Day 11 Ghent and Paris

We felt very rested this morning in our huge air conditioned room and lovely bathroom. We rated this our number one stay so far. We had 2 plans this morning, breakfast waffles and castle. The waffles were great, and it was nice sitting down watching various people going past starting their day. Then we went for a walk around the block, and Trisha did an extra walk around another block.

The castle was open at 10am and we were there ready and waiting. The audio guide was the funniest that I have heard, recorded by a comedian. He brought lots of hilarious asides in, like how worried do you need to be about expired yoghurt. The castle itself was not large having 2 bedrooms and a few other rooms including an execution chamber, but lots of winding stairs up and down and a great view from the top. There was 2 long drops on the 2nd floor, 2 so you could have company. Really loooooong drops which went straight into the canal. The audio cue had some funny tales about the public being able to see how healthy the Count was by checking out his number 2’s on the way down.

Then it was back to our lovely room to have some lunch, and cool down a bit before heading off. We were 350m from a tram and had got used to walking on the tram tracks instead of the cobbles which were pretty hard going. We were at the main station rather early for our train, so asked if we could catch an earlier one to Brussels which we did. There was a chocolate store there which had a portable aircon unit which I directed under my t shirt for while. Minimum chocolate spend was 10 euro, and there was no point as they would have melted as soon as I left the shop. Train from Brussels to Paris was going 223 kph at one stage so it only took 1.5 hours to get there. Then more train tickets for the metro in Paris to the Chatelet station which seemed to take forever to get out of, and lots of stairs to walk up with bags. When we got out I was starting up google maps to find our accommodation when Trisha saw it across the road. It was 35 degrees and we were very happy to have found it so quickly.

Our room is small with no aircon but a reasonable fan. And at least the single beds can move around. We unpacked and did some washing the old way by stomping on it in the bath. That was a nice cooling experience! Then went for walk to the Louvre though visited Uniqlo on the way. All the buildings are huge and pretty spectacular. There are boxes there for people, to stand on while taking pics of them theoretically doing things to the pyramid on top of the Louvre entrance. We also walked through to the gardens and sat down for a while. Then it was back to our room with a few sitting stops on the way. There is a supermarket right next to our hotel, but it had shut early on Sunday. So we got a salad from another place and I also had a crepe which we ate in our room.

It is incredible hot. I didn’t have the energy to write this blog last night. Then I suggested Trish use her cooling towel, and she said why didn’t I use my whole towel. That was a life changing experience! I have never gone to bed before wearing a wet towel. I totally zonked out for about 9 hours and the towel was dry by then.

Initially it looked like today was the last of the really hot days, but nope we have one more though not quite as hot as today.

17,987 steps and far too hot at 35 degrees.Read more