Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th April - I'm coming home, I'm coming home, tell the world that I'm coming home

Been here, done that...

Best thing is that I'm on the flight home with one of my oldest dearest friends, Sarah L.

Big smile.

I get to see my babies soon.

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Location:Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Thursday 26th April - where did the day go? So let's call it Friday 27th

Flight was at 12pm, so of course we were wide awake, but we landed in Kuala Lumpur after an 11 hour flight at 6am Friday, but do you think I could sleep? Of course not. After leaving our luggage at the hotel we walked to the nearest mall around 8.30am but shops don't open until 10am. Even then we needed to waste time until about 1pm when our room might have been ready. Check-in wasn't until 2pm but he could clearly see we were knackered so said he'd try to have the room ready earlier. What better time waster than people-watching; Justin's favourite pastime.

The most eventful thing that happened today was when a woman walked past where Justin and I and another lady were sitting and threw a bottle cross the floor that smashed and spread quite a way. This got the security guards going. We could hear her screaming as she ran up the escalator. Guards got on their walky-talkies and began the chase. Unfortunately we never saw what happened but it looked like she might have gotten away with it.

Wondering if we were hungry or just really tired we headed to a supermarket. At the supermarkets you go to little 'stalls' within the supermarket to buy what you want individually. One for meat, sweets, seafood, even a mini sushi restaurant you could sit at in the middle of the supermarket. Frustrated we couldn't find any bread products we bought our fruit only to discover there was a bread shop just before the exit but after the checkouts to the supermarket.

Isetan (a department store) was having a 'card holders only' sale and it made the Farmers Card Holders nights look small. People were lined up to get in about half an hour before it opened.

And here we are in the club lounge at cocktail hour enjoying drinks and nibbles. It's amazing what a sleep, swim and shower can do. Off to do some shopping soon and head out to a Japanese restaurant for tea. Mmmm Japanese buffet!

One more day and we'll be home. Hard to imagine.

Go Shirley A netball team for your first game tomorrow. See you next week.

Excuse any mistakes, it's been a long day and I'm not reading this AGAIN...



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Location:Up in the air

Wednesday 25th April - Lest We Forget...

Our last day in Paris. So many things still to do. The Louvre, Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, Pantheon... We managed the first three, a quick souvineer shop and last minute things from the supermarket.

Managed to sleep in again today, despite the racket outside of the dump trucks. We decided that we would visit places based on the weather. If it was nice, where would you go? Outside right? So we thought we'd go to The Louvre instead. Bad idea. The queues were insanely long. One cue for tickets, one to get security checked, another line for presold tickets... Thought better of it and headed to Saint Chapelle instead. We lined up at 12.27pm only to discover that it was closed between 1-2.15pm, last entry at 12.30pm. Notre Dame here we come. (third time lucky?)

We visited the crypt at Notre Dame which houses ruins and artifacts. I must admit that I was beginning to feel like I'd had my share of history about now.

Notre Dame is gorgeous though, like most other churches, cathedrals and basilicas.














Had time for a quick bite and lined up for Saint Chapelle. There were two lines, one for the the public and one for tour groups. We heard one of the ladies in the tour group say that the lines joined at the front for security check so they should just push their way in, no time to be polite. How Rude! Game on. Saint Chapelle isn't a very big church but it is very colourful. It was being restored/cleaned, which was going to take three years. Quite an intricate process to clean and repair the stained glass windows.












You can seen how worn the artwork is.



The floor


On the way to find some proper lunch, we saw a pretty fountain with a group of people gathering around the bottom. There was music being played and it seemed like a wee party on the street. Wrong. Looking closer, there were a dozen police vans, an ambulance and a whole lot of armed police with shields lining up along the bridge. Light bulb - protest.




Needless to say, we headed in the other direction for lunch. It started raining while we were having lunch (no surprises there) and when we came out, the rain had scared off the protesters and the police were nowhere to be seen. How important was the cause after all we wondered?

Finally we made it to The Louvre. It's late night on Wednesday and Thursday and all our mucking around paid off as there were no cues for tickets, and only a handful of people in front of us at security. Off to see the main attractions first; Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.



The one and only... and it's much smaller than I thought it would be, but still protected behind some very thick glass.



Venus de Milo

A few other popular views were:



Winged victory


Cupid and Psyche









Napoleon III apartments.

Then of course there are the glass pyramid and inverted glass pyramid at The Louvre:





Anyone seen The da Vinci Code?

There was a concert in the square outside the Louvre but we never worked out who the artists were. Took some photos and video but don't recognise the performers.

So that's Paris. We leave for Kuala Lumpur in the morning for two nights before finally returning home about 11pm on Sunday night.

It's going to be a hard Monday.

See you in KL.

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Location:Paris, France

Tuesday 24th April - Touring the 'Tours' (towers)

Another late start to the day. When it's constantly raining, why would you want to go outside?

And so we didn't. We headed to the other large mall complex in Paris, but were too scared to even look at things. Why? Because there were brands like Prada and Jimmy Choo. I looked at one price tag and the sleeveless blouse cost 340 Euro (about NZ$700). Justin said he only came to look at the glass roof, so thought we better take photos of it.







On the terrace there was a great view of the city (but not as good as the view later).



Yes it is cold!


Later on we decided to brave the elements and visit the Eiffel Tower. Only one lift was working, and the weather was looking dodgy again so we decided to take photos of the tower rather than from the tower. Not long after we started taking the usual touristy photos we got hit with a downpour AGAIN.



It's quite a peculiar looking structure up close.


After a cruisy afternoon we headed to the Montparnasse Tower for sunset. There are beautiful views of the city at sunset and after dark.



Eiffel tower at night







The Louvre at night (it's the long strip of lights across the middle)




We were high up!


After spending quite a it of time using subways on this trip, I have realised something else. You have to give and take with the subway. On a positive note, it's very well designed. It's like a rabbit warren. People going onto the trains and coming off the trains don't walk up the same tunnels so there's no clash of foot traffic. However on the downside, there are a lot of stairs and there is a constant smell of stale urine.


Still hoping for a dry day tomorrow.


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Location:Paris, France

Monday 23rd April - It's raining again!

Not sure what there is to blog about today. Had a sleep in. Went to the supermarket to stock up on supplies of cheap French cheese, wine and sweets. It was still raining then. It was raining when we finally ventured out to the city at about 2pm. Visited a small shopping complex in Montparnasse station thinking it was a bigger one that we later discovered on the map which has the same name. We visited the Arc de Triomphe for some photos but because the weather was so awful we didn't go up. There is a tower called the Montparnasse Tower that has a better view of Paris where you can see the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower and so on so have decided to go up there instead. I know what you're thinking... come to Paris and don't even go up the Eiffel Tower. We came to see it, and we can get a better view if we aren't on it :)





Arc de Triomphe



This is the most chaotic roundabout I have ever seen. There are no lanes, but cars just drive on and off without crashing somehow.




The 'Place de la Concorde' monument. Check out the lovely rain clouds.

On the way home Justin decided we needed to take the scenic route. Apparently he knew where this amazing restaurant was from Trip Advisor that we just had to visit. So after ambling down the street for a while and finding where a humongous cemetery is, we found it by chance. When we entered the theme music for the Crusaders was playing, so I said we had to stay. In the end the food was actually very nice, and quite close to our hotel so we didn't have to stay out in the horrible weather for long.



Beautifully presented food


I've learnt a couple of things about the subway...

1) Be prepared to make friends. By that I mean be prepared to be jammed in like sardines, especially when people think that they can fit in just as the doors are closing, but actually it was better when they hadn't squashed in.

2) Don't 'take on' the subway doors. An older man decided he was going to push in the queue of people lining up politely and he got stuck in the doors, so another guy and I had to pull them open to get him out. What's worse is that there were extra safety gates and so he got stuck in both. There's a lesson to be learnt from that!

3) While your saxophone, violin or accordion playing might be nice, or while you might have something to say about who to vote for, I have no idea what you are saying so you won't get a response out of me, sorry.

Hoping for a dry day tomorrow.

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Location:Paris, France

Sunday 22nd April - chasing Champagne

Why is it that when you sit on a train you automatically want to go to sleep, yet when you get on an airplane you can't sleep at all? Today was not a good day for falling asleep on trains. We were taking local trains to the Champagne region and they don't go very often, so if you miss a stop, or miss a train, you'll be waiting a while to get home, or spending the night :)

Without the help of the Internet, because it was not working at our hotel, we managed to work out how to get to the right station (there are a few in Paris!) and take the right trains to visit Champagne and sample some local wine. Champagne wine is only called champagne because of the region it comes from.

First we visited a place called Epernay, which is a lot bigger than I thought. There is a street called 'Avenue de Champagne' and all along it are champagne houses of various winemakers.



The one we were visiting, again on Ann's recommendation, was called Mercier, which happened to be quite a wee way along, so far that we thought we'd gone the wrong way. Nothing else seemed to be open, so we were really hoping that Mercier was. It's Sunday after all, and nothing else was open in town. Being the last day of our rail pass, we thought we'd better make use of it and head to Champagne, but it was looking as if it might have been for nothing. When we did finally arrive it was quite busy.

These photos are taken in the cellar:








This tunnel was about 1km long






The large barrel you can see behind Justin holds 200,000 litres of wine and was pulled by 24 bulls from Epernay to Paris for the world fair in eighteen hundred and something. It's massive!

Mercier provided an entertaining tour. We had an audio guide in English that shared the history Mercier wines, how the wines are made and stored, and how each kind of of champagne is named/labelled. After a short film we were treated to a unique elevator ride that had a window at the back and had three displays lit up as you went down into the cellar, 30m underground. The accompanying music to the scenes made me feel like I was in a Tim Burton movie.

A miniature train ride took us around a labyrinth of tunnels in the cellar that was guided by infrared only, no tracks. It would have been a disaster if it went off course as there were thousands of bottles of wine carefully stacked in alcoves, tunnels and along the walls of we were driving. We got pretty close sometimes. After the tour we sampled three champagnes; a brut, a brut rose, and a 2007 vintage; vintage just meaning all the grapes are from the same year, rather than meaning 'old'. I also thought a magnum was a large bottle at 1.5l litres, but a nabuchodonosor holds 15 litres!

There were again some beautiful old buildings used as the champagne houses. Even a giant bottle top in the middle of the roundabout.











This is a hotel in the middle of a park/garden

We had time for a drink before catching the train to Rheims so we stopped in at a cute little bar called 'Le Bar Code'. Apart from being very cosy, it had the highest toilet seat I've come across, I couldn't even touch the floor. People in this country aren't that tall!


Rheims was a stop off mainly because we were in the area, and also to see their Notre Dame. Like so many other churches we have seen, there was so much detail on the outside, all of it telling a story - just one I couldn't understand. Unfortunately they were closing just as we arrived so only had time to step inside the door and take a glimpse. Because it was so cold, something we have become used to, we thought we'd have a drink somewhere warm before our train back to Paris. We found probably the only place open in Rheims and weren't disappointed. They had a very delectable Peach Tiramisu and light, but intense, chocolate mousse. Our waitress seemed to have disappeared so we basically threw money at them as we ran out the door, hoping not to be late to the station. I'm not sure that there was another train back to Paris tonight.

















I'm currently sitting on the train on the way back from Rheims and have had a chance to mull a few things over, such as:

1) What's with wearing sunglasses on the subway?
2) Does everyone stalk empty seats on the subway? Is standing for two stops not an option?
3) I've noticed that there seems to be two colours worn at the moment - black and denim, which isn't very exciting for one of the fashion capitals of the world. However it makes blending it a lot easier for me. My lack of any language other than English soon exposes me though.
4) I'll appreciate not having to pay to use public toilets in New Zealand a lot more.


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Location:Epernay and Rheims, France

Saturday 21 April - Time for Tamasine, and Rob

Last cooked English breakfast. More servings of bacon and eggs, (I've had this three mornings in a row now) but this morning we got baked beans with it, which reminded me of home. Time to check out after repacking our bags and contemplating the weight of them. No time to worry though, we were off to meet Tamasine and Rob for brunch (that's Mrs Glassford to those from Ilam School reading this). She is due to have her baby in 10 days.

On the way to brunch I had to stop for a mandatory photo with a phone booth. It's just a shame that this one appears to have been used as a urinal the night before, hence why I am outside.




We also visited the British Museum which was just around the corner form our hotel. We saw some pretty impressive mummies.









I'm convinced this one has gold nail polish...




Even animals were mummified, this is a young bull.



This one was from 3400BC, and we thought the castles were old!


On the way back to get out luggage we came across this cute wee fellow. The video footage is very cute of him rolling around playing like a kitten.




We met Tamasine and Rob at the Convent Garden underground station for brunch.

Here we are at Covent Garden with a London cab sneaking into the picture.





Here's Tamasine with her pregnant belly - Justin made me put that one in even though my eyes are closed.

After brunch we had a walk around Covent Gardens catching up on things, comparing life in London to life in New Zealand. I've never had the urge to live and work in London. It never really appealed, but after spending some time here, I could probably manage it. Not that I am planning on doing that, it's just a thought.

Learning from our mistakes, we headed to the station with plenty of time to spare. We had just enough money to load up one more ride on the metro to the train station before returning our cards for a refund. (Thanks to Tamasine for buying me coke from Tescos because I didn't have enough money!). In fact I now only have 20p to my name. It's a good thing I have plenty of Euro, but that won't get you anywhere in London.


We are now on the train to Lille again and catching another train to Paris because it was going to be 3 times the price if we took the Eurostar straight to Paris. The time from Lille to Paris is only about another hour but it just means that we have another night of getting to our hotel after 9pm. We have four whole days here, so one of those days is going to be a cruisy one I think.


Later...
We learnt at the Lille station that school holidays have just started in France so Disneyland can wait until Hong Kong in October. I'm guess at least the children won't be on wine tours in Champagne (or so we are hoping).

Seeing as it was 10pm by the time we got to our hotel, we didn't venture far to find some tea. We found a great Japanese restaurant only half a block from our hotel, which was luck because most things were already shut. We had to laugh when we realised that we were in France, in a Japanese restaurant, ordering in English for food cooked by Chinese speaking staff. Gotta love Europe!

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Location:London, England