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Spydah

Spydah

podróżował/a po 22 krajach. Czytaj więcej🇦🇺Queensland
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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah
    How the view should lookThe view from the window when we woke upManresaView from the cave. The horizon looks like it is painted onManresa

    Laundromat-led tourism.

    22 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Looking at the practicalities of holidaying we needed either to find a laundromat soon or pay ridiculous prices for the hotel to do our washing. According to our valued friend Mr Google the nearest laundromat was some 20km away at a town we'd never heard of called Manresa. We decided to head off, both to save some money and to see the countryside.

    One thing which made us think twice though was the amazingly dense fog we saw when we looked out our window. No way were we willing to drive in that. Fortunately by the time we finished breakfast the fog was gone.

    Retracing part of the road we'd driven in the wee small hours of the morning in an unfamiliar car to reach the hotel was quite scary. Some of the roads are steep and narrow, and there are a couple of hairpin bends which almost require a three point turn to navigate. The scenery which we were seeing in daylight for the first time is quite beautiful.

    We reached Manresa, a historic town which now seems to have a large university, and eventually found a parking spot which Brian could drive into. He is still a long way from mastering parallel parking in a left-hand drive car. We've always found laundromats to be great places to get to know the locals, as invariably one has to seek help to master the peculiarities of the local machines. Laundromat protocol varies greatly from place to place but provided you don't tread on anyone's toes too hard it's possible to strike up some excellent short term friendships, as we did on this occasion. .

    After the hour or so of domestic duties we set off on foot to explore the place. It wasn't the most spectacular town we've ever been to but it certainly offered interesting views and some beautiful old buildings.

    One of its main claims to fame is the Cave of St Ignatius. We trudged up a couple of steep hills to visit it but everything was closed. The aforementioned Saint Ignatius of Loyola headed there in 1522 and spent eleven months meditating in a cave. For the devout, this is a pretty big deal which has put Manresa on the map. At least he had the benefit of a great view from his chosen spot.

    After being spoilt the previous night with our dinner we decided this time to go more downmarket and look for something to eat at the local village of Cardona. Experience had shown us that Spanish people eat quite late with many places not opening up for meals until at least 8 o'clock. We set off just before 8pm for the five minute drive, found a tapas place and ordered our drinks and food. Just before 9 o'clock we tried to order a couple more tapas dishes only to be told by the surly waitress that they were about to close. Sure enough, they and all the other nearby restaurants simply shut up shop. It was a cheap night out for us but we didn't exactly feel that we'd overeaten.
    .     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah
    A bit of the history
    A typical view, showing how high up it isAs seen from the nearby village

    Quite a place.

    21 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Feeling rather flat, we woke up at about 8am and headed off to the buffet breakfast an hour or so later. We were still somewhat shell-shocked but eventually took a bit of a wander round.

    The place dates back about a thousand years and the salt mines first created by the Romans are a major feature of the landscape. The building itself is a big tourist attraction with guided tours running almost continuously.

    Late morning we decided to drive the kilometre or so to the local village of Cardona. From a distance it doesn't look so exciting but when we got there it turned out to be quite a pleasant place. We sussed out a couple of potential restaurants for dinner.

    As befits a place like Parador de Cardona it has a very classy restaurant. We decided to indulge ourselves and dine in. Lots of interesting dishes. We shared a cheese platter with all sorts of accompaniments as a starter and both chose the rare and thinly sliced duck breast with assorted fruit flavours for the main. Excellent desserts followed. All this with a bottle of excellent local red. We haven't had a bad wine here in Spain yet. We're living in a manner to which we'id like to become accustomed.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah

    Things go pear-shaped

    20 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We had an enjoyable seven hour train trip at speeds of up to 300km per hour and arrived in Barcelona on schedule at 10pm. Dramas followed when Avis told us that our debit cards were unacceptable and that they would only accept a credit card. Furthermore the only such card we had chosen to bring with us was in Mary's name, and that was unacceptable because it was Brian who was hiring the car. Eventually and reluctantly they relented knowing that we faced a difficult 70km drive to our hotel.

    The car was on the third level of a parking building which was deserted at that late hour. We put our bags on the floor by the car while Brian was moving the car forward to make room and was flipping the back seats down. Two young men happened to stroll by and one of them seemed to be asking Mary for some directions. While she was distracted the other one must have grabbed the backpack containing the camera, new iPad, iPod, Kindle and other bits and pieces including a couple of our payment cards.
    Fortunately Brian was carrying our passports, the phone and the two main debit cards that we use in his security vest (thanks Allan for nagging us to get one). We then spent the next couple of hours traipsing around central Barcelona, very angry, and trying to find some police who were even vaguely interested. Clearly the two characters had been watching us from a distance and had chosen the right moment to pounce.

    The main losses are our photos taken so far plus the lack of flexibility to take more good photos and write the travel blog which we so much enjoy doing.

    It was a long and tiring drive to the isolated but spectacular hotel, not that we saw much of it when we checked in after 3am.

    Sadly, our blogs from now on are unlikely to be as comprehensive, but we'll try our best.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah
    Museo de la Alhambra
    1A gate and the view beyondThere are photo opportunities everywhereView from AlcazabaAltar, church of St Maria of Alhambra1Brian writing the blogMary enjoying our private balcony

    Alhambra, the only show in town

    19 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    We made it! Let it be recorded that at 1030 on Thursday 19 September we managed to visit the Alhambra. Was it worth it? Most certainly.
    The grounds and out-buildings are open to the public any time and they are well worth a visit, but the royal palaces are the cream on the cake. As we hadn’t been able to score a guided tour we found an English-speaking guided group and tried nonchalantly to tune in to what their guide was saying. That was easier said than done because tour guides these days don’t have to speak loudly. They’re equiped with microphones and the bone fide tour group members all wear receivers with earpieces attached. It meant that we had to stand close to the guide while pretending that we weren’t listening to him.

    Anyway, the three palaces are each in their own way absolutely stunning. They all date back to the 14th century Nasrid period. We then took a walk round the extensive and immaculately maintained grounds. The weather was fine and clear, and it was good to seek out a bit of shade and sit down from time to time. Travel hint: lemon granitas in Spain are really the best on a hot day. Even more refreshing than an icy cold beer, and that’s saying something.

    After a bit of a break we visited the Alcazaba military area inside the Alhambra complex. Our hard-won tickets included entry to this area. It provides a great vantage point over the city, and Brian managed to get some good photos from there., By mid-afternoon we’d seen everything we wanted to, so headed back up the hill to our hotel. Another excellent day and our plans were to cap it off with a return visit to that treasure of a restaurant which has the Nasrid cuisine. However, it wasn’t to be since when we got there we found it was closed. We’re not sure why as their website indicated that it ought to be open. Not to worry, we discovered another excellent restaurant and had a great meal. Furthermore, they served great coffee, which is something that we have missed since arriving here. Spain is a wonderful, wonderful country, but a good coffee is very hard to find.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah
    The Almeira beachfront.
    A good old Australian figBrian having a sticky-beak

    Further afield

    18 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Our day started at midnight, well actually a few minutes before. As mentioned earlier, what happens is that on the stroke of midnight each night any cancelled tickets to Alhambra Palace get released online and there’s then a mad scramble for people to grab them. Knowing that he’d missed out the previous night, the reception staff recommended to Brian that he front up at the front desk at about 2345hrs with our passports and the hotel staff would do what they could to help us. Brian set the alarm for 2340hrs and woke from a beautiful deep sleep to head down to reception. The night manager told Brian that he was second in line and that a French gentleman had arrived there a few minutes previously. Anyway, from midnight on the manager kept refreshing the web page when suddenly a couple of minutes later some seats suddenly became available for 19 September. The manager ordered four tickets and then proceeded to fill in all the information - passport details and much more that the authorities require - for the four of us.

    That’s when we hit a snag. Spain has dual verification for all internet credit card transactions. So, when someone tries to make a payment they receive a one-time code on their mobile phone. That code then has to be keyed into the merchant’s website before the transaction can be completed. The problem was that neither the Frenchman’s credit card nor Brian’s was set up for such a system. The night manager then very kindly offered to make the payment from his personal card and we would then give him the cash. All that was fine, he completed the payment details and received the code. He then tried to enter the code, whereupon the transaction bombed out. We think that he may have been a bit slow in typing all the details and that our tickets got snaffled by someone else. Brian was willing to try the same routine again the following night but wasn’t at all hopeful. There it may well have ended.

    In the morning, headed back from breakfast, we were walking past the reception desk when Mary said,”Why don’t we talk to the staff and see if they can help.” Brian didn’t think much of the idea but agreed to give it a go. Amazingly, the website showed tickets available for every time slot on 19 September Again, it was necessary for the clerk to use his own personal credit card and Brian immediately repaid him the 40 euros in cash. We felt like we’d won the Lotto. Brian’s theory is that the various airline strikes in Europe have caused some groups to cancel, thus making places available to the likes of us. If so, thank you strikers and keep up the good work.

    Feeling quite thrilled we decided to head off for the day in our rental car and explore the Spanish countryside. We decided to head for Almeria, a town 170km away on the Mediterranean coast which is described as well worth a visit. Heading south from Granada, the scenery is outstanding with spectacular outlines of rugged mountains for most of the trip. It is a really good four-lane highway, with some really steep climbs and descents. It skirts the Sierra Nevada national park, and if we’d had enough time we’d like to have explored the region a bit more. Despite all this, we didn’t manage to get any photos en route, though we certainly enjoyed the scenic drive very much. Firstly, the air was somewhat hazy, smoggy even, and secondly those wonderful roads don’t offer any lay-bys where one can safely pull over and take in the scenery.

    Reaching Almeira, we managed to cause a minor traffic jam while Brian tried to parallel park our left-hand drive car in a steep narrow side street. Aside from that, Brian had managed to get beeped at only twice when trying to navigate complicated roundabouts, so he reckoned that he was well on the way to being able to drive like a local rather than like a tourist.

    Almeira is a beautiful port town, with very attractive parks alongside the port and beach front. It was quite warm and there were a few people in swimming. If we’d thought to bring our togs we’d have happily joined them. Even so, it was great to relax there and just take in the atmosphere of the place. The waterfront park contains a large number of mature trees from all round the world, and we were admiring some especially spectacular specimens when we discovered that they were in fact fig trees from good old Australia!

    After a few hours, we decided to head home, this time taking the longer Mediterranean coastal highway to complete a grand circuit back to Granada. We have to say, that route was a bit disappointing. Even though the sea was visible for much of the trip, the air was really smoggy, which greatly detracted from the views. We got back to the hotel in the late afternoon, more than ready for a couple of drinks, the hotel buffet, and all this followed by an early night. In the two days that we have used the rental car, we’ve covered 750km, which has given us a great chance to see the landscape of southern Spain.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah
    A view which made the steep climb to the hotel worthwhile
    Food porn. Brian loves all the display of food. This is one of the many shops specialising in hamA spectacular fountain in downtown Granada

    We explore Granada

    17 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We decided to do a bit of a wander on foot to get to know Granada but then came across a little hop-on, hop-off train which takes tourists round the key spots of the city. Most major cities offer either the little trains or the bright re double-decker buses. Quite on the spur of the moment, and since we definitely weren’t going to be seeing the palace, at least on this day, we decided it was a good way to get a feel for the city. As it turned out we hopped off after a couple of stops, wandered round for a bit then hopped on for a second short ride. After that, we did it all on foot including the long steep climb back to our hotel.

    While there are a few interesting buildings to be seen and a lot of attractive small squares and parks, we weren’t as inspired by Granada as we had been by Toledo and Madrid. Alhambra Palace is the only show in town and we really hope that we can score tickets, though our chances appear quite slim.

    That night we decided that, rather than eat at the hotel we’d try and scout out a restaurant somewhere nearby. There weren’t a lot of close by and we didn’t fancy the steep walk down towards the city and then the stagger home afterwards. Purely by chance we stumbled across Jardinas Albertos just a couple of hundred metres away, and it was outstanding! A great outdoor dining area, impeccable service and fantastic tasty food. They offer some traditional Nasrid dishes, and ordered the chicken and the lamb, both of which were outstanding. The chicken is described as: “Chicken Medallions Stuffed with Spinach Nuts, and Honey Sauce with Rice and Sauteed Vegetables.,” and very flavoursome it is too. Mary’s lamb dish is, “Oven Baken Sliced Lamb Leg with Fried Breadcrumbs Baby Green Peppers and Yogurt Sauce,” and is every bit as good as it sounds. It wasn’t the cheapest meal we’ve had since we’ve been away but it was definitely the best. We might even get back for a return visit before we leave.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah
    A happy little Vegemite whenever and wherever we travel

    Toledo-Granada, a potentially hairy ride

    16 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Brian was always apprehensive about this part. A different car - a manual at that - a foreign country, the wrong side of the road and a long trip. What could possibly go wrong? The good thing was that we’d faced this challenge several times previously in France, Portugal and Israel so knew what to expect. We collected the Skoda Octavia from Europcar in Toledo mid-morning and headed off towards Granada, The major worry comes from Brian’s tendency to steer too close to the right-hand side of the road and risk either going into the dirt or having Mary remind Brian that we’re headed straight for a line of parked cars.

    We were lucky this time as we were setting off on fairly quiet four-lane highways, which provided a good opportunity to get used to the aforementioned challenges. Something we commented on when we drove previously in Portugal was the excellent lane discipline shown by all motorists. Everyone sticks to the nearside lane unless overtaking slower traffic. They signal well before they pull out, and the moment they pass the slower vehicle they signal and then dive back into the nearside lane. Sometimes you almost feel as though they’re cutting you off, but it’s far less frustrating than having to contend with the poor lane discipline and stupidity of so many Australian drivers.

    The first half of the 390km drive was through flat countryside, but as we headed further south it gave way to quite hilly terrain. We couldn’t believe how many olive trees there are. There were lengthy periods when all we could see nothing but olive trees stretching in all directions to the horizon.

    Eventually we reached the Hotel Porcel Alixares, which we’d booked in for four nights. It’s a couple of kilometres outside the city centre but only a couple of hundred metres from the Alhambra Palace, which is why we chose it. Our room is a very generous size and the hotel itself is beautiful. It was just after we’d checked in that we were met with two unexpected challenges. The first was in the form of an email from Vuelling, the airline which was supposed to be taking us from Barcelona to Amsterdam on 24 September. They were informing us of a threatened strike of ground handling staff on 21 to 24 September and suggested that we might care to change our flight to another date while there was the opportunity. We therefore pushed it back by a day to the 25th, which means an extra day at the parador just outside Barcelona and one day fewer in Amsterdam. In the typical “heads you lose, tails we win” world of travel we have to pay quite a bit extra in Barcelona but don’t get a refund for the unused night in Amsterdam. Ah well.

    Challenge number two arose when we tried to book tickets for the Alhambra. By government decree it seems, daily visitor numbers are restricted. That’s sensible enough, except that we didn’t know. The hotel staff were very understanding and tried hard to book us on an escorted tour, but they too are fully sold out There are no tickets of any sort available until early November...except for one thing. On the stroke of midnight each night any cancellations get released to the website for online bookings. It seems though that they get taken up literally within a few seconds. Brian set his alarm on the first night and tried to make a booking but was unsuccessful. All he achieved was a broken night’s sleep. The hotel staff have suggested that he come down to the foyer each night that we’re here at about 1145pm and they will try to make the bookings. Evidently this is a nightly routine for them, so watch this space.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah
    Hams on display
    Despite the wet weather the Madrid crowds were enjoying themselves.

    "We operate every day of the year"

    15 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Oh no, you don’t, but more of that in a moment. Originally we were planning to forget about Madrid and concentrate our efforts on Toledo. Somehow though it seemed all wrong to have come all this way and to have seen nothing more of Madrid than the airport and a couple of railway stations. The Madrid weather forecast was for a possible thunderstorm but otherwise fine throughout the day. We decided to risk it by heading to the capital on the wonderful high-speed train then getting tickets on the hop-on, hop-off bright red double-decker buses which every attractive city in the world seems to have these days.

    The helpful lady at the tourist information centre at Atocha Station (Madrid’s equivalent of Melbourne’s Spencer Street) told us exactly where the ticket kiosk was and gave us a brochure which included a map showing all the hop-on, hop-off bus stops. We emerged from the station only to find the main roads barricaded off and hundreds of police everywhere. The footpaths were crowded with happy Madrid citizens enjoying a Sunday afternoon in the city. So, what about the bus tours? Despite the first sentence of the brochure clearly stating that the tours operate every single day of the year, it’s clear that it wasn’t the case for Sunday 15 September 2019. Apparently there had been some big bike race around all of Spain, and it was finishing right there and then in the centre of Madrid.

    Undaunted, we decided that we’d simply go to the Prado Museum instead. That was, until we saw the queue to get in. It was several hundred metres long and we weren’t going to be a part of that. Bike races aside, it seems that there are always big crowds in Madrid on a Sunday, made up mainly of family groups. While we were disappointed initially, the day certainly wasn’t a disaster. We wandered round, walking several kilometres admiring the interesting architecture and the interesting shops, The food shops especially grab Brian’s attention. There are shops specialising in ham of various types while others have amazing cakes, bread and sweets. By the end of the afternoon we were convinced that Madrid definitely requires a return visit. We can hardly wait.

    As a footnote, we happened to see quite a few of the cyclists heading down one of the major avenues at very high speed. They were largely ignored by the general population who were more interested in the shopping, strolling and museum visiting. Clearly they had better things to do with their time too.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah
    Inside the cathedral
    The Synagogue of Santa Maria la Bianca

    Another marvellous day in Toledo

    14 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    The weather seemed to have improved a bit, so we headed out towards the old Jewish quarter which contains a number of interesting places we’d been recommended to visit. Our starting point was the Synagogue of Santa Maria la Bianca, hardly a traditional name for a synagogue one might think. It was built in the 12th century but in the 15th century it became a church. One can imagine the turmoil which led to that change, but it does explain the name. The building itself is impressive with Moorish architectural influences, but the displays inside the building weren’t all that interesting. Furthermore, no English language translations were available, which made it hard for us to understand the history of the place.

    A couple of hundred metres along the road was the Sephardic Museum, aka the Synagogue of El Transito, which we also visited. That was far more interesting and we were provided with sheets containing English language translations, which made the visit far more interesting and relevant.

    Finally, we visited the El Greco Museum. The 16th century painter is a favourite son of Toledo. At first the building was thought to have been El Greco’s own house but more recent research suggests otherwise. Even though it is located in the same short stretch of street as the two synagogues, El Greco certainly wasn’t Jewish. Many of his paintings have religious themes centred around Christ and his disciples. For us it was a very interesting and worthwhile visit.

    By this time, which was mid-afternoon, the wet weather had really set in. Fortunately we had brollies and other wet weather gear but it took us a good half hour to get back to the hotel where we could dry ourselves out. The cobblestones are really slippery when they’re wet, so we were walking very carefully on the steep streets.

    With it being so wet we decided to eat dinner nearby rather than venture back up the hill in the pouring rain. The place we chose was pleasant enough though we got a bit of a laugh from the fact that all the dishes, no matter what else they contained, came with chips. Hardly a traditional Spanish style. We are deliberately avoiding tuning into any news from Australia or any mother part of the world, but purely by chance we discovered that there has been flooding in northern Spain. Clearly we were on the very edge of it, so can count ourselves lucky that what we experienced was fairly minor.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah
    1

    Henry Higgins lied

    13 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    By the morning of our first full day on terra firma we were ready for some serious sightseeing. The old city ofToledo is certainly picturesque, with many interesting and attractive historic buildings. According to the Henry Higgins character in Pygmalion (and My Fair Lady) the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. Well, it certainly didn’t for us. After the previous muggy day, the weather changed overnight to give us a grey, overcast showery day. Still, we weren’t going to let that slow us down so we headed up the hill - the hill that we’d largely avoided having to haul our luggage up - to explore the old walled town.
    We couldn’t help comparing it with Carcassonne in Southern France which we’d stayed in two years ago. Both are ancient walled cities, each on the top of a steep hill, but there the similarity ends. Toledo has an incredible rat’s nest maze of really narrow streets, and is far less touristy than its French counterpart. The shops and restaurants cater more to the locals than they do to the tourists, which for us was a plus. One downside though is that few people speak more than just a smattering of English. We tried to rely on Google Maps for our navigation but it struggled to work reliably in the area so we found ourselves doing a bit of backtracking each time that we tried to walk between any two places. Nevertheless we found the place interesting and enjoyable. The lady at the local Tourist Bureau had given us a map showing many interesting places to visit and it was clear that we weren’t going to get round all of them in the time available.
    We started with the Museum of the Visigoths Council and Culture, which covered a significant period of 12th century history which neither of us had known anything about, Evidently, Toledo had been the centre of the Visigoth movement, and we learnt a lot from the visit. We then visited the impressive Toledo Cathedral, built between 1226 and 1493. Even by normal cathedral standards it’s a huge building, especially in its width. Even though there were a lot of visitors at the time that we were there, the massive space didn’t seem at all crowded. We were each issued with an electronic tour guide, but after a very interesting 90 minutes or so we were both staring to flag, so we cut out the last 1/3 or so of the tour.
    After a some rest back at the hotel we had recovered enough energy to face the world sgain. At about 8pm it was still light and we headed back up the hill on the 10 minute or so trek to the old town. The place was jam packed, with what appeared to be mainly local families doing their shopping and dining out. We found a friendly local restaurant where Mary had a paella entree and a local beef main course while Brian enjoyed an excellent Toledan salad containing local ham, orange and other assorted goodies followed by the house specialty, a pork and tomato dish. It was accompanied by an excellent local red. We’ve enjoyed all the local wines that we’ve tried, and have found food and drink prices to be very reasonable, about half of what we’d be paying at home.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah

    Getting there. Part 2

    12 września 2019, Hiszpania ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We landed at Madrid as scheduled, but then had to find our way to Toledo, some 50km away. According to Mr Google nothing could be simpler. Jump on a train from the airport to Madrid’s Atocha station then get a high-speed train from there to Toledo. That’s fine, except when you discover that a key tunnel is closed for six months due to a network upgrade and you have to change trains just to reach the city. Fortunately there were plenty of helpful railway staff around to get us (literally) on the right track. Aside from a 90-minute wait at Atocha for the Toledo train, it all went to plan. The Spanish trains are very modern, and are certainly the smoothest and quietest that we’ve ever experienced.
    We’d seen advertising signs for Uber everywhere at the airport and the railway stations, but when we tried to call one up at Toledo station a message appeared saying that the service was unavailable in the area. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be too many taxis around either, so we decided we’d leg it. The area was flat and Google Maps told us that our hotel was only 1.4km away. The first 1km was easy, a nice flat run, but that’s when we discovered a serious shortcoming of Google Maps. It gives linear distances but provides no clue as to how far one has to move in the vertical plane. The weather was quite muggy, and that last 0.4km up a steep cobblestoned road wasn’t a heap of fun with our backpacks and suitcases, We were happy to finally reach our hotel. Later, on discovering that most of the hotels were some distance further up the hill, we realised that we’d been comparatively fortunate. By that stage we hadn’t seen a bed for about 48 hours and had managed just a few hours of not very deep sleep on the flights. We decided that overall we’d handled things pretty well.
    After unpacking, showering and snoozing we headed out for dinner. Brian decided to try a couple of the local specialties, so had a soup-like entree contains beans and partridge followed by some venison. Mary’s choices were a little less successful, but both of us were more interested in hitting the sack and catching up on our sleep.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahSpain, Rhine & DanubeSpydah

    Getting there. Part 1

    11 września 2019, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We thought that the 2017 trip would be our last major overseas expedition, but here we are again, still healthy enough to travel and continuing (with their encouragement) to spend the kids’ inheritance. Yes, a SKI Holiday.
    Aside from packing, the worst thing about these trips are the to/from flights. That said, the flights went according to plan. The Emirates flight took off at 2100hrs as scheduled, and we were lucky enough to score a spare seat alongside us for the first leg to Dubai. As we discovered last time, DBX is a soulless place. It was a brisk 20 minute walk between gates, but since we had three hours to kill, that wasn’t a problem.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah

    The long trek home

    27 września 2017, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    In an ideal world, if one wants to go from Carcassonne to Lyon's St Exupéry airport, one would drive it. It takes about 4.5 hours, so if the flight was departing at 10pm, one could leave Carcassonne maybe mid-morning then take a relaxing scenic drive while exploring the picturesque countryside. You would arrive at the airport about three hours before the scheduled departure time feeling relaxed and comfortable.

    Without a car, the schedule is quite different. First, having been let down badly on our arrival by the Carcassonne taxi service, we decided to play safe and use shanks's pony to get ourselves to the railway station. We'd already walked the 1.5km route several times during our stay, so we knew where to go and which were the (relatively) pedestrian-friendly streets to take. In France and many other countries, pedestrians are given a fairly low priority, so one has to do battle with narrow potholed footpaths and parked and passing vehicles in this rather one-sided contest. It can slow things down.

    Our train was due to leave at 1033, and that provided the one and only option for us to get to Lyon airport in time to catch the flight home. We booked out of our great little hotel in good time, bidding fond farewells to the lovely young couple plus cat who run the hotel, and probably own it too. We made sure that we were at the station nice and early for the three hour trip down to Marseilles.

    We then had to connect with another train which took us to Lyon Part Dieu, the city's main railway station. Once there, we discovered that Lyon city runs a marvellous special modern tram which travels the 25km route every few minutes with only one stop en route. We had a six hour wait for our flight, but as we had all our luggage with us we'd already decided the best way was to wait at the airport rather than lug our bags on a sightseeing tour of the city of Lyon, which we'd already visited. The airport is very modern and wasn't too crowded so time passed quickly enough. As in many other parts of France it was impossible to ignore the large numbers of armed police and soldiers patrolling the two terminals. It is a sad fact of modern-day life in so many parts of the world.

    Our flight to Dubai was pleasant enough. We'd heard a whisper that there were a number of spare seats on the flight, so we got cheeky and asked the check-in lady if she'd block a seat off for us. She readily agreed, and that allowed us to spread ourselves across three seats, making the 6hr 20min flight much more comfortable. It was then a four-hour wait for the flight home. With its vast terminals, oversized retail areas and long distances between departure lounges Dubai is a place that one could easily grow to dislike. One thing we won't miss, either there or at the other airports, are the long queues and the intrusive security checks. Sadly, they are necessary, but they still take the edge off modern airline travel. From the time we booked in at Lyon to the time that we boarded our flight to Brisbane we went through five security checks of ourselves plus hand luggage, all of them requiring us to wait in long queues then go through the rigmarole of emptyng pockets and removing belts and shoes. It used to be that transit passengers weren't subject to these checks, but now, with the tightened security checks, everyone has to go through them for every flight. Every so often, it seems that an additional unscheduled security check gets thrown in at random.

    Helen has an impressive range of friends and contacts, mostly in the travel industry but elsewhere as well. When we had checked online before leaving Carcassonne we discovered not only that the airline had stuck both of us into middle seats, but that we weren't even sitting in the same row for our long flight from Dubai to Brisbane. Not happy. As soon as we found out we messaged Helen to see if there was anything she could do to help. Not only did Helen's contact get us seated together, but we found when we boarded that we were in one of the bulkhead rows, Apart from it giving us 2-3 times as much legroom as usual it meant too that we could get up and wander round without having to clamber over or disturb any fellow passengers. As a result we arrived home feeling reasonably relaxed. We were happy.

    We now have to start thinking about our next trip. Watch this space.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah
    View from the top
    Narbonne Archbishop's palace

    What a difference a day makes

    26 września 2017, Francja ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Waking up and looking out the window, we saw that it was a fine clear day, a contrast to the previous day. Things were looking up already. After breakfast we headed off for the 25 minute walk to the station, planning this time to catch the train to Narbonne, another place we'd been recommended. Would it prove to be any better than Limoux?

    The half-hour train ride was through really picturesque countryside, mainly grape-growing. The vineyards all looked so orderly and immaculate. We reached Narbonne and walked the kilometre or so to the Tourist Office. It was well signposted, an improvement already from the previous day's experience. The fellow in the Tourist Office was most helpful and gave us a rundown of the places which could be visited on foot. It was only a few hundred metres to the main square and already we could feel that this was one very pleasant and friendly town. For starters it was spotlessly clean, there were nice open squares with plenty of seating and many mature trees. We started at the Archbishop's Palace complex, which adjoins the square. The Palais des Archevêques was the Archbishop's Palace in Narbonne. It consists of an old Romanesque palace with Gothic alterations. It has three square towers dating from the 13th and 14th centuries. Today the palace hosts a city hall, the museum of art and history and the archaeological museum. Narbonne Cathedral also forms part of the complex. One good thing - maybe the only thing - which religion has given mankind are some truly magnificent cathedrals and artwork, and this is certainly no exception. Very impressive.

    Our entry passes then allowed us to visit the archaeological museum. A lot of ancient artefacts, some dating back to the Stone Age have been uncovered in and around Narbonne. It also has a very extensive Roman history, so there was much to see in terms of frescoes and other items from Roman times. The whole museum is really well laid out.

    We then visited the archbishop's chambers where paintings, mostly from the 16th to 18th centuries were on display. These had been accumulated by the various archbishops, so as one might imagine, they all had a strong religious theme. No problem with that, but we really felt that the works themselves were nothing special, especially when compared with the art we had seen so recently in the Musée d'Orsay and elsewhere.

    Our final port of call within the complex was the so-called dungeon. Now, we always thought that dungeons were subterranean places, but this in fact is a square tower. It was built between 1290 and 1311 by Archbishop Gilles Aycelin. This historical building rises four levels until the upper terrace. This attraction offers tourists a panoramic view of the Pyrenees and the Corbieres, the city, as well as the coast. In fact, this attraction is not a dungeon, but a fortified tower. Not knowing what we were letting ourselves in for, we decided to climb the spiral staircase to the very top. Later, we found out that there are 167 steep steps, so were very proud of our effort. It is not for the faint-hearted but it is definitely worth the climb to get a fantastic 360-degree view of the towns, city and cathedrals over the roofs of Narbonne. The view was great. In the twenty minutes or so that we were up there, only two other couples were brave/foolish enough to make the climb, so that's one way of escaping the tourist hordes.

    Displaying a certain degree of ignorance we next decided to look at the Musée Lapidaire, believing that it would house gemstones or jewellery, which could be of some interest. The entry tickets we'd bought earlier at the Archbishop's Palace complex included entry to this and other attractions within the town, so it all made sense. The so-called museum is housed in an old deconsecrated church, but all it contained were hundreds of carved blocks and other sandstone carvings which had been collected from round the district. The place was dusty, and the pieces were arranged in huge stacks in what seemed to be a haphazard fashion. At the time we visited, we were the only people there. Hardly compelling. It's a museum in search of a good curator.

    Brian was intrigued and felt that we just had to visit a building called the House of the Three Wetnurses. Our tourist brochure told us that it is one of the most outstanding examples of Renaissance private architecture in the region and unique to Narbonne. It was built in 1558 and gets its name from the buxom caryatids framing its south window. We were even more intrigued when we were able to count five such ladies in the facade, rather than the purported three. It was intriguing for its uniqueness, though it is not compelling. The facade is high up, at least one floor above street level, and can only be seen from the entrance to a modern hospital building directly across the street. The building is not open to the public.

    Narbonne is certainly tourism-orientated, and has a tourist mini-bus which runs every five minutes or so in a circuit round the major features of the town. As our final activity before catching the train back to Carcassonne we did the mini-tour. there was no commentary, but it at least gave us a chance to see more of this beautiful town. If we'd had more time - and a car - there were a lot of other tourist features there which we'd like to have seen.

    Reaching our hotel at about 5pm, Brian decided to do the 15 minute climb once more up to the Mediaeval City, hoping to get a few photos while the place wasn't too crowded and maybe picking up one or two souvenirs to bring home. It was still quite busy, though nowhere near as jam-packed as it had been on our earlier visit. He took a few more photos, but didn't find anything compelling enough to buy. Not surprisingly, prices there are high, and there is an awful lot of shoddy rubbish. The really nice stuff is ridiculously overpriced.

    Sadly, sadly, sadly this was the last day of our holiday, so we decided to commemorate it with a special dinner. There was a restaurant, Le Trivalou, a couple of hundred metres from our hotel which we'd tried a couple of times to get into. Each time, it was booked out. Not to be caught out again, we saw that the place was due to open at 7pm, and Brian was right there on the doorstep and made a booking for 8pm. Even then, it was the last available table. No wonder the place is so popular. We had a great meal there that night, and it was very reasonably priced.

    Our last day was a great success, and we ended it on a high. All that remained was the long trip home, and that was something we weren't looking forward to. On previous overseas holidays, by the time we'd reached this point we were well and truly ready to head home and to sleep once more in our own bed. Not this time. It was such a great and varied holiday that we really didn't want it to end, but we had to face reality.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah
    Waiting for the rain to stop
    1The town square, and not a tourist in sightThrough the weeds, our train approaches

    Train travels

    25 września 2017, Francja ⋅ 🌧 19 °C

    With Brian still frustrated by our lack of a rental car, and Mary telling him to forget about it ("laissez tomber," as the French would say), we decided to explore the countryside by train. We'd heard that Limoux was an attractive place worth a visit, so we set off to the station and bought ourselves tickets at €4.25 each at the ticket office. Our local train arrived, and took us on the one-hour trip. While the train was certainly comfortable and quite modern, it was all rather quaint. It stopped three times en route, at fly-speck sized sidings which didn't even seem to have names, let alone proper station platforms. Limoux, our destination, was little better. The couple of dozen passengers got off, and we then had to walk across the railway tracks, behind the departing train, to reach the station itself. Nearly all the passengers then climbed on to a waiting bus and we, thinking that maybe it was a shuttle bus from the station to the town, tried to get on board too. The friendly bus driver indicated to us that he was going to someplace else, and he pointed us in the direction of the town centre.

    So, we headed off on foot, with lots of old buildings around us but nothing to tell us which direction we should be heading. There wasn't even a nearby church steeple in sight. Eventually we found our way to the town square, but probably because it was a Monday at least half the businesses were closed. To make matters worse the overcast sky looked quite threatening, so the town didn't look all that tempting to a couple of Australian pedestrians. We'd seen a sign to the tourist office and tried to follow it. However, there were no further directional signs to keep us on track. By asking a few locals along the way, we eventually found our way to the office, located on the very edge of the business district. The man there was very helpful, giving us maps and brochures. He agreed that the office was hard to find, and said that they'd been complaining for ages to the town authorities about the lack of signage. We were by no means the first ones to complain. Most things in France are done very well, but every so often they let themselves down.

    We then headed back to the town square about 500m away, and by the time we got there it was starting to rain. We had a bit of a look around but there really wasn't very much to see. The only good thing was that there weren't too many tourists - or locals, for that matter - wandering the streets. The tourist office man had told us that several of the town's attractions weren't open on Mondays, and even one museum which he'd said would be open proved not to be. By this time, the rain had really set in and had become quite heavy. Fortunately there were plenty of sheltered chairs and tables to choose from in front of the (closed) restaurants in the square, so we were able to keep dry. We weren't too confident though of staying dry while trying to navigate the kilometre or so back to the station. At least there were a good two hours before the next train out of town, so were in no great hurry. We'd decided though that we would catch that train home as there seemed little point in hanging around a bleak Limoux any longer than necessary. Very likely, on a fine warm day (preferably not a Monday) it's a very attractive place. We certainly weren't seeing it at its best.

    While sitting at our table, we got chatting to an English couple, similarly waiting for the rain to stop. They at least had the benefit of a car to get around in, but they told us that most of the local train and bus trips in the area cost only a nominal €1 each, and that included the €4.25 train trip which we'd done earlier that day. Evidently, there is a red coin in the slot machine at each station where one buys these cheap tickets. As remarked upon earlier, the French train system is spectacularly good, but then there are quirks which let them down. The lack of escalators at most stations is one major annoyance. Another quirk is the peculiar signage and numbering. When we were catching the train to Limoux that morning, the monitor directed us to Platform A. We could see directional signs for platforms numbered 1, 2 and 3, but no A. Eventually we discovered that the station did in fact have a Platform A. Why not simply call it Platform 4? Similarly, it seems that the numerous standard self-serve ticket machines dispense full-priced tickets, but if one is in the know then the same tickets can be bought from other machines for a fraction of the price.

    Anyway, after a half-hour or so wait, and to our great relief, the rain stopped. Even though our train wasn't due for another hour or so, we decided to head back to the station. There was no sign of a red ticket-dispensing machine, but when Brian asked the ticket office clerk for two €1 tickets, she readily handed them over. We'll know for next time. We were amused by the railway track with its waist-high weeds growing between the rails. It looked derelict, but our little train arrived spot on time and delivered us back to Carcassonne. Seeing the weather was so lousy, Brian had planned to trek up the hill from the hotel to the Mediaeval City and look for a few souvenirs to take back with us. He figured that the weather would have deterred the tourist hordes. However by that time the rain had restarted, so it deterred him as well.

    In an action-packed fun-filled holiday, this hadn't been one of our better days, but given that every day apart from this one had been fantastic, we've nothing to complain about. Plans are for the next day, our last full day before we head for home, to include a train trip to Narbonne. We didn't know what we would find, so were approaching it with some trepidation.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah
    From the hotel rooftop by night
    1From the hotel rooftop by dayCanal du Midi

    A quiet day in Carcassonne

    24 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    By this time, we'd explored most of the interesting parts of Carcassonne on foot and wanted to find out about areas further afield, Fabro, our host on the river cruise, comes from this area and had already given us a list of must-see places. Some are accessible by public transport, but there are others which can reach only by car.

    We thought that the logical place to start would be the tourist office in this tourist-oriented town, so we fronted up there just as the doors were opening at 10am. The first thing the girl told us was that one needs a car in order to explore the area. Well, thanks for nothing. We explained our predicament, but she couldn't get rid of us quickly enough, throwing some place-names, a couple of railway timetables and a map at us before turning away to serve the next customer. What we did establish was that train services on a Sunday are almost non-existent in that neck of the woods, though that part didn't worry us since we were prepared to go on the Monday or Tuesday.

    We then wandered off to find the Gourmet Market, but that turned out to be a bit of a fizzer, with only about a dozen stalls of nothing very exciting. The previous day's produce market had been far more interesting. It was a fine warm day, so were happy to sit in the square watching the world go by.

    However one can't spend the whole day doing that, so we booked ourselves onto a 2.5 hour boat trip on the Canal du Midi, which runs through the town. These days, the 240km canal carries only tourist traffic, but when it was built in the 1600s it was a major part of the trade link in France from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is a major engineering feat, with 91 locks and some very cunning engineering to keep it navigable along its entire length. Anyway, the trip was very interesting and very picturesque, For the most part we travelled in heavily wooded areas with no signs of civilisation. During Napoleon's time large stretches were planted with plane trees, which are now very mature. Their roots play a major part in preventing erosion of the canal walls. A quiet but enjoyable day, indeed.

    On Sundays in Carcassonne most businesses, including restaurants, are closed. Knowing that the restaurants in the immediate vicinity are crowded most nights, we decided that it would be prudent to book for our Sunday night meal. A place we'd been recommended was the Jardin de L'Été, a couple of hundred metres from the hotel. This we did, and as it was shaping up to be a mild night, after a very warm day, we asked for a table in the aforementioned jardin. Per our booking, we arrived at 8pm and were ushered outside to a pleasant walled garden, paved with coarse gravel and at least the size of two tennis courts. It was already quite full, and we could see that the one and only waitress was being run off her feet. There were a couple of large groups, more of that in a moment, and it was a long time between visits to our table to deliver the menu, take our orders, deliver them and so forth. In fact it was approaching 11pm before we finally finished. By then, it was getting quite chilly and we were longing for our hotel room. Our waitress was most apologetic. It seems that the owner had decided to open the garden on the Sunday night as a trial and had been overwhelmed by the response. It wasn't the fault of our poor waitress who'd been running herself ragged serving meals across this large gravelled area.

    It's probably just as well that we were outside because two of the groups were very noisy. We'd heard already that Carcassonne is a popular place for the English, both for holidays and as a place to retire to. Certainly we heard more regional pommy accents in and around Carcassonne, including in our little hotel, than anything else. That was in contrast to the other parts of France we visited where the English-speaking tourists were mainly Canadians and Americans. Anyway, Brian came to the conclusion that the group of loud pommy males was a load of bus-drivers from Birmingham, while the other large table, of about eight couples comprised fruit shop owners and their wives from 'uddersfield. Turning all of that into a running joke certainly helped the time go by for we two impatient hungry travellers.

    Was it worth the wait? Probably not, though we knew that after the magnificent meals on Le Phenicien everything else was going to seem pretty ordinary.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah
    Irresistible biscuits and lolliesYes, right in the centre of the mediaeval cityThe view from our hotel terrace

    Food porn and exploring Carcassonne

    23 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We'd arrived in the dark, so the next morning was our first chance to look around. The hotel is on a quiet street, and it is only a ten-minute walk up the hill to the Cité Médiévale. This UNESCO-protected site sits high above Carcassonne, and its walls dominate the skyline. Since the pre-Roman period, a fortified settlement has existed on the hill where Carcassonne now stands. In its present form it is an outstanding example of a medieval fortified town, with its massive defences encircling the castle and the surrounding buildings, its streets and its fine Gothic cathedral. Carcassonne is also of exceptional importance because of the lengthy restoration campaign undertaken by Viollet-le-Duc, one of the founders of the modern science of conservation.

    Meanwhile down below, on the banks of the Aude River, there is the old town of Carcassonne with its narrow streets interesting architecture. By comparison it is almost new, merely dating back to the Middle Ages, and that's where our hotel is located. In the shadow of its smaller but more famous sibling, the ‘La Cité’ citadel. Known as the ‘Bastide Saint Louis’, it features typically French bars, shops, cafés and restaurants,

    We thought that we'd start out by doing the walk up to the Cité Médiévale. When we got there things were fairly quiet, and Brian was able to take plenty of photos while relatively unimpeded by massive tour groups and narcissistic individuals taking selfies while posing in front of the spectacularly beautiful views. Cité Médiévale is amazing in that no matter where you turn there's a new and photogenic perspective of the place. As the morning progressed, the crowds really started arriving in droves and the place filled up with tourists, Brian still managed some shots which shouldn't require too much PhotoShopping to eliminate all the tourists, though it was challenging at times.

    Like so many of the tourist hotspots we'd visited over the past couple of weeks Cité Médiévale is full of souvenir shops, food shops and restaurants by the dozens, all designed to part the hordes of passing tourists from their euros, dollars, pounds or whatever. In amongst all the cheap plastic garbage and the unashamedly kitsch items there are many quality souvenirs, but they tend to be very expensive at these places. In terms of the food shops there and elsewhere in France, it doesn't matter whether one is looking at boulangeries, lolly shops or patisseries (Brian's downfall) the food is always presented beautifully and it's of high quality. Buy something as simple as a ham and cheese baguette and it will come from a display where everything is laid out with geometric neatness and is irresistibly inviting. One can't help but want to buy it - and a few other items at the same time. When you receive it, it is usually packaged beautifully. The same goes for the patisseries, where you just stand there salivating while deciding which of the many different items on display you should buy. Unlike the cakes in Australia which generally look better than they taste, we found that the French cakes and pastries not only look good but taste fantastic as well. Then there are the sweet shops, which generally also sell small biscuits in a range of flavours. Everything is packaged and displayed beautifully and it is hard to resist the temptation to buy nearly everything in sight. Food porn, indeed.

    We then took a step forward in time, relatively speaking, and browsed the shops and narrow streets of the old town. Again, highly photogenic and very interesting. There are two beautiful squares, Place Carnot which is in the centre of town and filled with old shops, and Square Gambetta which is much more open and modern. Both are very appealing. Three mornings a week there's a produce market in Place Carnot, and we reached the square an hour or so before the stall-holders were packing up. While it was quite a bit smaller than its counterpart in Lyon, everything still looked beautiful and very tempting - more food porn. We noticed some posters stating that the following day, which was a Sunday, there was going to be an annual so-called Gourmet Market in the square and we decided that we must get to that.

    Speaking of food, as we have been, we were determined to try the feature dish of the area, cassouelet. The one we had for dinner contained duck, and fantastic it was too. We really like this place.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah
    Mary, in seventh heaven
    Our gem of a hotel in CarcassonneThe view from our bathroom window

    At the end, the pot of gold

    22 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Sadly, we packed our bags, more or less ready to move on to Carcassonne, our next destination. Our train was due to leave at the civilised time of 1455 from Gare Montparnasse, so we were still able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast Parisian style. After checking out, we gave ourselves an hour more of Parisian exploration before we'd take our lives in our hands on the Metro. We'd already seen enough excitement on the underground, and were fervently hoping for an incident-free trip to the main line station of Gare Montparnasse.

    In the meantime, we decided to explore a few streets we hadn't visited before in the area between Les Invalides and L'École Militaire. What a great group of shops were there, much more reasonably priced than on the Champs Élysées and just as interesting. That included a whole lot of new restaurants less touristy than the ones on Rue St Clair and Rue Dominique. Clearly, Paris was already beckoning us to come back for another visit. Our very helpful and friendly hotel receptionist had already told us that morning that we should try to visit Paris next time in July/August rather than in September. Not only is the weather better then but he said that the place is less crowded and prices are lower. It was the opposite from what we'd thought, but evidently major events such as Paris Fashion Week take place in September and draw huge crowds. We've made a mental note for next time.

    Eventually the time came for us to catch the Metro, a part of the trip which we weren't exactly looking forward to. With all their steep stairways up and down, some of the stations are quite challenging for people with luggage. We'd loaded most of our belongings into Brian's suitcase, and Mary bravely pushed on with her bag, but was struggling. (It wasn't all that easy for Brian either). Fortunately, there were so many younger and fitter passers-by who were willing to help her on those wretched stairs. We reached Gare Montparnasse in good time with about 90 minutes to spare before the scheduled departure time. These major stations are huge, with people milling about everywhere, and it isn't always easy to work out what one should do. Furthermore none of the announcements are in English, and the rapidly-gabbled announcements over a distorted PA system are way too challenging for Brian's basic French language skills.

    We knew that for security reasons or whatever the platform number for each train gets announced only 20 minutes before departure, after which there's a mad scramble to reach right coach on the right train on the right platform. So, when we got to five minutes before scheduled departure and our platform number still wasn't showing on the monitors, we started to get anxious. It was then that another announcement in French came over the PA and all the crowd around us went rushing off in one direction. We kind of followed them, unsure as to whether that was the right thing to do, until we eventually found someone who spoke English and who reassured us that, yes, this crowd was all heading for our train on Platform 7 and that it wouldn't leave until everyone was on board.

    We had booked to travel first class on a really good pricing deal and were in Coach number 1. Just to complicate matters we saw that there were two different route numbers and two trains travelling end-to-end. The back-end carriages would be going only as far as Bordeaux while the front half of the train would proceed to Toulouse, our destination. We assumed that the train would stop briefly at Bordeaux to allow this to happen in a safe and orderly manner, though one can never be sure of these things. It was vital therefore that we boarded the correct end of the train since there was no way that one could walk its entire length as there were a couple of locomotives in the middle. This double-train turned out to be really long, long enough to cover two time zones we reckoned, and it took us quite a while for us to reach the front coach.

    Once on board we were really impressed. The carriage was spacious with big comfortable seats and various facilities for business people to work while they travelled at 300kph or so. On time to the minute, we disembarked at Toulouse station where, fortunately, we had 45 minutes in which to work out how to print our pre-ordered tickets for the next sector and find the right platform. Naturally, that involved several more flights of steps but we got there in the end. Of course our original plan had us collecting an Avis rental at Toulouse, so from this point on we were on Plan B. It involved a commuter train which we caught for the hour-long journey to Carcassonne, comfortable enough but not a patch on the luxury of the TGV. A helpful chap we'd chatted to on the train Googled our hotel and told us that it was definitely a long way from the station and that we'd haveto grab a cab. We therefore wandered across to the taxi rank, which was deserted apart from another couple who were waiting there already. They told us we'd need to phone for a cab - the phone number was on a nearby sign - and the operator told us there would be a wait of at least 20 minutes. Fortunately, it wasn't raining, but we weren't too happy at having to wait in this dark isolated area, particularly after the other couple's cab had arrived and taken them to their hotel. After a good 30 minutes we decided to hell with this. Brian's GPS indicated that it was a 1.5km walk and off we set along a lot of deserted and uneven footpaths. We admit that by then we were feeling somewhat cranky, but managed to reach the Hotel Pont Vieux, an old building overlooking a historic bridge (hence the name) and a quiet street with several restaurants.

    We were greeted warmly by the patron and patronne, who made us feel very welcome. They asked if we minded being on the top (ie third) floor, which we didn't. Thank goodness, the patron carried our bags for us up the narrow winding staircase. They told us they'd put us in a newly renovated family suite, and when we saw it, we were impressed. The main bedroom was quite spacious, and there was a second room with two single beds, which gave us plenty of room to store our bags. The bathroom was big and brand-new. We were certainly very happy with our choice of hotel. After all those dozens of stairways and long walks with our luggage we were shattered, so after a quick meal at a nearby restaurant we hit the sack. At least we knew that after a day of great ups and downs we'd struck gold.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah
    In Sainte Genevieve churchThe popular lake in Luxembourg Gardens

    Never a dull moment

    21 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We caught up with our good friends Ian and Eileen for a farewell breakfast at the lovely cafe across the road from the hotel. Later, we chatted with them for a few minutes before they went off to do their packing and we set off with a fairly flexible plan to get to know this wonderful city even better. One thing that's certain is that if one is on holiday in Paris, every day is a good day. Some days may be better than others, but all of them are fantastic.

    Actually, we were very well organised for the first part of this, our last full day, in Paris. We'd decided that we wanted to use the Metro the next day to get ourselves plus luggage from La Tour Maubourg to Gare Montparnasse, from where our train would be leaving for Carcassonne via Toulouse. At least half the Metro stations are quite challenging for this sort of activity, with lots of up and down stairways, some quite long and steep, and mazes of long underground walkways. Most of these stations are yet to be equipped with lifts or escalators. Brian had mapped out two possible routes for getting to Gare Montparnasse, and armed with our tourist transport passes we decided that we'd try each of them out and decide which would be the easier one with our luggage.

    It started out well with us catching the Metro to Concorde station, where we'd change to Line 12 to reach our destination. However, two stops short of Gare Montparnasse, at Rennes, our train stopped, the lights dimmed and an announcement came over the loudspeaker. Evidently somewhere nearby there had been a suicide and our train wasn't going any further. Everyone was to leave the train. After some thought we decided the best bet would be to go to the opposite platform and catch a train back to base and at least try the other route. We soon learned that that wasn't possible either as trains had been stopped in both directions. Some of our fellow passengers were most put out, but at least for us it wasn't too big an inconvenience.

    We then headed up to street level and found that we weren't all that far from the Montparnasse area where we'd stayed on our first visit and which we knew to be attractive. However our dramas weren't totally over. As we emerged we saw several TV cameras set up near the entrance, with outside broadcast vans, and large numbers of police and other characters milling round. Evidently, a huge day of union protests at Emmanuel Macron's labour reforms was about to start, and this area seemed to be a focal point. We decided to move right along, and knowing that the beautiful Jardin du Luxembourg was only a short distance away, we headed there, picking up some fruit (including a punnet of Brian's obligatory raspberries and Mary's obligatory grapes) for our lunch. It had been a long time since we'd eaten so healthily so, as well as being very tasty, the fresh fruit helped us ease our consciences.

    We'd spent half a day on our previous trip enjoying the gardens and were happy to return there on this warm sunny day. It was great, and looking extra good as the autumn colours were starting to appear. Both of us even managed a short nap in the sun. From there we took a wander up to the Pantheon, which we hadn't seen before, but decided just to admire it from the outside rather than pay the entry fee. We did however visit the nearby church of Sainte Genèvieve. It was certainly well worth it. From there, we wandered through the Latin Quarter and down to the Jardin des Plantes, where we managed to get ourselves thoroughly disorientated and lost. We weren't so homesick that we needed a fix, but in our travels we wandered past a section of the Menagerie where a couple of dozen wallabies were happily grazing on lush green grass, a diet probably more flavoursome than they would have enjoyed back home.

    It was late afternoon by then, and we were becoming footsore and weary, so we decided to find a Metro station and head back to base. In a final burst of energy, Brian then decided that we would explore the other route for getting ourselves to Gare Montparnasse. This would require us to change trains at La Motte-Picquet station, but when we saw just how many flights of steep stairs that was going to entail, we soon decided that the Concorde option would be the better one. One can but hope that there won't be any other such disruptions to our best-laid plans when we're carrying our luggage.

    We'd certainly earnt ourselves a relaxing drink by that time, so decided to head across the road from the hotel to the cafe where we'd been enjoying our breakfasts. It turned out that they run a happy hour (well, five hours, actually) from 5pm each night, so we enjoyed a half-litre of good beer and a glass of genuine champagne together with a bowl of nibbles for the grand total of ten euros - very cheap by Parisian standards. We sat in the sun at a small table on the footpath watching the world go by and thinking about the great unplanned day we'd just had.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah

    Another glorious day in Par(ad)is(e)

    20 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    The weather when we woke up was beautiful, so what's not to like about that? Going to our busy little cafe for breakfast, the proprietor seemed a little slow to take our order. Following the bad dinner experience of the previous night - though at a different restaurant - we were getting a little concerned when he suddenly appeared with Mary's cappuccino and Brian's double espresso, followed immediately afterwards by the rest of the Frencj breakfast. Clearly, he'd remembered us from our previous visits and didn't need to ask us what we wanted, and clearly too, we're established here. We could happily stay on in Paris.

    After the four of us hade breakfasted we decided that this would be a day for strolling round Paris and revisiting all the tourist spots. The 15-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower was a good start, and we spent quite a bit of time taking photos and generally soaking up the atmosphere on this beautiful autumn morning. From there, we wandered up towards the Champs Élysées, looking in shop windows at all the grossly overpriced name-brand goods. Even the coffees we bought were double the going rate anywhere else. Still, we were on holiday, so these things shouldn't matter.

    We then headed for the Tuileries Garden, where the crowds were much less, and on to the Île de la Cité and the Nôtre Dame. We had contemplated visiting the nearby Sainte-Chapelle with its fantastic stained glass windows, but the queue was quite long and we didn't feel like waiting. We really weren't confident that Eileen's walking stick would work for us a second time. Anyway,people were starting to flag by then, so we headed back to our hotel, diverting en route to the newly-discovered Karamel Cafe for decadent cakes and coffee.

    Ian and Eileen had very generously wanted to shout us the previous night as our Golden Wedding anniversary dinner, but that of course had turned out to be a total disaster, fortunately at no cost to ourselves. We decided to have another try, but this time to go more upmarket. We'd been recommended a restaurant with the unlikely name of Fitzgerald which was only 100m or so from the hotel, so we decided to give it a try. It turned out to be quite classy and very very enjoyable, and we were grateful to our good friends Ian and Eileen for their generosity. Another fantastic Parisian day.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah

    Always carry a stick

    20 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    The day was overcast and drizzly when the four of us set off mid-morning, after our leisurely breakfasts. That meant adopting Plan B, a visit to the Musée d'Orsay rather than a stroll to the Eiffel Tower and other significant places. We caught the Metro for one stop to Les Invalides, from where we walked below ground, up and down stairs, to catch an RER train for one stop to the Museum. We probably walked at least as far through the various tunnels as if we'd walked along the streets, but at least we were warm and dry.

    Eileen had been suffering from a bad hip for a few weeks prior to this, and her specialist had recommended she take a walking stick with her to Paris. She wasn't too keen on the idea, but took his advice nevertheless and had borrowed one from a friend in Harrogate. We emerged from the Metro directly outside the Museum only to be confronted with a massive queue of people waiting to get in. It must have been a couple of hundred metres long, though it was moving steadily. We were of two minds whether it was worth the wait, but in the end we decided to do so. We'd been waiting less than five minutes when a security guard beckoned to Eileen to come with him, then gestured for us to follow. At first we didn't know why, but when the guard led us to the head of the queue, ahead of the waiting hordes, we realised that he'd spotted Eileen's walking stick and, probably under instructions, had saved her (and us) from waiting in line.

    All of us had been to Musée d'Orsay previously but were keen to make a return trip as it really is a magnificent place. We and the Lees agreed to go our separate ways to look at the displays we each were most interested in. We'd rendezvous again in 1.5 hours and decide then whether we'd continue in the Museum or move on. When we met up, we agreed that we'd barely scratched the surface, so allowed ourselves a further two hours. After that, we wanted another time extension, so all in all we were there for a good five hours. With all the sculptures, the Impressionist paintings, the van Gogh paintings, the spectacular antique furniture and much, much more it was fantastic. A most enjoyable visit, even if there was much which we didn't get to see. There must have been thousands of people there, but fortunately it's such a huge place that, aside from the Impressionist and the van Gogh areas, it wasn't impossibly crowded. At least Eileen's walking stick had saved us a wait in a very long queue.

    Something which has always puzzled Brian in France is that there are so many spectacular patisseries selling beautiful cakes, but that none of them have tables where one can sit down to eat them. Nor do they serve coffee. Meanwhile, the cafes and bars which do serve coffee never have particularly good cakes. Surely there must be a business opportunity for someone who wants to combine the two? Anyway, Brian had previously spotted a place not far from our hotel which did look like it would meet all those requirements, and as the weather had fined up, we decided to walk back there for a late afternoon tea. The cafe met all our expectations and then some. Fantastic cakes, fantastic coffee and excellent friendly service. Cafe Karamel has the lot. Despite our protests, Ian and Eileen very generously shouted us the afternoon tea as part of their 50th wedding anniversary gift to us. We didn't know it yet, but it was all going to be downhill from there.

    We were all feeling a little weary, so headed back to our hotel to rest, agreeing to meet in the lobby to go out to dinner at 8pm. The two of us must have been more tired than we'd realised, because we got into deep sleeps and only just woke up in time for our rendezvous. We then headed out to find a place where we'd have dinner. Again, this was to be Ian and Eileen's shout to celebrate our anniversary. There are hundreds of restaurants within walking distance, but many of them were already full. Eventually we found a likely looking place, Cafe Central in the restaurant precinct of Rue Cler, and sat down. Nothing happened, and it took a good half-hour before we managed to get a waiter to take our food and drink orders.

    There was then another very long wait before the charcuterie board, which we'd agreed to share, arrived. The various meats were uninteresting and totally flavourless. After that, there was a further very long wait, with us giving the waiters a couple of hurry-ups, before the main courses eventually arrived. And they definitely weren't worth waiting for. Eileen's meal was cold. Clearly, they'd prepared it well before they'd brought it out to us. Ian and Mary had ordered ravioli, but what arrived was something quite unlike anything we'd ever encountered before. Lumps of what we assumed to be plain pasta were buried in a bowl of some sort of white flavourless sauce, and on top of it all sat a tiny piece of anonymous and flavourless meat about the size of a business card. Brian's chicken dish was at least edible though very unexciting. He was the only one who managed to finish his food.

    We have known Ian for many years, and he is a very calm person. By then we'd been waiting so long that the restaurant was almost empty, so we were able finally to attract the waiter's attention. Ian demanded he get the manager, who arrived a few moments later. Eileen insists that in all the time she's been married to him she has never seen Ian so angry, but he and Brian let the manager have it with both barrels, telling him that it was a special occasion for us, that the food was awful and the service was atrocious. Anyway, the manager quickly agreed to do the right thing and waived the whole bill. It's probably just as well, as Brian was prepared to write the most scathing review that he possibly could and post it on TripAdvisor. That at least got them off the hook. The only benefit was that we didn't have to pay for the two beers and two carafes of rose - some small compensation.

    By this time, it was about 11.30pm and most of the restaurants were closing. However, we found one which served us nice desserts and coffee, so the evening wasn't a total disaster, even if it came close to being one.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah
    Attractive as ever, the dome of Les InvalidesThe tricouleur flies proudly over the Grand Palais

    Never a dull day in Paris?

    18 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    With the loss of Brian's drivers licence, we would no longer be able to hire a car to explore Carcassonne and the surrounding district, which caused some disruption to our plans. Plan B is for us to travel by train from Toulouse, where we were to have collected our rental car, to Carcassonne. We also needed to organise train travel later from Carcassonne to St Exupéry airport in Lyon so we could catch our flight home. Brian spent over two frustrating hours on the iPad trying to make online bookings, but nothing was working. In the end, he gave up.

    We then went for a bit of a wander round our immediate area then strolled across the beautiful Pont Alexandre III and on towards the Place de la République. Unfortunately, it was still filled with a lot of temporary structures from the previous day's concert, so it wasn't looking its best. We knew that we'd be seeing again (and again) in the next four days before we leave Paris, and by then the place will be looking attractive again.

    We were very much looking forward to catching up with our old friends Ian and Eileen who were coming over to Paris from Harrogate to join us, so we decided to head to Gare du Nord and meet them there. It was a dual-purpose visit, as Brian decided that the only way that he could complete his purchase of rail tickets was to get them in person at a station. That part of the mission was more or less easily achieved, though it turned out that our friends' arrival time was a couple of hours than what we'd understood it to be, so we decided to wait for them back at our hotel instead.

    Not much excitement so far, but that was about to change. Just one Metro stop before our own, we suddenly heard a lot of shouting and saw people sprinting along the platform. Just outside the window of our stationary train, one man leapt onto another one, who was running as fast as he could, and tackled him to the ground in true rugby style. Several others then helped to sit on the fugitive. Our train was stopped at the platform for a good 20-25 minutes while we got a grandstand view of it all. It took a few minutes for the gendarmes to arrive, but when they did, they were swarming all over the place. We assumed that the fugitive was probably a bag-snatcher, and a couple of good Samaritans had made sure that he didn't get away with it. The police were less than gentle with him, which Brian was pleased to see with his stolen wallet fresh in his mind. Unfortunately one of the pursuers appeared to have broken his arm in the scuffle, but at least justice was done and we saw some excitement.

    Late afternoon, Ian and Eileen arrived at our hotel, where they'll be staying for three nights. We first met them at Fibremakers in Melbourne, where we and they were on secondment from New Zealand and the UK respectively. We had young families at the time, and found that we had a lot in common. Since then, we've visited one another on a few occasions, the last time being about nine years ago. It was really great to meet up again like this. We had a thoroughly enjoyable meal at a nearby restaurant while we excitedly caught up with one another's news. A day which started slowly finished really well.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah
    Mary soaks up the view
    Pomp and ceremonyTacky souvenirs by the truckload1

    Our neighbours turn on another surprise

    17 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    The weather when we'd arrived in Paris the previous afternoon had been less than brilliant. It was overcast, and when we went out for dinner, we were quite cold. We expected this, our first full day, to be much the same, in which case we were all set to undertake indoor activities such as visiting museums. However when we set off for breakfast we could see that it was partly cloudy and really quite pleasant - a perfect day for walking.

    Where to start? The hotel is a bare 100 metres from Les Invalides, so that seemed like a fairly logical place. Off we set, and it was great. At that time it was too early for the tourist hordes, though that soon changed as the day progressed. Being a Sunday, traffic at that time was really light too. The previous day's rain had cleaned the air, and the morning light made it great for photos. Brian took many in and around Les Invalides.

    In September 2014, when we'd stayed previously at Hôtel de la Tour Maubourg, we'd been woken up on the Sunday morning by a lot of commotion. It had turned out that they were celebrating the centenary of a major event in French history, the First Battle of Marne. On that occasion the French government had commandeered all of the Paris taxis, somewhere between 250 and 500 of them, to transport the French troops to the front, from where the invading German army was forced to retreat. We were witness to the commemoration and partial re-enactment of that event.

    This time round, we wandered in to the precinct, taking in the wonderful views and impressive buildings. Outside the beautiful chapel at Les Invalides, which contains Napoleon's tomb, a crowd of very formally dressed people was gathering. Those greeting the guests at the entrance were in spectacularly fancy dress uniforms in various designs, with so much by way of medals, gold braid and giant epaulettes that we almost had to put our sunglasses on. They looked like characters from a historical drama. Clearly, they were getting ready for some sort of commemorative church service, and any casually dressed visiting Australians with cameras around their necks weren't going to be encouraged. Most of the guests were dressed very formally, and many of them looked like long-retired military officers. A large number were in wheelchairs and could well have been WWII veterans. We weren't able to find out the reason for the commemoration, but clearly it was a pretty big event, even if it wasn't quite on the scale of the 2014 Marne celebration.

    From there we decided to head in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, about a 20 minute walk. As we'd expected it was pretty crowded there, in the Jardins de Mars, but we still enjoyed wandering round and taking in the sunshine and scenery. Having already been there, done that and got the T-shirt, we had no wish to climb the tower. It was just as well because the crowds were huge. As we'd observed previously, there are large numbers of street vendors all round the precinct, all trying to sell replicas of the Eiffel Tower and other tacky souvenirs. No matter how hard one tries, they're hard to ignore. We then wandered across to Place du Trocadéro which is just across the river. Again, Brian took many photos. From there it was a nostalgic walk up to the Arc de Triomphe and down the famous Champs Élysées.

    All the way down there, we could hear really loud doof-doof music but couldn't tell initially where it was coming from. As we got closer to the Place de la Républic we could see that a large area had been closed off to traffic and that there was some sort of free concert going on. It at least provided us with the opportunity to get photos, particularly of the adjacent Grand and Petit palaces, without any traffic to block the views. One thing we did notice was the massive police presence and the large number of barricades which had been set up. Sadly, France is having to take its security very seriously.

    We then decided to utilise our Paris transport passes and go by Metro to the Left Bank area. Easier said than done. We got to La Motte-Picquet easily enough but then, when we wanted to change to a different line for the rest of the trip, we were told that the short section of the line that we had wanted to travel on was closed for the weekend to allow maintenance work. Special buses would be covering that section, but when we got to street level we saw some really black thunder clouds hovering overhead and decided to head back to base instead. Even that became complicated when another section of line was closed due to a suspicious parcel having been seen. These minor setbacks are part and parcel of travelling, so don't bother us too much. It was still a most enjoyable day and a good opportunity to get back into the atmosphere of Paris, Mary's favourite city.

    After the less than inspiring dinner of the previous night, we decided to go a bit more upmarket. Brian had seen reports on line which gave a restaurant which was a 15-minute walk from us very high ratings. That was a good enough reason for us to give Cafe Constant a try. We got there around 8.45pm only to find a long queue out to the street of people waiting to get a table. This must be good so, despite Mary's misgivings, Brian decided we'd join the queue. We had to wait a good half-hour for a table, but it was worth it. The food was very good though nowhere near the standard we'd been enjoying over the previous week. Brian was pretty happy, though. He had a delicious duck and potato pie, and given that he'd pigged out on a raspberry tartlet, made with fresh berries, for his afternoon tea, he'd once again partaken of his two favourite foods. The restaurant didn't feel too touristy even though we heard every language other than French being spoken by the patrons.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah

    Paris, here we come

    16 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    8.30am and two taxis, one with a trailer, arrived to take all of us plus luggage on the half-hour drive to the station at Nîmes. From there, people were catching trains to various destinations. We, together with the lovely elderly French couple, Roger and Françoise, were on the 1055 train to Paris. The waiting time went very quickly, and it was handy to have them there to help us interpret the minimal signage and garbled French PA system announcements at the station. We spent much of the time, as we had during the cruise, with them helping Brian expand his limited French vocabulary while we in turn helped them with their basic English.

    French trains are fast, clean and comfortable, but as we had discovered already at Gare Part Dieu in Lyon, getting on the train and finding ones reserved seats is not always easy. For a start, the signage telling people where to stand on the platform to be alongside their carriage was hopelessly wrong, so when the train pulled in to the platform we all had to sprint about 50m with our luggage. This wouldn't matter, were it not for the fact that the train is there for literally only two minutes before it heads off again. We felt sorry for anyone travelling with a lot of luggage and small children. Our troubles weren't over yet. As we entered our carriage, the way was blocked by two people in wheelchairs. This wasn't their fault as there was no other space for them.

    HEALTH WARNING: Politically incorrect statements ahead!! What it meant was that we had to try and squeeze past them while carrying our own heavy luggage above our heads. This wasn't easy, but we felt that the disabled people wouldn't be keen on adding decapitation to their list of medical issues. At risk of sounding even more politically incorrect, we concluded that they were returning from Lourdes, in which case they should seek a refund. Trains should only require wheelchair spaces for the outbound journey.

    We reached Paris on time after a very quiet and comfortable three-hour high speed train journey and then set about trying to navigate ourselves plus luggage from Gare Lyon to our hotel at La Tour Maubourg. Many of the Metro stations now have escalators, but there are still a few which required us to lug suitcases up and down flights of steps. We were certainly happy to see our hotel, the one we'd stayed at in 2014. Little has changed, and our room was every bit as comfortable as the other one was before. We scored an attic room this time, unfortunately without a view, but the room itself was great.

    Paris is a romantic city, so what was the first thing we did? Went to the laundromat and washed a week's worth of accumulated laundry. Admittedly, we did go and indulge ourselves at a nearby patisserie while the clothes were washing.

    Later, we came down to earth with a bit of a thud. There are many dozens of restaurants, all within easy walking distance of our hotel, but we decided that we'd go for something cheap and light. After all, we'd eaten and drunk especially well over the previous week, and it wouldn't do us any harm to ease off a bit - and save a bit of money. However, the one we chose was very ordinary indeed. We knew that we wouldn't be going back there in a hurry.     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah

    Brian takes a ride

    15 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    By now, we had settled in to a very pleasant routine of a leisurely buffet breakfast at 8am followed by our departure on a morning tour an hour later. We faced the reality however that this was our last full day on Le Phenician before we left the cruise and went our separate ways. The Camargue region, close to the Rhône delta is unique, quite unlike any other French region. It is flat, low-lying land, quite wild, and with large open areas rather than the neat and tidy landscape one sees in most other areas of France. Bull-fighting is practised widely in the region. Most of it is in the traditional Camargue style where multiple ribbons are tied to the horrifyingly sharp horns of the bull, and a small handheld comb-like device is then used by the competitors to pick the small ribbons off the angry bull. Whoever gets the most ribbons is the winner. Generally this takes place in an arena where there are ten men and one bull, but a variant of this is where the bulls are individually allowed to run loose in the streets and competitors try to snare the ribbons. It's a very dangerous sport with many injuries, but the good news is that the bulls do not get injured. It seems that prize bulls are as revered there as prize racehorses are in Australia. We'd loved to have seen such an event, but time did not allow. One should add that some traditional bull-fights also take place in the Camargue, and those particular bulls do get killed. That, we would not want to see.

    Anyway we set off to visit an authentic bull-breeding ranch run by a prominent local family. We drove for an hour, and when we arrived, four members of the family, dressed in their traditional costumes and mounted on their traditional white horses, were there to greet us. We then climbed aboard a flat-bed cart pulled by a tractor and they took us to one of the fields, where were about 50-60 of the black bulls. Until we got to the ranch we hadn't realised that there had been a change in the weather, and it had become windy and absolutely freezing!!. What we saw was certainly interesting, but we were all shivering on the open cart. They rounded up the bulls and brought them close to the cart so that we could get a good look at them. Each bull is individually named, and they are regarded just as one would regard racehorses at an Australian breeding stud. The horns on these bulls are huge and sharp, and they point forward, where they can inflict the most damage. The animals weigh up to 800kg, not small.

    Thankfully, we were then brought in out of the cold to their display area and shop, where we were able to see, on continuous loop, some absolutely scary videos of bullfights. We had some traditional snacks including terrine, anchovies and tapenade, all accompanied by wine. After that, it was back to the boat, which was getting ready to sail to our final destination of Aigues-Mortes. The previous night, we were given two choices. We could travel on the boat, enjoy one of Thierry's wonderful lunches then arrive at our destination feeling relaxed and comfortable. Then there was the crazy option where one could take a packed lunch which Thierry would prepare, and ride a bike for the 14km alongside the canal to our destination. In preparation for this eventuality, the two of us had hired bikes in Brisbane a few months earlier for a couple of hours, just to make sure that we could still handle them OK. Mary had decided that bike-riding wasn't for her, while Brian had become marginally less wobbly as he got back into practice.

    Bravely/foolishly Brian decided that he would do the roughly hour-long ride to Aigues-Mortes, along with Greg and Steve, two of our fellow-passengers both of whom are experienced riders. All the others took the boat option. Of course, once one commits to riding the bike, there is literally no turning back. The boat will have sailed, so it's a matter of going the full distance on two wheels. To cut a long story short, the bike ride went very well, Brian didn't fall off and we reached our destination an hour ahead of the boat. We were fortunate that the wind had died down, it was a very smooth path and there were no hills. In fact it was a very pleasant trip and Brian was well pleased with himself.

    Once the boat arrived and we were reunited the two of us set off to explore this 13th century walled town. We started by buying tickets and setting off for a walk along the top of the wall, a distance of about 1.6km. It was quite interesting, though we wouldn't describe it as compelling. We then went for a wander through the streets of the old town, quite attractive with many shops and restaurants and quite a few tourists. It was fairly interesting, though we'd decided by then that our favourite places on this trip were Avignon and Les Baux-de-Provence.

    Our final dinner on board was a big affair, with champagne and with foie gras served two different ways as the starter. The main course of fillet of lamb served rare was magnificent, and Thierry's dessert of raspberry and peach gateau with sparklers as decoration was pretty special too. The staff, who had been magnificent during the trip, joined us for champagne toasts and dessert - all accompanied by many thank you speeches, hugs and handshakes. We were all sad that the trip was coming to an end.

    For the record, and for happy memories, these were Thierry's wonderful lunches:

    Sunday
    Rosace de tomates bicolores, gelée et tartare
    Médaillon de veau, sauce à la moutarde violette
    Purée de patate douce et petits légumes
    Cheeses: Reblochon, St Marcellin
    Fraises en sabayon

    Monday
    Petits farcis, tuiles de parmesan
    Dos de loup en croute de poivrons
    Riz et poireaux, sauce vierge
    Cheeses: Petit basque, Livarot
    soupe d’agrumes, granité de mandarine

    Tuesday
    Duo de saumon en pannequet, betterave et pomme
    Magret de canard, parfum de figues
    Ravioles de céleri et fèves
    Cheese: Croustillant de chêvre
    Déclinaison de chocolat

    Wednesday
    Asperges blanche et vertes, velouté, panées
    Coussin de daurade, sauce curcuma
    Fenouil braisé et palet de pdt
    Cheeses: Pont l’evêque, Tome de savoie

    And here are the dinners:

    Sunday
    Eggplant terrine, tomato and pesto
    Goat cheese, tapenade and tomato tart
    Green bean, white onion and chorizo salad
    Italian salad
    porc « pluma », veggies
    Brillat savarin
    Coffee mousse «dacquoise »

    Monday:
    Smoked and tartare salmon roll
    Grilled veggies
    Snowpeas, carrots, marinated peppers, smoked duck breast
    Bacon and leek tart
    Grilled lamb, spicy grains
    Cheese: St Nectaire
    Raspberries tiramisu

    Tuesday:
    Avocado and grapefruit
    Crabs, garlic, pepper, lime samoussa
    Prawns, coconuts orange and peanuts salad
    Cod fritters (accras)
    Spicy chicken breast, nuddles
    Fresh cheese
    Rhubarb tart

    Wednesday:
    “Pissaladière”
    Cauliflower greek style
    Eggplant “caviar”
    Quinoa taboulet
    Monkfish, veggies
    Cheese: Bûche de Valançay
    Exotic fruits salad

    Thursday:
    Crespeou
    Cod brandade and spinach “feuilleté”
    Gaspacho
    Feta salad
    Braised beef cheek, potatoes gratin
    Cheese: St Marcellin
    Chestnut cake     Czytaj więcej

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  • SpydahGolden AnniversarySpydah
    Fabro with tonight's dinner menu

    A cultural tour

    14 września 2017, Francja ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    At the very leisurely time of 9am we were collected by our guide, who was to give us a tour of his home city of Arles. It soon became obvious that the two of us had barely scratched the surface during our self-conducted tour the previous day. Patrick is an artist, Kansas-born, but resident in several European countries during the course of his life. Much of his tour was given over to Vincent van Gogh, who had lived in Arles for just over a year and had created many paintings there during the period. Patrick was able to take us to several of the exact spots where van Gogh had set up his easel, and to show us prints of the preliminary sketches and the final paintings that the artist had created. In most instances the buildings had little changed since that time, which made it very interesting. He was also very knowledgeable about architecture, so was able to point out interesting design features of many of the buildings. Altogether, a very interesting and enjoyable tour, though somewhat different from what we had been expecting. We then had a bit of free time before sailing time, but once again it wasn't quite enough to allow us a leisurely wander inside the amphitheatre..

    We then headed off four a leisurely four-hour cruise, some of it taken up with our usual four-course lunch, towards the small village of Gallician, where we were due to moor overnight. Leaving Arles, we took the fork in the river which put us on to the Petit Rhone, the smaller and less populated branch of the river. We reached Gallician late in the afternoon. Four of us then decided to take a short walk to the village, but quickly decided that it wasn't all that interesting for exploration. We then walked along the river path to a distant bridge, crossed over and walked back along the opposite bank. All told, we covered the 7km loop at a vigorous pace, so were able to feel virtuous when downing our pre-dinner drinks followed by the usual high standard dinner and wine.     Czytaj więcej

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