Friday am, Paris, revisited

rumour has it that a new candidate for the hunchback de Notre Dame was sighted yesterday - no, it was just I, having to lug my 25kg bag up and down stairs of the Metro (made worse by diversions) .. I did expect to have to pop some Neurofen for brekky this am and not be standing straight for a good part of the morning, but so far, so good

special mentions today - Google : +10 ten points for recognising Im in France -100 points for changing the primary screen to french language (*1) (luckily its fairly easy to navigate, thank heavens for basic french 101)

(*1) I guess thats giving them credit for being that smart - likely its just that Im hitting the closest google server to me and its in France

Friday am, Paris

so, I have a tour to Monet's Gardens booked for this afternoon. I missed the catacombs http://www.catacombes-de-paris.fr/ last time I was here, and had left spaces (except Mondays when they are closed) in my rough schedule to go and visit - creepy but fun. It appears Im going to miss them again - an entry on the Museum de Paris site says they closed on 15th Sept due to vandalism !!!

ok, time to recover previous notes I made on antiques markets instead

ttfn, votre traveller intrepide (et un peu miffed)

Paris, Thursday

J'ai arrivee dans Paris - et je suis tres fatigue

Translation in Aussie - I made it to Paris and I'm knackered

- ok, so the London metro was out at a couple of points on my travels and I had to compensate - the Paris Metro makes the London metro look like chopped liver !!!!! So when its out, life gets fun, NOT

On the bright side, I have a studio apartment - the only 'weird' thing is it has a fold-out sofa bed ... Apart from that, it has more amenities than the place I was staying in London ....

Time to snooze, test the internet connection, then figure out what's for tea ......

'G'

Thusday, manners update

I'm forgetting my manners - although the Caesar is owned/run by Spanish, they have a league of nations working here - Hungarian, Polish, Spanish (d'oh), Portuguese

So to Bruno, 'obrigado !' ('Thanks' in Portuguese)

'pita' award goes to Westpac for calling me about 'some mail' .... Stunned silence when I replied 'great ... You do know I'm in London, right ?". Snicker - you can run but not hide from Westpac it seems

Must be about time to grab tea, toast, shuffle towards Heathrow .... See y'all in Paris

Thursday

about to head for Paris

thought I'd mention, for anyone who likes 'Fado' - A Portuguese 'lament' traditionally by fisher-wives when their husbands didnt return, Bruno, the waiter last night at the Caesar, suggested

youtube, Mariza - 'gente da minha terra' - look for 'fabuloso'

Fado isnt for everyone - its pretty strong, emotive stuff ...

'g'

London, Wednesday

Placeholder - lagging behind already

London, Tuesday

Placeholder - you guessed it, will edit soon

London, Monday

Placeholder - will edit soon

London, Sunday Afternoon - and Evening

Spent Sunday afternoon with two ex pat Aussies/Mates, Derryn and Lincoln - wandering around inner London, eg Covent Gardens, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, various bars :-)

Many thanks Lads, your hospitality was much appreciated.

Special message to Laura Ferrari from Lincoln - 'how about answering an email, else you'll be dropped off the Xmas Card list and/or replaced with a younger model'...

Interesting, Trafalgar square has four 'plinths' - one is vacant - there's been a few debates on statues etc to go on it - one enterprising artist has made it into 'people art' - for 100 days iirc, people have booked 1 hour slots and can do anything they want - when Derrun, Lincoln and I went past, there was a gent in a tux playing a very old recording of old-man-river and not doing much else ... cough, wait till you see who/what was on the plinth on Monday, lads (sorry readers of a female persuasion)...

ttfn

London, Sunday Morning

I had time to kill this morning, so specially for Harrison and Arwen I snapped these (above).. they are cute and funny (and right now being autumn here they are storing as many nuts as they can for winter)

But one has to remember they are also vermin, much like possums at home .. I wonder what they taste like - my guess is no-one has managed to catch one (by hand at least) .. so its still 'cat ... the other white meat' for a while

ttfn

You know you're in London when ....

1) Your flight arrives at 6:30am and you can't get into your hotel room 'till 2pm - so you're strung out, smelly, and have to wait another unholy amt of time to crash

2) You decide to crash on a park bench and watch the squirrels (not a eupenhism for anything, I mean gray squirrels) .... Cute .... Photo evidence to be provided at a later point in time

Ttfn, your intrepid traveller

Ps ... Apparently red squirrels are hard to find and not in these parts anyway ... Might be a change from 'cat, the other white meat' though

Upgrade - 'declined'

Yeah - thanks for nothing Qantas - your frequent flyer program really sux ...
(At least I'm in Premium Economy, but Business wouldve been grand)

Ttfn

T-0 Days

and the bag is finally packed .. phew - how to plan for 3 weeks on the move, then 3 weeks cycling ? .. the 3 weeks cycling is pretty easy really - lycra, lots of it !!! ok, plus seat, pedals, spanner for pedals .. groan

lets see, new rego sticker on car (why do they always expire when Im out of the country, is it a fiendish rta plot ?), bills paid, auto top-up scheduled for credit cards, New Amex Gold arrived yesterday (would have expired 3 days before I return, not that Ive had a major cancellation before, but I like my Gold Amex just-in-case - a security blanket)

Not missing work per se - missing my mates - the 'banter' - my Team, various groups in Sydney, Brisbane (if I name you all you'll know what a sook I am - bald head or not) ;-)

Time to paste the google map-link - hope this works :-

Link: <http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=116657732680510597985.00046f7db82696b6ace75&z=4>

Now just have to re-arrange 4 ticket wallets into some sort of chronology - not what I was presented with, not how I think ... for example, getting off at Heathrow I'll need my London Express Train docket - but thats not in the same wallet as my e-Ticket etc ..

anyway, ttfn ... next post should be from the other side of the world

'g'

T-2 Days

Ok, the last day at work .. ulp, two things still not done - better hope the wifi/Email access on the A380 to London is working ;-) ...

Just printed most of the paraphernalia I need in case some catastrophic event aka 'GPS Failure' happens and I need to navigate by hand to hotels etc - created TrueCrypt encrypted container on a travel drive, outside of that copied 2 seasons of Torchwood and True Blood to the un-encrypted disk (gotta have the important things)

Definately got 'butterflies' ....

T-3 Days

And I was glad (ish) to be back on the bike this morning after twisting my back last Tuesday (*1) - just what one wants before 6 weeks off, and 3 weeks of those 'in the saddle'.. so it was on with the deep-heat, down with a Nurofen (just in case), and a 'lets see if I can still walk tonight' .. and I still am, so far

One more ride before I leave - Thursday am, then its off with the seat and pedals ready to take them with me.

(*1) and no, contrary to what you may think, it wasn't twisting to flip some schmuck the bird - we all know twisting is a waste of energy - so just do it over your shoulder :-)

In the beginning ....

there was a thought - I want a different, active holiday ... well, the forces of nature (ok, my right Kidney and a hospital stay) conspired against me, and I didnt end up following the 'le tour' in France. I still had the thought though ...

.. and so it was, after watching some travel show (these shows really have a lot to answer for dont they ?) .. that I settled on an idea .. 2 weeks cycling, from Paris to Bruges.

Except, by the time I put the holiday together, it was a whole lot more - London, to see some mates, Paris to catch up on some things I missed last time, Stockholm (never been there), nor Copenhagen in Denmark, but hey, why not ??? then over to a piece of Italy I hadnt seen (came close a while back with my brother when we saw Lago di Garda) - Lago Di Como (Bellagio, Italy) - another travel show, actually, yes, it was 'the Great Outdoors, Channel 7 Aus', then 1 week cycling in Provence - and the dreaded Mt Ventoux, then 2 weeks cycling from Paris to Bruges (Belgium) ....phew - then home .. 6 weeks later

None of it would be possible without 4 things - a love of travel (thanks Mum and Dad), my travel company (Outdoor Travel Pty Ltd - The Active Travel Company), and the internet, to do some of the research, and my physio Anna Jane Peterson of Joint Health, Sydney (unlikely that I'd be able to walk if it wernt for her ministrations)

Guess I should also mention work : there is no good time to take 6 weeks off, trust me, I think they are still praying I come back ;-) but since I also have sooooo much annual leave accumulated, they are gritting their teeth and still smiling (or is that grimacing)

Anyway, enough for now ... I might post the map link next time

and remember the motto, chant it often - 'two wheels, rubber side down' (because if the rubber isnt on the road likely there's bitumen, skin, and pain involved)

ttfn