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  • Day 61

    Nearly home

    October 23, 2016 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    My travels are nearly over. It's been everything I wished for and more. I saw much more than I expected and what I've seen has put a lot of popular culture into context.

    (As an aside - if I type the letter "C" one of the words suggested is castle).

    The flight from Gatwick to Dubai was quite uneventful, there was a large number of kids in the cabin but apart from one poor baby screaming as we descended they weren't really noisy.

    I was a bit bored though, I watched more than 10 hours of tv on the way over and the programs don't seemed to have changed. I had hoped to sleep but that didn't happen.

    Back to my trip - my favourite place was Pertisau. Even without the Chalet connection it is still a lovely place to visit. The highlight was making it to the Dripping Rock. I literally thought "I can go home now" as I saw it.
    I surprised myself with the walks I did.

    I discovered I really like train travel. I much prefer it to flying, even the long trip from Paris to Munich was good.

    The two places that I wouldn't go back to? Dijon and Cardiff. I think with Dijon I was looking for more of a village experience and that's not what Dijon gives you. Cardiff - that was partly coloured by a poor choice of hotel and the great book posting debacle. Just as well I did post them though as I posted about 6.2kg and my checked baggage weighed 34.5kg. My allowance is 40kg and I bet that extra kilo would have cost a lot more than the postage for the books.
    I'm pretty sure I had less than 20kg when I left Perth. I did buy a small suitcase to hold the stuff I bought.

    London was so much hotter than I expected and the sheer number of people was overwhelming. My favourite experience was seeing The Bodyguard, Hyde Park was also good.

    In Munich I loved the English Gardens, they were so cool and refreshing. I was surprised at the amount of potato I ate.

    Paris surprised me at how much I enjoyed it. I hadn't planned to necessarily go up the Eiffel Tower until I saw it. My favourite though was the Musee d'Orsay.

    It was interesting in that the three mainland European countries all have instructions in 3 languages: the native language, English and a third.
    In Germany it was French, in Austria Italian and in France Spanish.

    Of all the English places I visited I think Yorkshire was my favourite, especially when you consider the dales as well as the moors. In fact wherever I went if there was an opportunity to go via the moors I did.

    Scotland is beautiful, I wish I had been able to see more. I'd like to think I will go back at explore more of the highlands.

    Wales - Pembrokeshire was beautiful, by then I think I was getting a bit travel weary and only explored the immediate area and did not do it justice. I'd have liked to learn more about the birds of the area.

    I think I found the right balance between having a planned schedule and flexibility for thins that I wasn't expecting. I found planning two activities for the day usually filled the day with unplanned stuff fitting in around those activities.

    I have well and truly caught the travel bug, I hope to visit Ireland and Switzerland in two years, just need to start saving.

    The things I'm most looking forward to when I get home? Seeing my brand new backyard, seeing Edie and of course R. I've missed her, in the last 20 odd years I've never been so long between seeing her.

    Thanks to all have read, commented and enjoyed my blog. I'll probably change the settings to private in the next few weeks.

    Some photos that didn't make it in the original posts.

    River in Munich
    Wildflowers at Pertisau
    Illuminations
    Trees at Dachau Palace
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