 nights in London where we will meet up with some of the other attendees - especially our German friends. After that we go to Cambridge for 3 nights for the actual reunion. York is our next stop for 7 nights again with day trips planned. After York we will have two nights in Leeds before spending the last night at a Manchester Airport hotel. We fly QR J again to Singapore for a 3 nights stopover and then ScootPlus to Perth on 4/10.
I will try to post some commentary photos on here as we go but as always I will create the majority of the TR when we get back home.
