22/5 Kl - Perth

Friday 22^nd On the ground in KL

We had to check through immigration and then caught the shuttle out to our airport hotel, where we had booked a day room from 8am to 6pm. This worked stunningly well. We fell straight asleep until 4pm then packed, checked out, took the shuttle back to the main airport (5 minutes) and then the public shuttle to the budget terminal (almost an hour $1). Every time we travel this stretch it reminds us of the time we almost missed our flight to Langkawi  and had our terrified taxi driver flying straight through red lights at full speed.

We sauntered into the terminal and settled in Maccas in the wifi area with our own wall plug to keep the battery going. And here we are. Our flight is on the board, on time and the checkins are open.

All things going to plan, we will be in Perth at 6am, Stephie will come and fetch us and take us home. Amanda is there with Nathan. We have this mental picture of setting up a skype session with Lissa in the back room, then walking in and surprising her. Whether this happens at 7.30 when we get home or whether we wait until the afternoon when we wake up remains to be seen.

Just when you are thinking that this is all over, we will finish off within a few days so you know how the Great Skype Plot pans out. And don’t forget -  we still have until late October before we go back to work (or one of us does). At the moment we are leaning in favour of doing it in Asia but having said that, the cruise bargains in the Mediterranean are incredible. Stay tuned. Thank you for following our progress this far.

X X

Janine and Chris (or as they called us on MSC – Jane and Tarzan).

21/5 Paris to KL

Thursday 21^st Paris-KL

A leisurely start having preplanned the route the night before and bought train tickets. There were incredible queues and delays getting through passport control but then we just walked straight through and boarded our flight. We had been transferred to Malaysia Airlines, which was more comfortable and provided meals, drinks and movies. We basically sat for 12 hours watching movies – rather like the Emirates system we paid for but never experienced. The plane was pretty full but oddly we were in the middle of an empty patch. Apparently 8 passengers might not have made it through passport control in time.

I left J in the middle of 4 seats and sat behind with 2 seats to myself. This ruse worked well and she managed to stretch out and have a bit of an afternoon nap, while it ticked round to midnight Paris time and 6am Malaysia/Perth time.

20/5 Versailles

Wednesday 20^th Palace of Versailles.

A pleasant train trip into the country then an awesome walk round the palace and its grounds.

King Louis iv

Hall of mirrors....wow

King's bed

Beaut gardens

Info & Pics to come - tomorrow....maybe.....

19/5 Woooooohoooooo DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!

Tuesday 19^th DISNEYLAND!!!!

We signed up for double passes. At Walt Disney Studios we saw a fantastic stunt car display in an outdoor stadium. Big synchronised takes with 8 cars and some motorbikes flying at each other from all directions, complete with fireworks and blazing motorcyclists etc. Steph – start saving Now! They had special cars made where the driver faced backwards so he could “reverse” at great speed while looking forwards, which was useful in some scenes. Plus cars flying up ramps, into and out of buildings etc. Very clever and excitivating.

They had a brilliant movie/stage show where an “audience member” wandered onto the stage and by a great illusion ended up in the movie, interacting with all the old film stars with a story woven together with great ingenuity and humour.  He found his way through some of the most famous gunfights, Monty Python’s terrifying Rabbit of Death, Star Wars etc etc.

Then we had a tram ride though movie sets where we were afflicted with earthquakes, fires and raging floods – very realistic. Next we went against our better judgement and climbed aboard an indoor rollercoaster that flew round in the dark, complete with sideways spins that had us going backwards as often as forwards. We went in backwards and ended up forwards – as for what happened in between, you would need to ask somebody who had their eyes open J

Earthquake, fire and floooooooooood

Crush's coaster - complete with 'mine' seagulls below

Finally, there was a parade of Disney cars and characters and then we moved on to Disneyworld, which was in large part a copy of what we had seen in Hong Kong. I have to say that the castle was sensational – this is the characteristic backdrop that is so much a classic icon of Disney and it was quite touching to be walking through the real thing.

We went into a Tarzan show that consisted of a lot of rolling and tumbling and dangling from the ubiquitous silken ropes. We had seen a lot of this on cruise boats and very well done, but this was different and spectacular on a large stage with dozens of cast. Really enjoyable.

Tarzan and monkeys

Next was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride that was mostly in a boat. J did this twice. Another huge Disney parade commemorating 20 years of EuroDisney in Paris. J then did the Alice in Wonderland maze before we cut straight to The Main Event – the Buzz Lightyear ride, where you are driven round and get to shoot laser guns at monsters. Yes this is the one we did so often in Hong Kong and we did it another three times. Some technical fault in the weaponry or score keeping system seemed to suggest that J won all three games.

We piled into a large StarWars simulator, that totally convinced us that we were warping through the universe. The feeling was exactly the same as you would get if you did the rollercoaster with your eyes shut (I expect). Of course we don’t know anyone who has ever done that.

Skull rock

Alice in Wonderland maze - with dancing water

Jack's beanstalk

We finished  off with the Haunted House which was . . . hell you know what it was.

18/5 Is there anything open on a Monday?

Monday 18^th Paris is closed - Louvre

A bit of a gloomy day that needs to be spent in a museum and luckily one is open – the Louvre! We had previously admired and enjoyed the gardens but hadn’t planned on going inside. There was a long queue snaking round the square but it moved quite quickly and we made it inside.  We saw the Mona Lisa up close (not as small as people say) and also the Venus de Milo which is actually Aphrodite! An ancient Greek statue and quite armless (sorry). Apart from that there was a huge Egyptian collection (like the Vatican – much better than anything that is left in Egypt) and rooms full of Rembrandts etc. The great royal collections were moved here from the Palace de Versailles after the revolution.

Not short of a statue either – galleries full, including a few more of the major pieces Michelangelo did for the tomb of Pope Julius II which ended up elsewhere.  It was quite tiring being on our feet all afternoon but very interesting and enjoyable.

You are not allowed to walk on water out ther front of the Louvre

This was beautiful.  Never saw anything like this is Egypt

Tut and the French guy

Made of wood.  Again, never saw anything like this in Egypt

Scribe

Jointed wood...wow

The scrum in front of the Mona Lisa

Crown jewels

Castle that once stood where the Louvre is now

The remnants of that castle in the foundations of the Louvre

Venus de Milo

So many sarcophagus

Look at the wrapping on this mummy....wow

Enormous

After we got thrown out of the Lourve, way to early, we walked to the Pompadu centre.

 What a strange building.  It is different though.

17/5 Farewell MSC hello Paree

Sunday 17^th getting off in Kiel – train to Paris

The Greeks go to the polls today – what will they do? I suspect it will just drag on while they go through all the motions again. We had signed up to remove our own luggage, which got us pole position on the starting grid and we had walked to the station by 9am. The internet shops both failed to open but we caught the train and whizzed along comfortably at 200 km/hr. We had hoped to follow part of the Rhine but we mostly ran through tunnels. The countryside that we saw was very lush and pretty. We changed at Karlsruhe at 5pm and set course for Gay Paris.

We were last here in October, very early in our holiday. We are not at all sad to be going home because we did everything we wanted to (except Everest) and it all turned out better than we had envisaged. Nothing went wrong, we didn’t get seriously ill, nothing got stolen, we saw some amazing sights and sites, did some exhilarating things, did it rough and took it easy, didn’t spend more than we expected, and we are on the way home to the family. And we still have 3 months left to play!

Our hotel is very nice and very well situated being a short walk from both the Gare de l’est which is where we came in and the Gare du Nord, which is where we need to catch the train for Charles de Gaulle on the last morning. As you would expect so close to major stations, there is a full palette of marginalised people, but they keep to themselves and we feel quite safe. There are also a couple of supermarkets so we are keeping up our intake of baguettes and smoked salmon.

Most people would have a bird on their shoulder... not a dog.  It seemed comfortable even when they went fast on the scooter

16/5 Copenhagen

Saturday 16^th

C distinctly sub-healthy but we wandered ashore and set off in search of the Little Mermaid. 

Little she is and quite picturesque but hardly a major work of art – must be the romance of the legend.  Nearby we came across the Danish Resistance Museum, which was free and had wi-fi! Fabulous. The museum was interesting if not compelling. They had a lot of homemade guns and a homemade armoured car. There was relatively little sabotage and ambushing – Denmark was a sleepy backwater and they didn’t want to provoke retaliation against the civilians so they mostly printed newspapers and broadcast radio messages. And, if they are anything like Monty Python’s Popular Liberation Front, passed a lot of sternly worded memoranda.

And there I stayed for 2 hours while J gadded about Copenhagen. The Eagles are still top of the ladder and there are a few hotels near the airport in KL.

Palace (above & below) Love the guards hats

Don't know how they did this....she is suspended mid air

Beautiful Mary on a stamp

Church where Mary & Fred got married

Hans Christian Anderson

Bear fountain

Old library gardens and building

Library - old and very new

Dragon Tail spires

We made it back to the ship for our Last Lunch L and had a nap before our first recent appearance at dinner. There was a bit of a performance clearing up our cruise account then we set about spending the cruise credit. This took some time, around watching the last music quiz. J couldn’t help herself and won an MSC CD case – hadn’t seen one of those before.