travelling allrite

Our stay in Amsterdam was far too brief. After a quick breakfast in the railway saloon inspired eating area decorated with a wide variety of railway paraphenalia we were soon heading out into the chilly Amsterdam air. Over the road was the ornate Amsterdam Centraal railway station and we jumped on to the double decked yellow and blue train to Schipol Airport. I really like Schipol. It's no wonder that it is consistently rated one of the world's top airports. There's a good range of reasonable shopping and most of it seems accessible. Collecting our tax refund proved to be difficult as, due to a systems failure, I had to walk across the single open teller at the opposite side of the terminal. Alex discovered a yellow balloon lying on the floor and took possession of it. At the gate I was surprised and a little disappointed to see our old friend "Penang", the same 747 that had carried us all the way to Europe. Alex sadly had to give up the balloon while B and ...

Here we are at the A-Train hotel in Amsterdam after a day on the trains. A long day on the trains. We said a sad goodbye to Paris, catching a packed metro train and then a RER train up to Gare du Nord station. We were early and there was not much to do but stand around the headers and watch the trains arrive and depart under the canopy. Our fast Thalys bound for Amsterdam waited next to another decorated with Tintin, in a cross-promotion with the Spielberg movie. The Thalys was very comfortable inside, bright pink and red decor, wifi (free for first class, extra cost for us) and power sockets. After days of blue skies today we left under foggy grey, racing past tenements, then cultivated fields of green dotted with small towns. Though our tickets were for Amsterdam we had to make a stopover in Brussels to pick up some lost property. We had actually left it in Ghent, but the luggage staff kindly shipped it straight down for us and look after our big bags as well. Not having seen out...

Our last day in Paris! How could we not be a little sad? This is a special place. Though the sights are uncountable it is the experiences that make Paris what it is. We could easily spend a month here, doing very little, just soaking up the atmosphere. Unfortunately, it is not to be on this trip, so we had to make this last day special. I was originally planning a day trip out to Vitre, a medieval castle town in Brittany, but we couldn't stomach six hours in a train. So instead we decided to take Alex on a sightseeing tour of Paris. During our three previous trips here we have visited many of the popular tourist destinations. You might think Alex is too young to do the same, but he has books on Paris that he can relate to, most notably Masumi's Paris Hide and Seek where you have to find Theo and his dog Potchi in various locations around the city (thanks Nanna!). The previous night we had visited the Eiffel Tower and Alex had spotted the lifts going up and down. Of course he...

We looked outside our window this morning to see warm blue skies and a market set up underneath the railway tracks. While shopping for groceries at the supermarket the previous night had been a painful ordeal, the opportunity to mingle with the locals at the stall selling fresh produce, breads, meats, seafood and miscellaneous items was not to be missed. There were sea urchins and snails, bbq chickens and ducks, an amazing variety of apples and the nicest looking tomatoes that you've ever seen. Tiny strawberries and clementines with the leaves left attractively on top. We stopped at this stall and that, filling up our pantry though we only have a couple of days to eat it all. And it was only a few metres away from the apartment. Our menus du jour at the Bistrot Pierrot across the street were so much better than the day before's and we felt a little Parisian taking our time to savour them and watch the world unfold outside the window. Until Alex dropped his glass of water on ...

Alex has been talking about this day for months. He wanted so much to turn three so he can do "martial arts" at preschool with his slightly older friends. And he knew a bit about Paris thanks to some books brought back by his Nanna. He opened his presents, a complex Swiss wooden puzzle and a German board game, along with a magic writing board purchased at Hamley's in London. But what really captivated him was the musical birthday card from Sydney with a picture of a toilet and a flushing sound when openend. "Can we see that toilet?" he asked. I really should rename this trip "The toilets and lifts of Europe". As he got dressed he talked to his Bob the Builder jumper. So cute! For the first time on this trip we left our hotel to a sunny day, the sky crisscrossed by contrails. I had prebooked tickets to the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, quite far out from our hotel's location. They were still closed when we arrived, but we joined the ...