Old years eve

The day is done, the night has come, I'm not sure what else there is to be done.

Back home now after trying to get past the apple store, unfortunately it was a very far walk, so we got half way and caught the metro home.

Below is a the beer of choice for the evening. Something not common anywhere else. Desperados is it's name and it's quite a sweet woodish beer. Not to brutal and thick but smooth.
The wine from last night didn't get finished either so will try do that a little later.

It's bloody cold here and it looks like New Years might just be spent inside. As nice as it is to be in Paris for new years, the cold makes it extremely un-attractive.

I know i've added some folks e-mail addresses to this blog so they will receive an e-mail each time I post something. If you'd like me to add you to the list, drop me an e-mail at chris.shead1@gmail.com and I'll add you on.
The same goes to those who'd like to be removed from the list, drop me a mail and I'll remove your address. I know spam can get irritating so I don't mind if you're on or not.

Au revoir

Onion

Dressed like an onion! The cold still bites. It's been a day of laughs, sights, crowds, Starbucks and lots of walking!

We on the train back from Versalies the majestic gold plated palace! It's absolutely mind blowing! To think one chap owned all that land! And what each room was for, seems a bit too much.

It's been dually noted that the transports systems work here in Europe. The reason people don't stay on top of each other is because they can use the space and systems to get around.
As a tourist, the sooner you know the system the closer to the magic you are.

For lunch, today was chicken and bacon sandwich with a sprite and twix chocolate.

Ps: it's so cold, even the conifer trees loose their leaves!

Song for the day...

"Let's get it on."

The day is off to a smooth start and we ready to catch breakfast before seeing to town.

Versi and the Louve are on the cards today.

Last day of the year, whoop whoop!

Wine of the night

This is the bottle of wine I've decided to drink tonight.
It's a 2009 merlot. Preferably drunk at 18 degrees, it is yum!!
Nobody else seems to want any and it can't stay open too long, that only leaves one option.
Oh, it cost 2€30 and it's 375ml. Cheap and good!

Travel day 3-done

Somewhat different day it was. No sunrise flight, no rush, just breakfast next to the grumpy frenchman at reception.
We made it quick to max the amount of sleep and get the next train to Caen.

Caen was the host to the D-Day beaches memorial museum. (Actually an entire museum on WW2) Taking most of the day to get through we missed the opportunity to get to one of the beaches to view the canons and American memorial.

Good news; our Eurail pass has allowed us 1st class seating on the train from Caen to Paris and return! Whoop whoop! Luxury for 4 hours of the day.

Entertainment for the day was the drugged up hobo who decided to take a pee at the bus stop. Not only on the floor but up on the advertising board. Yes and then proceeded to put his pants back on while having a DMC with himself. -DMC: deep meaningful conversation.-

Motivation level for the day on a scale of 1-10: 2. Must be the day 3 effect, although I thought it was yesterday.

On our way back to the hotel in 1st class. Not sure what our deal is for the evening. Beer is first priority.

Later.

Eurail

So the Eurail has come in handy, we are traveling in First class luxury on the the way to Normandy to visit the D-Day beaches memorial!

10 hours sleep felt amazing! And breakfast topped it off.

Megsi

Room de Pari

This is our Paris room. We are cramped together, not space for the cold with chip burgers for dinner.

My apologies for bad photo quality, low light.

Panoramatic 360

Beautiful site!

A day on the train

These three exhausted minds missed the part where they boarded the wrong train. Once again, we had to pay, not a fine, but for a new ticket. 3€10. This
Little mistake took up most of the afternoon and we needed to fill the space of missing Versai, so the Eiffel tower it was!

Back at out 12square apartment we having chip rolls on the bed.

Free Internet here, so we might be up a little later than normal.

Day 3 is done. ;-)
Chris

Ps: this is a photo of the eifel tower's butt! And my face in it.

Rail-tainment

Pari!!!

We are in Paris!! Whoop whoop!

Flight was good, weather is warmer and we fighting the language conversion. Danke to the French doesn't mean much!
Thankfully we've past the rush rush part of our trip. We checking into the Paris hotel with unhappy French men. We should have e-mailed in Afrikaans or used google translator into French. Booking us on the fifth floor is 'payback' for being english.

Eurail pass that cost us a down payment on a car is proving to be pretty useless. After receiving a 40€ fine, each, in Munich for being on the wrong train, brought us to learn the value of asking more than one person. -I seem to remember my travel exec mentioning, ask more than one person-

Exhausted from the 9 hours sleep and wind burn, we trek on as the new city sparks interest to explore. Off to versie on the double decker train, doesn't help the motion sickness, but it's essential for the experience.

Note to self, travel to Paris before Berlin and spend more time in Berlin. Reason: save the best for last, the people and culture are more pleasing and the transport works like a bomb!

We've just walked into our hotel after a long evening getting around to see everything.

With half a burger king burger in my right hand and my left hand holding my head up while the table supports my upper body I come to realize, by tomorrow morning, I will have had 9 hours sleep since leaving Jo'burg on the 26th. That means 9 hours of the past 72 were done sleeping! Time for bed!
Night!

You know it's cold when...

walking from the train station to the Concentration camp was somewhat entertaining. The bundles of snow, ice, snow berried cars, black ice the catches you off guard, the houses with the climate adaptions (different form of plastic surgery for the east).

The 2km walk in -8 was great! To be honest, I'm loving the cold. There is no hunger and thirst attached to the weather, as well as the constant shaking...fits in naturally.
The ability to layer up, blow steam, wear glove makes it all worth the while!

Walking back to the train at 3pm, the water from my eyes froze between eye lashes...can you tell it wasn't -8 anymore!

We heading back to the hotel to check in, after just having McDonalds for Breakfast and lunch. As the Travel Executive said, take a roll for breakfast (check) and you'll find yourself trying to get something to eat between locations and before you know it, it's dinner time (check)! To the T!

Below is an image of the sunrise over the wing of our plane which was above the cloud blanketing Berlin. At this point we were 200m above ground.

Cheers to warmer times!

TC

Let the journey begin!!

The day is done

Oh what an interesting day!

The second flight got off eventually and we reached our second destination, Munich, a little late, but safely. Stepping into our hotel at 12, we'd realised we'd missed the last train to Neuw Swanstein. (calls for another opportunity)

With only 5 hours of sun light, we needed to move quickly to get through as much as we could before it all closed. Olympic stadium, BMW factory, a lot of Munich and the trains.

Below is a 360 degree image of our visit to some place. Lots of snow and wind.

This is badly typed because my head isn't functioning at the moment, but we also managed to see some of the main churches in the Marienplatz. St Peters was the most magnificent out of them all! Photos will have to follow.

Off to find some Internet to send these three blog publications and dinner to go with.

Later chaps.

Ready to go...

The counting is over

Today is the day...

and it is -9 degrees in Berlin today!!

Recommendation from Chris

Hello,

your friend Chris recommends the following page to you:

The weather for Berlin 7 days | weather forecast Germany
http://www.weather24.com/7days/r/Berlin/Germany/DE0001020

Carpet Boarding like the Pro's

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eQdZ24huvM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Better second time round!!

Carpet Boarding

Good news

Frankfurt international airport was open and running at full capacity, said an airport spokesperson, adding there was a backlog of about 3 500 stranded passengers, including some 600 who spent the night on emergency cots at the airport.

Europe airports fight to clear backlog (sent via News24 iPhone)

Europe airports fight to clear backlog

European airports are fighting to clear a backlog of thousands of stranded Christmas travellers as arctic conditions grip the continent and spark fresh delays and cancellations.
View article online
View article on your mobile

I would like to think there is a trade off between counting down towards your holidays and amount of money in the bank. It seems the closer you get the less money you have. With all the preparation and equipment to purchase, money is just slipping away.
Yesterday was the first of three snow boarding lessons, down at the Ski Deck in Ferndale. Not the easiest challenge, but oh so rewarding when you get into it! At the time, your body isn't sore, and for the rest of the day either, but on the following morning! Oh my! Essential everyday movements become part of your conscious thoughts as your mind attempts to compensate or find an alternative movement less painful!

Tomorrow the lesson is at 9 am in the morning, and I'm hoping it is less painful!
Hold out to see!

This is the view form the top of the mountain Kleinarl, Austria where we go Snow Boarding.

News from the locations is that there hasn't been heavy snow lately, and only some of the ski routes are open. There was expected to be havy snow this weekend, thus opening up all the routes next week.

We're only ski-ing in January, so there's still 4 weeks for the snow to build up.

This is the view coming down one of the many slopes on the side of the mountain. Hope the ski lessons hold out!

IMG00178-20101211-1228.jpg

What you can't see is the sweat dripping off my body and the sunglasses which have been fogged up!

And counting!

The Slopes are ours!

The stories have been told, the memories shared and the wait is now short lived.

It's just less than 20 days to do till we leave on the 26th December at 20:00.

If you count the real hours, this time in 20 days, the plane will be on the runway to paradise!

Runway to paradise, is that what I said? Today looks like paradise, the temperatures are above zero and the airports are doing their best to ease the heavy traffic.

We won't mention the fact that Venice is flooding and there were 12 killed in Berlin, Germany due to slippery and wet conditions.

The excitement is overwhelming, with every note I take from my wallet, I count the Euro equivalent and think of the water I might need, or gift to my silence my sister. Magically the note finds it's way back to my wallet.

more experiences to follow...

"The traveler sees what he sees, the tourists sees what he has come to see."

G.K. Chesterto