Paris had been the most nervous part of our trip. With the metro strikes and the protesting that has been going on, I was a bit concerned.

We knew not to rely on the metro, so when we got to the airport in Paris we purchased Le Bus tickets, which are like our Skybus. The stop at Gare de Montparnasse is right near our hotel the Holiday Inn. Of course, because the metro is out, the traffic is CRAZY! And it took about 2 hours to get from the airport to our hotel!

Once we arrived we headed out to go find the hop on hop off bus. My navigation, even using Google Maps is never very good, and I end up going the wrong way before getting it right. I was also rushing, as the big bus tours itinerary indicated that it stopped running at 4.45pm! I much later discovered that this meant for a full circuit, not between stops ?

Anyway, we caught the bus (by running the last bit of the way). We got off at the Champs-Élysées stop and admired the arch, and had a late lunch. We went to McDonalds where I was going to try a McChicken. But I ended up with a fish burger, so my McChickens around the world experiment has been derailed slightly.

We stopped at H&M so I could replace my missing beanie and gloves. Especially as we had a night tour of Paris scheduled, I was going to need these items ASAP!

We watched a ceremony under the Arc de Triomph. The ceremony happens each night at 6.30pm and commemorates the Unknown Soldier who is entombed here. On the arch’s pillars are engraved the names of 660 national heroes.

We went on our two hour night tour on the top level of an open bus. It was cold, but also very beautiful.

We ordered an Uber to get back to our hotel, and then decided we needed to eat, having missed dinner. So ordered a meal on Uber Eats.

The next day (Sunday) we packed our bags again, and left our luggage at the hotel to continue our exploring. We jumped back on the Big Bus and continued our sightseeing. We departed the bus at the EIFFEL Tower in order to join a river cruise. I was looking forward to it – but I think we saw things far better from the bus than the boat.

We got off the bus across the river from Notre Dame Cathedral, had lunch at a local cafe, where I had duck with potatoes and Ulick had burger with FRENCH fries!

Across the road from here was a Christmas market, so we had a look and I bought another Christmas decoration.

From here we ordered a car and headed back to the hotel to collect our bags – allowing plenty of time to get back to the airport. Which was just as well, as it was another 2 hour trip.

We arrived in Dublin later that night after a good trip across with Air France.

Paris, you were great, and I would definitely visit again.

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We arrived in Rome at the Tiburtina train station, not great planning in my behalf. We bought bus tickets and experienced an overloaded bus ride to near our hotel. We couldn’t get off the bus in time near our hotel, because some old farts would t get out of the way, so ended up having a bit of a walk back to our accommodation, including a stroll last the Trevi fountain.

We got to our accommodation, and room wasn’t available yet, which was fine as it was only 10.30am or so. So we put our luggage into the hotel’s luggage storage and went exploring.

We went and bought a 2-day hop on hop off bus tour and went for a circuit to try and get our bearings of another city.

We saw highlights including the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus. We got off the bus at the Spanish Steps stop. It seemed to be a fair walk to the steps, but after we got off the bus I realised I had left my beanie and gloves on there (never to be seen again) and my sense of direction even using Google Maps is hopeless, so I think it was probably made further by my being a bit upset and a hopeless navigator.

From the Spanish Steps we walked back to the hotel, and ordered pizza via Uber Eats. While we were waiting for it we planned our activities for the following day, and booked tickets online for the colosseum and the Vatican.

Day 15.
We walked to the Hop on Hop off bus stop, which was only about a block away from our hotel. We caught the first one and got off at the stop for the Colosseum – our first tour of the day. As soon as we stepped off the bus a street vendor sold us some umbrellas – and mine was no good! I made Ulick take it back, and much to my surprise the street vendors swapped it for a better one. We were cutting it fine for time, and it was pouring rain, and we couldn’t find the pink flag that was meant to signal our tour. We eventually found a woman with a pink clipboard that she had been writing on – no wonder we had trouble finding her!

We had a tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Forum. It was very informative, and I was glad we did it – even though the rain didn’t let up. Towards the end of the tour my umbrella was bending and not functioning very well!

We made our way to the next hop on hop off bus stop at the Palazzo Venezia and toured around until we got to the stop for the Vatican. We stopped for a quick lunch break just outside the walls of the Vatican, before meeting our tour group.

Our tour started at the Vatican Museums – which is an amazing (and huge) collection of arts and sculpture. You could actually spend weeks in there, and certainly need more than an afternoon to truly appreciate it.

The tour continued on through the Sistine Chapel, which again 20 minutes is probably not enough to take it all in. I think the thing that amazed me the most about the Sistine Chapel was how plain it looks from the outside, compared to the inside! The Gallery of Maps is also a highlight.

Our tour concluded with a visit to St Peter’s Basilica, which was truly beautiful and amazing. Even if you aren’t catholic, you could appreciate the tour of the Vatican, but as a Catholic it is a truly moving experience.

After our tour we had to walk back to the museum entrance for me to collect my umbrella. This was a second umbrella. I bought a new, better, larger one in St Peter’s Square when we arrived in the afternoon and through away the crappy one that was falling apart.

We collected my umbrella from the coat room, and then went back to St Peter’s square to appreciate the nativity at night time, and for me to visit the gift shop.

After making some little purchases, we headed back to the bus stop to catch the bus back to our hotel.

I was so stuffed, it was one of our biggest walking days – even using the hop on hop off bus. Ulick ducked across the road to grab kebabs for dinner. I booked an Uber for our trip to the train station the next day and we set our alarms for an early start to repackage our bags before flying to Paris.

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We arrived in Florence and had a short walk to our hotel. Our room was ready, so we squished into the tiny elevator (the two of us with luggage barely squeezed in) and went up to our third floor room. We dumped out bags, and then headed out to the Uffizi museum.

We got through the first half of the museum and it was already close to 4pm, so we stopped in the museum cafe for lunch, having chicken focaccias. Poor Ulick, it’s so hard to focus on museum exhibits when your stomach thinks your throat has been cut!

We saw many amazing pieces of work from Botticelli and Caravaggio, as well as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo. Not sure why Donatello didn’t have any work on display.

Seriously though, it was amazing to stand in front of some of these masterpieces, and next time I want to devote more time to Florence, not just for the art, but also the food.

For dinner that evening, we went to the restaurant (Braceria Bisteccheria Ristorante) next door to our hotel and dined upon a Tuscan menu, including bruschetta to start. Our mains included Tagliata di Chianina con funghi porcini trifolati for me (steak with mushrooms) and beef in red wine sauce for Ulick, with a side of baked potatoes. We also had dessert of lemon sorbet and tiramisu. It was a yummy meal.

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We arrived at Venice Santa Lucia train station and purchased a 24-hour water bus (vaporetto) pass. This took us right to the door of our hotel after three or four stops.

It was only 9am, but the hotel had a room available for us! We had really only stopped by to drop our bags off. We took our bags up to room 502. The elevator went to the fourth floor, and the. We had an additional flight of stairs to get to this room at the top of the hotel.

The room was quite large and palatial. Good value for $88AUD!

We then headed out to explore the city. We crossed the Rialto bridge – the oldest of four bridges that cross the Grand Canal. I found the travel agency where we needed to meet at about 2pm for our gondala tour. We continued on around the city, making our way to St Marks Piazza. We spent some time waking around the shops around the square and along the waterfront. We entered St Mark’s Basilica. Wow, a truly beautiful interior.

By this stage, Ulick was hanging out for a proper Italian coffee, so we headed to a cafe for an early lunch of pizza, pasta and coffee.

After lunch, we continued our exploring of the city. I hadn’t anticipated just how confusing Venice is to navigate! Lots of little walkways, some go places, some are dead ends.

We started finding our way back to the travel agency, and found it eventually. We continued our exploring, just a block at a time from the agency. We found a United Colours of Benetton shop, so had a good look in there, purchasing a little something for baby Harry’s Christmas present. We went to a antiquarian bookshop that also sold bookmarks and other items made from recycled leather – so I purchased one of those as a souvenir of Venice. Our bags are pretty full, so I am cautious of not buying too much, as much as I would like too!

We went for another coffee break before heading to our gondala tour. I had booked a shared tour, but we ended up having the gondala just to the two of us, so that was nice. The gondalas have names on them, and the names on ours were Sara and Roberto, which seemed fitting given Ulick’s second name is Robert!

The gondala tour was great, and I could have spent all day seeing Venice from the water this way.

When we left our tour, I remembered I hadn’t seen the Bridge of Sighs – so we walked the 300m or so to go see that.

After that we hopped onto a Vaporetto the long way towards our hotel. It is a great way to see the city.

We got back to our room, and discovered both the heating and the television weren’t working. I was too tired to care, but Ulick insisted on getting it sorted out. He came back with a second set of keys, for a room of the fourth floor. So we relocated. The second room was smaller, but you could feel right away that the heating was working. It even had floor heating in the bathroom, and a bath tub!

My feet and knees were look forward to a shower, but once I saw that bathtub, I knew how I wanted to spend some time!

We headed out for a quick bite at the local McDonalds – only about 30m away from the hotel, before heading back to the hotel so I could have a bath.

I ran the bath and filled it with the complimentary bath foam and watched an episode of The Crown. Then came the time for getting out of the bath! It was a longer bath than the one I normally use at mum’s house, and it was very slippery from foam. It took a bit of work and engineering application to get out again ???

I rolled into bed and continued watching The Crown, while Ulick caught up on some work, YES WORK!!

PS – McDonalds. Yes this will be a blog of its own. I have been trying McChicken’s in each country! So far the Netherlands is still in front.

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First point of call was the service desk in order to get our Eurail passes activated with a stamp. We had about an hour until our train to Eindhoven, so we had breakfast at the station. I had a three cheese toasted sandwich and freshly squeezed orange juice. Ulick had grilled cheese sandwich and a latte.

We then headed to the platform to catch our train to Eindhoven. Our Eurail passes are 1st class, but it looked that the 2nd class seats on NS rail looked very good also.

The train we traveled on had free wifi too. We travelled from about an hour and twenty minutes to Eindhoven, then disembarked the train, walked across the platform and boarded our next train to Deurne. This was a short 20 train ride.

We were met at Deurne by Ria. Ria’s aunt Nel is also my mother’s aunt (by marriage). I met Ria when she travelled to Australia with Nel on the occasion of my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary in 1998.

Ria drove us from Deurne to her home in Asten.  We enjoyed lunch with Ria and her husband Frans before heading to the Klok and Peel Museum.

Wow! I had no idea that Asten had such a large museum devoted to bells! Turns out, Asten has one of the largest existing bell foundry’s in the world! And the museum is a collection not only of bells created in Asten, but also from around the world, with many specimens over 2000 years old. We were met at the museum by Frans brother, who is a guide at the museum.

The museum has around 150 volunteers, with only 2FTE staff. We had a guided tour of the museum, played some bells, and I played a carillon organ!

Sara playing the carillon

A second part of the museum is devoted to The Peel (De Groote Peel National Park). De Groote Peel is a National Park in the Peel, a region in the Southeast of the Netherlands on the border between the provinces of Limburg and North Brabant. It has a size of 13,4 km² and preserves a peat bog that has remained partly untouched by peat cutting, which used to be extensive in the area.

For dinner we were treated to a traditional Dutch meal – Erwtensoep and Stamppot. Lekker!

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