Time to go home.

Tuesday 8^th October. 

No real rush to get going this morning. We don’t really have time to do any more sightseeing, although I could probably fit in a bit more shopping……. Can’t face breakfast in the hotel again today, for the most part it’s a lovely typically French breakfast, but the bread roll is so chewy my jaw still hurts, it’s not like a crunchy baguette. I’d picked up a banana and some grapes on the way home and Trevor did a coffee run when we were ready to eat. He got a good deal on coffee and croissants. A couple were checking in as we were leaving the hotel, so we gave them our 2 unused metro tickets, so they haven't been wasted.
Using my very best French, I buy the tickets to the airport and off we go. Lunch will be whatever we can forage at the airport, ends up a sandwich from a supermarket shop, made on what looks like ‘normal’ bread but turns out to be some sort of pita bread. Easy to chew anyway! The French must have a bite like a pit bull.

The leg from Paris to Dubai goes well and I’m determined to try and snooze more. I’d like to call it sleep, but that’s being generous. As soon as we’re fed and watered and one movie watched, I turn on the music, pop on the eye mask and snuggle up under the blanket. We arrive at Dubai just after midnight and have to go through a full security check again, then there’s a bag search at the gate. Seriously? I don’t know where you could possibly pick up anything that would be a security risk. Same again for the Dubai to Sydney leg. We get fed, I watch a movie and settle in to snooze. There’s a really long gap between meals on this flight, as we discovered on the way over, but this time we’re prepared with a few snacks. We get a brief glimpse of sunrise at some point and everyone seems to have their window shades down so we miss seeing daylight for over 24 hours. We've missed Wednesday.

The shuttle bus is waiting for us when we finally get our bags and clear customs. I found someone’s passport in the self-service immigration machine and handed it in. ‘Someone’ is going to be worried when they realise it’s missing. We’re really confused about the time. On the plane, they gave us the ‘time at destination’ but when we got home it wasn’t right. Seems they forgot to allow for daylight savings.

Anyway, we’re home, and  we’ve had a great time.

Nearly over.

Monday 7^th October.

Our last full day in Paris and of our holiday. We had a bit of fun in Passage Brady last night, running the gauntlet of all the touts trying to get us to eat at their restaurants. We chose one and settled in, and slowly realised that they didn’t serve alcohol. Bugger! Oh well. We have a complimentary non alcoholic cocktail that’s very tasty and watch while diners at nearby restaurants sip on their wine and beer. Our meals arrive on those large round metal plates divided into sections. The waiter had a bit of a snicker when we asked for mild curries, so we’re worried about what we’ll get. Turns out it’s fine.

Saw a lot of bad parking, this is probably the worst.

We had a Plan A for today, but on the way back upstairs from breakfast, I’m distracted by the display of tourist brochures in the foyer, particularly by the one for the canal boat. It sounds really good, possibly even better than the one we took in London because this one actually goes through locks. We’d love that! And it runs every day, even better! The map on the brochure is a bit small so we jump on the website to find a notice that there will be no service today due to service works on the canal. Can you believe it??!! Mondays will ever after be listed in our itineraries as a ‘rest day’. So it’s back to Plan A, checking out our return route to the airport for starters.

monument at the centre of the Place de la Republique as seen from our window.

Republique metro station is just up the road and it will take us directly to Gare du Nord where we will connect to the RER B for Charles de Gaulle. We figure out the best entry to take with our luggage (fewest stairs) and then catch the metro to the Eiffel Tower to go to a clothing shop I spotted last trip, Ulla Popken. The top I really like is too expensive, and probably too warm for our climate, but I find a ¾ sleeve t-shirt that I quite like, so there’s my Paris souvenir. Le Royal Café is just across the road, it’s the place we sat and had a beer while we waited for the Eiffel Tower to sparkle a few weeks ago. We stop in to have a beer and study the menu for dinner tonight, and wind up eating lunch there as well, a ‘sandwich’ aka baguette, after walking around to the Tower to see it in the sunshine. It’s 22 C today, more like the Paris I came to see!

That's more like it!

After lunch we metro it back to the 2^nd arrondisement to find some more Passages that I read about on the plane from Paris to Copenhagen. They’re OK, but I don’t think they’re as nice as the arcades in Melbourne. There are a couple of window displays that catch our attention, some objects d’art, old books and a toy shop. It’s probably about 20-30 minutes back to the hotel, so, needing our afternoon rest, we walk ‘home’, window shopping on the way. Dinner is going to be back at Le Royal, so there’s another ride on the metro. We bought another 10 pack of metro tickets when we got back and it looks like we’ll have 2 tickets left over. Dinner is as good as we’d hoped, I had the Confit du Canard and Trevor had the fixed price menu, 3 courses. I ate his dessert. I would have liked to try a ‘proper’ French crème brulee but they didn’t have that, so I had the crème caramel, not bad, but not as nice as I’d hoped. After we finished our mains a small tour group arrived and we seemed to be in the way. Trevor asked the staff if they’d like us to move and they were really grateful. We were finished when a group of 4 walked in and there were no spaces together for them, so we made moves to leave. The staff were horrified, obviously not wanting us to feel like we were in the way again, so they offered us a complimentary coffee if we’d like to move to the bar. Yeah, no worries, that’d be good, thanks. If we ever go back to Paris and I’m sure we will, we’ll definitely go back to this café. A total fluke discovery. Probably the best we’d been to, with Le Marathon a close 2^nd. There are 3 miniature Statue of Liberty's in Paris. We saw the original model created by Bartholdi, in the grounds of the Musee de l'Art et Metier, just down the road from our hotel.

Let the shopping (and eating) begin!!

Sunday 6^th October.

Breakfast is served in the sub-floor level in the hotel which is a relief because we weren’t sure where we’d eat today. It’s 6 euros each for a typical French breakfast. Croissant, baguette, real butter, honey and jam with a tea, coffee or chocolat chaud. Oh, and o.j first.

First Sunday of the month is free admission day for many museums and galleries in Paris, but I forgot about that. Only remembered when we saw the gigantic queue at the Pompidou Centre. Not really up for any more culture anyway. We’re going shopping! Did some reconnaissance the other week so we know where we’re headed. We pass the Notre Dame and being the weekend, the queue is also impressively long.

Notre Dame in the sun.

Lunch today is going to be at a place we saw on the Left Bank, can’t keep away from that area! It’s called Le Marathon at 14 rue St Severin. 3 courses for 10 euros which sounds ok, and turns out that the first course would have done! Trevor had a great big bowl of mussels and I had pate and salad, then we had turkey escallop cooked in cream and herbs (Trevor) and Boeuf Burgundy (me) then good old trustable ice cream (Trevor) and mousse au chocolat (moi). I’m done with the ski pants, can you tell?

Gargoyle at Eglise St Severin

Serious shopping taken care of and a few photos clicked off because today we are actually seeing Paris without the grey skies and we even see some sunshine. Temperature on the street sign says 19 C so it’s pretty good. Back to the hotel for a break then we’re going to venture even further north (a few blocks more!) to find Passage Brady, the Indian and Pakistani area where there is supposed to be some good food at a reasonable price.Venue for dinner.

Back to Paris

Saturday 5^th October.

Big day of travel today. Kirkenes to Oslo, then to Stockholm for a connection to Paris. The airport bus is due past the hotel at 9am so we have an early breakfast at the hotel (included in price) our last chance to pig out on fresh smoked salmon. Yummmm. There are 2 other couples from the Hooti-Dooten travelling on our flight to Oslo. They are also at our hotel so we all get the bus and pass the time together at the airport in Kirkenes before scattering in Oslo.

Knackered by the time we get to Paris and the biggest hurdle has been saved for last. The dreaded Paris metro stairs! At the ‘Paris France Hotel’ we had requested the ‘red room’ because I’d heard it had a terrific view. On the downside, it’s on the 8^th floor and the lift only goes to the 7^th! G-r-o-a-n……. didn't know that!! But it is worth it.

The Red Room.

Yes, that is the top of the Eiffel Tower!

If we hang out the window a bit, we can see the top of the Eiffel Tower and it’s twinkling it’s little heart out for us! And straight out the window, on a nearby hill, is the Sacre Couer. Seems I was too busy watching the Tower doing it's thing to take any photos! Might have got some video though. Sorry.

Sacre Couer

 It’s good to be back in Paris. Do a rough unpack and ferret out our Euros ready for a shopping session tomorrow.

Hurtigruten MS Midnatsol FYI.

The ship's company

There is an onboard laundry, deck 4. Purchase a token from Reception, which includes a sachet of washing powder (30NOK). Dryers and irons are available free of charge.

638 berths over 298 cabins. This trip, the northbound leg, is a bit over half full according to the waitress at dinner. Built in 2003 and is one of the more modern ships in the fleet, fitted out in a modern style. It looks like a small mainstream cruise ship, the food is dangerously good, there just aren’t the organised activities found on a cruise ship.

We always knew where we were

We brought a deck of cards with us, but they are still in their packet. Scenery watching is the main pastime here, it is always interesting, especially to people like us who have never seen this type of landscape before.

Deck 6 is the Promenade deck. You can walk all the way around the ship on this deck undercover. We chose not to have a cabin on this deck for that reason.

Deck 6

Free internet available and computers free to use if you don’t bring your own. The internet is painfully slow but there are areas on board where it works faster/better than others. These areas are not marked and you have to discover them for yourself. Just use common sense.

Breakfast and lunch are buffet style and the lines were very civilised and not too long. The waitresses love to clean up, so don’t leave anything unguarded if you’re not finished.

Our cabin was 430, and I was a bit worried that we’d get noise from the Reception area, but heard nothing. We were on the starboard side because I thought we’d see more of the coast heading north but it didn’t really matter. At all of the ports we docked on the port side of the ship. We were never bothered by noise at the night time ports.

First and last dinners are served buffet style, the last one having a great variety of seafood.

There is a metal Midnatsol coffee mug that you can buy for 295NOK anytime during the cruise. This entitles you to tea or coffee all day at no other cost. Tea and coffee are served complimentarily after meals, so at 26NOK for a tea/coffee outside these times, you’d need to drink many cups to make it worthwhile. I don’t think I covered my cost but Trevor may have. Hot chocolate is not included in the mug deal, it’s available at no charge only at breakfast.

There is a 25% tax included in all onboard spending.

The staff are all English and Norwegian speaking, with many speaking a 3^rd language as well. Puts us Aussies to shame. They are all also so friendly and helpful, and are quite willing to have a chat and a joke with the passengers.