13/11/2022 by photosbyhank

Last Breakfast in Paris

I can’t dance so it’s not like I’d be doing a tango on my last morning in Paris.

Monday, October 3rd had arrived. Lynda and I would be going home today; on what would of been my dad’s 82nd birthday.

We were up early enough to see Lucille before she left for school to thank her profusely for having us these last 3 weeks.

We headed out to find somewhere to have breakfast before we had to get to the airport.

We ended up on Rue de Tolbiac at Le Circus. It was cool enough that we decided to eat inside for a change. It wasn’t overly busy so I took a few photos of the place.

Still needs the phone to translate the menu

After an hour or so we headed back to the apartment to be all packed for when the taxi arrived.

We weren’t setting an land speed records on our walk back and I took photos of the neighbourhood along the way.

Gas was $0.40/litre higher than yesterday

We got back to the apartment and made sure we gave Curtis his key back before we finished packing.

We said goodbye to the cats; Bella and Casper. I had visited with them in Beijing back in 2015 and I was still allergic to them. I was happy the antihistamine my Doctor had prescribed had worked great.

It was time to say goodbye to Curtis and thank him for everything and putting up with us for the last 3 weeks.

It seemed surreal that our adventure was coming to an end but it was time to head back to reality.

We could of taken the RER to the airport but lugging 2 suitcases and carry on bags didn’t make that prospect very appealing so we had booked a taxi to pick us up around noon.

When the cab came, he had half his trunk full of kitchen appliances and could only fit one of our suitcases in there. He wanted to call us another cab but we were on a schedule so I told him to put the other suitcase on the front seat. He didn’t seem too happy about it, but he went with my suggestion.

Our driver seemed to be a bit surly during the drive and the slow moving traffic didn’t seem to help his mood.

We came to an overturned van in the oncoming lanes and Lynda wondered how that could of happened. Our driver wondered the same and he seemed in a more talkative mood after that and traffic sped back up afterwards.

Soon we were doing 140km/hr in a 90km/hr zone to make up time. He said that the police were too busy with terror threats to really worry about enforcing the speed limit.

We got to the airport unscathed and on time.

We checked in and waited for boarding time. I met a young couple from Vancouver while Lynda was off looking for something to drink. We were on the same flight but they were a lot closer to the front than we were.

It was a long uneventful flight on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The seats were the biggest ones we’d had on any of our flights. A nine hour flight in slightly bigger seats is still a 9 hour flight in one place.

We got into Calgary just before 5:30pm and took a little over half an hour to clear customs and get our bags.

Our son had agreed to pick us up but he had a bit of a hectic school schedule and my friend Steve had come to get us.

It was sunnier and warmer than it had been in Paris all those hour ago. It was nice to see there were still plenty of yellow leaves on the trees and that fall wasn’t over.

Steve got us home just after 8:00 pm and we managed to stay up until around 9:30 pm before getting to bed.

Only managed to get around 5700 steps today. Seemed pretty low for such a long day.

Back to the real world tomorrow as I had to go to work but Lynda had taken a recovery day off before she had to go back. (She is smarter than me.)

It really was a trip of a lifetime for us and we enjoyed every minute of it. (Well, I did but I’m betting the ferry rides in the Canary Islands weren’t so good for my bride.)

We ate and drank whatever we wanted and all in all I think we ate pretty healthy. (Lynda lost 15 lbs. on vacation.) (We walked a lot and we really didn’t snack very much.)

We went with the flow and did and saw so much. (And didn’t see so much at the same time.)

I tried to narrow down what I enjoyed the most and I think the overall experience itself is it. I liked how it wasn’t real life. (We took mini vacations while on vacation.)

l really loved spending every waking moment with my bride for three weeks.

We had good food pretty much everywhere and I think Hotpot was my favorite in Paris. The Indian food in Amsterdam was fabulous. Every place we tried in the Canary Islands (with the exception of on the ferry) was fantastic.

I really like that we could walk or take a bus or jump on the subway and get somewhere in no time at all.

I loved walking along the promenade in Nice while holding my brides hand.

I loved walking along the beach on Gran Canaria watching my bride and my sister laugh their asses off while jumping around in the surf.

Best vacation ever doesn’t even come close to summing it up for me.

12/11/2022 by photosbyhank

Amsterdam, Day 2

After a cold and rainy night, Sunday, October 2nd dawned as a cool and cloudy day.

With our room window facing an alley one would of thought it would be a quiet night for sleeping. One would be wrong. The only time there weren’t people talking/yelling/fighting was when it rained around 5:00 am.

Needless to say, it wasn’t an overly early start to the day for Lynda and I as we got ready to go out around 9:30 am. Lucille and Curtis had been to Starbucks already but I wasn’t going to be hurried.

We checked out of the hotel but took advantage of being able to check our bags with them.

It was time for breakfast and Curtis wanted some French fries and dip but no one else wanted fries for breakfast. Lucille convinced him that they could share an order of the mini pancakes AND get an order of fries to share. She had him at AND so we headed towards De Carrousel Pannenkoeken for breakfast.

We hadn’t gotten far when we came to Blomstermarknaden – Flower Market.

Lynda found some tulips that were legal to import to Canada that she liked.

We finally made it and Lynda and I ordered an order of Poffertjes (Dutch Mini Pancakes) with strawberries and whipped cream to share. While we waited for our pancakes to arrive; Lynda decided to see what activity she could find for us to do and soon she had booked a wine and cheese canal tour for early afternoon.

The pancakes were just as good as they had been yesterday and we left as it was starting to get busy in there.

We picked a different direction to walk and set off to see the sights.

Pretty much everywhere I looked I found something that caught my eye to photograph so we weren’t moving along at a very fast pace.

As we wandered down a street we came to a place that had some bags of what looked like crackers and a sign that said; “Free samples inside.” So naturally we went inside to see what it was all about.

We had stumbled upon Peppernuts Amsterdam Spiegelstraat. Peppernuts are traditional Dutch cookies that come in a dizzying array of flavours and the lady in the shop was more than happy to let us try a bunch of flavours. I picked a few small bags to bring back to work for my co-workers to try and Lynda picked a few of the bigger bags for us.

I think the lady was actually trying to get her store ready to open when we got there and wasn’t actually open yet as her vacuum was underfoot as more and more people came in. Since we’d been there a while and had tried a few flavours, I wholeheartedly endorsed them to the American girls trying to decide on a flavour.

Most of us were feeling quite full after our breakfast and samples but Curtis wanted to get some fries and dip for lunch so we started making our way in that direction.

Since we were close to our hotel we decided to drop our shopping bags off.

Okay, so now it’s time to head for lunch.

Until we found more shopping.

Finally we made it to Vlaamse Frites Snackland (Flemish Fries Snackland) and Curtis got in line to put in his order.

And the line is pretty long as the fries are very good but the choice of dips that can be ordered to go with is pretty extensive.

We all shared an order of fries and dip and then started off in the general direction of our canal tour.

We found our way to the Ann Frank House to get our tour. We were a bit early so we stood and watched the drama on the tour ahead of us as an American woman wanted them to wait for her husband to get there but she had no idea where he was. The boat finally left without him and our boat pulled up to board.

We were again at the front of the line so we got our pick of tables when we got on.

As we got settled in; our tour guide, Fedja, informed us we could have as much wine and cheese as we wanted. Now to a Broomfield that is taken as; “challenge accepted” and while my sister may have changed her name by getting married; she’s still a Broomfield.

The cheese was pretty good and soon Lynda and I ran out so we asked for more. More cheese came fairly quickly. (Almost as fast as the wine refills.)

Our hour tour just flew by and I’m sure the wine had nothing to do with that. We still had cheese left so Lynda wrapped it up and put it in her purse for the trip home.

We thanked Fedja and the boat driver, Fep, for a great time and we tried to wangle our two inebriated ladies along so we could go and find some food before we had to get to the train for our trip back to Paris.

We weren’t going all that fast as they were easily distracted.

We found ourselves at the Hotel Amsterdam De Roode Leeuw. We weren’t overly hungry but knew we should have something before getting on the train. We picked a few appetizers and a beverage. Lucille and Lynda had a beverage and ordered a shot of Jenever – it is a straight gin that has a fiery taste.

We survived supper and had to get ready to get to the train station.

The downside of eating were we had was we were about half way between the hotel where all our stuff was and the train station. Neither Curtis or I could go to the hotel and get all our bags and luggage by ourselves. We could go get the bags a lot faster if we didn’t have to have the girls come along but that meant we had to trust two drunk girls could get themselves to the train station unsupervised.

Since we didn’t have much choice; we put that plan into action and watched the girls leave before we walked back to Hotel Pagi.

We got our bags and started heading back when our phones were blowing up with messages from the girls pretending they had gotten lost.

Lynda sent me a text asking me to guess where she was but she forgot to attach the photos she’d taken. She then posted that on Facebook all the while thinking she was asking me again. Of course people started asking where she was but she didn’t answer them very promptly.

It was hard to walk in the crowds and text back but I answered her as best I could.

There was some kind of protest happening at Dam Square and it was busy enough that there was a little separation between Curtis and I as we passed and a scuffle broke out right after Curtis passed. I made it past the kerfuffle unscathed and we continued on our way.

We found Lucille and Lynda easily enough at the train station and we went inside to check in and wait for the train.

We were on the platform outside while we waited for the train and I really liked the colour of the light but I decided not to risk taking my camera out just in case I had to deal with security so I just enjoyed it while we waited.

The wait was longer than anticipated but boarding went smoothly and soon we were on our way back towards Paris.

Lucille and Lynda fell asleep pretty much the moment we started moving.

I tried to take some photos of things I liked the way they were lit up but riding backwards at a decent speed did make things a bit difficult.

About an hour into our journey and the girls were still sleeping.

Another 2 hours passed in relative quiet and as we were getting close to Paris, they were still sleeping.

Both of them woke up as we were pulling into Gare de Nord and Lucille exclaimed that it was the fastest trip she’d ever made between the two cities and this was now her preferred way to travel.

We were soon off the train and on the RER back towards the apartment.

About half and hour later we walked into the apartment in time for bed.

It felt like we’d covered a lot of ground today but at just over 16 and a half thousand steps; less so than yesterday.

07/11/2022 by photosbyhank

North to Amsterdam

October dawned as another early day on Saturday, October 1st as we were up early to make the 15 or so minute walk to the RER (Réseau Express Régional’ or Regional Express Railway) station at Cité Universitaire to make another visit to Gare de Nord. Today’s destination is to be Amsterdam. (I still got to go there after all.) I loved having reliable and rapid transit to use in Paris. It was only a 1 ticket ride to Gare de Nord so it cost less than 2 Euros 1 way; a lot less than the 27 Euro cab ride last time. (And much less than our gypsy cab ride back.) and no more time than taking a taxi.

Unlike our last train trip; this time we weren’t leaving the EU so we just had to go through security and not passport control.

We were about an hour before the train was scheduled to leave and we checked out the train station a little and got some food to take on the train.

Soon our train pulled up and I took my camera out to get a photo or two.

I was concerned to have a rather serious looking security guard come over to me and tell me there are no photographs allowed in the building. Now normally I’m a sarcastic smart ass and would of pointed out that everybody and their dog has a cell phone to take photos with; but not being nearly as dumb as I look; I just said I was disappointed in hearing that as it’s such a beautiful old building and I would adhere to that.

It was just over a three hour trip from Gare de Nord to the Amsterdam Centraal station with quick stops in Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam and the Amsterdam airport. We never got off the train at those stops but I’m counting it as visiting Belgium, lol.

It was about a 15 minute walk and even though it was only just noon, we stopped at our hotel; Hotel Pagi to see if we could check in early to keep us from dragging our luggage around. Luckily, they let us check in. Curtis and Lucille’s room wasn’t ready so we put all the stuff in our room and headed out to look for food.

This being the Moffat’s 4 trip to Amsterdam, Curtis has mapped out a plan for food.

We meandered for just over a kilometer as we made our way south toward our lunch stop; De Carrousel Pannenkoeken.

I had heard nothing but great things about the mini Dutch pancakes so it only seemed appropriate to have them as our first meal in Amsterdam.

I had the cherries with mine. I love cherries and they are never an option on the breakfast menu so it only seemed natural.

And I must say, they were fabulous.

We started walking across the canal over towards the Heineken Experience to see what we could find from there.

I loved the architecture I saw along the way and took photos of what seemed like everything.

Soon though we found ourselves at Albert Cuypmarkt; Iconic street market since 1905 with lots of stands selling clothing, local foods, flowers & more.

It looked a lot cooler than our local market so we decided to check it out.

Lynda and Lucille found a few things to purchase (big surprise) and then we came to a stall/store that caught both their eyes.

I’m not much of a sandal wearer but the pricing was very good so I bought Lynda a pair she liked.

Since we now had things to carry; that was enough shopping for now and we started walking over to the Hard Rock Cafe just over a kilometer away to see about getting Curtis a shot glass. (And a drink or two for us.)

It took us over half an hour to make our way to the Hard Rock as I had to point my camera at a thing or 10 along the way.

There were no shot glasses for sale in Amsterdam but we decided to have a drink while we were here.

Lucille and Lynda wanted a lemon drop shot and the 3 of us shared a large strawberry margarita.

It was getting close to supper time so we started back to our hotel to drop off the shopping bags.

We dropped off the shopping and Curtis moved their stuff up to their room before we headed out for supper.

We’d walked just over 1/2 back towards the train station when we got to our destination; Gandhi Restaurant.

Curtis has travelled quite extensively and had told me that the best Indian food he’s had outside of India was in Amsterdam. I love Indian food so this was my whole reason to make the trip to the city.

I must say, he wasn’t wrong as far as I can tell. (I haven’t been to India but it was the best Indian food I’ve ever had.)

We had to walk that fabulous meal off so we headed out to check out Amsterdam at night.

I couldn’t decide what was cooler; a parking garage for bicycles or the fact there were 1156 spaces available for bikes.

Apparently we did get over to the red light district. I wasn’t paying much attention as I just took photos of everything.

We made our way back to the hotel and I took a last couple of photos from Curtis and Lucille’s room. They faced the main street where we faced a side alley.

Considering we’d spent about 4 hours travelling today it was quite surprising to get just over 20 thousand steps in.

06/11/2022 by photosbyhank

Paris, Day 12

Friday, September 30th dawned as a nice sunny day for my 57th birthday.

I was up early enough to get birthday wishes from everyone before they started their school/work day and Lynda and I headed out to find some breakfast.

One of my favorite things about Paris was the abundance of cafes and bakeries and we decided to try one we hadn’t been to yet.

We walked about 3 blocks to Boulangerie on the corner of Rue de la Glacière and Rue Daviel. We’d been by there quite a few times and decided it was time to try it.

A pastry, cheese bun and a tea at an outdoor table made for a great breakfast. Not even the flying rats were going to spoil my meal.

I had yet to buy a baguette on our trip so I went back in for one before we left.

The lady ahead of me got to the counter and said; “Une baguette s’il vous plait.” The lady behind the counter got her one and she left with her bread.

It was my turn and I said; “Une baguette s’il vous plait.” I must not of been as eloquent as the lady ahead of me as the clerk laughed a little when she went to get me my bread. (I’m well aware that I butcher the language in the few words I attempt but I try.)

Baguette in hand, we headed back to the apartment to wait for Lucille to be off school.

We had some of the pastries that Lynda had bought earlier and some baguette for lunch before we headed out shopping for wine.

I had wanted to buy a bottle for my neighbours Bruno and Shar (I don’t actually know how she spells her name so I’m guessing.) and find something for us to bring home to try later. You can buy wine in the grocery store but my sister had told me not to do that but to go to an actual wine store.

We headed out to visit the wine store Lucille liked. We got there and it was closed. A few other stores in the area were closed and it looked like they were taking a late lunch so we wandered around the neighbourhood waiting for it to re-open.

An indoor gas station still freaks me out a little.

When we got back to the wine store; it was still closed but everything else had re-opened so we continued down the road to Nicolas Tolbiac. Nicolas is a chain so my hopes of finding a wine from Nice weren’t going to happen but I picked a couple of bottles. Lynda picked a bottle of wine for one of her clients and a bottle of champagne for us. (Reports back were we chose wisely and our bottles were pretty good as well.)

Successful shopping trip accomplished, we headed back to the apartment to wait for Curtis to be off work.

Finally it was time to walk to the subway to head down to the Bir-Hakeim stop so we could go do our supper and river cruise.

I had wanted to go to Amsterdam for Indian food for my birthday supper but with Lucille in school and Curtis working, it would of made for a very late supper so I accepted a meal on a boat at the base of the Eiffel Tower and a river cruise on the Seine as a substitute. (I know, I know; poor me.)

It was still daylight when we got out of the subway and we made our way to where the boats leave to start the tour. The next boat looked pretty full so we decided to have supper first. (I think this made Curtis very happy.) I would of liked to cruise the river in the daylight to be able to get better photos but I really liked the idea of a night cruise.

I found a way I liked wine; with grapefruit juice as I had a pamplemousse rose while my bride had champangne.

I didn’t take a photo of my veal and polenta. The veal was like a stew in tomato sauce and it was a lot different that the usual cutlet that I have had in the past. I liked it better than a cutlet and with the tomato sauce; the polenta was good as I’m not usually a fan of it. I did get a photo of my bride and her meal though.

I did get a photo of my dessert though.

Another very good meal finished; time to head out to the boat for the cruise part of the evening.

The boat was pretty crowded on the top level but even though it was a cool night; I wasn’t about to sit inside.

There was commentary of what we were seeing along. I know we saw some bridges and we saw some buildings but other that Notre Dame and the Louvre; I don’t really remember much else.

While it hadn’t seemed all that long; our 75 minute cruise was over.

I took 1 more photo of the Eiffel Tower (because I didn’t have any so far) and we started making out way back to the subway to go home for the evening.

I had gotten just over 15 thousand step on what I’m calling my best birthday ever. I’m not usually one to celebrate much on the day and I often go away on a solo trip at that time of year to avoid any such thing. I had thought my birthday in China was pretty cool (and it was) but this one; with my bride and sister and brother in law; surpasses it; and by a wide margin at that.

02/11/2022 by photosbyhank

Paris, Day 11

Thursday, September 29th started out as a fairly late day as we recovered from yesterday’s long ass day trip to London.

I’m pretty sure Lynda and I went out for something for lunch but I never took my camera out of the bag that day so I honestly don’t remember where we would of gone.

I do know that after Curtis was done work we took the subway to Fresh Burritos Bercy Village for supper.

The menu is a lot like what I see at Mucho Burrito here at home and it was a pretty good meal.

The tiles in the bathroom are pretty nice.

It was a short walk to our destination.

I had left my camera at the apartment as we were going to Accor Arena to see Sum 41, Simple Plan and Guest in concert.

Anyone who tells you a cell phone is as good as a bigger camera in any situation is so full of shit their eyes are brown. But, use what you got and I didn’t want to have to look after a camera in a crowd. (I’m not even sure it would of been allowed in.) All the photos in today post are from my Samsung S21.

Curtis and I went out for snacks and drinks before the concert started and you know you’re at an event venue when you are paying $10 Euros for a draft beer in a plastic cup, but that’s what my sister’s beer cost Curtis.

The guest for the concert was Cassyette – Cassy Brooking; a singer-songwriter from England. She was pretty energetic and she could scream pretty loudly. I didn’t know any of her songs but she wasn’t bad at all.

The crowd seemed to like her half hour set.

I’ve never been to a concert where there was an actual intermission between bands but it was about a 20 minute break before Simple Plan hit the stage. It was pretty interesting listening to the crowd singing along to French folk music being played over the speakers while waiting to see bands that played slightly heavier music.

I knew quite a few of the Simple Plan songs and the crowd seemed to really like when the lead singer spoke French to them between songs.

Simple Plan played for about an hour and there was yet again another 20ish minute intermission before Sum 41 hit the stage.

For a city that pretends it doesn’t understand English, it was interesting watching Sum 41s lead singer whip the crowd up. Watching the mosh pit was pretty interesting. I’m not sure why so many guys (and more than 1 girl) had to take their shirts off to run into each other though.

I think I knew all of 1 Sum 41 song but it was still fun being at the arena. I was glad to be up at a comfortable level to watch and not be down on the floor.

We bolted for the subway the second their set was done to try and beat the crowds and we were successful.

It wouldn’t of been my choice of concert to see but it was pretty cool to see a couple of Canadian bands in Paris.

We didn’t walk all that far going to and from the concert but I still managed to hit just over 10k steps for the day. Obviously Lynda and I had gone somewhere earlier in the day, but I still can’t remember where.

Hank's Blog – Musings of a Wandering Mind

Month: November 2022