The End

We awoke to another glorious sunny day - it was nice not to have an alarm clock to wake us, but a 12 noon check out meant we could take our time. We headed up to the hotel’s roof top restaurant for breakfast. It was a bit posh, but what views! The bay went on for miles and it just added to the elegant ambience, so it was a wonderful start to our last day.



Santa Monica has a gorgeous tree-lined promenade where the shops are, so it was lovely to stroll and pick up a few bargains in the sunshine.

A street seller tried to get our attention by calling out ‘Hey, newlyweds!’ - that was a bit of a giggle!

LA customs was quick, although not intuitive! The big disappointment was no significant duty free shopping once we’d completed the formalities - I had planned for a final fling!

The flight was a whopping 13 hours 45 minutes, made longer by a 340 km per hour head wind, which made for a bumpy ride in parts. We were able to sleep a bit, although Allan has picked up a cold which made him a bit miserable.

Sad to think it is all over - the seven weeks went amazingly fast. It is interesting for us to look back on the early parts of the blog - England seems so long ago.

The three parts of our trip (London, UK and Europe) were each different to each other but all equally enjoyable - there were no down parts really, its been a wonderful experience, and I am ready to go back (as soon as this one’s paid for!)

Hollywood

An early start for our day at Universal Studios, via Beverley Hills and Hollywood. We were pleasantly surprised with the Studios. They’re very well organised, friendly, clean and not over hyped. Of course, you could buy plenty of souvenirs, but mostly we just had fun with the shows and rides. Passed on the roller coaster, but had a cool and wet Jurassic Park ‘log-flume’ ride with an 84ft vertical waterfall drop, and watched a brilliant ’Waterworld’ show, with pyrotechnics, water stunts and much splashing! A nice day out, although Allan has managed to pick up a cold unfortunately.

We survived Terminal Five!

Luckily, it was a bank holiday when we left London, so the traffic was really light. We had some trepidation after all the publicity we’d seen about delays and lost baggage at Terminal 5, but it was a piece of cake really. We had to use the check-in machines like we do at home, and were amazed to find that the default seats we were allocated were the last two together seats on the plane, even though we were early checking in. They were the middle two of the centre four, so we didn’t even have an aisle. We were on a British Airways flight, which was the only one of our trip that we weren’t able to pre-select our seats on.


The terminal is beautiful, and as I said to Allan, “this is what I call duty free shopping!” Miles and miles of shops selling all sorts - didn‘t buy much tho‘.

Security was extreme - we had to remove jackets, shoes (even my open sandals) and belts. Even so, there were only small queues.

The terminal has its own underground train to its other two buildings, so it is pretty vast. The flight was a long 11 hours, leaving at midday local time, and arriving at our hotel at 3 am on our body clocks - we didn’t sleep much either. I prefer to fly at night as we do on our homeward trip - more conducive to sleeping.

Security in LA was extreme as you’d expect, although again we were lucky with queues. We were finger printed and iris scanned, but there is no MAF type checking as we have at home, so the biggest delay was getting our luggage.

Took a shuttle to Santa Monica - our hotel is beautiful and the beach endless, and only a block away.

Homeward bound

After all our farewells, we headed for the Eurostar. Our booked carriage had an air-con malfunction, so they upgraded us to first class - that was pretty special.

Now in London getting organised for our little detour to Santa Monica (Los Angeles) on the way home - another early start tomorrow (Sunday) morning.

Paris, je t’aime

Last night (Thursday), we had our cabaret and dinner. It was a really good meal, but the show was the piece de resistance (are you impressed with my French?). It was the singing and dancing and the Can Can that you would expect, but it was the ‘support’ acts that blew us away. There was a trapeze artist who had us gasping, a hilarious comedian who had a guy from the audience join him on stage (our guys were cowering in case they got picked!), a juggling duo, whose routine was completely out of the ordinary, and an incredible mime/statue act. Everyone loved it and we laughed to the point of tears.

Today (Friday) we went to the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre (saw the Mona Lisa). Both visits were a little disappointing for various reasons, but they were on our ’to do’ list so it’s all good.








We had our final tour dinner tonight - snails for those brave enough (i.e. Allan, not me!).

Then we cruised the town by night looking at all the sights illuminated, and culminating at the Eiffel Tower They turn ‘twinkling’ lights on for 10 minutes on the hour so that was a highlight. Allan tried haggling with one of the hawkers selling souvenirs - he didn’t win! The guy told him ‘you must be crazy!’

Back on the bus, everyone was feeling a little nostalgic on our last night, so we ended up singing - a combination of Australian, American and Italian (for our driver) songs. The six kiwis didn’t include any singers, so we joined in the others’ songs, but didn’t offer any of our own! A lovely evening!

Both of us would love to spend more time in Paris on our next trip!

Lyon to Paris

Last night (Wednesday) after dinner, our tour director took us on a little walking tour of Lyon. It was the first time on the tour that we have been scheduled to arrive, have dinner, go to bed, and then leave without seeing the town, so it was an unscheduled bonus to see the old town.

Lyon has what are called a ‘Hill of Workers’ and a ‘Hill of Prayers’. One is full of churches and the other is where the silk factories were. The narrow cobbled streets are full of protected houses, which have little private corridors between then, which you are allowed to explore, as long as you do so in absolute silence - a challenge for some of our group! The town is very pretty with its two rivers, its statues and fountains, especially at dusk, as we saw it.




It was a fairly long trip up to Paris with only a couple of quick motorway stops. We had a booking for the Eiffel Tower at 2pm, so had to be on time. The area was teeming with people, but we were in the group queue which saved a bit of time. I wasn’t as impressed by its size as I thought I might be, but the views from where we were (halfway up) were spectacular. The town goes on for ever.

After that, we had a bus tour of the city highlights It was pretty mind blowing - you’d see a stunning building, and then another, and another, and another. It is very clean and everything is in really good condition. There is a lot of greenery and the Champs-Elysee is gorgeous. I think we’re going to like it here!

We’re booked to see the Louvre and The Palace of Versailles tomorrow with a dinner in the evening, but hopefully there will be time to wander.

We’re off to a cabaret and dinner tonight so it’s all go, go, go!

On the road again

Headed for Lyon today - a longish drive with a lengthy lunch stop in Avignon (from the song ‘Sur le Pont d’Avignon’). It was very pretty, and we had our first French Crepes for lunch. The little towns certainly have plenty of character and charm, although we did love Nice. Climbed another hill, saw some more ruins! It is beautiful, on these sunny days seeing the views (especially the rivers) from these vantage points.

Off to Paris in the morning - can’t believe we have been away for nearly 6 weeks. We have loved every minute of it so far, and I think we both think that we could get used to the lifestyle! The group continues to be friendly, and we are all able to sit down and chat with any of the others over a meal. I am sure that we will keep in touch with a lot of them.