Paris day 3

Our last day!

The packing exercise again. We got it all in, and waited in trepidation for the weigh-in at the airport.

















After our last breakfast ( breakfasts have been a highlight of this trip!) we headed off to Galleries Lafayette. Lots of looking, but we were quite restrained in our purchasing....

25 degrees, and bright sunshine. Lunch on the Champs Elysees, with most of Paris, then a stroll along to the Arc de Triomphe. Being the day after Anzac Dy, there was a wreath from NZ at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and an enormous French flag was flying under the Arc. Amongst the names of various towns carved on the wall was Landshut - we couldn't figure out what they were there for, maybe the site of some battle in the past?

I made Lyn climb back up over Monmartre on the way back to the hotel (well, we did go up the gondola), so that we could go and have our crepes au chocolats at the Place du Tertres. Very delicious too!

I also made her detour to a bakery on the way down so that we could buy fruit tarts - we ate them stting in the park across the road from the hotel, then just had time for a last glass of wine in the cafe before our shuttle to the airport arrived.

No trouble with luggage weight, we just had to settle in and do the hours, and eventually there we were, walking out into Christchurch airport with Ben and Ella waiting with "Awesome" signs - so good to see everyone.

Truly an "Awesome" trip, to be remembered for a long time.

Paris day 2

A later start on our second day after our late night out.

Another sunny morning, and we walked up to the top of Montmartre and had a look at the art work in the Place du Tertre. We resisted having our portraits drawn, although Lyn was tempted!

Sacre Coeur was as lovely as ever, with its white domes shining against the sky.


We walked down the other side of the Butte, but the good chocolate crepe restaurant wasn't open. We had lunch at another cafe across the road - croque monseiur and pear tarte.

From there we walked on round to Abbesses, down the street with all the tourist shops where they were very pleased to see us...

Caught the train to the Eiffel Tower, as impressive as ever. Unfortunately the top platform was closed (although I wasn't too heartbroken - a bit high for me!), but we went up to level 2 and the views from there were magnificent enough.

As we were coming down I received a text from Meredith, saying she and Mum were in Paris, at the Eiffel tower, and where were we?
So we met then 10 minutes later at the bottom of the south leg - the world is a small place!



It was good to see them. We walked along the banks of the Seine together, had a coffee at a little Parisian cafe, and ended up at a little market by the river. We went our separate ways back to our hotels, having agreed to meet for dinner in the Latin Quarter later.













Surprisingly, we all ended up at the appointed Metro station at about the same time, and went and found ourselves a little French bistro where we had French onion soup, a variety of duck, veal, or pork, and then strawberry tart to finish - very good!

Paris day1

We have now been home for almost a week, and I have finally found time to sit down and put our Paris stories on the blog. I will also add a few photos of Alderney and the Forest, back in the previous blogs if I can, for those who are interested.

There are so many stories from Paris!

We were very sad to leave Freising. We had a wonderful time with Glen, Claudia and Timothy. Glen and Claudia made us so welcome, and went to so much trouble to take us to places, and give us a taste of Germany. For us, the very best part of it was just being with them, and getting to know wee Timothy.

We left Freising on Wednesday afternon, and arrived in Paris Orly in the early evening. The girl at Information assured me that the best way to get into the city was by train...5 trains, 4 changes with all our bags later, we were outside Lamark-Caulaincourt Metro station contemplating the steps we needed to climb to the hotel!











However, half an hour later we were fully recovered, sitting outside the cafe just below our hotel with a glass of wine, watching Paris go by - slender women with scarves, dark eyed young men with enormous motorbikes, and even one woman going into the cafe with her dog in her handbag!


Next morning we were up early, the first people at breakfast (coffee, rolls and croissants), and into the city.






























We started at Notre Dame, and enjoyed trailing through the enormous old cathedral with its fabulous stained glass windows. We visited quite a few churches and cathedrals on our trip, but I never cease to be amazed and impressed at the workmanship of the people who built them, without modern tools or technology.

From there we walked along the Isle de la Cite, through the flower market, and back across the river to the Louvre.


I knew that my legs wouldn't tolerate prolonged Louvring, and I suspect Lyn's would have been the same, so after admiring the building and agreeing that the Pyramides are somewhat out of place but adventurous architecture, we unashamedly just went and saw the Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa. One of the advantages of being there early in the spring was that there were hardly any tourists there, and we were able to go right up close and have a good look - you can actually see why they are considered great works of art, they are really beautiful, especially when you consider their ages.

The day was lovely and we walked back through the Tuileries gardens, buying ourselves a baguette and cheese and eating it on the grass with half the office workers of Paris.

By teatime it was drizzling a bit, and we caught the train back into the city and had dinner in a little cafe (not snails or frogs legs!) before joining our group for the evening. It was just about dark as we boarded one of the Bateaux Mouches, and the Eiffel tower was lashing with light behind us. We chugged slowly up the river, past various landmarks, with Notre Dame looking dramatic in the middle of the Seine in front of us. There was a group of young musicians playing trumpets and trombones on the banks of the river, teenagers drinking and smoking thinking they were out of sight, and dilapidated houseboats and barges - it was great.

We were taken by bus to the Moulin Rouge, driving through central Paris and around the mad roundabout of the Arc de Triomphe.

The Moulin Rouge is a great spectacle! We were packed in, 8 of us squashed round a tiny table, with our bottle of champagne in a silver ice bucket. The show was very professional, good dancing, fabulous costumes, and the juggling and ventriloquist acts were very skilled and not too long! About half the dancers were topless, and the rest of the costumes were so minute that the rest may as well have been as well, but it was completely non-erotic and didn't either improve or detract from the show as far as I could tell. The can-can was lots of fun!

The bus wouldn't take us home afterwards, so Lyn and I ended up walking at 1.30am through the red light area of Paris. Rather surprisingly, we weren't propositioned by anybody!

Last day....

Sadly, our lovely visit is coming to an end. We had a great meal out last night at the Neuwirt Restauarant (where Jiggs had the good pumkin soup). Gisela was there too, and we all had various asparagus dishes, as it is the local specialty and is just coming in to season. The asparagus soup earned as much praise as the pumpkin. You will be pleased to know that I also had a sausage!

We spent yesterday in Landshut, mainly shopping which was fun. Had the obligatory kaffee and kuchen of course, at a busy little cafe that makes its own chocolate, and is apparently a favourite haunt of the rest home crowd!

Today Lyn and I have the task of fitting all of our stuff (including the huge cardboard box of good Oakley stuff that Glen has for us to take home) into our bags, and then making it weigh less than 40kg!

Timothy's first picnic

Yesterday we all went to Rothenburg, about a 2 hour drive on the autobahn. Only a moderate amount of stress for Glen who had the dual jobs of driving, and herding all these women into the car in the first place. Luckily Claudia is very helpful with suggestions from the back seat.

We made it without any wrong turnings, Timothy the perfect baby having slept all the way. When we arrived he had a feed in the car (his first picnic!), before we went wandering through the old town walls and into the centre of this lovely little cobbled town with its 13 and 14th century half timbered buildings.

The town is in a part of Bavaria called Franken, and is a wine producing rather than beer area. They bottle their wine in distinctive round green bottles, like these ones hanging on the wall outside this wine cellar.

We joined a tour of the town that was just starting, a useful way to see most of the sights. Claudia zipped away and came back with some schneeballen (snowballs), the local specialty food, which we ate as we toured, spilling icing sugar all down our fronts and dropping bits of pastry as we went (the local pigeons loved us!)

The age of the places was amazing. It had been a prosperous town, owned by a few local lords or equivalent, and the houses were very large - 4 stories mostly. They still had the beam sticking out above the topmost window with the pulley in it to haul up the winter's food supply for storage at the top of the house, and most had their own well in a courtyard. The top floor windows in some places still do not have glass, only shutters.

We visited the ancient 11th century nunnery with its revolving barrel in a window to allow the cloistered nuns to hand out food to pilgrims without seeing them (an early form of drive-through!) The nunnery gardens were very peaceful.

The town is completely surrounded by its wall, some of which you can walk around. Claudia and I climbed up and had a quick look - it was very narrow and uneven, with sturdy but rather ancient railings, and a bit too high for my liking.

From just outside the wall their is a gorgeous view down over the valley below, with its old stone double-decker bridge.

We had a very late lunch in a lovely little restauarant. Lyn had pork schnitzel, Claudia had local sausages, and Glen and I had 3 varieties of sausage with sauerkraut and dark bread. Timothy chose milk again!

It was a great day out, and Claudia and Timothy did very well with such a long outing - not a sqeak out of him all day!

Glen has been working at the hotel all night, and Timothy is tucked up in bed with Grandma again while Claudia has her shower.

Zwei Omas

Gisela stayed overnight on Saturday night, but headed home after breakfast on Sunday. Timothy enjoyed having both his grandmothers fussing over him - only a small amount of competition for his attention!

It was a gorgeous day, like a nor'wester but with hardly any wind. We walked down to the local tennis club, then around the river, and back to beer garden where we sat out in the sun with our shandies and weiss beer. Glen ordered Lyn a pint of green shandy with something in it that she thinks was midori - it tasted quite good, but the after effects as the day wore on didn't please her too much!

We played with Timothy at home for a while, but the day was so lovely that we went for another walk down to the lake at about 5 o'clock. Loads of people down there picnicking, biking, walking, and the kids kicking soccer balls about and making daisy chains. We sat for a while in the beer garden there too, although I have to say that I'm not sure I could handle a litre of shandy every Sunday either!

Today we are all off to Rothenburg, the 'most medieval town in Germany', about 2 hours drive. A bit of an adventure for Claudia and Timothy as Claudia has not yet had to feed Timothy out in public. The day looks good so far, although the forecast isn't marvellous.

Saturday night roast

I arrived back last night to a lovely dinner, cooked by Lyn, Glen and Claudia. Gisela was here too, and Timothy obligingly slept all evening while we had a delicious roast chicken with stuffing, roast potatoes, pumpkin and sweet potato (almost kumara), and then tiramisu.

Claudia had been and selected special wine at the tasting shop, and we had a lovely evening. After a few wines Gisela and I were chatting away and understanding quite a bit of each other's conversation! It seems much easier this visit - maybe because we are all a bit more relaxed, and I think Glen's German being so good now, meaning there are two translators all the time, also helps. Wait till Timothy's translating for us too!

It was good to talk to Lisa and Shell and everyone last night. You will all be at Brighton now - hope the evening goes well. We miss you all and are looking forward to getting back and telling you all the stories - we are saving them up!

Have a good week at work everyone, and enjoy the holidays Bill, Ben and Ella.

Fairy Tale Castle Neuschwanstein !!!

This is the fairy tale castle Neuschwanstein. It was built in 1869 to 1886 by king Ludwig 11 of Bavaria. He died in mysterious circumstances. So the castle has never been completed. We had to climb over 200 steps to get to the top. I was buggered by the time I had reached the top, but I was quite pleased with myself.
The view was beautiful !!
Love Lyn xxx