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.
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.
It had rained pretty hard at times overnight but there was a pause in the rain when we got up on Sunday, September 25th.
The weather wasn’t expected to be any better than yesterday and a lot of places were still closed so we went back to Sweet Franks for breakfast. It was just as good as it had been yesterday.
As we sat and eyeballed the cloud cover, we decided we’d drive up to see it conditions were any better at Parque Nacional del Teide to see the volcano. We didn’t really believe they would be but we set off to find out anyway.
Hard to get good images out the car window
Soon we were climbing the hills in a dizzying array of switchbacks. I don’t want to say the Spanish are crazy but according to the GPS, the speed limit was 90 km/h on that stretch of road.
It wasn’t long before we were at the top of the mountain. At least it looked that way as you couldn’t see up hill very well.
You couldn’t see down all that well either.
So, back in the car to climb higher.
The big patches of white are banana plantations.
Sometimes we’d get out of the rain into patches of almost blue sky, but then it was back to rain and mist in no time.
Apparently the storm was causing problems with flooding and damages in places around the Canary Islands but the most we saw was debris on the road.
We did see a lot of places with rocks and such on the road but no real damage otherwise.
What you could see of the landscape looked kind of cool.
The rain was down to a mist as we passed Paradores Cañadas del Teide on our way to the cable car at Teleférico del Teide.
Visibility was good enough for us to see the road closed gate and not much else.
We were a bit bummed but not surprised by this and we headed back to see what was at Paradores Cañadas del Teide.
It’s a visitor centre with a restaurant, washroom and giftshop.
Lynda and Lucille did some shopping in the giftshop and found a few nice things to bring home.
With our planed outing being a bust, we headed back down a different road in search of lunch.
We ended up in a familiar place; Centro Comercial Safari shopping mall. We knew things were open there so we thought we’d play it safe to find food.
We ended up at Roma Restaurant – Pizzeria; right beside where we had lunch yesterday.
It was very good Italian food and drink.
It wasn’t raining when we had finished eating so we walked about a block to Playa del Camisón beach to could check it out.
It was another really nice beach and we walked in the surf for a while.
The breakwater made the water quite calm but my bride showed a lot restraint and only waded knee deep as she walked along.
We walked along the beach for a while and decided to head back to the apartment.
With our late lunch, no one was really needing supper so Lucille and Curtis went in search of potato chips. We had other snacks and drinks to finish off before our flight out in the morning.
The weather still wasn’t all that great as we waited for them to get back and the pool was still closed so I grabbed a couple of “weather” shots.
About my only disappointment (And I wasn’t all that disappointed) with Tenerife was the boring sunsets we saw. I know the storm may have something to do with it but it literally went from light out to dark out with next to no sunset colour. It is just a minor niggle to me because, even with the storm I was really enjoying the island.
It was getting dark when I shot my last photos of the day. (And as it turned out, trip.)
We finished off our snacks and got to bed fairly early because our 5:30 am leaving time would get here soon enough.
It was a bit of a slack walking day and I managed just shy of 7600 steps.
Woke up to lots and lots of rain on Saturday, September 24th.
Apparently our rough seas on the ferry crossing yesterday was the first signs of Tropical Storm Hermine as it approached the islands.
We headed out to Lizzie’s Bistro for breakfast and as we pulled up I got a Facebook notice that they would be closed due to the weather.
We had to go in search of plan B. We didn’t know many places yet so we drove around to see what looked open.
We soon found Sweet Franks. It had a covered patio and promised the best breakfast so we though we’d give it a try.
It was quite a good breakfast and we got some tea for the road as we went off in search of more shot glasses for Curtis at The Hard Rock Hotel on the west side of the island.
It was a fairly high falutin place but they didn’t have any shot glasses.
We decided to make our way to the Rock Shop area.
We ended up across the road at Centro Comercial Safari shopping centre. It’s a nice shopping mall with a a bunch of restaurants on the 2nd level.
All the restaurants looked good and we decided on Hacienda Miranda for lunch.
It was the first Mexican restaurant we had tried on our trip and it was very, very good. The food was fabulous and they made the best strawberry margarita I have ever gotten in a restaurant or bar, anywhere.
To avoid a food coma, we walke across the street to The Rock Shop. Not only did they not have any shot glasses, the clerk was a bit pissy about us bringing wet umbrellas into the shop. (How dare we use them in all that rain.) They didn’t have a spot by the door for them and it’s not like anyone was waving them around, but Lucille did shake out her poncho afterwards.
We re-crossed the street to check out the shopping mall and after a bit of window shopping, were ready to head back to the apartments.
The rain had been varying from misty to pouring rain all day but we still decided to walk over to the grocery store for some tea and other stuff.
Roadside sculpture
It was raining intermittently when we went out for supper but we walked over to Bistró 431, which is in the lower level of the building Sweet Franks is.
Since our lunch had been so big, no one was overly hungry so we just got some Tapas. The food was good but it wasn’t on the same level as lunch had been so it seemed a bit disappointing at the time. (Even though it really wasn’t disappointing at all.)
The plates were super cool
We headed back to the apartments drinks and snacks we had gotten at the grocery store earlier. (I know we had just eaten but there wasn’t much to do in the rain.)
The weather wasn’t looking any better as darkness approached.
Even though it wasn’t cold out, (at least not by Canadian standards) the pool was closed, as it had been all day.
Even with the weather as it was, we managed to get just over 12 thousand steps in today. Not bad all in all. Hopefully, tomorrow will dawn with better weather.
I was going to title this post as Tenerife; Day 2 but we were up well before the crack of dawn on Friday, September 23rd, to drive north to Santa Cruz de Tenerife to catch the ferry to go to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in search of Hard Rock Cafe shot glasses and beaches.
My brother in law, Curtis, collects the shot glasses from Hard Rock Cafes and Hotels from all the places he’s visited around the world (and he’s visited a lot of places) but he’d never been to the Canary Islands and the opportunity to visit another island nearby was just too tempting not to go.
Seems so calm out there
We had just cleared the entrance to the harbour when it became obvious that it was rougher than it looked out there on the open sea.
The ferry seemed like it was just crawling along and it was pitching and bouncing so walking was a challenge. The crew made it look easy but looking for chairs to grab or a wall to lean on was the only way I could get around easily.
It’s faster than it feels
It seemed less rough at the back of the boat so I stayed on the deck for a bit and took a few shots. Lynda made her way back there for a while too.
She’s smiling now
Our trip over was about 2 and a half hours. We could of taken a 2 hour trip to a different port but it would of involved more driving to where we needed to go. I’m sure with the rough ride, Curtis was re-thinking the port choice.
Ferry going the other wayHard to keep a level horizon
It had been pretty cloudy on the way over but as we drove to the south side of the island to find the Hard Rock Cafe Rock Shop Gran Canaria the clouds started parting.
At least the sun was shining when we got to the shopping centre as The Rock Shop was closed. We walked around the area checking out stores hoping it would open soon. We’ll take the credit for that working.
After the wait, we found out they are out of shot glasses and suggested going to the Hard Rock Hotel to find some.
I did get myself a tee shirt so at least it wasn’t a total waste of time.
We decided to get some lunch while we were there.
The food was fabulous and I really enjoyed the Tapas.
The bathroom tile was pretty cool
With lunch over, it was time to walk over to the beach.
So many nice flowers growing everywhere
At last, the beach came into view.
I’m not much of a beach guy so I’ve not been to too many of them but even I can recognize a nice beach when I see it. And this was a nice beach.
It was such nice sand to walk on. The black mixed in made the sand patterns change constantly as the water washed over it.
The water seemed cool initially but as I walked along it felt warm. Since I had my camera and was carrying all our stuff, going knee deep was as far as I could go. My bride, on the other hand, had no such restrictions having given me everything but her sandals to carry.
A lack of swimsuit wouldn’t deter my bride from getting a feel for the ocean. Even her hat was wet, but she was enjoying herself.
We started making our way back to the car so we could head over to The Hard Rock Hotel to look for shot glasses there.
It was a short drive east to the hotel and we found a parking spot only a short walk away.
After learning there were no shot glasses here either, we sat and enjoyed a drink before going to check out the nearby beach.
It was a short walk through some sand dunes to another fabulous beach.
I saw why Gran Canaria is noted for it’s beaches. I’ve only been to 2 of them so far and both have been really nice.
I was once again limited to knee depth but my wife and sister had no such restrictions. They figured they were already wet so maybe some body surfing was in order. They never did manage to get the surfing part down but they did manage to get even wetter than they already were.
I was in the ocean too.
It was getting time to go look for some food before we had to catch the ferry back so we walked along the restaurants near the back and decided on Pub Dragon.
We tried a few more Tapas and Curtis had a hotdog.
It was a nice, short walk back to the car.
I saw quite a few cool things along the way but it’s really hard to take photos out the back of a car so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
We got back to the ferry terminal with time to spare and waited patiently for it to come. And waited, and waited.
Finally a ferry pulled in. It wasn’t the company we had come over with and it was an older ship. It looked to be a downgrade from the morning boat.
Finally we were under way.
Just like the mornings trip, the moment we left the harbour it was a rough ride. It was actually rougher than in the morning. (The tropical depression that arrives tomorrow probably had something to do with it.) I’m sure being pitch dark out probably didn’t help the feeling of how rough the crossing was.
We got back to Santa Cruz de Tenerife around 11:00 pm and made our way back to the apartments.
I’m sure there is some cool stuff to see between there and the Costa del Silencio area but both directions of travel on that trip was in the dark so I really have no idea if there is or not.
Our really long day was over around midnight as we got back to the apartment. Just shy of 12k steps today, a lot of them at/near the beach. It was a good day, ferry rides aside.
The 1st full day of fall had arrived in Paris so it was time to head for a warmer climate.
We arrived at Aéroport de Paris-Orly quite early to catch our flight to Tenerife, Canary Island.
Many years ago I had researched the most temperate climate in the world and Tenerife in the Canary Islands was the answer. So, I told management at work that if they ever opened a store there I would be willing to move there, sight unseen.
Once we had decided to go to Paris, I started checking out inexpensive trips to take from there and Tenerife was in the running to check out.
Lucille and Curtis had never been and Curtis was interested in going so, he booked us flights and accommodations for 4 days.
Hola
Curtis had decided to get a rental car and luckily he gets a deal through work.
We piled into the car and headed to our apartments.
Soon we were checking into Apartamentos Parque Carolina to drop off our stuff and we went looking for food.
Lucille found Flicks Bar listed as being really close and we followed her to find it. Since she isn’t all that great at reading her phone map, we were soon going the wrong way and ended up at Tapas Harry’s Place. It was a pretty cool view but they weren’t serving food yet.
We headed back to find Flicks. We were almost there when we saw an older couple on the deck of their apartment and asked about the bar. They told us it had closed down about 3 weeks ago. I still walked down the path to take a couple photos as I was there anyway.
It was too bad the place was closed because it would of been a great place to sit and have lunch.
So Curtis pulled out his phone to find food and soon we were walking northwest to see what we could find.
We saw a few places but the name Lizzie’s Bistro jumped out at us and we decided to give it a try.
The thing that jumps out at you at Lizzie’s is the drink menu of 64 cocktails.
Looked like a challenging menu to try them all but we thought we should at least try and we each ordered something different.
The first round was good so we had a 2nd round with our food.
We stopped after 2 rounds so we could go check out the pool at our apartments.
The listing for the apartment stated it had an ocean view and to be fair, it was accurate.
The view from our our window
With swim time over, it was time to go and find supper. So back to Lizzie’s to add more drinks to our list.
It was karaoke night and there were a few talented singers to entertain us.
With 2 more rounds under our belt, we headed back to our apartments the same way we had walked earlier in the day. Curtis found the shutter button assembly from Lynda’s camera on a sidewalk. We had found it broken when we were getting ready to go for supper and I guessed it probably had gotten jammed up against something she was carrying and it popped off somewhere along our walk.
The camera would focus with the button but it wouldn’t take a photo so I guess it’s her cell phone for the rest of the trip as need be.
Got about 15.5 k in steps today so getting back on track anyway.
Hank's Blog - Musings of a Wandering Mind 