Europe and Beyond

Monday 12/05 A big day ahead so we set the alarm for 6:00am.  After a buffet breakfast we headed off and hit the autobahns again.  Certainly getting used to them now and even set a personal best - 163km/h - and the best thing is it was legal - and felt very safe.  The car had pretty much maxed out by then though.  Hall that I do tend to set the cruise control to 120 or 125 when there is no limit or when it is 130, so it's not all about speed. Our main destination today was Neuschwanstein castle, apparently the inspiration for the Disneyland castle.  It rained quite heavily on our way and looked like the clouds were going to be an issue as well - given it is set high in the mountains.  When we got to the carpark and got out of the car it was still raining heavily, so we grabbed our umbrellas.  Not long after though it cleared and we began the 20 minute walk up the hill to the castle.  We had read various things on the internet about where to get...

More rain this morning, but most of today was in the car so not a big deal. We drove first to Brugge and thanks to our  host in Ypres chose to park at the train station and walk in. Was a good idea because the streets were very tight and full of people. I've tried to avoid saying 'it was lovely' and 'we loved it' because I don't want to keep repeating myself, but Brugge is gorgeous.There are little canals everywhere with houses built over the top in places. The buildings date back to the tenth century and there are horse and carts travelling the streets full of tourists. Now to Germany and a surprise trip through Holland. We were cruising along and suddenly saw a sign saying we were entering the Netherlands. Hadn't realised we would go through  it and it is strange when you cross borders - no formalities, just a sign. Much the same as going into NSW or SA. In Germany we drove along an autobahn for quite a while. I had the cruise control set to 13...

Thursday 9th of May and it was time to leave Paris.  We caught the train to the airport and picked up our lease car, a Peugeot 308 with GPS.  We needed the GPS just to get out of the airport, which took about 7km.  Heading North our first stop was Villers-Bretonneux.  We had planned on going to the French-Australian Museum but it was a French Public Holiday so that was shut, but we did go to the Australian National Memorial.  The memorial lists 10,773 names of Australian soldiers who were killed but have no known grave.  The memorial itself, along with many others, was damaged in WW2 and still bears some of the scars. Continuing North we got to Ypres around 5:00 pm, having travelled about 350kms.  Driving on the 'wrong' side of the road hasn't posed any real issues, but changing gears with my right hand has been a problem once or twice - mainly changing down. We had a little bit of time so went to the Menin Gate,which again commemorates fallen...

Our final two days in Paris have been very full ones. On Tuesday we walked for 1 1/2 hours to get to the Hotel de Invalides.  It was a long walk but there were also many stops for photos including at a fairly famous bridge where 'lovers' place padlocks engraved with their names. The Hotel de Invalides was originally a hospital but is now the site of Napoleons Tomb.  For a little fella he sure has a big tomb.  Not sure if you can tell, but look at the people in the photo to get perspective, it is probably 15 feet high. Next door was the Musee de Armies, so we went in there for a look.  It was really interesting and had a lot of armour dating back to the 14 and 15 hundreds, as well as weapons etc dating back to 1000 years BC.  The detail in the armour is incredible and some of the helmets just bizarre  Note the teeth in this one From here we went by train to view the Catacombs.  The Catacombs are basically an underground cemetery. Bac...

Today was 21C and a slight breeze, beautiful in other words.  We started with a quick wader through parts of the Marais district on our way to Sainte-Chapelle chapel.  Sainte-Chapelle is known for it's lovely stained glass windows each telling a story.  They were very beautiful but some were covered by restoration work, making the whole room dusty.  Shame Saint Chapelle sold a combined ticket with the Conciergerie, so we went there as an unplanned trip.  The Conciergerie dates back to approx the 10th century and was used as a residence for royalty before being turned into a prison.  Marie Antoinette was kept here for several months prior to her execution by guillotine. The architecture again was amazing and Tracy was particularly taken by the ceiling. From here we walked to The Louvre.  The queues were again quite long, but we had heard you could go in side entrances and using 'Rick Steves Paris' book we found one of those.  The main a...

Sainte-Chapelle ceiling  Outside the Louvre Venus de Milo   Outside The Louvre  Arc de Triomphe Under the Arc Our rather small kitchen - two hotplates and a microwave

22 hours in the plane plus 4 hours in Dubai airport, but we finally made it to Paris.  Another hour waiting for our bags plus an hour in a taxi to our accommodation.  Hope it is worth it :) The apartment is quite small but very adequate for us.  It is in a really good position, with some nice little restaurants nearby.  After settling in we walked about 10 minutes to the Seine and then just across the river to Notre Dame Cathedral.  It was about 5:00pm by this stage and there was a queue about 500 metres long to get in.  We joined the queue and it moved quite quickly taking only about 15 minutes until we were inside.  It's a huge church and still used  for prayer etc.  After taking in the architecture we went outside with a plan to go onto the roof.  Unfortunately they closed access about 5 minutes before we got there.  That turned into a theme for us as we then went to Saint Chappelle, site of some amazing lead light windows appa...