Grand Tour Days 77-84 – Cornwall and Munich and the end of my journey

The last week of my Grand Tour was a bit of a whirlwind. From Germany to Cornwall and back with one missed train and one missed plane to add excitement to the adventure. Those of you that know me well know that I am a worrier and a planner. I worry about everything, often about things I can’t control. One of my personal goals for this trip was to worry less – to let things happen as they happen and not to stress about them. Well, I think I was successful, rather, too successful. I somehow became so complacent about travelling and scheduling that I really believed two hours would be enough time to get from Stansted airport, across the city and onto my train to Cornwall. When I missed that train I blamed it on the holdups at customs and decided not to worry about rebooking my train back to London, which would arrive at Paddington station two hours before my flight to Munich. So not only did I miscalculate the first time, I was convinced that I would be successful the second time, doing basically the same thing. I was wrong and I hope I have learned after not just two but three missed bookings in one week (I missed my train from Paris to Munich the week before) that a bit of worrying is a good thing. And showing up to the airport or train station well before my departure time is not an uptight thing to do.

Grand Tour Days 68 – 76: Last week in Paris then to Munich and beyond

I tried to write on the train to Cornwall yesterday and failed miserably, but today, in the peaceful village of Falmouth I have time and some focus. It’s been over a week since I last posted – the longest I’ve gone without writing in more than a year I believe (wow, just realised that this second). The last week has been busy, it involved – my last week in Paris starting with the Tour de France and ended with me missing my train to Munich by 15 seconds, going to Munich for the weekend and then travelling here to Cornwall. Busy but in a way that only your final moments on vacation can be – wonderful.

Grand Tour Days 63-67 – The subsurface and art of Paris

The city of Paris is huge. While the city proper is a bit smaller than Vancouver land-wise (105 km2 versus 115 km2) the metropolitan area sprawls (14,500 km2 versus Vancouver’s meager 2,900 km2). And population density? I would have thought that with all of the new condos in downtown Vancouver that we are a reasonably dense city but all you have to do is walk through Paris to know that there are many more people here.

Grand Tour Days 58-62 – Out to the ‘burbs

One of the advantages to the whole bedbug thing is that I am getting to see and stay in a lot more of Paris than I would have otherwise. My little studio was up in Belleville (11th arrondissement), then I stayed with Emma in the Eiffel Tower district (7th arrondissement), I’m currently south of Paris proper in a hostel in the city of Villejuif (pronounced roughly like Vee-jeef), and will be staying for my last week near Bastille (12th arrondissement). And my hope that I would wake up to see the Eiffel Tower every morning? Well – I have seen the Eiffel Tower every day (though not necessarily in the morning). Plus, I’ve climbed to the second level three times, took the lift to the top once, and generally just strolled around at least five times – so I think I’m doing just fine!

Grand Tour days 53 – 57 – Exploring Paris with Emma

I came to Europe on my own, to travel and explore all by myself. That was the theory anyway however I’ve spent most of my trip so far in the company of friends or family and really couldn’t be happier about it. It is more than a little amazing though – I figure I’ve only spent 18 or 19 days out of 57 by myself without seeing a family member or friend (that I knew before I started my trip). It helps that my brother lives in Munich and travels a lot and that I have friends in France and England, and friends that thought it would be fun to visit me in Paris. I had thought that travelling by myself would be liberating, and it can be, but sharing things is really quite wonderful (though I do find I have even less time to write).

Grand Tour Days 47 – 52 – Here, there and bedbugs where?

I’ve been touristing through Paris over the last several days, and after nearly a week of debating with myself about where the scads of bites I’ve been getting were coming from I woke up on Tuesday with a fierce reaction and, luckily, one dead bedbug by my bed (I hope I squashed him in my sleep!). The reason that it was lucky to find a dead bedbug was that now I knew for sure that this ridiculous little insect was what was causing my bites. Anyhow, I’ll get on with the rest of the bedbug story in a bit.

Grand Tour days 43-46 – Paris!!

Paris is unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been. I am not at all surprised by this, but I think I am surprised at the things that make it seem so different to me. There are people everywhere. The streets are packed! When I went walking for the first time after arriving it was nearly overwhelming. I was filled with words to describe it, like: heaving, humid, mass, controlled mayhem… Actually, they probably work better together – walking on the streets was like walking through a humid, heaving mass of controlled mayhem.

Grand Tour Days 40 – 42 – Champagne! (Need I say more?)

I learned something very profound about geology these last few days – chalk is a type of limestone. Now, I knew that chalk is made of calcium carbonate, but somehow I hadn’t connected the dots between the two (limestone is also made of calcium carbonate). The reason chalk gets its own name is because it is quite a bit softer than many limestones. It is softer, but don’t be deceived (as I was) it still isn’t really ‘soft’ most of the time. Hence my confusion. I’ve been seeing all sorts of cliffs (the north edge of Normandy) that others described as chalk, and I couldn’t really get it. To me a soft stone doesn’t make cliffs. Then I arrive in Champagne where many of the cellars that the champagne is stored in were Gallo-Roman chalk quarries (crayères in French). I couldn’t think of what they would need so much ‘chalk’ for. Turns out it was for building – homes, city walls, the Cathedral and other public buildings. Luckily for us, this chalk limestone is also perfect for growing grapes to make champagne!

Grand Tour Days 36 – 39 – From Bern to Strasbourg

Summer is here. The weather over the last week or so has been warm and sunny, a definite advantage as I packed more for warm weather than cool and rainy. I spent a few days in Bern – Switzerland’s capital city – with my brother and then said auf weidersehen and took the train into France. Strasbourg to be exact. I had hoped to spend some time exploring the whole region of Alsace, but with travel times I really only left myself one whole day. I must learn to schedule myself a bit better.

Grand Tour Days 32 – 35 – Switzerland’s Olympic Cities

Olympics and cheese – what more could I want?

I think I may be conducting a human experiment on myself – how much cheese can my body really tolerate? I have been in Switzerland for four days and have had fondue twice, raclette once, a cheese plate once and some amount of cheese with every other meal that didn’t consist nearly entirely of cheese. So far so good though! Which is just encouraging me further. Hmm….