I will preface this minor gripe by saying that we will be in Paris in 29 hours. And that’s Paris, France. Not Paris, Texas, not Paris Street in Kallangur, Queensland ; Paris, France. Killing seven and a half hours at Bangkok Airport after nine and a half hours on a plane, with another twelve hours to look forward to, may not seem like a great way to kick off a trip. And it’s not. I’ve just finished a brief snooze lying across three very hard plastic seats and I think my back had taken the shape of the ceiling at this airport ( see pics). And I’m no more relaxed. Security in Tullamarine seems to have gone higher tech, as they no longer require you to empty your bags. COVID Vaccination Certification was a must though. ... read more

The last Day in Paris for Tim and Natalia started in rain, and finished in rain. They had to be on the 20.40 train back to Luxembourg, so we popped the umbrellas and nothing stopped us. We had a late breakfast, well, a croissant and a coffee, and were carrying some rolls and quiches to eat at the Jardin de Tuileries near the Louvre later on. There were crowds everywhere, always is in Paris, but with Jacque Chirac’s funeral and Paris Fashion Week locking horns , the gardens were a peaceful place to hide. It’s springtime in Paris and the gardens are beautiful. Parisian gardens are designed to be perfectly symmetrical rows of flowers and shrubs, colour coordinated to blend without detracting from the surroundings, in which this case were lakes and groves of trees. We ... read more

As the title suggests, this multicultural, diverse borough in the south of Luxembourg, is considered by some to be on the fringe of what life could offer, if you had the means to escape. How wrong you can be. As a long term resident of Esch-sur-Alzette since the 19th of September....this year, my observations are fresh and unbiased about this country of highly subsidised , overpaid shiny pants bankers, whose primary function is to push and distribute wealth around the world, with the primary goal of pocketing as much as possible as it passes through. Which is fair enough. I’m looking at it from the much maligned - highly unwarranted I might add - city of Esch-sur-Alzette, the second largest city in Luxembourg. Positioned in the south east, not too far from the remarkable vineyards of ... read more

Went to transfer some photos onto my iPad and realised that I left the SD reader in my camera bag in Luxembourg. Can’t blame the blog site this time; it’s my fault. I’ll keep this brief - something I don’t seem to grasp - and head out to take a few with my phone. The pictures tell the Gent, or Ghent story, but I’ll give it a go. I’ve been to Bruges before, but as it is becoming so popular that the local government wants to control the amount of buses that visit on day trips, we decided Ghent was closer and a good alternative. We left Luxembourg at 9am and the road to Ghent is a pretty boring highway, with little to see except the tops of small villages, wind turbines, and forests that look ... read more

It will be a tiny post today. The main focus was ensuring that our luggage was within the limits, and after moving stuff from case to pack to bag, and sometimes back to case, we balanced it out with a couple of hundred grams spare in each case. Carry on is heavy, but still nowhere near the limit. We enjoyed a lovely peaceful last morning, breakfast at the Monastery , morning tea at an obscure cafe set in the end of a dark little lane, and then moved to the park where we people watched, I read a book , and Sue smiled at children playing, no doubt thinking of the small boy we left behind in Australia. It’s not long before we get an Ezra fix again; be patient Sue. As I said, this will ... read more