Au revoir Paris

Darrin and I had a great final night in Paris with a beer just off the Champs-Elysee (not exactly cheap, but nice to stop and take in the surrounds). We then went over to the Arc De Triomphe, before joining the queue for a look at the Eiffel Tower by night. While it was Darrin's first time up the tower, and I'd done it the day before, it was well worth doing again by night. The tower looked magnificent when lit up and on the hour it sparkled for a few minutes (imagine stringing up those fairy lights!). Check out the video below ...

This may be my last post for a couple of days as this morning we jump on a train from Paris to Lyon where we pick up a campervan. We'll then take the van for a spin around southern France for a couple of weeks, starting with Grenoble tonight, then eventually the Nice, Canne, Monte Carlo area later in the week.

Last full day in Paris

Dimanche (Sunday) kicked off with some very cool French cartoons as one must do when in town. Lach and I loved the local version of the Tasmanian Devil (Looney Tunes) cartoon. Absolutely hilarious tune ... "Oooooh, Diable de Tasmanie, aaah la Diable de Tasmanieeee". Lachlan will either end up totally confused or may pick up a bit of French with his cartoons.

Darrin dropped by first thing in the morning and most of the day was spent at the Lourve. The building itself is a work of art and it was fabulous to finally get to check it out from the inside after not having time during our last visit. Incredibly I ran into Megan, an old John Holland workmate just outside the entrance to the Mona Lisa section. There was quite the papparazi around poor old Mona (you really must feel for the other paintings off to the side, standing there totally ignored!). A beautiful building and an excellent experience.

From the Lourve, we walked beside the river to Notre-Dame (see, there was a point to my weird circuit yesterday!). Sunday Mass was underway inside, and unfortunately my French was good enough to go to confessional (and we don't have all day). Like our last visit, we lit a candle for Dad, before making our way back.

Right now we're downing pizza back at the hotel, before Darrin and Daniel head out for the night to paint Paris rouge!

Samedi en Paris

As yesterday's post outlined, Saturday started with a nice 10km(ish) run for Daniel at about 6am from the hotel, around the courtyard of the Musee Du Louvre and its glass pyramids, through the Jardin Des Tuileries (gardens), across Place De La Concorde (fortunately no traffic around at the time), following the Seine River in line with the start of the Champs-Elysees, cutting across the river to finish with a lap around the base of the Eiffel Tower ... and back. I've done many runs before but that would have to be one of the coolest circuits.



Impressively, the kids and Sandra also managed to follow roughly the same route a couple of hours later after some petit dejeuner (breakfast) at a nearby cafe / restaurant. Outside the place we're staying in the 1st district, there's a large old fountain surrounded by restaurants and pubs which really come alive at night.

Our Saturday walk with the kids took us the best part of 10kms to along my running route, except to go along the shopping area of the Avenue Des Champs-Elysees toward the Arc De Triomphe. We got to relive a little of our last time in Paris eight years ago when Johanna was about 18 months old. Then, we played tag-team eating at a Belgian restaurant while the other walked a very upset and tired Johanna along the Champs-Elysees where we bought her a Mercedes Benz toy car. That store was undergoing a reno yesterday so we couldn't totally repeat the experience, instead settling for a crappy Peugeot for Lach (the sacrifices one must make!).

We then took the Metro underground to the Eiffel Tower ("aaaaaawesome!!" was Lachie's expression, though that's easy enough to say when you've been carried most of the way there by someone else). Fortunately we had pre-purchased our tickets for a quick entry, though the experience was not quite what we were expecting. After about an hour there we were ready to leave when we saw a bunch of staff members and police running around looking a bit concerned. A few minutes later they told us they were locking down the Eiffel Tower and evacuating everyone due to a suspicious package causing a bomb scare. While I'm sure that's all very routine for a landmark of such significance, it was a little disconcerting that the staff managed to disappear very quickly leaving everyone else to fend for themselves (they must have good unions here too!). I'm pretty sure the package was detonated by the police as a very loud bang was heard outside not long later, and an hour and a half later were back on the ground (not exactly a quick evacuation). A weird experience, but as they say here ... c'est la vie!

Just because we hadn't done enough walking for the day, I decided to take the rest of the family for a scenic walk beside the River Seine (I wasn't lost at all), before heading back to the hotel. I then went up to Gare Du Nord to meet Sandra's brother Darrin who caught the Eurostar across from London. I was keeping an eye out for cool police chases around the station, but maybe I've just seen a few too many movies like the Bourne Identity because unlike earlier in the day it was quite uneventful. It was great to catch Darrin, because we all went out for a meal at a restaurant near the hotel where Lach fell asleep at the table after a big day.

Video: The great icecream incident (Dubai)

As I mentioned in the post below, we came across some very funny guys at an icecream store in Dubai a couple of days ago. Their attempts to catch icecream on the other side of the store got progressively worse the more we egged them on. Here's the second of four failed attempts ...

Part 2 - This is their fourth attempt at trying to catch the icecream. By this point, the guys have got a bit more adventurous, and one is standing out in the mall as the catcher. Unfortunately, a woman got in the way (watch for the lady in the black burqua sitting down in the store who cops Lachlan's bubblegum flavoured icecream with gummy bears! hehehe!) ...

We've been in Paris now for a day, but I'll post details of that tomorrow as it's almost midnight here and we're pretty tired after a big day which involved us being stranded up the Eiffel Tower for one and a half hours longer than we planned during a bomb scare lock down [all ended well in the end of course], enjoying the antics of the local rugby hooligans on the trains [yes, they're even louder than Pies supporters!] catching up with Darrin who got the train over from London, and a cool early morning jog in Paris. Stay tuned.

'Salaam' Dubai ... 'Bonjour' Paris!

Our last full day in Dubai was a bit of a rest ahead of the flight to Paris tomorrow afternoon (Fri 28 May). In keeping with Sandra's shop-to-you-drop plans, we first hit the Mall of the Emirates which we missed yesterday. The mall is not as big as the Dubai Mall, but boasts the only ski resort in the Middle East which looked pretty cool (but let's not worry about the greenhouse gas emissions there!).

On any holiday, it's the little, unexpected things that sometimes stand out as a memorable moment. One such was a simple visit to an icecream parlour at the Mall of the Emirates where the guys rolled up and feeze grilled the icecream. Sounds pretty simple, but they were an energetic bunch of young guys who tossed the icecream into the air and showed off a bit by throwing it across the room to one of their colleagues who was supposed to catch it (baseball style) in the small tub. Only thing was that the first attempt resulted in a dropped catch and a round of laughter from the kids as we were the only ones in the store at the time. We might have egged them on just a bit, because a second attempt also ended up on the floor on the other side of the store, a third attempt ended up going right out of the store and into the Emirates Mall. But it was the fourth attempt that was truly 'Funniest Home Video' material. The guys were so keen to make up for the failed efforts and wanting to impress us (now laughing hysterically) that one went out of the store so they could make a 20 metre pitch to catch the icecream. Well, that was the plan. Bloody funny when the icecream completely missed the mark and ended up hitting some poor lady in the head and covering her burqa in Lachlan's bubblegum flavoured icecream with gummy bears! (There's an internet upload restriction at the hotel we're staying at at the moment, but when I get a chance I'll post the videos ... very funny stuff!).

At the same mall, we were intrigued by these rather cool looking Arabian lamps (ended up buying a small one). The sales assistant, a very serious looking Arab, had Lachie (and eventually himself) in fits of laughter at the old pulling a dirham (local currency) out of his nose trick. Ah the simple things. (Footnote: Lach is getting called 'Harry Potter' a bit by the locals ... something about being a white kid with glasses. LOL!).

I got to be an international rail gunzle by encouraging the family to catch the train from the Mall of the Emirates, back to the Dubai Mall we visited yesterday to buy a few things before the trip to Europe tomorrow. Yes, they have a smartcard ticketing system that actually works and is easy to understand as a tourist (unlike some places I know!), and they're rather big on over-the-top, huge railway stations for a reasonably small train line. Still fun nonetheless.

So, salaam to Dubai. It was hot, but fun. Next post from Paris ...

Dubai pics - days 1 & 2

Lachlan's impressions of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world:

"It's not that big. I've seen bigger than thaaat."

Boarding the boat for a trip along the Dubai Creek




Johanna at the Atlantis on the Palm

City of contrasts

Over the past couple of days we've used a 'hop on - hop off' bus to check out Dubai.

On Tuesday we saw most of the old city, including the Gold Souk and Spice Souk (markets) and took a cruise along the Dubai Creek. The creek is more like a river and still a vibrant trading port, so after a day of walking around under the hot sun, it was great to sit back on the boat at the end of the day and let the 'creek breeze' blow by. We enjoyed a couple of pizzas at a little restaurant opposite the creek (it seems the local cuisine will take some looking to find), before then setting off to check out the stunning Gold Souk by night. While an impressive sight, most of the golden arrangements were a little out of our price range and probably designed for people of well, 'special' tastes.

Yesterday (Wed 26/5/10), we used the bus to check out the more modern part of Dubai. The day started with a swim at Jumeirah Beach which had probably the warmest coastal water we've ever experienced (not exactly much of a cool off when the water's similar to the air temp). Lach and Daniel faithfully recreated the Burj Al Arab hotel up the road in a stunning sandcastle, while Johanna opted for her own interpretation of the local communications building with its giant golf ball on top. The bus took us past the Burj Al Arab, around the Atlantis on the Palm area (which looks fantastic on Google Maps), and past the Mall of the Emirates with its indoor ski centre (Sandra wishes we had time to stop to shop). But our destination for the remainder of the day was to catch up with our friend Janelle who has spent a month in Dubai before heading back to London on the weekend. We met Janelle at the Dubai Mall - home to the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. "I've seen bigger than thaaaat!" Lachlan commented (to an unimpressed grin from one of the locals). We had to buy tickets a few hours in advance to save a small fortune which meant we went up 124 stories at 8pm as the city lights came alive. The city is still very much under construction but nevertheless an impressive sight from such heights. After the sight-seeing from above, we returned to the ground to check out a very cool sound and light performance of fountains in the lake beside the massive Dubai Mall.

Dubai is certainly a city of contrasts. The old parts of town sit beside the new, massive and elaborate constructions are neighbours to empty sand lots, the very poor serve the obscenely rich, fertile grass stands among the barren desert sand, and the oppressive heat outside contrasts the freezing cold of air-conditioned shops and bus stops. It's certainly an interesting place that will come of age over the next decade.

Touchdown in Dubai

Arrived in Dubai several hours ago at 5.30am local time with the temperature already at 30 degrees. Now at a rather mild 40 degrees, and couldn't be more different to the torrential rain and 10 degrees we left last night (goodbye Winter!).

The kids did a great job on the flight (nothing like a few hundred movies, TV shows and computer games to keep them busy over 14 hours).

Off to explore Dubai ...

Ready for take off ...

Hard to believe that after a couple years of saving and planning, today's the day we take off on what we hope will be a relaxing, fun and memorable holiday. Sandra has done a great job planning the fine details and now has a rather impressive 'to do' folder.

It was also very cool to catch Sandra's brother Darrin on Skype last night from London. We're meeting Daz at Gare du Nord next Sat night for a couple of days in Paris (yey!).
- Daniel