We are being picked up at eight so set the alarm for six to give us time for breakfast.  You never know if there is going to be a queue or not, however no queue and a nice relaxed breakfast.  The down side was that because the turnover was not as quick some of the food had this sitting around too long texture.  You might think I was never happy but you have to have standards.

We are not really looking forward to the twenty-six hour trip but now looking forward to being home.  We are out the airport by 8:30 and head almost straight through booking in and immigration.   Can’t get into the lounge yet so find a Jazz café with a seat by the window and have a not bad coffee.   This time we get to walk directly onto the plane but we are a bit late getting away.  The plane is a Boeing 777-300 and not a heap of leg room.  Mostly sat back and watched movies and read my book for the next 14 hours.  I tried to sleep at one stage but it didn’t work.   I sat in an aisle seat and was continually getting knocked around by people in the aisle or the trolley which I reckon managed to hit me every time. We arrived in Sydney at 6:45, just as the sun was rising.  Sydney does not have much in the departure lounge so it was coffee and read my book.  We didn’t have any Aussie dollars so even the coffee was expensive but it wasn’t bad.  Our plane was late arriving so we were about three quarters of an hour late getting away but at least the Air New Zealand plane was their latest Airbus 320 and probably nicer than all the other planes we had been on.  It was a quick trip across the Tasman and we landed at 3:30, half an hour late, straight through customs to where Bob was meeting  us.  Bit of a hassle getting through Wellington traffic but not even close to what we had in Paris and we were home by five.

• 75 days away
• 10 Countries
• Drove 6387 Kilometres
• Margaret didn’t have a smoke the whole time we were away
• A great Holiday
• Home to Retirement

 A very big thanks to everyone that looked after us and made our trip so enjoyable.

Monday – What was I saying about 5 Stars we joined a queue 38 minutes long for breakfast. We purposely went down late thinking all the kids would have finished, wrong again. Fortunately once we did get seated it wasn’t so bad and we ate well. Margaret was feeling a bit sick so we didn’t go too far until 3:30 when we were picked up for our Dessert Rose adventure. We were picked up in a flash white Toyota Land Cruiser, they already had two British couples on board and we headed out to a gas station somewhere to meet up with around 15 or more other similar vehicles. When they were all assembled we head off into the dessert where they let a bit of air out of the tyres and we did some crazy driving on the sand dunes. Stop off at a small camel and goat camp and eventually got to a camp site in the sand somewhere. They had a dance floor in the middle and low tables with cushions around the outside, not good for my old body, most uncomfortable. I went for a ski on a snow board down one of the hills. When I came off you got covered in sand which stuck to you as you had sweat on your body and then as well as being uncomfortable you felt like a bit of sandpaper. They had a young lady do a belly dance, boy she had some muscle control. They put on a dinner which was really good, I tried a bit of almost everything and enjoyed it all. They also had what I think was hash smoking for those that wanted to participate. It was really pleasant out and the coolest we had been (discounting Air Con) in UAE. We were dropped home just after 10. It was a great evening and a lot of fun. The English couples we were with had picked up their 9 day stay at the Intercontinental including all meals and drinks (including cocktails) for 980 pound each.

Tuesday – No queue for breakfast today, they had got themselves organised and apparently had three restaurants open for breakfast. I think today is the last day of their holiday. Our plan for today is to walk down to the central souk (market) and then head over to the heritage village that was closed when we stopped on our day over. A complete failure. We had probably a half hour walk in 38 degree heat and had been expecting to find an outdoor local market with local crafts and produce. This was not to be, we found a separate fish market, veggie market, shoe market, gold and silver market and a clothes and other odds and sods market. This was all really disappointing but I guess with the heat you might have expected everything to be inside with Air Conditioning. So we did have a bit of a look around, brought some shoes and then hailed a taxi that dropped us off at the Heritage Village. Oops closed again apparently for these special holidays. We quickly grabbed another cab as it was stifling hot and headed to the nearby Marina Mall for the air conditioning. Pretty impressive place, grabbed an iced coffee thing from Gloria Jean which was really good, I had never had one before. There were some fun looking stuff for the kids like the big bounce land with trampolines, flying foxes and more. There was a Sponge Bob stage show and over in another corner we found all these sideshow type stuff for kids. We stayed there for tea and had some Chinese. Probably got home about nine o’clock.

Wednesday – Well they stuffed up breakfast again and we were back in a queue. Only for about ten minutes this time but not quite what you would expect. We had thought of driving to Dubai today but gave it away as there wasn’t much there that really interested us and everyone was suggesting the risk of driving and getting caught doing something that would get you pulled up by the local constabulary was high. We headed out to Yas Island where they had Ferrari World and what was supposedly the flashest mall in Abu Dhabi.
Yes the mall was flash with all the top name brand shops over three floors, a big cinema complex, activities for kids including an impressive miniature type carnival set-up. Margaret brought me a new watch for Father’s day, well really because she loves me. We found the mall was connected internally to Ferrari World which we looked at but didn’t pay the expensive fee to get in.

We had dinner at this Lebanese restaurant in the Ferrari World complex which left a lot to be desired. A pity that our last real meal on holiday was so bad after all the fantastic food we have been having. It took us a bit to find the correct exit to grab a cab and head home.

Last day of our holiday, tomorrow we are heading home.

We were up at 5:50, our cab is booked for 6:50, had a call in for a wake-Up at 6 but it never came until 6:30 and another call at 6:40 to say our cab was here.  Anyway we were out at the airport in tons of time for our 10:45 Flight.  Being there three hours early is a pain.  We walked past some nice cafe’s thinking about breakfast but thought we will get through immigration and stuff before the queues arrive, which we did, but then struggled to find a nice place for breakfast on the other side.  McDonalds was just opening but you wouldn’t catch me going in there.  I settled for a muffin and coffee from Starbucks and even though I don’t like Starbucks however the coffee wasn’t bad.  We were bused out to the plane, now I know how cattle feel going to the works.  We stood on the bus for ages waiting for something to happen.  We were in the air about 25 minutes late and settled into our eight hour flight.  Lunch was nice; I had chicken breasts and stuff, Margaret lamb.   You sort of felt tired but didn’t want to sleep as you would be going to bed soon after getting there and want to sleep then, so watched a couple of movies. We arriving just after 8 o’clock to 34 degree temperatures and zipped through immigration only to wait ages for our bags.   Our chauffeur was waiting for us and we were driven to our hotel in a flash Audi to discover we had picked another bad time to be in Abu Dhabi.  It was some special holidays,  the hotel was full of kids who seemed to be running wild around the place.  So much for a 5 Star hotel.

Thursday 8th September – There are a lot of saints around this area but today we went to Saint Malo, just over 50km away,  An interesting walled city on the Brittany coast.  It seems to be famous as a base for pirates apparently approved by the King.  We had a bit of fun finding a park as they were all Complete which we assumed to mean full.  We found one about a kilometre away back in the newer city and walked over.  It was pretty impressive looking but all the buildings looked a bit like they had been built by the same builder (or designed by the same. architect).  They were five stories high and looked very similar.  Maybe the town wasn’t that old.  I think around 1500s so built to a plan.  It got my tick as I did see topless bathers otherwise it was just another tourist spot.  Wandered back to our Airbnb where I cleaned the car as we are handing it back tomorrow after having it for 50 days.  We will be up arround four and a half thousand Kilometers by the time we get it back to Charles De Gaulle.   Read our books and sorted our suitcases.  Not counting the plane we have only six big sleeps before we are home

Friday – Big day today, 360 or so Kilometer drive drive to our hotel then out to the airport to drop off our car.  We are on the road before nine after breakfast and saying goodbye to our host, Michelle.  She had been a great host even though her English was as bad as my French, and most of us know how bad that was.  Staying with her was almost like being at home with my Mum (who died 38 years ago). She could not have been more helpful and fussed around us.  It was good.  The place was probably centuries old, the floor creaked, the bed creaked, the walls were paper thin.  During the three nights  we were there additional guests arrived after we had gone to bed and we weren’t early.  It was really interesting talking to the others at breakfast again none of whom English was their first language.  It appeared it was quite fashionable to go to the monastery at night as there were less people and being quiet and darker you apparently got the real feel of the place.

The drive to Paris was great, one stop on the way for a drink, loo stop and Diesel.  Ten euro worth as we got the car empty and wanted to return it as we found it.  Once we got into Paris the driving was just crazy, jammed up.  It took us an extra 45 minutes to get us to the hotel than the GPS started at.  We are not sure why they bothered with traffic lights and lane markings as people totally ignored them.  When your light turned green you couldn’t go anyway because cars going across in front were just blocking your way.  Some hour we made it to the hotel and illegally parked while we dropped our bags and registered  ( Holiday Inn, Paris Gare de I’Est).  It was then back into the mayhem heading out to Charles de Gaulle airport to drop off the car.  I was starting to sweat a bit now as the car was showing we only had another 50K of driving left and of course there had been an accident on the motorway and once we got on we were moving slower than we were in the city.  We made it although finding the drop-off point was another issue.  We did one 7km loop and the second time were lucky enough to find a guy that hopped in a van and said follow me.  Probably  saved us an hour or so as we seemed to be  way off track.  Had done 4789 kilometres when we dropped it back.  The first thing we noticed was a yard full of cars with red number plates.  We asked why red number plates and was told they didn’t indicate anything yet we had seen no others on the whole of our trip.  The guy had said to the customer before us that “everything was easy in France”. He had no credibility.  It was sad to see the car go, a Peugeot 308 Station Wagon but not as good as the CX-5 so looking forward to getting back into that at home.Went into the airport to orientate ourselves for our Sunday departure, found terminal 2C and worked our way back on the train from there to our hotel,  It was about six by this time.  We had a cuppa, booked ourselves too a Segeay Paris tour and a bit of a rest before heading out to explore.  There were hundreds of people around but at one stage we worked out we hadn’t seen a white face for a bit and even although we hadn’t felt threatened thought we should change our direction .  Found a nice little cafe and had some fish and chips sitting at one of the tables outside.  We worked out that over 90% of people, mostly younger people were smoking,  Margaret was starting to notice how bad second hand smoke was.  Strolled a bit more before retiring back to the hotel.

Saturday – our last day in Europe, a small sleep in before we were off to the underground. We thought we would head over to the vicinity of our Segway tour and then look for brunch.  We had to travel on three different lines (5, 2 & 6) but we were starting to get the hang of it so no problem except some stations were so big it took a bit of finding the correct platform.  We got off at Duplex and found a great cafe that did “English Breakfasts” for 12 euro.  A glass of orange,  Bacon, egg, toast & jam, coffee and a basket of bread.  We ate everything, again lots of people out and about and we were sitting out on the footpath so very pleasant.  Wandered over in the Eiffle Tower direction, had ourselves painted by a con artist and generally joined the throng of tourists milling around.
Our tour was for 1:30 with a company called Fat Tires and our guide Victor from Barcelona.  He looked a bit like Castro and was superb.  He took half an hour getting us familiar with the Segways.  I think he picked on Margaret as the person that if she could do it they all could so she was first up.  She was like a duck to water on it and soon whipping arround.  The tour was a lot of fun.  There were eight of us on it and only two wankers, not going to name what country they were from but they just did everything they were told not to do and thought they were smart.  I did laugh when he crashed into the fence after running up the back of another guy.  One couple had flown over from the UK for the day to do the tour.  It was just so much fun wiping along beside the Seine amongst all the other people enjoying the sun and the atmosphere.  Thanks for recommending it Murray.  We finished around 4:30 and ended up going and having a beer with Tom and Joan from Wisconson, USA.  They owned a couple of John Deere franchises and did business with and had been to NZ on several occasions.  Joan was also a State Legislator.  We were heading back to the station when we saw a bus heading to our second to last station so we hopped on that and had a 40 minute drive through Paris which included part of the Champs Élysée.  We had enjoyed our Fish & Chips  so much the night before we headed back there to eat before heading to our hotel and sorting our bags for tomorrow.

A very special day at a unique location.  Mont Saint Michel is a monastery that had its beginings in the eighth century when some monk had a vision to build the original Abby and dedicate it to Saint Michel.  After three visions and he didn’t do anything about it apparently St Michael poked his finger into his forehead to get him started.  Anyway it now is this fabulous monastery and village built on a rock at the end of this causeway (now has a bridge over it).  The land all around is flat and it has these magnificent 360 degree views.  It is visited by what must be thousands of people every day.

Being the cheap sakes we are we parked our car near the pub we had eaten at the previous night.  We had seen people walking from there and parking was stupidly expensive at the official park.  We set off across these paddocks amongst the sheep droppings and headed for the start of the bridge.  Estimated about 2km but not much different than if we had walked from the car park,however they did have an option of a free bus although many were walking.  It probably took us half an hour but it was a beautiful day.  When we got there we decided that while the tide looked right we would see if we could walk around the outside,  a bit rocky and wet sand but we achieved it, found what looked like a little chapel but could have been the dungeon for the Hunchback of Notredame.

We then headed up through the village that had grown at the base of the monastery.  Hundreds of tourists, expensive souvenirs and food but very very quaint.  Joined the queue for the monastery itself and took the audio tour.  Nothing in the way of furnishing and such but a very impressive building with so many crypts and such and of course  the history around the building itself.  It even had a “lift” where six prisoners walked inside a big wheel to operate it.

Headed back down into the village wandered through a grave yard (oldest we found was early 1800’s), had something to eat & drink and headed back off across the paddocks.  Car was where we had left it.  It was 6 o’clock and we had discovered local restaurants didn’t open until seven so we just drove the countryside through little narrow lanes and villages.  Lots of little villages and churches and such,  Settled on a local hotel in Huisnes Sur Mer where we had grilled ham steaks.  Turned out we were just a kilometre from our Airbnb accomodation.  We sat and had a wine with our host, Michelle before turning in.

We left Amsterdam in the pouring rain.  Heaviest on our holiday by far,so glad it wasn’t yesterday.  We were driving about 400km today through Belgium.   We stop at Antwerp, didn’t know where we were going or what we were doing but we parked at what we thought was close to the cente of the city.  It was all very quiet remembering it was Sunday, stop at a cafe for a coffee and a bun.  We weren’t the only male/female couple there but there was a strong influence of male/male including the staff.  Headed back to the car to discover we were in the middle of the red light area where there was some very interesting window shopping and no females strolling.  We loitered there for a bit before continuing our journey.  Stopped off at Bruge for a bit before heading for Dunkirk just over the Belgium border.  Just before the border we got pushed off the motorway to go around a roundabout before going back on.  There were a couple of policemen standing on the roundabout scrutinising us.  We had a little trouble locating our Airbnb lodgings as we were having trouble getting the correct address in and mixing up towns with areas.  If you get to use a GPS in France you will probably understand.  A really nice host, Sophia and Conrad and two very well behaved boys, Soren (5) and Abel (2) in a lovely house in Grande-Snythe.  Settled in and went to the Commercial Centre and had a meal at Flunch, we had a surprisingly good steak, chips and peas for 10 euro each and for another 10 euro we had a small bottle of red wine each and shared cheese and bread.  All very good.

Monday – no rush today we got up late and lazed around.  I needed to go to the bank and ended up going back across into Belgium to get the bank I wanted.  We then just drove into the country along country lanes and passed small villages and corn fields and such before heading back to Dunkirk to the Museum.  We spent a couple of hours wandering around there.  It was very interesting and makes you realise what our forefathers went through for us.  In fact it was probably even a lot worse than we even think if you’d had to live through it.  Went for a stroll along the beach, a big sandy beach a bit like the Kapiti coast, wind blown.  We  then went into town, it was starting to drizzle and the city looked pretty tired compared to some of the places we had seen (so did Antwerp from what we saw).  I got a hair cut at a ladies salon for 13 euro,  I thought it was a reasonable one considering nobody spoke English.  We went back to an electronics and whiteware shop at the Commercial Centre in Grande-Snythe that wasn’t open on Sunday.  A really fantastic selection of stuff much of which I hadn’t seen before.  After checking out many places we went back to Flunch for tea and wasn’t happy to find the steak we had had the night before wasn’t on the Monday menu, grrrrr but we ate there anyway even though it wasn’t as nice.  Like Doug says you shouldn’t go back to a restaurant a second time.  We also explored the supermarket which was the biggest I had ever been in.  We went back to our hosts and had a beer and talked.

Tuesday and we are heading for Mont Saint Michel about 500km away, our biggest days driving.  Stopped along the motorway for a coffee, muffin and wee wee.  It was great driving with not a lot of traffic, a lot of it at 130km/h on toll roads. I think we paid about 16 euros in tolls.  We stopped at Rouen and went for a stroll,  looked around the Cathedral which was being renovated, It was huge and we spent a reasonable amount of time there before having a coffee and back on the road.  We arrived at our host in Mont Saint Michel around 5:30, off loaded and went out to look around and find somewhere to eat.  It was a really nice area, rural and narrow quite roads.  We went out towards the monastery and suddenly struck civilisation.  It looked like the visit was going to be very commercial.  Found this nice little pub for dinner, it was quaint, especially when a mob of sheep came past our window.  I was able to get a photo of the sheep and Mont Saint Michel in the background.  It was back to our BnB, a catch up with our host, and another guest, Paul from Washington DC who had biked down from Amsterdam and heading for Paris.  Very impressive as he only had a small back pack.  Michele our host spoke almost no English so it was good to have Paul who seemed to know quite a bit of French to translate.

Friday Morning, you know we only have two weeks before we are home.  Our holiday is starting to run out fast. We have breakfast in the hotel, pick up an all day rail pass and head into town on the underground, it’s five stops to Central Station.    It’s not a great day and is going to be a bit cooler than what we have been used to,  We wander out and pay 28 Euro each for a bus and two boat routes on the hop on hop off.  The queue is quite long but we get on the second bus.  Turns out  the audio in our corner of the bus is not working and we end up having to change seats.  We do a loop and a bit before hopping off and heading into a market to get some lunch.  Then back on the bus again until we can find a place to transfer to the boat. 

The boat is a much more interesting and pleasant way to view the city.  There is so much activity on the canels, boats of all different shapes and sizes doing all sorts of things.  Houseboats that seemed to have concrete foundations and are never going to move, pleasure boats with wedding parties on them to people in paddle boats that didn’t have a clue what they were doing.  It feels like they have as many canels as we would have streets.  Amsterdam is very vibrant there are people everywhere.  If we had thought there were a lot of bikes in Maastricht, there were a lot more in Amsterdam.  You were costantly in danger of getting bowled by one. 

A Bike Parking Building 

 The amazing thing was the people on them came in all shapes and sizes, well maybe that’s not quite true as they were all pretty slim and fit looking.  I need to get Margaret on a bike as you sure can cover some ground.  I have never seen a city with so many museums.  There were museums for everything, you name it they had a museum for it.  Lots of nice houses, generally narrow, many on an angle even some propped up with beams.  Wooden piles & soft ground the cause.  We finished the day getting off the boat by Anne Frank’s house, waiting a cold hour in a queue and probably an hour through the house.  A very sobering experience.

Walking back to Central Station we came across a pancake restaurant.  Not something we would get at home so we ventured in.  I had a Canadian Pancake, Bacon, cheese, mushrooms, onion and BBQ sauce .  I didn’t put the BBQ sauce on but it was really really good.  Should think about opening a chain of them at home.  Left there in the rain and fast walked back to station staying reasonably dry.

Seven Bridges

Home on the Train 

Saturday and the weather was cool but fine again.  We took the car and were off to Zaanse Schans,  a place for retired windmills.  It was fantastic and we ended up virtually spending the whole day there.  It was like a real live museum (full of other museums) where about 50 years ago some guy got the idea of saving windmills and the old Holland.  There were windmills for oil, flour, dyes (such as Rembrant would use), starch, seeds and such.  My favourite was the saw mills.  Using wind power to saw wood.  The one we went though had been rebuilt from scratch from plans of one that had been demolished in 1942 called the Het Jonge Schaap Sawmill.  We had a snack of Dutch Bitter balls with mustard for lunch, very yummy.  After  Zaanse Schans we went for a drive through the local area before driving back to the hotel.  We ate in tonight, fish on Pasta.

Tomorrow we head to an Airbnb place at Dunkirk.

Katarina & Pascal’s place is so nice for the next four days we do almost nothing but hang around, read, drink and eat.  We did go back to the wine and food festival on Sunday night.  It did seem a bit tame in comparison to Martinborough but there was a bit going on and we did head over to Leuven & Brussels on Monday but as it was a bit showery we did not do  much.  Wednesday we had dinner at Le Bon Choix, 12 Rechtstraat, Maastricht, a place recommended by Katarina and turned out to be really nice.  We almost had the place to ourselves, one other couple came in when we were almost finished.  The chef spent a lot of time talking to us and lining up places to go to in Amsterdam.  I have put the address in because if you are ever in the vicinity then I would recommend it as well.  We both ate Argentinian Angus beef 

Thursday we have breakfast with Katarina & Pascal, they had got home from Ibiza late Wednesday so it was our chance to  thank them for the use of their fantastic apartment and catch up before heading off to Amsterdam 200 km away.  We dropped off the motorway at Sint-Michelsgestel because it had a quaint name and it turned out to be this lovely little village.  We probably spent a couple of hours there drinking coffee, exploring the supermarket.  We even ate some raw herring (Hollandse Nieuwe) with raw onion.  We had been told in the little restaurant we went to last night that this was a must do and a Dutch speciality.  It did melt in your mouth as you held it up by the tail and sucked it down but once is enough for now.  We were in Amsterdam by late afternoon and booked into hotel Casa 400 out by Amstel Station, a short hop into the city centre from here.  Accommodation is quite expensive here.  It is quite a lively place with a lot going on.  After settling in we went out for a walk, sorted the transport and had dinner at Dauphine, across the road from Amstel Station and I think not far away from the brewery.

Katarina & Pascal’s Apartment 

Across the Road from Wine & Food 

Wine and Food 

Saturday morning and we thought we would drive to another country today so we headed off to Luxenburg which was only 200km away.  We had a hold up on the motor way and lost an hour so it took us 3 hours arriving about 12:30, finding a park and heading off to explore the city.  We headed off over a bridge where we could see some old buildings thinking that must be where all the action was.  It was very hot though not quite as humid as it had been in Maastricht.  There were all these grand old buildings and the road we were on was a main bus route but it was all very quiet.  We decided we were going the wrong way, maybe this was the government centre or something, lots of buses but very little cars or pedestrians.  We did find a place to have some lunch and then headed almost back to the car and off in another direction to find the busy part of the city.  We hopped on a tourist “train” which gave us a tour around the historic part of Luxenburg along with a commentary of the history.  It was really good and a lot more than I could absorb in one sitting, Luxenberg certainly had a long and checkered history going back to 962 and built around fortifications.  We wandered a bit more before heading back to our car four levels underground.

We had a clean run home arriving back in Maastricht around 7 o’clock.

Friday and we are up in reasonable time and off to the market. We park the car in a Park and Walk area just outside the city and a 10 minute walk to the Market Square. It cost us 9 euro for the day which I thought was a little steep for the distance we still had to walk. The market wasn’t overly exciting for what it had to sell, a lot of material, cosmetics, factory second type clothing, a small veggie section and other bits and pieces. We brought some chilli olives and went looking for a place for brunch. We picked a place on the side of the market so we could again people watch. I had a Turkish Breakfast and Margaret an Omelette. 

Maastricht has a phenomenal amount of restaurants many of them with outdoor seating. It would have been fantastic if we could have read the menus.
In the afternoon we caught a boat cruise up the Maas, we were getting off just up the river at St. Pietersburg and going to explore the tunnels. Maastricht was first settled by the Romans when they discovered this was a place where they could cross the river through this mud. Turns out the mud is called Maas and of a limestone type that is especially suited for building material. When it dries out it goes solid. This led to the hills being mined for the limestone blocks which were reasonably easy to saw out while in the cool humid mine but went solid when they were exposed to the dryer outside environment. At one stage there were over 200km of these tunnels (now only about 80km) which have a very rich history. 

 We are right on the border with Belgium and they cross the border. We have a fantastic guide, Christina who educates and entertains us for the hour or so we are underground.  
Back out in the open it is hot and sticky again, I’m sure the blocks would never have gone hard in this humidity. We head down to catch the boat and continue our river tour which almost does a u-turn at this point and heads back to Maastricht. We head out to look for somewhere to eat, we come across an Auckland New Zealand shop (never heard of them) but the guy in there had never been to NZ.  We were looking for a fish meal and after many stops finally asked a waitress if they did fish. She assured us they did but when it got explained to us the fish didn’t sound exciting (salmon or tuna) so we settled for home made meatballs. Turned out it was just one meatball, more like a patty really. Headed back to the car park and home.  Another lots of walking day so reasonably tired.