26 December 2006
Home, at last
26/12/2006
Well, its all over! We are truly home in Perth now, we flew in on 24 December. A few last stories to tell and photos to show, and this will be our last Post. But please, we welcome and encourage any comments on this last post or the Blog as a whole.
We left Bruni and Dieter in Bad Homburg on 13 December and took the train to Paris, where we spent 8 days in what has to be one of the most beautiful and exciting cities in the world. We did not stop for breath as we roared around the city, its sights, restaurants, streets and museums, making the most of the last days of our 5 month holiday. We had 5 days of gorgeous blue sunny skys (still extremely cold), 2 of overcast weather and only 1 day of rain. Just a few of the highlights in Paris (apart from the obvious such as the Eiffel Tour, Louvre etc) included; a walk through the covered shopping galleries built in the 1900s; Musee d'Orsay (specialising in expresionism; 1840 - 1960); the wonderful gourmet specialist stores (with queues of discerning locals prepared to wait to buy their icecream, chocolate, macaroons, hot chocolate; we can attest that the wait was always worth it), the gorgeous squares, streets and extravagant architecture; Paris Christmas lights; and the friendliness of the people.
Note the brilliant, blue sunny sky, but also the jacket and scarf
Pâtisserie window in Paris, they taste even better than they look
Street scene, Monmarte
Gail in crowd at le Louvre; Venus de Milo
Christmas treat: Sparkling lights on the the Eiffel Tower, 20 minutes per night
Our lunch at the 3 Michelin Star restaurant Ledoyen was a real highlight. 3 Michelin Stars is top of the tree, meaning the world's best; there is only 9 restaraunts with this highest honour in the whole of Paris. Everything was over-the-top extravagant, and well worth it!
Lunch at Ledoyen
A REAL highlight was a suprise text mesage from Johnny and Edda telling us they had caught the train from Düsseldorf and were at a friend's place in Paris too. We got to spend a few last days with them and say goodbye properly before we finally left Europe. What a wonderfully delicious suprise! We also got to meet their Parisian friends and go to a party in one of their apartments.
Johnny and Edda above the Seine, Paris
The trip home was ANYTHING but straight forward. You might have seen on the news the chaos at Heathrow airport just before Christmas. Gail and I were caught up in the middle of all that. We had successfully got our boarding passes, checked in our luggage and gone through security checks and were just waiting to finally board our flight from Paris's Charles de Gaul airport to Heathrow, when we looked up at the monitor to find our flight had ben cancelled. Sh..! No information is forthcoming, there's no-one to call (as everyone else is trying to too) and support from our budget airline BMI was next to non-existant.
So, we decided to take a calculated risk to leave the airport and jump on the train back into Paris to the Gare du Nord train station to try to get seats on the Eurostar train to London. Our flight out of Heathrow to Singapore was not until 9.10pm that evening, so we had some time (it was 2pm by this time). Luckily we got seats on the 3.15 Eurostar, with 25 minutes to spare. The trip across country was fast and the Chunnel section lasted 20 mins. Then it took 1 1/2 hrs to get through London's tube system from Waterloo station to Heathrow, jam-packed the whole way. Loads of fun with our 5 bags! Finally we got to heathrow, where our elevator doors opened onto the departure area in absolute, cartoonish bedlam. There were people everywhere, carts, people and luggage crashing into each other as everyone was desperate to catch their sometimes non-existant flights or find out about alternatives. At one stage we had to queue in a huge marquee set up in the carpark! They were calling people to check in luggage by flight number; when each flight was getting too close to need to board, they called your flight number for you to finally check in. But our flight wasn't cancelled at least! We eventually boarded our flight which had been delayed twice and changed gates once, to sit strapped in our seats for a further 2 1/2 hours waiting to eventually take off, 4 hours late.
We never want to re-live that day!
So now we are home, sorting through all our stuff and through the house, counting the days when we have to go back to work (Tuesday 2 January). We can't wait to catch up with friends and family. We promise not to bore everyone with stories from our trip! Give us a call and we'll arrange a catch up. Thanks for all your comments, everyone, we look forward to your final ones. Remember you can email us as well on lockley@southwest.com.au
Well, its all over! We are truly home in Perth now, we flew in on 24 December. A few last stories to tell and photos to show, and this will be our last Post. But please, we welcome and encourage any comments on this last post or the Blog as a whole.
We left Bruni and Dieter in Bad Homburg on 13 December and took the train to Paris, where we spent 8 days in what has to be one of the most beautiful and exciting cities in the world. We did not stop for breath as we roared around the city, its sights, restaurants, streets and museums, making the most of the last days of our 5 month holiday. We had 5 days of gorgeous blue sunny skys (still extremely cold), 2 of overcast weather and only 1 day of rain. Just a few of the highlights in Paris (apart from the obvious such as the Eiffel Tour, Louvre etc) included; a walk through the covered shopping galleries built in the 1900s; Musee d'Orsay (specialising in expresionism; 1840 - 1960); the wonderful gourmet specialist stores (with queues of discerning locals prepared to wait to buy their icecream, chocolate, macaroons, hot chocolate; we can attest that the wait was always worth it), the gorgeous squares, streets and extravagant architecture; Paris Christmas lights; and the friendliness of the people.
Note the brilliant, blue sunny sky, but also the jacket and scarf
Pâtisserie window in Paris, they taste even better than they look
Street scene, Monmarte
Gail in crowd at le Louvre; Venus de Milo
Christmas treat: Sparkling lights on the the Eiffel Tower, 20 minutes per night
Our lunch at the 3 Michelin Star restaurant Ledoyen was a real highlight. 3 Michelin Stars is top of the tree, meaning the world's best; there is only 9 restaraunts with this highest honour in the whole of Paris. Everything was over-the-top extravagant, and well worth it!
Lunch at Ledoyen
A REAL highlight was a suprise text mesage from Johnny and Edda telling us they had caught the train from Düsseldorf and were at a friend's place in Paris too. We got to spend a few last days with them and say goodbye properly before we finally left Europe. What a wonderfully delicious suprise! We also got to meet their Parisian friends and go to a party in one of their apartments.
Johnny and Edda above the Seine, Paris
The trip home was ANYTHING but straight forward. You might have seen on the news the chaos at Heathrow airport just before Christmas. Gail and I were caught up in the middle of all that. We had successfully got our boarding passes, checked in our luggage and gone through security checks and were just waiting to finally board our flight from Paris's Charles de Gaul airport to Heathrow, when we looked up at the monitor to find our flight had ben cancelled. Sh..! No information is forthcoming, there's no-one to call (as everyone else is trying to too) and support from our budget airline BMI was next to non-existant.
So, we decided to take a calculated risk to leave the airport and jump on the train back into Paris to the Gare du Nord train station to try to get seats on the Eurostar train to London. Our flight out of Heathrow to Singapore was not until 9.10pm that evening, so we had some time (it was 2pm by this time). Luckily we got seats on the 3.15 Eurostar, with 25 minutes to spare. The trip across country was fast and the Chunnel section lasted 20 mins. Then it took 1 1/2 hrs to get through London's tube system from Waterloo station to Heathrow, jam-packed the whole way. Loads of fun with our 5 bags! Finally we got to heathrow, where our elevator doors opened onto the departure area in absolute, cartoonish bedlam. There were people everywhere, carts, people and luggage crashing into each other as everyone was desperate to catch their sometimes non-existant flights or find out about alternatives. At one stage we had to queue in a huge marquee set up in the carpark! They were calling people to check in luggage by flight number; when each flight was getting too close to need to board, they called your flight number for you to finally check in. But our flight wasn't cancelled at least! We eventually boarded our flight which had been delayed twice and changed gates once, to sit strapped in our seats for a further 2 1/2 hours waiting to eventually take off, 4 hours late.
We never want to re-live that day!
So now we are home, sorting through all our stuff and through the house, counting the days when we have to go back to work (Tuesday 2 January). We can't wait to catch up with friends and family. We promise not to bore everyone with stories from our trip! Give us a call and we'll arrange a catch up. Thanks for all your comments, everyone, we look forward to your final ones. Remember you can email us as well on lockley@southwest.com.au
11 December 2006
"Home" in Germany
Well, we're back in Bad Homburg, Germany, with Bruni and Dieter. We have arrived back safe and sound and delivered the camper "Bluey" (or "Blue" as Gail calls him) to them. It has been a fantastic (nearly) 4 months in the camper. We have seen some amazing things, had some awesome experiences and met wonderful people along the way. We've had no mishaps with the camper; no accidents, no scrapes, no breakdowns, no thefts, no losses. The worst that happened was we had to replace one of the headlight globes that failed, and we broke one of their wine glasses. That's it, campers! We did have two very close calls with trucks on motorways though. One in Italy and one in Germany, just a few days ago. But we got out alive.
Gail inside Bluey
Strasburg was a wonderful city, with the added bonus of enormous Marche Nöels, or Christmas Markets, at this time of year. There were about 300 stalls set up in squares throughout this beautiful French city's historic centre, selling everything from hot mulled wine to handmade christmas decorations. Needless to say our budget took a battering here.
Skaters on the ice rink in the main square in Strasburg, France
The Dom (Cathedral) tower in Strasbourg in the moonlight
After Strasburg we decided we would cross back into Germany and drive the Romantsche Straße, the Romantic Road. The route is about 400km long, winding through lovely villages and cities in the heart of Bavaria. It started for us at Füssen in the south, nestled under the Austrian and Bavarian Alps, all the way through nearly to Frankfurt in the north. We can't easily communicate how beautiful and historic and preserved these places are, and full of suprises. The latest suprise amongst many was a lovely, relatively new church here in Bad Homburg, built in the early part of last century and lined internally with reflective gold and silver and coloured mosaics, seemingly giving it an Arabesque feel.
Another one of those suprises; a sumptuous Baroque palace room in the city of Ausburg, along the Romantic Road
Back in Bad Homburg; Dieter and Gail warming up with a mug of hot glühwine at the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) in Bad Homburg (apologies for poor focus)
So, on Wednesday 13th we take the train to Paris where we spend 8 full nights. We plan to do it all, including dining in a 3 Michelin Star restaurant as our biggest single splurge of the trip. Then we fly home, via Heathrow and 2 nights in Singapore, to arrive at home on Christmas Eve.
Gail inside Bluey
Strasburg was a wonderful city, with the added bonus of enormous Marche Nöels, or Christmas Markets, at this time of year. There were about 300 stalls set up in squares throughout this beautiful French city's historic centre, selling everything from hot mulled wine to handmade christmas decorations. Needless to say our budget took a battering here.
Skaters on the ice rink in the main square in Strasburg, France
The Dom (Cathedral) tower in Strasbourg in the moonlight
After Strasburg we decided we would cross back into Germany and drive the Romantsche Straße, the Romantic Road. The route is about 400km long, winding through lovely villages and cities in the heart of Bavaria. It started for us at Füssen in the south, nestled under the Austrian and Bavarian Alps, all the way through nearly to Frankfurt in the north. We can't easily communicate how beautiful and historic and preserved these places are, and full of suprises. The latest suprise amongst many was a lovely, relatively new church here in Bad Homburg, built in the early part of last century and lined internally with reflective gold and silver and coloured mosaics, seemingly giving it an Arabesque feel.
Another one of those suprises; a sumptuous Baroque palace room in the city of Ausburg, along the Romantic Road
Back in Bad Homburg; Dieter and Gail warming up with a mug of hot glühwine at the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) in Bad Homburg (apologies for poor focus)
So, on Wednesday 13th we take the train to Paris where we spend 8 full nights. We plan to do it all, including dining in a 3 Michelin Star restaurant as our biggest single splurge of the trip. Then we fly home, via Heathrow and 2 nights in Singapore, to arrive at home on Christmas Eve.
