Well, I started out in the fog but I had to stop and add some air to one of my tires and the fog left me behind. I had managed to get a few photos I liked while enjoying the absolute silence I was engulfed in.
I was hoping for a pristine field but the marshmallows were too good to pass up.
I had ended up at a familiar location, having photographed the grain bins on numerous occasions, but never in the fog.
As I looked at the hay bales, I was trying to decide if horizontal or vertical would work better for photos. I tried both but I feel horizontal works better.
Since I had to go put some air in one of my tires, I realized the fog was lifting from south to north and I would be hard pressed to get back into it.
I headed east while keeping an eye on the line of fog marching steadily northward.
The steam coming from the heat exchangers at the Joffre Plant caught my eye so I stopped to try a photo or two.
At 18mm it all fits in nicely but doesn’t really show how high the steam was going40mm fits the frame better but cuts off the top of the steam cloud.Shot as a panorama in vertical to fit in the steam cloud
I really liked the grain bins with the background steam so I tried the same shots with my polarizer filter.
I really didn’t see much difference between using the polarizer and not. I’ll have to try again with the sun a little more off to the side of my subject.
I headed north to get a shot of the Joffre Plant with the fog back in the background.
A longer lens would have made for a cooler image but I liked the colour of the barley so I kept my 40mm on.
From here it was a short drive to the Ellis Nature Center so I headed over there to get a walk in. Most people wander around the farm area, visiting the pond and visitor center but I usually head over to Sandpiper Pond and then walk through the West Woods.
Since I didn’t have a long enough lens with me to try any bird photography, I concentrated on some close ups.
As I was taking the photo of the thistle, I couldn’t help but notice how many pollinators were feasting on them. So, I took a few photos and cropped the hell out of them.
Having annoyed some insects for a while, I decided it was time to start heading into the woods.
Moss growing on a tree that looked moldy to me.
There isn’t much to see while walking in the woods unless there are some birds around, there weren’t any.
I sat down on the bench I came across and tried to see the beauty in where it was facing.
It is a bit of an underwhelming scene so I thought I’d try a different approach. I focused fairly close up and shot the same scene out of focus to concentrate on the colour. I’m not sure about it but I’ll try to apply the same technique somewhere else down the road.
I don’t find it any worse to look at.
I’d like to say that I decided to practice some intentional camera movement for my next couple of photos but the truth is the camera was bumping into my hip as I was walking and I found these 2 kind of interesting. (Out of about a dozen)
The trail I was on took me along the edge of the fields on my way back to the visitor center area. It wasn’t there the last time I visited the West Woods and it was nice to add a bit extra to my walk. Trail maintenance needs to be worked on a bit as it was a bit overgrown in the middle part and it felt like I was doing some bushwhacking along the way. While it’s not a hard walk, it was a bit uneven so for anyone with mobility issues, it would be a bit challenging.
Nothing jumped out at me to photograph on my walk until I got back to the gazebo by the pond. The pond is a bit scungy with the heat and lack of rain this summer but it was clear enough to get a nice reflection of the little cabin.
While it wasn’t an overly exciting road trip, it was a pleasant way to spend 3 and a half hours. I was hoping being gone would make it quiet enough for my wife to sleep but apparently, she had trouble getting to sleep and had barely gotten there by the time I arrived back home.
She’s off tomorrow so maybe we’ll try to go on an adventure together.
It’s been 2 days since a massive wild fire roared through part of the town of Jasper, Alberta. It’s looking like about 30% of the buildings were destroyed, but luckily, none of the infrastructure ones. Updates have been slow in coming so I don’t know if the Pines Bungalow survived or not. I know some of the buildings across the river at the Japer Park Lodge were destroyed and some damaged.
My news cast broke the story that the fire had entered the town around 6:40 pm and it wasn’t long before I saw a photo that hurt my heart to see; The Maligne Lodge and Wicked Cup were fully engulfed in flames and it was obvious that there would be nothing left to save. As they are on the south west edge of town, all I could imagine was the fire roaring through, leaving nothing but smoking remains behind. Thankfully, this wasn’t to be the case. Firefighters managed to save more than they lost. A most impressive feat considering flames were reported to be over 100 meters high and moving forward at approximately 15 meters per minute, pushed by up to 100 kilometer per hour winds.
While I am happiest outside and I can generally find happiness in most of the places I’ve visited, Jasper is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. Even with everything being either uphill or downhill, I always found the pace of life around Jasper to be relaxing. More importantly, my bride finds it relaxing and that makes me happy as relaxing isn’t exactly her strong suit. I can re-visit places in Jasper over and over and never get bored, be it, a point of interest or restaurant I like, and there are many of those.
Wicked Cup has become our go to place for breakfast and or tea/coffee over the past few years. The staff changes enough that we didn’t actually get to know them all that well, but we never had a bad experience there.
Outdoor breakfast at Wicked Cup, August 2021
Looking at the map of where the fire has gone, it appears that both the Whistler and Wapiti campgrounds are probably gone. With no official update out though, I can’t be sure of that. Lynda and I have camped at Wapiti a time or two over the years. Once Adam came along, we’ve stayed in an oTENTic at Whistler and that changed our camping habits for a few years.
The lap of luxury at site #5 back in August of 2014
While it’s not exactly inexpensive to go to Jasper, it’s not really all that bad as a long weekend holiday and Lynda and I have made those happen for getaways to relax and recharge over the years.
We’ve stayed at different hotels over the years and have never really had a bad experience. None of them were the Ritz, but I’ve never stayed their so I don’t know if I’m missing out on anything.
Looking over the Tonquin Inn in August of 2021.
I’ve always preferred Japer to Banff even though my first job after graduating from SAIT back in 1992 saw me as the camp photographer at the Banff National Army Cadet Camp by the base of Cascade Mountain. I would come out of the barracks every morning, look up at the mountain across the road and exclaim; “That is the coolest thing ever.” It never got old once in the 8 weeks I was there. The 17 straight days of rain wasn’t a fun time, lol. Even back then, the townsite of Banff was just so busy with people everywhere. Jasper by comparison, feels like Mayberry, and I never watched The Andy Griffith show.
Once, we had to wait in line for a venue, well twice if you count the hour plus traffic line up for construction on the way to the Jasper SkyTram. The wait for the tram was about the same, but 10 years have passed and in multiple trips since, the wait for anything has been pretty much nonexistent.
Jasper from above, August, 2014
While Japer isn’t exactly a metropolis, it isn’t hard to find good food. Some places like Wicked Cup and Evil Dave’s Grill have become go to favorites, while a place like L&W is a comfortable old favorite.
A slow evening at L&W in August of 2021
I mentioned earlier that I found my time in Jasper relaxing, even when my bride drags me out before midnight to go look at the Perseids Meteor Shower up at Pyramid Lake. I got a few photos I was happy with and we even got some with the northern lights. Even with getting back to the hotel after 2 am, that night was totally worth the lack of sleep.
Lynda and I made our last trip to Jasper last October for her birthday. We stayed in Hinton to reduce costs and accepted the extra hours drive to get to places. We attended Symphony Under the Stars at The Jasper Park Lodge and afterwards, drove up to Maligne Lake hoping to get some night sky photos. It was a bit surreal being the only ones at a major tourist attraction but so much fun. Even with having to drive all the way back to Hinton afterwards. Somehow though, morning came super early but fatigue wasn’t an issue. I’m going with the mountain air as the reason.
The Jasper Park Lodge in October of 2023.
While watching the news tonight, I heard Jasper’s mayor say he’d lost his home in the fire and it was the only one on the block to be lost. It was his 2nd birthday when his family moved in, 67 years ago. People often say their leaders are out of touch with the masses. I believe that as life shattering as this is for everyone affected by the fire, having someone in exactly the same boat will benefit the town in the long run. The problem will be that it probably will be a long run.
I have no doubt that Jasper will rebuild. I have no doubt that in some ways, it will be better than ever. It’s just never going to be the same for many of us.
I was hoping to get to Jasper next month for holidays but even if I can find a place to stay, I don’t know if I could handle seeing the destruction. It’s been bad enough seeing all the dead trees from the pine beetle invasion. Charred remains don’t sound any better.
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 yesterdayMy last photo in France
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.
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.
Tree huggers
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.
They thought they were funny
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.
What I saw of Rotterdam
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.
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.
Lynda deciding on a colour.
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.Another parking garage for bicycles.
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.
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.
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.
There’s even nerds in France
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.
Zoom doesn’t do so well in the dark
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.
5:00 am seemed to come awfully early on Wednesday, September 28th. (The alarm was set for 5:30 but we woke up early.) I had a taxi booked to pick Lynda and I up at 6:20 am to take us to Gare du Nord so we could take the Eurostar train to London for a fish and chip lunch and maybe do some shopping.
Two of the things I wanted to do on our holiday was; take the train somewhere and to have fish and chips in London just because I could. This trip would check both of those off my list. I do have to say it was the most expensive meal I’ve ever had but I probably won’t get back there again so I really don’t care about that.
Our train left Paris at 7:43 am and with the time change heading west; arrived in London’s St. Pancras Station just after 9:00 am. I had booked the basic seats for the trip over to London, not realizing there were no USB chargers in the cheap seats. We never thought to bring a DC/USB adapter with us.
SPOILER ALERT: This blog post contains a lot of touristy looking photos. And I do mean a lot of them. Turns out I wouldn’t have time to shoot the kind of photos I usually do. You have been warned.
Just outside of Paris
There isn’t a whole lot of scenery to view along the way, and at about 300km/hr, if you see something to take a picture of, it’s gone by the time you try to take a photo. (It’s only going 160 km/hr through the Chunnel but there is even less to see there.)
Platform at St Pancras Station
We got off the train and made our way through the station to the attached Kings Cross Subway Station to take the subway to Waterloo Station for a short walk to the lastminute.com London Eye. Lynda had booked our entertainment for while we were in London and the London Eye was to be our first stop.
Just a few bicycles
It was a short walk and soon we were at our destination. Our tour was booked for 11:30 am but we were there before they opened at 11 am. I looked for photo opportunities while Lynda went to ask where we would go to get on the ride.
Turns out that she was right where the line would start so we were the first ones in line. Since that never, ever happens to us it was a weird feeling being at the front of the line. (Not weird enough for us to give up our spot though.)
A long line formed behind us and just after 11:00 o’clock, the line started moving and we were soon standing at the first pod waiting to board for our “flight.”
About 20 of us loaded up and were soon moving up. Upon boarding an electronic voice says; “Welcome to the London Eye.” And that is the last thing that is said. It is a little disappointing that there is no references to any of the buildings you can see so you know what you are looking at.
View from the top
I wasn’t kidding about plenty of tourist photos and you haven’t seen anything yet.
Soon our half hour ride was over and we got off the ride to walk over to Victoria Cross Subway Station for the bus tour Lynda booked for us.
We walked north to the pedestrian bridge over the River Thames and headed towards Trafalgar Square. We saw a few photogenic things along the way.
Panorama1 Shot
We made it to Trafalgar Square.
We made our way to Admiralty Arch on our way to The Mall.
Panorama from up close1 shot from farther down The Mall
Normally The Mall has traffic flowing along it but it was being set up for the London Marathon to use it on October 2nd.
We were about half way down the street when the police were suddenly moving people off the road to the sidewalks as the road opened up.
Victoria Memorial with Buckingham Palace in the distance
As we got near the end of The Mall, we cut through St. James Park.
A very cool snack stand in St. James Park
We were getting close to our destination when we saw something that made us wonder if Lynda’s mom, Gail, has been keep a secret. (Apparently there are 20 or so Gail’s locations in and around London.)
It took us about an hour to make the walk over with our photo stops but we made it to Victoria Cross Station with time to spare to make our tour. (We did miss lunchtime by walking though.)
We got on the open air bus and made our way to the upper deck. Cool weather be damned; we’re tourists looking to see stuff.
Lynda’s all smiles (for now)The upper deck was a pretty popular placeOur tour guide Pepe telling us what we were seeing.
Our very WASP looking, British sounding tour guide, Pepe, told us the story of how he got his name. He said when he was born, the parents were responsible to register the name of a new baby at the registry office. Unfortunately, there were 10 pubs between their house and the registry office; and his father stopped at all of them. By the time he arrived to register a name, he couldn’t recall the chosen name and he blurted out the name of the neighbours dog. He did point out that his mother was Spanish so it wasn’t all bad. He went on to say he often tells his younger brother he’s lucky both sets of grandparents escorted their father to register his birth or he might of been named after the neighbours new dog; Fifi.
Pepe was a good and knowledgeable guide. Unfortunately, most of what he said after his name story didn’t stick with me.
Approaching Westminster AbbeySomeone killed their cell phone and had to switch to plan B
I know we drove past Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and 10 Downing Street but I don’t remember which order we went by them all. There was a protest happening across the street from 10 Downing Street to protest Prime Minister Liz Truss’s economic policies. (And since she’s already been replaced, that might have worked.)
Westminster Abbey again
We drove past Westminster Cathedral on our way to cross the River Thames.
After we crossed the river, we stopped for a photo opportunity of the Parliament Building across the water. I got out to participate while my bride stayed on the bus.
Our bus driver, Floyd stayed on the bus as well.
Soon we were back on the road and re-crossing the river.
The King’s Guard
I wasn’t kidding when I said I didn’t recall the order of places we passed as we are now approaching Trafalgar Square again.
We drove all around the square.
Ducka you head
We made our way down Fleet Street.
It was time to re-cross the river.
We weren’t across the river very long as we were soon crossing Tower Bridge on our way to The Tower of London.
We got out of the bus for a short walk past the London Wall – a piece of the original Roman Wall from when way, way back.
We had a 20 minute stop at The Tower of London while we waited to board our boat for the river cruise part of the tour. (That part came as a surprise to Lynda and I.)
Pepe gathering his flock
Soon our break was over and we were lining up to board the boat. Lynda and I went to the open, top deck so we could again see the most stuff on the tour.
Just as we were leaving the dock, Tower Bridge started to open up. Pepe told us it’s rare to be on the tour and see it.
As the bridge was fully open, we could see a couple of tugs maneuvering a warship towards the opening.
By now we were parallel to the HMS Belfast as we headed up river.
The boat was pretty full with a good amount of people out on the top deck.
After about 20 minutes, we were across from The London Eye and it was time to dock.
It was time to get off the boat and get back on the bus. Some of the people in the tour were going to walk across Westminster Bridge to go to the London Eye. (Lynda didn’t know that was an option when she booked the tour or she would of just booked this tour.)
There’s a lot less people on the bus nowLynda’s not looking as happy as she did at the start of the tour
The tour was going to continue to Harrods Department Store but we needed to get some food and get back to St Pancras before 6:30 pm for our 8:00 pm departure back to Paris. Our 3 hour tour lasted almost 4 hours and it was around 5:00 pm getting into Kings Cross Station.
We had decided to look for food near the station as we were limited for time and after we walked around to check out the area we decide to try Drake & Morgan at King’s Cross. It looked like a nice place and we felt a bit under dressed walking in. We couldn’t really hear what the hostess said so we wandered over towards the bar to have a look. A manager came over to help us and squeezed us in right at the end of the prep area. After not having a meal since breakfast; we would of been happy to sit in the kitchen to eat.
It was pretty cool watching them prep meals.
We had a waiter come by and mumble he’d be right with us but he never came back so the manager who had seated us took our order.
Fish and chips had been my plan so I ordered that to share with a loaf of sourdough and a couple of fresh fruit drinks for Lynda and I. The British pound was running about $1.50 CAD per so we paid about $52 for our meal. It was a really good piece of fish and the fries were also very good. Our drinks worked out to about $12 each and there was no alcohol in them. (The were yummy though.)
We enjoyed our meal and made our way back to the train station by 6:30 pm like our ticket suggested. We thought we’d charge Lynda’s nearly dead cell phone but finding a USB plug proved more than challenging. (We found 1 spot with 2 jacks in the entire building and 1 of the jacks didn’t work.) Turns out having a DC/USB plug adapter would of again been the solution.
Our train left on time at 8:01 pm and I had upgraded our seats from Standard to Standard Premier so we’d get a meal on the return trip. With the time change it would be almost 11:30 pm getting into Paris so a late supper was appreciated.
As an added bonus, there were USB chargers with the upgraded seats.
Being dark as pitch out, I never tried to take any photos on the return trip.
Our meal was a salmon quiche that was pretty good. (Seems like a popular meal choice.)
Once we got back to Paris, I had a gypsy cab driver offer to take us home and he seemed like a nice old guy so I agreed. (It wasn’t twice as much as the morning trip but it was more than it should of been.)
We got back to the apartment just before midnight. It had been a long day and it felt like a whirlwind trip.
Our day didn’t go as we had planned with lunch coming at supper time and not having any time to do any shopping but even feeling like a rushed day, it was fun and I know what not to do if I ever get back there.
I managed to get over 17k steps in today. No wonder it felt like such a long day.
Another cool and rainy day greeted us on Tuesday, September 27th.
Lynda and I took it easy for most of the morning before heading out to catch the bus to check out the souvenir shops we’d seen down by Galway Irish Pub.
We walked through the market at Fontaine Saint-Michel but Lynda wasn’t feeling anything calling her name so we walked to the Quai des Grands Augustins to check out some of the shops along there.
Lynda was regretting not shopping the last time we were there as she couldn’t find the things that caught her eye the last time.
Maybe a lunch break at The Great Canadian Pub would change our luck.
The service was slow (even compared to other places in France) and the food was only good. (We’d had so much great food on our trip that this place seemed a bit disappointing in comparison.)
Lunch over, we kept walking along the road for a bit to some other shops for Lynda to check out.
I wasn’t on the hunt for souvenirs so I decided to wait outside and take some photos.
The older couple waiting for the bus caught my eye so I decided to get a couple different angles of them.
As I took their photo I remembered that I was hoping to capture some random street shots of Paris in hopes enough of them inspired me to make a black and white calendar. So I shot a few more scenes as we walked along.
Soon we were back by the market at Fontaine Saint-Michel again.
The layout of the booths makes it hard to get a decent shot of the fountain so I just wandered around while she shopped. (And this time, she shopped.)
We made our way over to a bus stop to catch the number 21 back to the apartment. It was about a 7 minute wait and more and more people kept coming to the stop.
The bus was pretty full when it pulled up and a lot of people at the stop got on the bus and we decided to walk along Bd Saint-Michel to another stop to see if the next bus would be less full.
As we walked, I liked the look of the book store. (I always like bookstores.)
The buses were less and less full as they passed by but it was a nice walk so we ventured a little further along until we came to Le Jardin du Luxembourg. (Luxembourg Gardens)
Living where I do with relatively new history; it was pretty neat to wander into a 17th-century park with formally laid-out gardens, trees planted in patterns & statues on pedestals. (And it’s not like that’s the oldest thing around there.)
Flowers were not in summer form but not in bad condition all in all.
We wandered through the park until we came to Luxembourg Palace; Former royal residence, now repurposed & used as the meeting place for the French senate. (We didn’t know what the building was at the time but the armed guards made it seem official.)
Even in the rain, it is a beautiful park.
We made our way out of the park and as we walked to another bus stop, I couldn’t help but notice the “skinny” building.
We finally grabbed a fairly empty bus to get back to the apartment in time to get supper.
Lucille wanted to get a roast chicken and potatoes from her local butcher; who was right beside L’Amiral Chicken; where we’d had supper last night. I decided to go with her and as we left the apartment; the rain that was almost done when Lynda and I got back was now pouring down.
We mostly ran to the butcher and were pretty soaked (Well, I was; Lucille had on a rain coat.) In the 3 minutes we were in the shop, the rain stopped so we walked back at a more sedate pace.
After our tasty meal, all of us but Lynda went out to look for a coat for Lucille and to get some stuff from the fruit market. Lynda had enough walking for 1 day so she stayed behind to have a nice relaxing bath.
We didn’t find a coat for Lucille at the mall but the fruit market stop was successful.
It was starting to get dark as we headed back to the apartment.
The indoor gas station is a bit freaky
I had gotten just over 15 thousand steps for the day and it was time for an relatively early night as it was going to be an early morning for Lynda and I in no time at all.
The 4:30 am wake up alarm came awfully early on Monday, September 26th and Lynda and I were awake before it went off.
We got showered, dressed and finished our packing before it was time to leave at 5:30 am to return the rental car and check in at the airport for our flight to Madrid on our way back to Paris. The clouds were still looking like there was more rain to come but it wasn’t raining as we left for our drive to the airport.
We had come on a direct flight but in order to get the good deal we got for the flights and apartment, there was to be a 4 hour stopover in Madrid on the return leg. I’ve been liking Spain so far so how bad can that be?
After dropping off the car we walked into the terminal at Aeropuerto de Tenerife Sur and preceded through the check in/ security check with no real problems.
Boarding seemed to take the longest. Why planes aren’t loaded from the back, forward is beyond me. It feels like it takes you 20 minutes to get down the isle to your seat near the back of the plane.
It was still dark as our Airbus A321 climbed out for our 2 and a half hour flight and headed north towards Spain.
The weather cleared up as we approached Madrid and we enjoyed a nice smooth landing.
The Madrid airport is a very long building with some nice design features. (One would think I would of taken photos of such things, but one would be mistaken in that belief.)
We passed the time with people watching and airport food.
Finally, it was time to board another Airbus for the hour and a half flight to Paris.
Another smooth landing at Aéroport de Paris-Orly was appreciated by all.
The nice thing about these flights were we didn’t have to go through Customs upon arrival so it was pretty quick to get through the airport for the taxi queue. It was a whole lot longer than the one Lynda and I got into when we got back from Nice.
It really wasn’t all that long before it was our turn at the front of the line.
We told the fellow directing people that there was 4 of us and he pointed at a sedan. The driver started to protest but we told him that’s were we were directed to, so he loaded us up and took us.
We got safely back to the apartment and decided to head out for supper.
It was a really long walk of a block and a half over to L’Amiral Chicken for really good kebabs and fries.
Views in Tenerife were a bit better
It was a pretty quiet night for us as all we did was wander back to the apartment to call it a day.
Even with it being a travel day, I still managed to almost get my 10k in steps topping out at 9552. I know it was close but no cigar (I draw the line at trying wine).
Hank's Blog - Musings of a Wandering Mind 