23rd August 2025

Wahey!  I write this blog having completed my “Around the World in 40 Days” adventure, doing it in half the time as Phileas Fogg, albeit admittedly with much faster means of transport in the modern day!  And I can testify indeed with my own eyes, that the world is round!  I took flights ever eastwards from London, and eventually arrived back in London again – I’m still trying to get my head around that one!  To be honest, I feel that now I have wound myself up in one direction, an unwind back around the world is needed.  And do watch this space, as I feel that at some point in the future my plans for a reverse circumnavigation to get back to point zero again may come to fruition.

But hey, before I completed my venture, I still had two final full days to spend exploring more of (hot!) Southern California.  My mind continued to boggle at the state and extent of these amazing and ubiquitous freeways they have around here, with up to eight lanes just on one side!  Navigating them sure is fun (not!), and I really don’t think I would have gotten anywhere were it not for my trusty Here We Go app!

My first of these two full days was spent at Disneyland, in Anaheim, on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles.  Though hey, I say southern outskirts, it was still a 30-mile drive from the very edge of LA’s massive metropolitan area approaching from the south-east.  This city is just mindboggingly massive!  I had planned this day as while I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to DisneyWorld two years prior in Florida, I still felt like I had to visit the original one built 16 years earlier in 1955.  And I learned a great way to remember which one is which – DisneyLAnd is in LA or Los Angeles, while DisneyWORLd is in ORL or Orlando…!  How cool is that?  I wonder if they planned it!  While there were similar rides in Disneyland to DisneyWorld, I headed for the ones that were unique to the former, as well as the ones that have a fast single rider lane too.  I also visited the adjacent Disney California Adventure Park built more recently in 2001, on a two-park day pass.

No sooner had I arrived in Disneyland, than a marching band came along down Main Street – one of the many things the Americans do infinitely better than anyone else is a good old-fashioned marching band!  This one had the theme of 90s Disney TV series music such as Duck Tales and Chip ‘n’ Dale which was so up my street – I was in my element, lol!  And Mickey Mouse even gave me a wave for my camera – yay!  After visiting Sleeping Beauty’s castle, having visited Cinderella’s back in DisneyWorld, I did the Matterhorn (a bobsleigh-type coaster), the Millennium Falcon (a flight simulator) and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (a log flume), the latter seemingly a taster for my next US trip over Easter 2026!

After an amazing morning in Disneyland, I then crossed over to the California Adventure Park.  I started with a flight simulation ride called Soarin which visited so many places in the world (I have been to all of them except the polar bear-filled Arctic), the Grizzly River Run (a rapids ride in which I got absolutely drenched, which was sorely-needed in this weather!), the fantastic and seriously good Guardians of the Galaxy ride (an updated version of the old Tower of Terror), the Web Slinger Spiderman Ride which I thought was rather naff, the really good fun Goofy Sky School, and the incredible Incredicoaster.  This last one is thought by many to be the best ride in the park – a fast rollercoaster with an awesome speedy start.  I was sooo pleased to have been able to go on this one, as the first time I had queued for it, it closed down literally as I was taking my seat on it!  We were all given a lightning ticket to go straight to the front of the queue should it open again, and so very fortunately it opened a couple of hours later just as I was planning to leave the park and begin my jumping two-hour drive back to my accommodation again before it got too dark.  It was so worth the wait, and definitely the best ride in the park!

It was indeed an amazing day, and it was just great being a kid again! 🙂

The next day was my last and final full day on this epic Round-the-World trip.  While I was tired, my energy was seriously boosted by being in America again – by the way, have I said before I just love this country…?!  On this day I was visiting San Diego.  I had often heard it’s a lovely city, which I had to see to believe, and yes it is indeed to my mind too a wonderful city!  I guess I was just a bit skeptical of it being nice, being so close to the humungous and mostly ugly concrete-city of LA, but this place was cool, genteel and oceanside-graceful.  My lasting image of the city includes palm trees, hills, harbours and yachts – it was definitely an attractive place!

I had aimed to visit two main places for the day, pretty much the two main sights which put the city on the map.  First up was the absolutely awesome MSS Midway Museum.  This is a real-life, once-working US aircraft carrier, and it was so amazing to actually be on one of these epic military beauties!  There were some fascinating real-life veteran-narrated stories to listen to, real US navy aeroplanes you can get into, the huge flight deck which has to be stood on to appreciate the size of, and a great guided tour I did of “The Island” which is the name for the main control centre rising high above the flight deck, all topped off by gorgeous views back to the skyscraper-studded centre of downtown San Diego and out over the gentle waters of the San Diego Bay beyond.  What more could one ask for in a place to visit!

Well, there was indeed more, in the equally-awesome San Diego Zoo, my second of the two sights I’d chosen to visit for the day.  This place is a world-famous animal menagerie, and was such a lovely place to wander around.  It felt notably free from the crowds of Disneyland the day before, and the weather was a tad cooler too – low rather than high 30s.  Apparently it is generally cooler here than further north around where I was staying, which seems a bit odd, but perhaps San Diego benefits from cooling ocean breezes while Menifee is inland desert central.

Highlights for me were the giant and red pandas (perhaps tasters of what may be to come on my summer travels this time next year…), the tiger, and the gorillas.  Now, I don’t want to sound a travel snob, but I had already seen the rest of the animals out there in the wild and their natural habitats on my global travels, including the lions, elephants, giraffe, zebra, hippo, penguins and koalas.  This did make me question the nature and purpose of zoos, before my usual self took back control of my overly-philosophical mind and just carried on enjoying the place!

Also great were the guided bus tour I did first to get an all-round reccy of the place, and the cool cable car ride which I did at the end to contemplate the land I had just wandered, glimpsing once more the skyscrapers of downtown San Diego in the distance.  I had also met a lovely local couple on my wanderings, who had had a bit to drink, and as we parted ways I heard the guy say to his partner “such a nice guy”, which made me feel really chuffed!

Before driving back up north again, I thought I would first try to see the famous view from the Cabrillo Monument up on nearby Point Loma, a long peninsula of land jutting out to the west of the city.  However, I noted from it being after its closing time of 5pm and also the fact that the drive there was along a road through US naval territory with military signs and warnings all over the place, that it may have been better to call it a day on my San Diego sightseeing for the day rather than get into trouble with any authorities.  I thus did a three-point turn in the middle of a US military zone and headed instead back to my very cosy, comfortable and peaceful accommodation back in Menifee, with its very welcome air-conditioning.  I stopped off on the way at a giant Walmarts near the city of Oceanside to pick up some of my favourite US table sauces to bring back home with me, which are just ubiquitous and so cheap out there.

The next morning I was due to head back to LAX from Menifee, a two-hour drive, but I was a bit concerned as the neighbourhood I was staying in was due to have road works beginning at 7am that morning.  My host kindly got up at 6.30am to check with the workmen whether it’d be ok to drive out around 10am, and fortunately it was.  I really appreciated him doing this, as I wanted a good lie-in that morning in preparation for my long-haul flight home again – he’d been a great host, and the accommodation was just perfect for my travel plans there.

On the way to the airport, I stopped off in the LA suburb which hosted me last year during my two-week trip around California, a place called Lawndale.  I had tacos at my favourite breakfast joint during my time there, a local Jack in the Box a couple of doors down from my accommodation, and driving around a bit I also spotted my motel, the Redondo Beach metro station, and the mile-long walk I did a few times between the two.  It brought back some great memories, lol, though it was a bit hotter this time!

After saying a happy and relieved goodbye to the LA freeway system that I had really gotten to know during these few days in southern California, I dropped off my rental car with no extra charges and having totted up 755 miles on the milometer.  I was ready to take my 12^th and final flight of this amazing trip around the world.  This was a Norse Atlantic Airways budget airline flight back to London, and even to Gatwick, my favourite!  It was a nice airline, with no frills, and it got me from A to B which is the main thing.  And as the only airline flying from LAX to Gatwick, what’s not to like?!

A train and then a taxi brought me back to my front door again, and to the end of my epic “Around the World in 40 Days” adventure.  After 12 flights, 57 hours up in the air, seven countries and territories, eight islands, and a whole host of amazing adventures, unforgettable experiences, and some seriously brilliant people encountered along the way, this is one trip that will certainly go down as an epic one in my memories.

As mentioned, I am still getting my head around how it is possible to just continue travelling eastwards from my front door and then end up back at my front door again, though I guess of course this is indeed because the world is round, and I got to see this with my own eyes!  As mentioned, I feel a reverse circumnavigation to unwind myself may be up-and-coming in the not-too-distant future, so do watch this space!

In the meantime though, my next trip planned was a lovely little one around lovely little Montenegro in October, which I of course plan to write up about here.

Until then, thank you for reading and for following along with me on my adventure.

And thank you world for having me, you’ve been truly amazing!