Well it's now that time when all good travellers must get to. A Cointreau on ice sitting in the Qantas Club lounge after weeks of hard travel.
Yep, it's the final countdown to home town. Still practising my alliteration and mis-spelling lots of words, the last update is now about to take form. So hold on to your well... thingys...
Since the last instalment, it was destination Gaye Paree. She wasn't there, but the rest of the cold freezing place was. After the excellent experience of the Big Bus Tour in England, the same thought processes were put into motion to seek out a similar method of exploring the town.
What a disappointment in comparison. A single route on a bus that had 75% of it's earphone jacks non-operational. Twas a tad chilly upstairs, too. It turned out the best way of travel was via the Met as it was 5 days of travel as much of you like on any line and have a train no more than 5 minutes away. Sometimes they were every two. Now that was cool. Except for the stairs.
Now for a little side trip about the stairs in Paris.... I think they (the town planners and civil engineers) forgot about two classes of people. 1. Travellers/tourists and 2. The disabled.
Quite often it was the case to travel across, up, down and around up varying degrees of difficulty of stairs and pathways to make sure you arrived at the line you were meant to travel on. Now the destinations and to get from one place to another worked quite well. But try and lug up about 35kg of travel gear or even more challenging - a wheelchair - and you're pushing it.
So whilst there are some positives, boy do the negatives make it a difficult way to travel.
Hence, after spending 22 Euro on a bus pass to go by the Dodgy Big Bus Express, it turns out that was NOT the right way to travel. Once the bags were safely stowed in Second Dodgy Arse Motel, then the Metro was definitely the travel of choice.
There is a condition/by-line/rider to that statement. On barrelling out to the airport to catch the plane to Singapore (upon realising that there was 2 1/2 hours to catch the thing upon initial realisation that no, it was not the next day that the flight was BUT TODAY) was reliably informed by the staff at the counter that all public transport was ceasing at 8pm that night.
Thankfully, Charles De Gaulle airport beckoned at about that time so the taxi service was in full swing and made the check in counter with 5 minutes to spare. Apparently. I say apparently as when seated in the aforementioned flight to Singapore it took another 45 minutes for the late people to sit their prim little backsides on their allocated seats so I'm wondering how they managed to check in and make it so late unless the rules were somehow bent.
Still, the Universe took care of the details and the flight made it to Singapore, nevertheless about 45 minutes late... So I can live with that seeing as there was a distinct possibility a few hours before take off that being seated on the flight was potentially an event that was unlikely to occur.
So. To good old Gaye.
Well, icecream was had on the Champs, the slatted window had the Craig Mclaughlan hit on display and the tower really wasn't that awful. Don't know what the natives complain about really...
Some magnificent buildings on display again and Notre Dame (Her Nibs) was really quite something. More than anything, the history behind the development of some of these places is outstanding. From memory, it took something like 200 years to build the Notre Dame. That takes foresight.
A big tip from the experience is the inclusive 'dinner on the Eiffel and cruise on the Seine' tour. You beat everyone else in line, have an excellent meal on Level 1 and enjoy the cruise in five (or was that six?) languages. Now that girl was talented.
Walking up and down the Champs was pretty cool and whilst there it was Armistice Day. So that held a bit of significance when looking at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The Louvre was a bit of a let-down in some respects as I expected a little more variety than some clearly predetermined directions in their collections. However, some of the furniture and other artefacts were something special in their detail and skill.
Singapore itself has been a little quiet owing to the flu (no, it's not SARS) but it was good just to rest and start putting the body clock back to some semblance of order.
Well that's about it. Must dash off. So hopefully the updates have been worth it and you've enjoyed the writings as much as I've enjoyed the journey. See you anon.
