First Day Touring Paris

After a great sleep we both felt well rested and ready to put on our walking shoes and take on Paris. First stop the Marais neighborhood. Its medieval Paris and has not changed much since the 1800's.

After walking through the Marias it was of to Notre Dame. On the way we passed Paris City Hall where they had put up a big screen to view the Rugby World Cup games. What I thought was very creative was they dressed the statues with the French Rugby jerseys.

Walked around outside and then inside of the 700 year old Notre Dame Cathedral. What a marvelous and very spiritual place it is.

Crossed the Bridge and made our way to the Left Bank where we walked the many small pedestrian streets and enjoyed the shops, cafe's and many of the market stalls in the area.

Picked up some food and wine and took it home and enjoyed a relaxing evening in the apartment.

London to Paris Hungover

Rita on the stairs of our 4th floor Paris apartment


Wake-up to an 08:00 alarm and know its not going to be a good day. My mouth feels like it is stuffed with cotton batton and my head feels like its been used as a battering ram all night long.

Shower, finish packing, have some toast and tea, say farewell to my Aunt, cousin and Holly and head off to the Beaconsfield station to catch the train into London. We miss the direct train as I thought an extra 10 minutes sleep was a great idea and ended up on the train doing the milk run (stopping at every station). Get to Waterloo station in time to catch the Eurostar to Paris. While Rita is standing in line to check-in I go and grab some coffee, water and sandwiches for the trip. Get back just in time to go through the check-in counter and we are told that you cannot bring open beverages through security. After one sip, dump the coffee and proceed to security. Rita and her luggage pass through but my bag is stopped and am pulled over to a side station where they remove everything from my luggage, send it through in 3 seperate containers and then check it for explosive materials. Nothing is found and they ask if I want to repack my bag. I said no and watched the security person put everything back into my bag. Both of us were not happy. Finally get to the train and our seats to find out we are sitting looking backwards. This is not normally a problem for me but after we started moving I realize I do not like this positon when hung over. After an uneventful 2 1/2 hour trip we arrived at the Paris train station. Grabbed our luggage and got off the train and saw that the station was heaving with people. I then realized the impact of France hosting the World Cup of Rugby was having on this city. We went to get a taxi to take us to our apartment as we were advised that the Underground has lots of stairs and it not very good if you have luggage. Got to the taxi area and saw the line for cars weave around the building and decied that we would tackle the underground even with our luggage. This was a mistake. We thought that London underground had a lot of steps but Paris has steps everywhere and vey limited escalator service. Found the ticket machines and only one was working and that only took credit cards. We figured out how to get the ticket machine to work and put in my Visa and guess what, it was rejected!! Went and stood in line at the Information desk and after about 15 minutes we ordered our tickets with the same credit card without a problem. Started the process of climbing up and down stairs to get to our platform and got on the train only to find out we were going the wrong way. Get off at the next stop and climb up and down stairs to get to the correct platform and get on the correct train. Get off at the right stop to catch a connecting train (that's right, up and down more stairs). By this time, I was sweating quite heavily and everyone else on the train were wearing coats and jackets. Finally got to our final stop and made the final exit up a couple of flights of stairs and int0 fresh air. After a 10 minute walk we found our apartment and guess what, its on the 4th floor and the building does not have an elevator. Rita was finished and made it up to our apartment without her luggage. After lugging mine up the very steep stairs I went back down and brought up Rita's bag. Collapsed onto the couch for a few minutes rest and then went right into shower.

The apartment is very nice and the neighborhood is fantastic with lots of great cafe's, restaurants and a pedestrian street with a daily market of fruits, vegatables and meats.

Went for a walk about and ended up at a small little restaurant and had a very nice dinner with a bottle of wine and back to the apartment where we were in bed by 9:30. Will be ready for a great day in Paris tomorrow.

Party Time

Holly's 21st Birthday Party was a blast. Lis, her Mom, did a wonderful job of putting a great evening together. It was in a private room at a night club called Revolution. There were just over 90 guests and it went on till 2:30 in morning. Rita and I managed to stay until 12:30 and for those who stayed to the end I don't know how they managed to get themselves to work on Monday morning. It was hard enough for Rita and I to get up at 08:00. The party had everything from a magician doing card tricks (this is why Rita is holding the 2 of hearts in this picture) to 3 gaming tables (roulette, blackjack and poker) with Hollybucks for currency. The gaming tables stopped at 11:00pm and the DJ started and apparently went to the bitter end. Rita and I did get up and dance to one number but we had not heard of any of the music he was playing and had no idea how to dance like the rest of the people on the dance floor. It reminded me of watching my parents dance to Perry Como!!!!!

Our 3 nights in London were a great way to get us back to all of our bad habits. Too much food, no exercise and no sleep. By the end of it we looked liked we needed another vacation. And so its onto Paris.

21st Birthday Preparations

In Beaconsfield about a 35 minute train ride outside of London. Its a beautiful old village that has become a bedroom community of London commuters. We are here to celebrate my second cousins 21st Birthday. Holly and I have been very close since I was stationed in London from 1996 - 1999 for TBC. The party has been going on for a couple of days as it started with a family only gathering and ends tonight with a black tie "Casino Royale" themed party at a nightclub they have reserved for the evening. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to keep pace with the 90-odd yonger guests. But as you all know, I will give it a good effort!!!!

Rita and I will be heading for Paris on the Eurostar train in the morning. It's faster than flying as the train leaves from downtown London and ends up in downtown Paris in under 2.5 hours. It's a high speed train that goes under the English Chanel and reaches speeds of up 300 kmp. It should be an exciting start to our French and Italian adventure.

Last Majorca Breakfast

The tour Captain had everything arranged for a smooth departure out of Majorca. Rita had us all packed and ready to go and even had the breakfast all laid out for this morning. Departed the apartment on time and headed for the Palma Airport. Our car rental had charged us for a full tank of gas and told us to bring it back as empty as possible. Left the apartment with the guage stating 89km before we run out of gas and arrived at the car rental drop off with 47km before running out of gas. We congratulated ourselves regarding our fuel management but it was a stressful ride to the auirport as we ran into a couple of traffic jams and I started to queston our decison. However, it all worked out at the end. Checked in without any problems. Our bags were even under the weight restriction. Its onto a couple of days in London staying with my cousin and celebrating her daughters 21st birthday.

Palma Revisited

Ok, we are going to try to get into Palma today. We got up a little earlier and headed into the big city to see if we could find a parking spot. We arrived about 45 minutes earlier than the day before and made it into the main underground parking garage for people visiting the Palma Cathedral.

The outside is amazing but its unbelievably beautiful on the inside. As mentioned earlier, Catholics have been worshipping in the building for over 7 centuries. The church was built over an Islamic Mosque after a promise in prayer made by King Jaume 1 as his Armada sat off the coast before going into battle with the Moors, who had ruled the Island for more than 400 years. His conquest was successful and on December 31, 1229 he started plans for the creation of one of the most unique Gothic Cathedrals ever built in Europe. It has gone through several updates, changes and restorations over the past 500 years and is still used as a place of faith on a daily basis. The main part of the Cathedral (the central Nave) is massive and 14 very fine and beautifully aligned pillars rise 21 meters before branching out into arches that support the single span, vaulted roof. The total height of the Central Nave is 44 meters and is one of the tallest Gothic structures in Europe. The building is lit with the help of several stained-glass windows and seven rose windows, the largest one having over 1,200 individual pieces of glass. Ok, you have probably figured out by now that the above description is not from my hand and you are right. I borrowed the information from my Majorca Guide Book!!!!

After visiting the interior of the Cathedral, Rita and I went touring around the Old Town and stopped for lunch in a wonderful square with several outside cafes. Big trees and even bigger umbrellas helped keep us in the shade. We had some typical Spanish Tapas and most of them were delicious. One item I would recommend you stay away from is “Little Sausages cooked in Red Wine” I think they were cooked in red grease. It took a long time to walk off the effects of these little bastards.

Rita become part of a Jean Miro Sculpture

Tomorrow is our last full day in Majorca and we are planning to spend some time on our terrace enjoying the sun. Then it’s into town to visit our favorite café for some coffee and delicious pastry’s as well as catching up on some news through a British paper. After that, it’s back home to start the packing process for our trip to London and head out for our final dinner on this beautiful Island. It’s been a real treat spending two weeks here, especially for me as I had been here once before but only visited a beach resort that had reminded me of Honolulu. Thank you Rita for convincing me to try Majorca one more time. We will be back.

End of the Road # 2

After a technical problem at the Intenet Cafe and a stop for a Tapas lunch we headed out for The Cap de Formentor.

The Road from Palma to Pollenca is like the Trans Canada with a 120km speed limit. After Pollenca the road narrows and then as we start to climb up the mountain the road narrows again and the speed limit drops to 30km, with good reason. There are many, many switchbacks as we climb up the mountain. This is bad enough but there are tour buses on this road and if you run into one at one of the switchbacks one of you in backing up. Guess which one is doing the backing up!!!! However, as usual when you get to the end the journey is worth it. What an amazing place. The sea cliffs are massive and very barren. Totally different from the Pine covered mountains just on the other side of the mountain. There is a lighthouse at the end of the road offering spectacular views of what you have just driven past. Plan B was excellent and we will get back to Palma in a couple of days, a little earlier than today.