Down and out in London...

is actually a biographical story by George Orwell. Things are looking up on the interview front for both of us, so it's just a matter of time now. In particular I'm getting much more interest than I was previously. So, we're not down and out yet.

Back on the hunt...

The fact of being back in London means two things. One, we have very little money left. Two, we need jobs. Rhiannon's applying for Admin and HR/Recruitment based roles, as a bit of a change, and will still be doing casual supply teaching in the mean time.
I'm back on the same old band wagon.

London.. Feels like Home...

I mentioned to Rhiannon as we stood on the train heading back to our stamping ground of Willesden Green, that it felt amazingly like being home. In fact, more so that I suspect going back to Melbourne, or Canberra, or Wagga, or Albury would just now. I'm not too sure why.

Anyway, it was a long day once we left our gorgeous apartment in Paris, and you'll see below that getting back to stable accommodation here was a bit of a cock-up.. in fact we're not even there yet.

Itchy and Scratchy Land - The happiest place on earth

Since I'm not a Simpson, I only got to go to EuroDisney. It's another of those things that you just "have to do". We'd pre-purchased tickets online for 47EUR each, to get access to two parks for one day. Saved us 20EUR each from buying on the day, and meant skipping the ticket line. It's unlikely you'd get time to see both parks though.

Moulin Rouge

It's one of "those" tourist attractions. You know, the place everyone knows about, and goes to see. We'd read heaps of reviews, some good, some bad, some idiotic (I mean really, complaining that it's not a place to take kids, surely you know that before?)

We reviewed a number of options, including the menus, and decided we'd be better getting dinner elsewhere and just seeing the 9pm show. And was it worth it ?

Family outing in Versaille

Ever been on one of "those" family driving trips ? surely, everyone has. Go left. No, go right. Sit down. Are we there yet. Change the radio station. Sit still. Open the window. CLose the window. Can we have Mcdonalds...

Well, today we went to Versaille. I'll write a bit more later, but for 30EUR for an hour using a 4 seater golf cart, it's much better than walking.

Paris - The Lourve and Not the Arc Triomphe

After a good night's sleep, a run to the shopping centre for some brunch, and then croissants with ham and cheese (how parisian!) we figured out that due to the weather, we would go to the Lourve rather than Versaille today. Once we got there, we figured out it's much better to pay 32 EUR for a 2day all-museum pass, which would get us into Versaille (15.50) and the Lourve (9.00) and the Arc de Triomphe, and the Musee D'Orsay and we could skip lines (priceless.) We figured this would be good value for money, even if we only did the Lourve and Versaille.

Arrival ala Paree

Despite our earlier issues with the trains, we were able to get on a train this morning at 6:08am. Well, the train was supposed to leave at 6:08. It eventually showed up at 6:28am, and left at 6:38. Still, we got into Paris on time.

Magic Fountain of Montjuic

Keep your volumes down a little bit for this - there's lots of background noise, but we didn't want to swap the audio as this track belongs with it.



This fountain is located in Barcelona. Jump off the Metro at Placa Espanya, walk up the hill and observe. It runs after 9:00pm, and was first shown in 1876 or something like that.

Saved by the hair on his chinny chin chin.....

So we found out, by a fluke of luck this evening, at around 9:30, that many of the flights into Paris tomorrow will be cancelled due to industrial action. Turns out there is more than just flights cancelled, and there are only two TGVs running to Paris from Toulouse (our present location)

So thanks for the heads up to Rhiannon's parents, we're now rebooked on a train departing at 6:05am. We would have had no idea, and simply shown up at 9:30 for our regularly scheduled train, to find out the next one was at 4:00pm, and probably already fully rebooked.

Still, for the last few days of a 2 months stretch, we're doing pretty well if this is the only major thing that's gone wrong.

We're just hoping that getting to the airport at 4:00am will get Trevor and Judy rebooked onto a different flight.

Toulouse, weather and foosball

Had a nice sleep in. Think we really needed it. Had a look out the window to realise that it must have rained and that it was pretty grey looking. Wasn’t raining at the time, though, and we have been very lucky with the weather, so no complaining. Out we went...

The train in Spain falls mainly... in it's standards

Horrible Spanish train! We were in first class, which was full of seats like scratchy material lounges from the seventies. All brown and orange and yuck. Very slow train. We didn’t get reservations because we didn’t think they’d be necessary. They weren’t required on the last Spanish train we were on and we couldn’t book reservations when we first tried.

Barcelona is spectacular

A lot to pack in. 3 trips into and out of the city planned. All worked out. First we caught our free shuttle in to town (offered by the 5 star tower next door). Had a walk around the centre, down La Rambla (famous main street), into some of the smaller streets off the side into the old town.

Finally an apartment!

Had to get up early to catch four different trains. We were meant to have a long wait at Port Bou for our last train, but there was one about to leave for Barcelona and since it didn’t require a reservation we hopped on it and arrived in Barcelona an hour and a half earlier than we’d expected. Nice surprise. This was a very good Spanish train too, despite only being second class.

Found our Apartment suite. Absolutely stunning with gorgeous big black tiles throughout and nice furniture. Was great to have a kitchen again. Walked over to a close supermarket and had great fun picking out stuff we could cook. Very tired, so didn’t go out. Just had a nice night in cooking dinner, watching movies and drinking sparkling wine.

Lake Zurich

I just thought I'd post this for the fun of it, because it's such a gorgeous photo. Rhiannon took it, from the inside of a boat on Lake Zurich, against the glass, while the boat was moving. That aside, it's pretty stunning.
You can view more of our photos here or the one's I've added to the map here.

More posts coming

As I'm trying to put posts in appropriate date orders, but i'm writing out of order, you may miss some. So here's a list of some recently written posts.

Dachau
Brasov
Berlin Zoo
Switzerland
The Golden Pass

Alternately - you could check the "monthly" links - over there on the right. For instance:
August

TGV - a slight recant

Ok - we caught another TGV today (Marseille to Peripegnon) - and were pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't the same as the other day.

For a start, there was more room. There also seemed to be power at all the First class seats. Quite why the conductor on the last train told us no TGVs have them is beyond me.

So, yes, I recant some of my statements, notably the ones about space, and power. Actually, it wasn't overheated either, so I'll recant that too. I won't recant my comments on the stupidity of the platforms and organisation etc.

So sorry, TGV :)

Cannes (but no films)

Walked around. Through the old town area. Up to the castle and looked out over the city. Back down, grabbed some sandwiches for lunch and relaxed in a little park area near the water. Cannes is an absolutely stunning place along the waterfront.

Monaco

Station was made out of marble! Walked up the hill to old town. Saw the palais. Lookouts over ports. Wandered through small, charming streets. Through park like stuff (beautifully manicured) down to the main port. Awesome yachts.

Mini train and old, old city

There were a couple of self walking tours noted on our map. Did the first one through old town. Fascinating. Plaques along the way to read. Cute, little streets. Although, they don’t seem to clean them at all. We found the Italian ones a lot cleaner. There was one very old street (Rue Grand). Dated as around 600 BC (Marseille is France’s oldest city) with a very old cool looking building that had been literally turned to match the new layout of the street when it was changed. Hard to imagine a building being turned.

Washing machine's really do eat socks!

Headed out to a nearby laverie (Laundromat) to obviously get our washing done... and out of the way. All easily sorted out, except the machine seemed to have taken a big bite out of one of my new sock. There was a huge hole in it! At least it was just a sock. Went to a close American style diner for lunch. I ordered cheese fries, which turned out to be cheese wedges. Delicious! Andy got some chicken wings.

Caught our train to Marseille. We knew that Marseille was probably going to be a bit dirtier and less safe than other places we’ve been. There were dodgy seeming people in the main station and metro stations, but we had no problem and the metro tickets were cheap, so yay. Found our Etap easily. Nicer than the last Etap, this one even had a bath (although no plug... but we fixed this). Out we went for a walk. Up to a fort, with awesome looking stone and nice views over the port. Burgers for dinner, nice and rare-ish. Yum!