Round the World in 90 days!

Wow what a time we have had! I know it has been awhile since we last blogged. However we will endeavour to place most of the highlights in the words to come.

The evening in Barcelona was a bit of a let down. Considering both Jo and I were feeling under the weather with the flu and the Flamenco dancers that we went to see – weren’t that good. I think we have been spoilt with good performances, so our expectations were high. It was nice to the see the cultural side of Spain to say the least. The food again we got jibbed. Jo ordered Pork and got meatballs??? Whats the go with the meatballs??? Also the San Gria (forget how you spell it) is a traditional Spanish wine. Nothing really special about it – just a cheap red wine, mix in some juice from a tin of fruit, add a little bit of Sprite or Lemonade and you have a Spanish wine. Quite nice to drink though!

Leaving Barcelona with its SUNSHINE was hard – as I looked into the weather report for our time in Bordeaux and Paris was to be raining and cold. Quite a long journey to Bordeaux with us getting to our hotel around 7pm. We raced outside and downtown to grab something to eat. In our walk in downtown Bordeaux we came across a Free Tibet peace rally in the main square. They were simply walking around a Tibetan flag yelling “Libre Tibet’ we had to get around them to find a place to eat – and the only way was to join their protest rally for a few seconds as they marched and then hop off the human roundabout at our point of exit. Heheh – our little stint of protesting!!!! We managed to find this quiet hole in the wall Chinese Restaurant, which the chinese lady only spoke “Hello, Bye Bye and Good” in English. So ordering food and communicating with her ended up in pouts of laughter and her walking away leaving us with confused grins on our faces. The food was great too – and cheap as well!

We headed on up to Paris the next day. Arriving in Paris around 5pm then cruising around on the bus with our Tour guide JB showing us all the sights of Paris – to prepare us for the next day. Paris is one huge place. And trying to see everything in one week is impossible. We were happy to go up the Eiffel Tower, see the Arc’ de Triumph, walk the Champs de Elysses, view the Louvre and Notre Dame before collapsing in a heap. Jo loved the Eiffel Tower, she couldn’t stop taking photos of it. I like the tower but hated the line to get up it! We took the Metro train to the Arc and again our English wasn’t useful. But thankfully an Indian Frenchman saw our plight of confusion in using the Metro system and helped us out. The French hate the English, and its easy to hate them back I suppose. We saw the Arc and walked down the Champ de Elysses – had to buy something though. Jo found a Sephora shop and bought some more foundation. Arrived at the Louvre and what a place it is. They say if you arranged all the art pieces on a conveyor belt and you stood and viewed each artpiece for 1 minute - it would take you 9 months to see everything. This place is massive and exquisite. The sun decided to show its face in the afternoon so it was great just Jo and I walking around Paris along the river. Such a nice romantic place!

The last night everyone in the tour went to see a Moulin Rouge show. We decided to go up to MontMarte for a nice dinner overlooking the city. Such a great evening. The sun was out and not a cloud in the sky – and the food was superb – as you would expect of French cuisine. Afterwards we met up with the group as they came out of the Moulin Rouge show and we head off to an Aussie bar for some photos and a couple quiet drinks.

The next day was quite somber as he had grown attached to our group – so some of the members of the tour stayed in Paris whilst most of us headed back to London. We stopped on the way at Milly at a Canadian memorial of WW1. The place was a battlefield and was kept in its original condition – with still the scarred landscape of artillery bombardments.

We arrived at Calais and doing border / passport checks – the border officer noticed I didn’t have an entrance stamp to Britian but I had an exit stamp?? I said I came in through Ireland. His reply – “oh.. came in through the back door aye” had a laugh and it was back on the bus to get on the ferry to head back to London.

Florence was beautiful - much better than Venice. It was a rainy day again, however there was so much more to do and to see as well. Florence is a nice romantic city with all the history, art (Da Vinci & Michelangelo) and just plain nice. We walked through the Baboli Gardens - which was a hike but worth the effort. Just beautiful. Also went through the Acadamia Galleria showcasing Michelangelo's sculptures including David. The statue of David is massive and very impressive. It was another long day walking through the city. We went to a leather demonstration that gave us the heads up on how to spot fake leather. We didn't buy any leather goods but there were plenty of fake stuff around to make your head spin.

That night we went for a Tuscan dinner, with opera singers and great food and really, really bad wine! It was a fun evening, the atmosphere was like being in a big Italian family's party.

The next morning we travelled to France, stopping in a perfumery and then finally at our hotel in Nice. Last night we went out to Monaco and saw the Grimaldi's palace and just driving through Monte-Carlo is absolutely beautiful. A duplex overlooking the ocean start at around 2.8million euros which is about $5million Aussie - think I might buy 2. We had a lovely dinner near the palace then went down to the Monte-Carlo casino. Outside the casino are only expensive cars - ferrari, masserati, bmws, mercs, & bentleys. It was nice for a moment to walk into the glitz and glamour. Make sure you check out the bond movies that feature Monte-Carlo - as it truly is! Oh yeah we also drove past the house where 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' was filmed - looks smaller than the movie - but still a nice house!

Today for our free day we just walked around Nice, along the stoney beach and through the shopping promenades. It rained for most of the day, and then the sun came out in the afternoon. Such a pretty place. Wish we could stay longer and relax here - but tomorrow we are off to Barcelona. Big drive ahead so its an early start.

Ill keep you posted!