Today was another day spent at a more laid back pace. We started the day with a late lunch and then headed to the Metro to catch a train to the Coliseum. This might sound easy, but in fact it involves a walk of about two kilometres to the nearest Metro Station! The Metro is definitely not as comprehensive as some other major cities we have visited. When we arrived at the Coliseum we were greeted by an English speaking person offering tours of the Coliseum. For an extra 10 Euro we got a brief audio tour and skipped the 45mins [View Full Entry]

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Our last day in Paris was spent at a relaxing pace. Check out in Europe is great - usually not until 12pm…so we made the most of another sleep in, a couple of croissants for breakie, and then decided to walk our extra 7kg’s of luggage to the post office. It was a great feeling offloading the shoes, books and cd’s we had bought, in order to make room for more shoes, books and cd’s! From the post office, it was an easy walk down to the river, and past Notre Dame, where we stopped in a tiny garden out the [View Full Entry]

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Ahh, the joys of sleeping in. No more 6:00am wake up calls - at least not till Beijing! We finally crawled out of bed at nine, and made our way to the metro, and on to Montmartre - after about three changeovers, we were there. This might sound difficult, but I’ve actually found the subway fairly easy to use…even though there are over 200 stations. I guess after conquering the NY subway, anything is possible. Montmartre is a suburb in France, that houses the Basilique Du Sacre Coeur, perched at the top of the hill. From here, you get great views [View Full Entry]

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Bonjour, je’mapelle Izzy…but you already know that. Today was our first day off after the big tour. Time to kick back and enjoy Paris. We didn’t really have a lot planned for today, except for a quick trip to the Catacombs and a visit to the tourist office to see what else was on offer. The catacombs are quite a well kept secret of Paris - we only heard about them through the internet, and it took us ten minutes just to find the entrance after exiting the subway. Once inside though, it is worth the effort. We started off walking [View Full Entry]

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Apart from driving, we didn’t really do that much today. Breakfast was quite early so that we could leave at 7:30am, and be in Paris by 5pm. Jon wanted to get us into the Notre Dame before it closed, and we only just made it! The Notre Dame was bit of an anti-climax - I think we have seen too many beautiful churches, and this one was not impressive as some of the others. I expected the exterior to be worn and dirty, but it looked brand new, thanks to a recent renovation. The architecture was also not as extravagant as [View Full Entry]

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Seeing as we had already driven past Biarritz yesterday, we now had to backtrack for a couple of hours to have a lunch stop. Biarritz is a surfing community in France. It is not as well known as Monaco or Nice, but it is a cute little place! The bus stopped at the lighthouse on the hill for some quick photos, and Iz managed to locate some ridiculously steep stairs to climb down - seeya later. I decided to stay at the top, and take in the view. It is a lovely place, much like a coastal community on the great [View Full Entry]

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The last part of our tour is to take in France, and unfortunately, it is a bit farther away than we had hoped. All our long drives seem to be in this tail end - but seeing as we only have 4 nights left, we had best make the most of a bad bus situation J 700 k’s meant reading - and Iz and I were both buried in books to pass the time. It is great seeing him read, as he doesn’t pick up a book at home. Now he has read two more, with a third underway (I talked [View Full Entry]

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Today we explore the ‘Real Spain’, or so the Spanish tour guide keeps telling us. The plan is to jump back in the bus (bugger) and do a day trip to Toledo, the old capital of Spain. Then we spend the afternoon shopping in Madrid and kicking back at the hotel pool. The day started out as planned, and after a quick drive through Madrid we headed to Toledo. Toledo was the capital of Spain since Roman times up until around the seventeenth century when the capital was moved to Madrid by the Hapsburg Emperor. The town hasn’t experienced many changes [View Full Entry]

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Unfortunately, it was another 7 hour day on the bus to sunny Madrid. Thank god for Harry Potter, or I would be going nuts. I finally finished the last 6 chapters, and boy, what a book! J. K really ties everything together and I really enjoyed the storyline. With two stops at more motorway eateries, we arrived in Madrid at 4:30pm, and had to back on the bus for a 6:00pm City Lights tour. Madrid is a little different to Barcelona, and is definitely the city of fountains - they are everywhere. Our guide showed us an Egyptian temple to start [View Full Entry]

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We started the day with another tour of the city sights - which was a bit annoying, as we had already paid for one the night before, that took in much of the same monuments. Some of our group were not happy. Still, it allowed us to get dropped off by the bus right in the middle of town, close the metro station. With directions on how to get to Parc Guell, where there are 14 acres of Gaudi’s vision. We got off the subway, and headed up the escalator strewn hill - although one of the steepest sections required leg [View Full Entry]

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