Travels

Dubai – Melbourne – Sunshine Coast Monday 9th October – Dubai & 39C at 10pm. 14 hour flight to Melbourne & 11C at 10pm on Tuesday 10th October. Wednesday 11th October & 6C at 7am.  I flew to the Sunshine Coast and arrived around lunch time and a pleasant 25C.

Dubai Mall Monday 9th October We continued on the metro, being able to travel in the female-only carriage and alighted at the Dubai Mall stop. We walked kilometers in an elevated, air-conditioned walkway with at least a dozen travelators just to reach the outskirts of the mall. The Dubai Mall

Dubai Day 2 Monday 9th October First up it was a visit to The Museum of the Future. It’s housed in yet another spectacular, purpose built structure with exhibits devoted to innovative and futuristic ideologies. The exterior of the building has a stainless steel appearance with windows in the form

Dubai – Burj Al Arab Sunday 8th October We took a few hours of respite in the afternoon before venturing out again to take a tour of the Burj Al Arab hotel. It’s a spectacular building. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s  vision was a building that would

Dubai Day 1 Sunday 8th October We are so very lucky to be staying with Diane’s neice and her fiancé who have lived in Dubai for several years. They have a fabulous home that they bought last year and had it renovated. WOW, they did an amazing job so it’s

Paris for a day – the afternoon Friday 6th October Some more wanderings and the most amazing hot chocolate drink in the world. Although hot chocolate is a favorite drink in France I have only had 2 whilst here and the one I had today will last in my memory

Paris to Dubai Saturday 7th October Now that we have sorted out the travel connections between our hotel and our departure terminal at Charles de Gaulle Airport it was an easy transition, but it still took 3 hours and our hotel was on 150 mts from the entrance of the

Paris for a day – Dior Friday 6th October The Dior exhibition was stunning.

Paris for a day – The Arab Institute Friday 6th October Parfums d’ Orient or Perfumes of the Orient

Paris for a day – the morning Friday 6th October Our wanderings before breakfast at Shakespeare & Co. The bikes

Carcassonne – Montpellier – Paris Thursday 5th October Farewell to Carcassonne. What was to be a travel day has now turned out to be a travel day and half the night. There were delays. An accident on the tracks and a person killed. Our train was delayed by 3 hours

Carcassonne Wednesday 4th October

Carcassonne Day 5 – Cabardes & Minervois Wednesday 4th October We picked up our tour at the railway station and as it turned out we were the only ones on board the mini bus for the afternoon tour. We travelled out of town to Limousis and the nearby grotto. At

Carcassonne Day 5 Wednesday 4th October I returned to Saint Vincent’s church today. I am keen to solve the mystery of the bell ringing but so far I have been out of luck. The church was locked. I visited the tourist office again and found some different staff members to

Carcassonne Day 4 & Chateau Pennautier We caught a local bus out to the next village (5 kms) to the Chateau and treated ourselves to a fancy lunch at their vineyard. The courses were paired with their best wines. The starter – Red mullet with sweet spice emulsion on diced

Carcassonne Day 3 Monday 2nd October We returned to the medieval fortress again today to be guided through the history of Carcassonne. It’s complicated.

Carcassonne The bells ring out frequently throughout the day. On some occasions they are not just chiming the time. There are 47 bells and I have counted more than 150 chimes in one ringing.

Carcassonne Day 2 Sunday 1st October Carcassonne all but goes to sleep on a Sunday. The public transport does not operate, lots of the bars, restaurants and all of the shops are closed. It was interesting to find that the big supermarket (a national chain) was open but after 12:45