Luke in Paris

Woke up after a pretty bad sleep, was sharing the bed with Aidan. Had brekky and got dressed. Was a max temperature today of 4 degrees. At 9:30 we set out to meet our walking tour guide, a dude called Paul (who looked like Jason Momoa) and his wife Paula. We started at the Notre Dame cathedral, which has a fascinating history surviving through kings, religions, revolutions, abandonment, rebuilding and wars. It was black until about 2000 when they cleaned it all up. 

Also, all around everywhere were fully armed French guards who were a bit unnerving. Paul showed us a spot on the ground where apparently the number of times you turn around on top of it is the number of times you will return to Paris. We then walked to a flower market named after Queen Elizabeth II, and saw a grand old chapel which apparently had crazy stain glass windows inside it. (UPDATE we went inside and had a look the next day-was unbelievable!) We heard about King Louis VII who thought he had healing powers, and also the traditional Christmas markets that take place. I also spotted an extremely creepy suss dude in a trench coat following our group - pick pocket alert. We walked along some famous bridges including the bridge from the “kiss racing” segment Hamish and Andy did, and also the famous “Lock Bridge”. It used to have all the padlocks for love on it, until it started falling apart and it was found that it had 42 tonnes of locks on it. Now it just has plexiglass instead.

We went to outside the Louvre with its’ famous glass pyramid which has a ridiculous amount of artefacts in it. It used to be a palace for King Louis XIV (the Versailles man). Turns out Louis XIV also thought he was a sun god and he dressed in golden leotards. We walked to the massive Egyptian obelisk which was in the middle of a roundabout/town square thing, which is the obelisk out of the Matthew Reilly book ‘Seven Ancient Wonders’-so cool! Turns out it was also the place where all the executions in the revolution using the guillotine took place, where thousands of people were chopped in an extremely short time. It was basically a free for all with heads flying everywhere for a few years there. We then saw the underpass where Diana died, and also a big statue of Winston Churchill. Out the front of the army hospital/war museum/Napoleon’s grave, Paul told us the captivating, dramatic, thrilling tale of the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Napoleon came to power out of the ashes of the revolution, crowned himself Emperor, was a champion for the people, charismatic and eccentric and ambitious, was a brilliant army general, transformed the army into the best fighters in all of Europe, expanded the French Empire all the way to Russia and Egypt, was exiled once but escaped, came back and took power in France again, grew the Empire again, got beaten at Waterloo, exiled a 2^nd time, and then died in exile. What a man!

We finished the tour at the Eiffel tower which was made in 1899, almost destroyed, and is now one of the most recognisable buildings in the world. It was a fantastic tour, so we said goodbye to Paul and then went and got baguettes for lunch. I had an amazing tuna salad one. We then walked through some Christmas markets and made our way to the Eiffel tower. We passed through a multitude of security checks all under the watchful eye of the French military, and suddenly we were there under the tower. It was unbelievably big-huge actually. It was strange to actually be at such an iconic place. We bought tickets to go up-Ethan and Mum got elevator tickets and the rest of us took the stairs, all 700ish of them. It was lots of fun but still pretty tiring, and it astounded me how high we got so quickly. 

Once we got to the 2^nd level the view was awesome-360 degrees of the city of Paris. It was dusk as we were up there, and understandably took loads of photos! It was pretty chilly as well. Max and I freaked Aidan out by standing on a plexiglass section on the floor that you could see through straight 100 meters-ish straight to the ground.

After about 40min we climbed down and walked across the road, past heaps of tacky street seller people. We got heaps more good shots of the tower, especially as it became night time. We saw another dog like the terrifying one in Hong Kong, except this one was friendly. By now it was dark and the tower was all lit up which was beautiful, so we decided to walk all the way home. 

We walked along the Seine the majority of the way home, and it was just us which was pretty special. We found a 100m track and also a wall climbing thing on the path that the river rescue people use for training or something. We made our way back past the Louve and back home, stopping at the supermarket on the way to get microwavables and soup for dinner. Overall the walk back home took about an hour-we were exhausted! We had dinner and then went to bed.   

    

A Stonking Good Time

Christmas Eve is always special in our family with lots of traditions we all love. But not being able to do most of those on this trip something amazing had to fill that space and tonight something well and truly did!

On approach we had no concept of what the signs might have meant by a stonking good time ... we were in fact a little concerned ... but once it was finished we were won over. Matilda was a brilliant production that had us singing, clapping, laughing, whistling and provided a twist that gave me chills and brought on tears. How did those kids do it!? The choreography, music, singing, acting, dancing and humour was brilliant and perhaps most amazing of all was the fact that the lead role was a stand-in on the night as the 4 normal actresses were all ill. She was fantastic!

We started the afternoon at the Chocolate Factory enjoying ridiculously sweet drinks, then headed into the Cambridge West End Theatre for Matilda. Afterwards we walked down to Trafalgar Square to check out the Christmas lights and all the dressed up shops. Whistling and singing as we went it was a delightful evening strollimg the streets witn a fair portion of London's population who had a similar idea.

We finished the night watching our ridiculous irreverent family favourite Father Ted's Christmas Special. An all round stonking good time!

Max at Hong Kong Disney

 

Today we went to Disneyland which was so cool! We started off the day with another breakfast buffet. This time I made a sandwich with a waffle covered in maple syrup and butter, then 2 hash browns on top of that, then 2 pieces of bacon, then a pancake likewise drowned in maple syrup and butter. After this diabetes provoking first meal, we checked our suitcases in and went off by train to Disneyland! The train was awesomely decorated with Disney themed stuff such as Micky Mouse shaped handles and glass encased metal statues. It was pretty funky. 

The architecture at Disneyland, as always, was simply incredible. On arrival you walk down this long road which has a huge fountain at the end – this is before ticketing and entering the actual park! In the fountain was a life-sized whale with Mickey Mouse surfing on the stream of water coming out of its blow hole. Speakers all along the lane played enchanting up-beat music. The whole thing had a classic, magical, Disney vibe. Once in the park, main street USA leading onto the castle was breathtaking. We got ourselves organised before we headed out.

Firstly, Luke, Aidan and I went on Hyperspace Mountain which was like Space Mountain but Star Wars themed. The best bit of the ride was when we flew straight towards a screen with a Tie Fighter on it shooting at us. To avoid it the coaster shot straight down on a massive plummet. Other cool part were taking long banking curves with X-Wings flying alongside you. It was really awesome.

Secondly, we went on the Buzz Light Year Astro Blaster ride. I went with Ethan and really enjoyed the competitive shooting style of it, a lot of fun. After that we went on the Jungle Cruise. The technology was impressive involving fire, exotic animals, tribals with blow darts synchronised with timed splashes in the water and slightly awkward commentary from a “Hongkongese” man reading off a scripted talk in his second language.

Next we went on the Grizzly Gulch roller coaster ride. This was really good, very similar to Expedition Everest but with clumsy bears. Very entertaining and thrilling with multiple winding tracks as well as dips, backwards and incredible scenery. In order the next places we went were:- Mystic Manor (an Asian version of the Haunted Mansion), Slinky Dog Spin in Toy Story Land, the Royal Banquet lunch, It’s a Small World (with its iconic purple Koalas), Floaty parade and then the Spinning Tea Cups. The Tea Cups were uniquely fun as Ethan, Luke and I made an effort to spin around as fast as possible.

 After the Tea Cups we all enjoyed Mickey’s Philla Magic 4D experience which was funny and engaging like it was at all the other parks. We reminisced of the fact that this was the very first thing we went on, on our first trip. Next we did the animation class and drew Goofy. It was super fun like it was the last three times and entertaining struggling through it with the rest of the family. Also the teacher taught everything in Cantonese which was pretty funny and a good challenge.

Following this we watched Mickey and the Wondrous book and repeated a few of the rides. Also that day we saw a Lion King musical which was fairly cringe worthy at some points until an incredible ballet/acrobat dancer who completely stole the show. Her exit was the best with two men running on holding a long piece of silk and as they ran past she seamlessly joined them perfectly disappearing off stage. The captivating illusion was breathtaking! Another great part of the musical was some to the dancing in the final fight scene between Simba and Scar. They would spin their staffs incredibly fast with both hands and then would swap to just one and continue at the same pace; this would merge to a flourish if manoeuvres through their legs and behind their backs.

To finish off the day we went on Hyper Space Mountain again and Grizzly Gulch, watched the children’s light-sabre class which was hilarious watching them teach in a range of Cantonese, English and Mandarin. The final ride we went on was the Buzz Light Year Astro Blasters and I got a Level 6 out of 7 and was pretty proud! After that we headed out watching the parade a bit as we went. We then caught the train home and had a make-shift dinner of assorted bread rolls in the Novatel adjoined super-market. We then got changed and caught a bus to the airport saying our good byes to Hong Kong along the way. We walked around the airport till 12:10am when we flew out to France.

Aidan at Versailles

On December 14 we went on a tour around Versailles.

The whole main idea of Versailles was to be fancy - SERIOUSLY!

And what's with all the silent letters? There's so many around here!

We also went to a restaurant and I fell asleep at the table.

33 Kilometres in Paris