Day 272 : Paris – City of Love

They don’t call Paris the City of Love for nothing – Looking out of the window as I woke up this morning, I saw this love note on the floor, and it brought a smile to my face.  Ahh…. how sweet and romantic!

Off to explore more sights! 

Day 271 : More Paris Sights & Familiar Faces

Taking a VERY long walk from the apartment, I made my way towards Hotel National Des Invalides, as this path allows me to get towards Place de la Concorde and the Louvre.

On the map, it didn’t seem that far away, but it took me about an hour to walk over!  I found it a great way to experience the city and seeing the sights. 

Day 270 : Paris City Sights

I took a long slow walk from the apartment towards Avenue des Champ-Elysees to catch the main sights such as Arc du Triomphe, Grand Palais, Petit Palais and Louvre. 

Along Avenue des Champ-Elysees, there were also a number of car showrooms with some car designs which I had never seen before and wanting to take a closer look, I stepped into a couple of them. 

While visiting the sights, I got a call from Fabien and we arranged to have lunch together since he was near the area. 

After lunch, he brought me to the auction houses of Drouot.  It was the first time I visited an auction house and was an eye-opener!  The building was filled with numerous rooms, almost all with live auction happening at the time of my visit, varying from paintings, artefacts, decoration, statues etc.  I was so afraid of making any sudden hand movements in case someone thought I was bidding on the items!

Day 269 : Arrival in Paris

My original plan was to fly out of London after visiting Betty, but seems the airport tax for flights out of Heathrow airport was a couple hundred dollars more as compared to my original flight out from Barcelona.  After speaking to Singapore Airlines, I decided that it was better to fly out from Paris since both cities are easily connected by rail and the difference in flight cost was able to cover for my train ticket to Paris!

I took the 4.01pm train to Paris and within 1hr and 16 mins, arrived in Paris.  After numerous email exchanges, I finally met Fabien for the 1st time after 3 years!

Fabien had offered to put me up at his place during my week in Paris however due to some complications at his home, he put me up at his sister’s city apartment, which she uses as a layover when she travels back to France to visit family.  The apartment was lovely and being so close to all the key attractions, it was perfect for visiting all the sights with total freedom.

 

After settling me down at the apartment, Fabien brought me to a cozy French bistro walking distance away from the apartment which served fantastic French cuisine.  People were really friendly at the bistro too!  Knowing that I was a foreigner, the table next to ours even made the effort to speak in English.  I was pleasantly surprised as I have heard often the contrary from travellers, that Parisians are extremely unfriendly and will never speak English even if they could.

Looking forward to the rest of the week’s stay in Paris!

Day 263–268 : London

Hello London, we meet again!  This is the first city on this big trip that I had visited previously.  The last time I was here was in 2004, when Betty just moved over for work, and had went over to visit her while on way back from a business trip in Germany and to also spend Xmas and New Year’s holiday in Scotland and London.

Having seem most of the key tourists sights the last time round, the main purpose of this trip was just to spend some time with Betty before heading back to Singapore.  It’s good to be able to chill rather than pack the day filled with sights and activities.  Still I managed to see some new attractions (and old), visited the nearby parks and even managed to watch a musical “Blood Brothers”!

 

Day 263 : Goodbye Morocco…

After a late night out, I struggled to pull myself out of bed, before quickly packing up my bag to check out.  My luggage was absolutely full to the brim and bulging from its seams!

While waiting for the airport bus at the medina, a taxi driver approached to offer me a ride to the airport.  I told him I couldn’t afford to pay for a taxi and only have enough to pay for an airport bus at Dirham 30.  He tried to ask for more, but seeing that I wouldn’t budge, he agreed to send me in a taxi for the price of an airport bus.  I guess competition is tough! 

Goodbye Morocco!

Night Out in Marrakesh

I met Jamal at the main square, and before we went for a night out in town, he showed me around the 2 hotels he is managing, one of which is recently completed renovating and meant to be rented out as an entire house, while the other had rooms themed in different colours and furniture completed in the same.  It was all very nice! 

We stopped for an ice-cream while walking in the twists and turns of the medina.  I was surprised that while halfway through our ice-cream, a guy walked up to him and asked if he could have his half eaten ice-cream and Jamal just gave it to him.  Jamal must have caught my surprised look and he explained that it’s typical for Moroccan to share food or similar with the less fortunate – this perhaps explained why one old lady looked at me in disgust when she approached and spoke to me in Moroccan while I was in midst of finishing my orange juice earlier in the day!

 

Day 262 : More Marrakesh and Moroccan tea ceremony

After having a quick overview of Marrakesh yesterday, I zoomed in on the highlights closer to the old town which was worth a closer exploration.

Palais Bahia

This place is completely breath taking!  Comprising a number of courtyards all nicely tiled and decorated Moroccan style and extremely lavish.  It was built in the late 19th century,with a 8000 sq.m garden with rooms opening onto courtyards, and was intended to be the greatest palace of it time.

Day 261 : Exploring Marrakesh

With only 2 full days to explore Marrakesh, I decided to check out the explorer bus, which goes on both an “Oasis” route as well as a “Historic” Route, while allowing you to hop on and off at numerous fixed stops. 

I paid 145 Dirhams for a 24hr pass and was given a set of earphones which can be plugged into a audio console on each seat, providing various language options to listen to the tour narrative as well as description of the key highlights along the route.  Most of the seats on the Explorer Bus were located on the open air upper deck, and with the blazing Moroccan sun and a burning 38 degree celsius, I was very hot!

Day 260 : Enroute to Marrakesh, the vibrant city of Morocco

It’s off to Marrakesh after my last minute shopping in the morning!

I made my way to the train station and got ready to board the train.  Standardisation doesn’t seem to be the norm here in Morocco, as the train that I took seemed extremely run down, as compared to the nice comfy train I had taken from Casablanca to Rabat.  With no seat assignments, I was lucky enough to get a seat in one of the cabins which holds 8, of which half was occupied by a family of 4.

Day 259 – 260 : Rabat

Rabat is a 2hr train ride from Casablanca and is the capital of Morocco. 

The train ride to Rabat was very pleasant in a modern looking train, and upon arriving into Rabat, was greeted by clean and modern looking town. 

As usual, accommodation was challenging.  Prices were much steeper here as compared to the other cities, and most of the more affordable ones were already taken.  I visited a few hotels, before finally settling into a room at Hotel Central, located a short distance from the train station.