Flimsy Pear

Toyfair 2009

Toyfair 2009 has come and gone this year. As usual, it was held in Melbourne at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre or Jeff's Shed (named after the Victorian Premier who got it built).

This year the fair was held over 4 days (Friday - Monday) but we only went on Friday (plus the two other previous days for Toyworld member's meetings) as we had to be back on Saturday for a wedding.

As usual, there were lots of new stuff, the most popular being the movie licensed toys and every now and again, there will be a rehash of something that came out a few years ago that the toy suppliers want to cash in on (Strawberry Shortcakes is coming back this year).

Click on the link below to take you to the photo album for some of the photos. 

Photos from Toyfair

Melbourne for Toy Fair

Tomorrow we head off to Melbourne for the annual toy fair. Will be interesting to see what is shown this year.

Also to note will be the level of customer service that you get from the sales rep. It can be funny because if you are percieved as a small buyer, the will often snob you in favour of trying to land the big sale.

It doesn't matter how much or little that your customer spends, they should be receiving the best customer service from you everytime.

Going back to Uni

This week I started going back to uni. I haven't actually enrolled in any courses or classes as such. I just went to the course site and looked at some subjects that I thought would be interesting and enjoy. The two classes that I have chosen to attend are E-Marketing Strategies and Advertising Theory & Practice. 

I'm enjoying the experience much better this time because I am genuinely interested in these topics and learning more about how it all works. The lecture I went to tonight on Advertising was fantastic and I really liked the engagement style of the lecturer. 

Here are two great videos which have inspired me recently to go back to uni again. I hope they inspire you too.

The first one is Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford. It's not his usual style but still an inspiring speech nevertheless.

The next one is from a Professor named Randy Pausch who passed away last year. This was his last lecture, given in 2007 in a packed lecture theatre. 

I highly recommend the book that he wrote "The Last Lecture" which is a great read after watching the video. It explains a lot of things that make sense once you have watched it.

Review: Microsoft Explorer mouse with Bluetrack technology

Well, I've been looking for a new mouse for a while and I had been searching for ages for the Logitech G7 which is the wireless version of the G5 but hasn't been in production for quite sometime now. I haven't been too impressed with offerings from either Microsoft or Logitech and what I really wanted was a wireless mouse that was also rechargeable. I had looked at the Logitech V470 Bluetooth mouse but just didn't like the feel of it and haven't been that impressed with the Logitech control software for a while now. In fact I hadn't used the Logitech drivers for such a long time that my forward and backward thumb buttons on my faithful MX500 I had forgotten how convienient they were. I've been looking at the Microsoft Explorer Mouse for a little while now and there haven't been too many reviews but it seemed to fit the criteria as to what I was after. I took the plung last week and went and bought one especially since Microsoft are currently offering a 25% rebate on Microsoft Mice. This is what the back of the box looks like. Despite the clear packaging, it was easy to open unlike some of the clamshells packaging that are around (I'm looking at you Xbox 360 controller!) Contents of the box The box comes with: - Microsoft Explorer Mouse - CD - Manual - Charger with adaptor - USB Dongle - (funcpad not included) This is the mouse in size comparison to my old Logitech MX500. Initially the mouse felt a bit too big for my hands and I thought I might have made a mistake and should have opted for the Microsoft Explorer Mini mouse instead. However, after a couple of days usage including an almost all night session of Left 4 Dead, the mouse feels comfortable and natural to me. With the teflon feet that covers a decent section of the underbody of the mouse, it glides smoothly across the surface. Shot of the mouse charging. Another shot of the mouse charging. There isn't too much information about how long each charge takes but according to Microsoft, once fully charged, the mouse can last up to 3 weeks between charges. I haven't had it long enough to test but might report back later. It is good to note however that the battery used is just a single AA battery so if the battery does run out and you don't have time to recharge it, you can just pop in a standard AA battery and it will work fine. Underbelly shot of the mouse when it is turned on. Another underbelly shot of the mouse when it is turned on. Glowing mouse when just switched on. The USB dongle isn't as small as some of the Logitech ones so you can't just leave it in the USB port if you are travelling. However, you can store the dongle in the underside of the mouse and it fits well and doesn't seem like it could easily fall out. It doesn't completely recess into the bottom of the mouse but is still quite compact if you are taking with you on your travels. The bottom rim of the mouse glows for about 10 seconds when you either remove the mouse from the charger or the dongle from the storage spot on the mouse (there is a microswitch that turns the mouse off when you put the dongle in it's spot). It does look pretty funky but thankfully doesn't stay on permanently which would be annoying after a while. Installation of the drivers is fairly simple. Just insert the CD and go through the OS X install wizard to install the drivers. As with all things Microsoft, you are required to restart your Mac after it is installed. Once installed you can access the options from System Preferences as per the below pictures. Mouse options in System Preferences. Front screen for Mouse options. Pointer options. Scrolling options. The big claim that Microsoft have made with this mouse is the Bluetrack technology which makes use of a blue laser instead of the optical or red lasers in previous generations of mice. This supposedly allows you to use your mouse on a variety of surfaces if for whatever reason you can't find a small square area to put your mouse on. I usually use my funcpad so it wasn't really a concern as to what surfaces I could try. I did however try it on my glass tabletop as glass is one of the surfaces that it doesn't work on. Using the Mighty Mouse and my old MX500, the glass tabletop proved to be an issue as the optical sensors couldn't track properly because of the reflection from the glass. Surprisely the Explorer Mouse worked without any hassles but I'm attributing this probably to the text that is printed on the glass which made it easier for the mouse to track. I also tested this last week when we played Left 4 Dead at one of my friend's new Internet cafe in the Valley as I wanted to see how this would for something like a First Person Shooter. We played it till about 3:30am and my wrist wasn't sore from continous zombie killing. It was quite comfortable to use over a long period of time. Overall, I've been pretty impressed with the mouse. It is a tad bit expensive at $129.95 for a mouse but if you do spend alot of time in front of the computer, I think that the most important parts not to skimp out on are the mouse, keyboard and monitor since they usually last several computer upgrades and make the difference when using the computer over long periods of time. Microsoft currently have a 25% rebate till the end of January on their Mouse and Keyboard range so if you are in the hunt to get one, now would be a good time. So far I'm pretty happy with the mouse, it did take a couple of hours to get used to the feel of it, though I had been using my MX500 since 2002. Definitely one to consider if you are thinking of replacing your existing mouse.

Rainy day in Florence... indeed.

The next day we drove up to Florence which was about a 3.5hr trip from Rome. It was a pretty crappy day as it was cold and raining lightly. It was here that we went to the Academia which is a small museum of paintings and sculptures. It is also where Michelanglo’s stature of David is kept. We also saw some of his unfinished works but David by far was the best. The amount of detail that was made in 1 block of marble is incredible. He study of the anatomy was amazing and you could the detail in the veins that run along David’s arms.

Next up we went to some more church’s including the world’s 3rd largest church with a dome that is more than 300 ft in the air. It was pretty cool looking but some of us by this point had seen quite a lot of church’s and it had began to be an ABC (Another Bloody Church/Castle). The next and final ABC that we saw was the Church of Santa Croce Basilica which houses the tombs of Galleleo, Dante and Michelanglo. They all had quite large tombs though Michelanglo’s wasn’t what you would expect as he was buried with his family and it wasn’t that fancy. Sort of like Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade when Indy goes to choose the cup of Christ.

After that we went shopping around the areas of Venice and much to Lee’s disappointment and my delight in still having a fat wallet, we came up empty handed. We were going to buy some shoes from this place that had them on sale for cheap but they didn’t have the size that our feet were.

Dinner was at the restaurant which was superb again and afterwards some of the group were playing Uno. So I joined in while Lee went back up to her room (she came back a couple of times asking how to get there as she got lost) and played a couple of games before going up stairs for a shower and to bed.

Adventures in Rome - The heart of Italia...

Alright, it’s time for an update. It’s been almost 3 days since I last wrote a post and I probably should have but have been so tired and a fair bit has gone on. We got into Rome that afternoon and went to the hotel. Out of all the hotels we’ve been to, this by far was the worse one and we had to stay 2 nights. The room was more cramped than usual but the worse part was that it reeked of cigarettes. The aircon didn’t work either, something we noticed that didn’t work in either Florence or Rome so we had to open up the windows just to air the place out.

There was internet there and it ended up costing us 15 Euros for 24hrs which was ok. After we left the hotel, we went out and drove around Rome and looking at various Roman sites at night. This included places like the Colosseum, St Peters Basilica and ancient Roman cities. We also walked down the Spanish steps which we all went “oh that was it?”. 

We went down and saw the Pantheon which was built over 1900 years old. This thing was amazing, it was huge! It used to be used as a temple and also had the tomb of the famous artist Raphaello. It is an engineering marvel and they thought over everything including a drainage system for the hole in the top of the dome. Our tour for Rome was a lady name Ziggy and out of all of the tour guides, she was the best by far. She gave us a lot of insight and was entertaining as well. 

We then walked to a piazza (everything is a friggin piazza in Rome) where we were free to have dinner around the piazza. We sat down at this restaurant with Denise and Ben and I had some really good lasagna and Lee had some pasta which was quite nice as well. Denise was getting really pissed off because some old lady kept staring at her. It wasn’t the just a quick glance look, it was a full on stare. It was pretty funny. After dinner we went to a gelati shop and some of the nicest gelati ever. The ice cream was friggin huge it would have made Eddie Murphy envious with a grin that would light him up like a lamp and it only cost 3 Euros. After dinner we walked back to the bus and went back to the hotel.

The next day we went to the Vatican and went through the Vatican museum. It was here that we saw a large collection of art works including paintings, sculptures and tapestry. We didn’t have to wait too long to get in and it was nowhere near as long as the individuals that lined up around the corner to get in. As usual, there was security checks though it was weird in that it beeped if you had metal objects on you but also beeped when you were clear to go through. It happened to me and I’m like “oh crap”, no one stopped me so I kept on going.

In the Vatican museum we got to see the tapestry of Raphaello and it was pretty amazing stuff. The highlight though was the walk through to the Sistine Chapel. We weren’t allowed to take photos but we were just amazed at how good it was. The paintings by Michelangelo were detailed that even I could see it as I had forgot my glasses which made it even worse for an asian to see. It would have been write hard for him to paint we reckon standing or lying to paint the ceiling for 11 years - later one when we were in Venice Lee wondered how it could be done as her arm was aching from just holding the umbrella for 5 mins.

We then walked through to St Peter’s church which is the largest church in the world. It also contains the tombs of all of the Popes that have died and we got to see some that had been placed up on the church level.

We then walked out of St Peter’s and got to see the Vatican from a different angle in daylight. This was quite amazing as the square had been there for about 500 - 600 years. There are a couple of rows of columns that flank St Peter’s and there even is a marker in the ground where when you stand there, you only see all of the from columns and can not see the 2nd, 3rd or 4th row which is pretty amazing that they thought of this stuff years ago.

We had free time for lunch before going to the Colosseum in which I had lasagna again and Lee had some other pasta. When we went to the Colosseum, it was a short walk from the bus stop to the actual Colosseum. We saw a few gypsies there including the ones that have the babies in their hands. What they do is push the babies in your arms which someone else picks your pocket. It was quite funny, we saw a couple of gypsies that were stalking us and walk in parallel to us as we were walking there. They looked like sharks that were circling their prey.

Before we went to see the Colosseum we went to a Roman forum which was quite old but marvelous. There were a couple of the street vendors (read more gypsies) that were trying to sell tripods for cameras and stuff but were legging it as the cops were patrolling the area. It was funny watching these fellas running down these cobbled steps holding all of their wares.

The Colosseum was just awe inspiring. For the Romans to have built a 50,000 seat building for pure entertainment is crazy. You’ll have to look at the pictures that we took of the place as words can not simply describe how awesome it looks. You may notice heaps of holes in the columns and pillars of the Colosseum. This is because it used to be covered entirely in marble but the church took it all and used it to build St Peter’s 500 odd years ago. They destroyed most of the ancient roman buildings during that time.

After that we went shopping around the main districts of Rome to see if we could find anything. We walked around for about a couple of hours but didn’t find anything.... except for more gelati as Denise was busting for a piss. We saw this sign for Maccas and it read 50 metres down this way, We walked down there and eventually saw another sign which pointed 50 metres in another direction. At this point we thought bugger this and ended up finding a gelati shop which had a toilet so we went in, bought some gelati and used the toilet. We had arranged to meet another group at the Spanish steps to catch a cab and accidentally came across the Trevi fountains and also found the Maccas that the signs were pointing too... oh well.. We didn’t stay too long at the Trevi fountains as we were actually coming back to there later that afternoon with the group. We got to the Spanish steps and waited for about 15mins for the other group before caught the taxi ourselves. It was Denise, Lee, Raylin (this filipino girl from Toowoomba) and myself that caught the taxi. It ended up costing us 13 Euro which we thought was alright until we found out the other groups only cost 7 - 8 euros. Still it didn’t work out too bad since we split it 4 ways though I still haven’t gotten any money from Raylin yet..... dirty filipino...

We got back to the hotel and then back on the bus where we just came from. The trevi fountains are where you are supposed to toss 3 coins, 1 to come back to Rome, 1 is a wish and I forgot what the 3rd reason was. You hold the coins in your left hand and toss it over your right shoulder. We took some photos (as usual) and Lee recorded me throwing the coins over my shoulder so I’ll upload that with the photos when I get back.

Next up we went to this Italian restaurant where we had a billion entrees (actually 3 but still it was heaps) and we were almost full from the entrees that they served. We had our mains which was this fillet of beef which was ok but entree was definitely better and then a trifle like dessert with fruit and ice cream served. They also had some musicians that came around periodically singing with their guitar and flute. Apparently the flutist is famous or something and was selling his cd’s. They also had a couple of 10 and 5 euros notes in between the strings of the guitar. I think this was supposed to suggest tips or suggest that people had tipped and as such we should tip as well. I suspect though they were their own money that they had planted as no one was tipping them that night. We had a great time at dinner and everyone was cracking up and just being jolly. Merryn, one of the ladies that was here with her mate on a girl’s tour managed to sneak home a few bottles of red and white wine.

It's a me... Mario!

Well last night the hotel we stayed in was really cool. We did a quick tour of Lucerne or Luzern as it’s called in Switzerland and were shown around town which included the Tower Chapel bridge which is over 800 years old. We had dinner at the hotel which was some chicken dish and veges. Lee thought it was like McCain’s microwave food while the meal took me back to boarding school days... The room we got was like a studio room with an open bathroom and looked very modern indeed. We’re pretty sure that they recently refurbished the place and all the furniture smelled very new, like OzDesign furniture or something.

We tried looking for an internet cafe after dinner to upload the latest blog entries but couldn’t find one around town that was still open. We ended up going back to the hotel and paying 5 Euros for half an hour so we could upload the past 4 entries and so that you didn’t think we fell off the face of the earth.

We had a really busy day in Luzern and I think so far it’s been the highlight of the tour. We first started off by going to the Lion’s monument town which is a high sculpture of a Lion dying in the side of a large stone wall. It was there to mark the day when 700 Swiss guards were killed protecting Louis XVI at the start of the French revolution. The detail was amazing and it was about 200 years old. It reminded me of Aslan from Narnia and when you see the photos, I’m sure you will agree. Next up was the ascent up to Mt Pilatus in the Swiss Alps. It was a 45 min cable car ride up there with the first cable car only seating 4 of us and the second cable car holding 42 of us in there. You could see all the surrounding towns and lakes and the views to the other mountains was awesome.

On the way up we didn’t see much snow but saw a little bit on top of the mountain which gave us a little hope. When we got there the snow was amazing. It was the first time that Lee and I had seen snow and it was fabulous. The snow must have been pretty fresh as it was really soft and powdery. Some of the other guys were having snow fights and making snow angels while we were running around taking photos and stomping through the snow. I didn’t by any gloves to take on the trip so my hand’s were freezing. Lee gave me one of her gloves and by the time we had finished goofing around and taking photos, one other hand had gone a bit numb and my feet were wet from the ice and you could see this layer of ice going half way up to my knees. We went inside where the rest of the group were and sat down to have some vegetable soup and hot chocolate. After that we went back down and got on the bus back into town.

We were then dropped off into the heart of Luzern where we were briefly the night before and had about an hour and bit to do some shopping. The first thing everyone did was go into this department store called Bucherer and claim our free spoons that we got vouchers for the night before. The lady giving them out didn’t seem too impressed but we were told by the end of it she just held the spoons out for people to collect. The store is more like an upmarket department store and the first two levels were high rollers stuff like Rolex, Rado etc etc. We sold this Rolex watch that was being sold for 100,300francs which works out to be just over 100,000 Aussie dollars!!! On the third level was the souvenir section and they had some cool stuff like Swiss army knives (heaps of them) and chocolates etc. We ended up getting a few of the credit card style swiss army knives to give as gifts to people. Lee also bought these cans of chocolate which were shaped in the style of a dairy tin. All up it was about 110 Euros and I think the people we give them too should like it... otherwise tough titties!!!

We walked around town and had a baguette for lunch and walked across the bridge where the Tower chapel was. After that we went on a cruise on the lake Luzern (that’s what the tour director called it because he couldn’t pronounce the full name or something). Apparently this lake is the highest lake in the world as it was about 3000 metres above sea level. They views on the lake were amazing especially going past the surrounding mountains and also seeing a couple of castles that had been there for hundreds of years. We took quite a few photos but had to use the small compact digital camera as we had left the better one on the coach. When you see the photos, you agree that it was good... The lake was calm with no winds and it was so clean and pure as you could see through to the bottom of the lake.

After that the bus took us down Milan for our next night stop over. On the way through we went through border security in Italy. We were told it would be a quick stop as they had to fill out paper work. It happened to be that we ended up getting checked out by the Italian Security and Finance department which look after drugs enforcement and taxation avoidance which is a big thing in Italy.

They first took out all of the suitcases from the bottom of the bus which our bus driver Eric had managed to arrange nicely with his Tetris-like skills. Next they came on board to have a look through and eventually brought on the sniffer dog to smell for drugs. They even go the dog to sniff out the toilet as well which I’m sure probably would have scarred the dog for life. After that we were left through and everyone thought it was pretty amusing.

We eventually got into Milan which reminds me of Melbourne with the roads and island of trees as well as the trams. We saw a yellow Lamboghini Murceilago at border security and I also saw a Fiat 500 which I reckon are pretty cool and tell Lee that we should get one.

When we got to Milan we went to the town centre where we saw the Bank of Milan and Bank of Italy. Milan is the finance capital of Italy and this like seeing the Reserve Bank of Australia or something. There was also a statue of Da Vinci as he had lived in Milan for about 20 years. We also went through the first indoor Galleria or shopping mall in the world which had been built in the 19th century sometime. It was really and looked so beautiful. We had about 15mins free time there and some of the other people on tour bought some LV bags. Lee wanted to have a look at the Gucci store but it was closed by the time we got there.

We also also this church that had taken about 300 years to complete. It is very gothic looking and is so awesome. Heaps of spikes and stuff sticking out. They have been restoring and cleaning it over the past 3 years and it looks really white. The photos that we took don’t really do it any justice. After that we went back to the hotel which is really nice and big. The hotels so far have been fantastic and keep getting better and better. The one we have now has 2 rooms, one with a king size bed for us and next door is a room which has a couple of lounges and a walk in robe. The bathroom also has this funny looking thing next to the toilet bowl. It looks like a basin but made from a toilet bowl with a tap and everything. We asked Ben and Denise and they thought that you use it to clean your bum after you have done your business. The hotels that we have been staying at are quite expensive too, the room that we got is like the deluxe suite and most of the others don’t have anything as big as this. I think the tour director has been setting us up with the good rooms as he found out that it was our honeymoon. The room in Paris for example goes for 339 Euros a night. I reckon this room in Milan would be something like 400 - 500 Euros at least.

Well it’s almost 11pm here now and Lee has already conked out. I’m gonna try to get her to wake up and take a shower after the long day today so we can get some rest before tomorrow. We will be going to Rome in the morning and spend 2 nights there. For this tour we will be spending 5 out of the 12 days in Italy so it should be really good. After Rome, we go up to Florence and spend a night there where we get to see Michelangelo’s stature of David and then to the island of Venice for a gondola ride amongst other things. After that I think we go to Germany and Austria and then to Amsterdam before heading back to London.

Willis

It's off to Switzerland we go

The next morning we woke up around 6am so had a decent amount of sleep but still felt a bit tired. Today we have been travelling all day and will be until we reach Lucerne in Switzerland. We have driven pass the Chateau Nerf which is a castle that dates back to the 15th century where some Baron lived. 

We also heard a bit more about France’s history and what not and another speal by the tour director about all the optional excursions etc. He seems like a pretty nice guy but is using the subtle laws of influence (he said his wife is a shrink) to convince us to do the optionals. We stopped for morning tea near Auxceere, a small french town which wasn’t too bad. Lee bought some nougat which is quite nice and also we bought this bottle of sparkling water (read: soda water) which we got because the bottle looked so cool. It has a very long neck and we have a photo of it somewhere on the camera. 

Everyone thought we bought a bottle of alcohol or something. The next stop for lunch was in this small town called Beaune which is in the Bougogne which is supposed to be a famous wine region in France. The town has a population of about 20,000, so a little bit bigger than Moree but no abos so definitely an awesome town. It still has a lot of the old buildings and architecture from the ages dating back to the 15th century and we could see the moats and walls that are still in tact today. 

We were going to get Sam and Amanda a bottle of wine but most of the shops were closed there. Apparently they close in January during the holidays or go skiing or something as it was still a little bit cold. At the moment we are still on the bus again and heading towards Lucerne. We’ve decided to do the rest of the optional tours as we figured that we probably won’t be coming to these places again (maybe the exception would be Paris and London). 

Also even after the tours, we will still be under our budget that we set for the honeymoon and have only a couple of days left before we return to Australia anyways. I think this may also mean that Lee wants to get this Burberry bag that she has been eyeing since we left the duty-free store in Brisbane. We will also be going to the Swarovski factory shop in Austria and have been told it’s roughly 30% cheaper than their retail stores. Should be able to find other stuff for people there. We know that Suz likes the old crystals!!! (Cheaper for William too than... means he doesn’t need to buy a big diamond rock!)

Paris is cool

Alright, it’s day 3 of the tour and we’ve done a heap in the past couple of days since the last update so I thought I’d better write something so we don’t forget it all.

When we got into Paris we went to the hotel (Evergreen Laurel Hotel) which isn’t too far from the centre of Paris. After getting our rooms and all of our luggage, we went to the restaurant which was on the main street of Paris, the Champ Elysses. I reckon it is one of the most beautiful streets in the world. We were also there towards the end of their Christmas decorations on the trees which lucky for us, was the last night where it was all illuminated. It looked magnificent. At the end of the Champ Elysses is the Arch de Triomph. The apparently is the largest arch in the world and was commissioned by Napoleon to commemorate all of his victories, soldiers etc. It also houses the unknown soldier which is a symbol of the dead in World War I.

The dinner was really nice and the Creme Brulee was up there with some of the best I’ve had. We met a couple of Kiwi’s and Aussies from Perth who we sat next to for dinner. After dinner we went on a river cruise up the river in Paris where we took heaps of photos of the Eiffel tower amongst other landmarks that we saw. It was drizzling that day so we spent the first part of the cruise up top checking everything out and then went down deck undercover.

After the cruise, we were taken on a drive around Paris at night where we got to see the Concorde thingy which is next to the American embassy and also has the Egyptian obelisk which is over 2000 years old and weighs over 200 tons. We also saw the Ritz hotel where Princess Diana and Dodi came out off in that fateful night and also drove through the tunnel where they crashed.

That night we went back to the hotel to try to get some sleep. The hotel was quite nice though they gave us single beds again but have been told that won’t be the case anymore.   We had to get up quite early for the day but the breakfast buffet was really nice. It was both continental and hot breakfast and we were off again.

This time we had a local guide with us named Jan. She seemed quite nice and was really informative and told us quite a bit about Paris and its history. We did a morning drive around Paris where we were shown both old Paris again but with more detail and then taken through parts of new Paris. Jan mentioned that old Paris had a law hundreds of years ago that stated no building should be built more than 6 stories and this law remains in place till this very day.

After the drive we went to the Eiffel tower where there were quite a few people. It was a really beautiful day and was quite clear so we could see all around of Paris. We took heaps of photos and Lee bought some souvenirs.  I also got William a souvenir of one of the rivots from the Eiffel tower to add to his collection of Wonders of the World which currently consists of a piece of the Great Wall.

There were also a couple of gypsies around there which tried to ask for money or sell something. We just pretended we were asian tourists and didn’t speak any English or French for that matter. Security was also stepped up and we saw some of the military patrolling the tower. They all had famas on them so that was cool to see. I suppose they were there to stop someone from trying to the steal the Eiffel tower.

Next up we went to the Church and location of where Napoleon is currently buried. There was a huge red marble tomb that another 5 caskets in which his body is kept, supposedly to stop him from escaping. It is also a church and they actually mass at the time we were visiting. In the chapel there are flags which were raised at the top of the chapel which are over 200 hundred years old. They belonged to the countries that France had defeated in battle.

This area is also where France have their military school so we got to walk through this awesome cobblestone courtyard which had cannons from World War I. This directly overlooked the Eiffel tower and was truly a sight to see. Next up we went through the Paris red light district and to the base of the church Montemare. We had to walk up this alley which was a really seedy area and had heaps of hustlers and generally dodge people. There were quite a few people there that were on the street playing gambling games like a version of find the marker from the 3 cups. I think there were a few people that were insiders trying to get innocents. We caught a cable car up and eventually walked back down. 

The church was quite nice and large but we weren’t able to take photos and had to be quiet. For lunch we were to one of the restaurants up there and had a crepe. When we came back down there was a guy on the sidewalk that was selling mini Eiffel towers for a somewhat decent price. We were walking down with Denise and Ben who were from Perth and Denise liked one of the Eiffel towers which light up. The guy was selling them for initially 5 Euros and then said he could do us 2 for 6 Euros. I tried to talk him down to 2 for 4 Euros but he wouldn’t have it. We did the walking away trick and he gave in and sold them to us for 2 for 5 Euros. So we went halves and got one each. Lee and Denise were quite happy with that.

After that the bus took us to the Louvre which is the largest museum in the world and has some spectacular pieces of art on display. As it was the first Sunday of the month, no tour guides were allowed to give tours of the Louvre but it also meant that entry to the Louvre was also free. The place was absolutely packed but it was such a cool museum. We managed to see the Mona Lisa as well as Madonna on the Rocks and the Venus de Milo sculpture. There were heaps of signs saying that photography and video were not allowed but everyone else was taking photos and the staff weren’t stopping them so I snuck a few photos of the above mentioned in as well. We also got to see a large collection of Egyptian art and sculpture as well as tools and utensils that they would have used back in that time. It wasn’t till the end that I realised that they had a huge collection of Middle Ages, Renaissance and stuff from the knights era. We tried to get a look but the place is so big that we didn’t have time.... Oh well next time.

After the Louvre we went back to the hotel. Most people were getting ready to go to the Moulin Rouge cabaret that the tour director was taking them to. We had thought about going and thought it would have been nice but it was going to cost 144Euro each. In the end we went to a small restaurant in the courtyard across the hotel and had dinner that cost us 55 Euro all up. The Creme Brulee was good once again but the waiter didn’t seem like he wanted to be there. At one stage he wandered off somewhere and a group of Japanese people were waiting at the front desk for a couple of minutes waiting to be seated. Also we didn’t have any small change as the meal cost 52.85 Euro and they didn’t have any change either. The waiter ran off to find some change somewhere and in the end to avoid hassle we rounded it up to 55 Euro. We went back to the hotel and after a shower and spending ages trying to get Lee to wake up to go have a shower, we feel asleep. It was a pretty long day for us but we crashed and it was only 8pm.

From Dover to Calais and then to Paris.

The first day of the tour from Dover to Calais

****************************************************

We got up quite early this morning to prepare for our tour. We were waiting outside the hotel around 5:10 and got this mad breakfast box which contained some cornflakes, breakfast bar and juice. It was crap! We were the first to be picked up by the bus as everyone else on the tour were staying at the Hilton Olympia hotel. Our tour director was originally from Perth but moved to the UK 25 years ago and has been doing this gig since.

After a stop at the Hilton while picking everyone up as well as at the Trafalgar offices, we were on a 1.5hr drive to Dover to catch the ferry. There we saw the whitecliffs of Dover which is apparently made out of chalk to which Lee asked the question, “What happens when it rains?”

We caught the P&O ferry, “The Pride of Canterbury” from Dover to Calais. It was fairly decent size and had a cafeteria and several bars and coffee places. We had a “farmers” breakfast which was like a dodge big breakie but wasn’t too bad. Though the toast we had was deep fried which made me wonder what else was deep fried on the plate.

After this the ferry started to leave and that’s when the fun started. I started to feel a bit queezy and seasick so we wandered around the ferry looking for fresh air. The only spot was at the back where all the smokers were. After about 10mins there, we went back inside and found somewhere I could have a nap except Lee was nudging me every 5mins because I was snoring! We eventually got to Calais - a 90min trip to travel 23km’s. Though the whole time I was thinking about the time Top Gear went across in the Toyboata. 

We’ve left Calais now and are on the bus to Paris. Tonight we are having dinner with everyone else where we are getting served, salad, salmon and creme brulee. The tour group is about as packed as it can get and the majority of people are Aussies too. Crazy isn’t it, you leave Australia to go on a tour and end up with a bus load of Aussies as well.

Anyways, my hands cramping from all of this typing and Lee is drooling on my shoulder. I’ll update more tomorrow.

Willis