travel

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #14 – Amiens–Paris – Barcelona 22/10/25

With plenty of time this morning I had the best & possibly the only sleep in I’ve had since Nuremburg. Really needed it & Amiens was so quiet, plus it was an apartment, like a home would be. I had to completely clean the apartment to remove any signs of my stay there (as I usually do … cleaners would love me) & return the key to the magical place of the stairs around the corner for the lock box. I was able to do a well-timed laundry wash too last night & everything was dry. Another win!!

Boarding the train at Amiens was a breeze due to being a regional station & then another hour later I was at my favourite Garde du Nord Train Station .. NOT!!! From my last experience in getting a domestic rail connection & the taxi mongrel the other day I decided to see more of Paris by walking the 4.2klms to my Tim Hotel for the overnight stay (40mins) which is quite close for my train trip tomorrow. Once I checked in & paid a smallish city tax (€15), I headed off to Garde de Lyon Train Station to test out my train connection for 7.40am departure to Barcelona (6.5hrs) tomorrow. This station is much more simplified & has only 3 Halls (all huge though). My Hall 1 has 23 platforms & I have confidence all will be well tomorrow. The station is only 250m away too.

23/10/25 Everything went to plan (proper planning) & caught my train on time at 7.41am but I didn’t sleep much at all last night. Travelling around 165 -300klm/hr in aircraft seats was comforting but alas, I am still travelling backwards which I’m beginning to think is a European thing to annoy tourists (joking). For the 6.5hrs of travelling there is plenty of farmland to see & I had that rare moment when I thought I had no-one sitting next to me. Bummer .. a guard came up with a man about 60 & he just plonked down, almost hitting me. Well .. the smell of him! A mixture of garlic, old eggs & body odour. Wow!! It was dreadful. Appeared to be Spanish, even his hands were dirty. He was on the train for some 3hrs or so until we stopped at Beziers when he got off. A lady took his seat & she was French, but I wished I had disinfected the seat for her. She never spoke to me either, so I’m on a roll of silence, I guess. We had 20 coaches on our train plus 2 food carriages & 4 engines. That works out about 390m & that is how long some platforms are in Paris & the like. Our carriages were also double deckers too.

There wasn’t much to see along the way with the tracks having high levee banks parallel to the tracks possibly to limit the noise pollution of the trains but every now & then an opening would appear. Southern France was quite fertile & full paddocks of ploughed topsoil & soon to be harvested crops but as you got closer to the Spanish border the whole thing changed & became worse the further south you go. The soil turned to sandy gravel & quartz & grass basically disappeared; it was more like semi-arid land & maybe in a period of drought by the looks of it. The train route consisted of the 1st stop being Lyon, then Montpellier, Nimes, Beziers, Narbonne, Perpignan, Figueres, Girona & finally Barcelona. This train terminates at Barcelona, so everyone is getting off & the platform is full of rushing masses.

Back to the arid lands of Spain, there was some farming done, but on a difficult scale. Lots of the farms needed considerable work done on them. Some I saw seemed they literally walked away from the land with deserted housing & barns. Of course, Spain went mad with their solar & stupid wind farms & they were scattered in clumps & with the high winds I believe that’s why 85% or so weren’t operating (wind speed limited). These windmills could be put up anywhere as there seems no sensitive environment to deal with; such is the arid land. Remember, Spain had a country wide blackout about 2yrs ago, but they had French nuclear energy to fall back on at some unknown cost (repayment). We in Australia are putting these shit things everywhere & the windfarms are being installed through pristine forests, koala habitats, logging forests & dinosaur period rainforests without any environmental impact legislation applied. My hometown area of Nrthn NSW just 3months ago was shut down for selective logging, yet these farms just plough through with utter destruction. Also, when we have a major blackout & it will come, we can’t call upon our neighbours for energy. We are all alone, an island. Complete shutdown. End of this rant … for now!!

Arriving in Barcelona was beyond ridiculous with gusty high wind forces. Despite this & remembering my disgusting taxi ride in Paris, I decided to see more of Barcelona by walking to my hotel, some 4.1klms away (40mins). I walked & by-passed broken limbs scattered all over the streets. They were everywhere & the wind was still around at 7.30pm when I came back into my Hotel Espana Ramblas after checking in. Wind gusts seemed to be around the 80klm mark. Of course, Google Maps played up & sent me about 4mins out of my way but eventually I arrived at my hotel after seeing quite a few sights & landmarks along the way, such as, the Colosseum-like Arenas de Barcelona shopping Centre which looked more like something else in its stature. The Placa d’Espanya statue within a busy roundabout. World Trade Centre building adjacent to the marina. The monument a Colom dedicated to Columbus, again in the centre of a roundabout along the marina. Finally arrived at my quite swanky Hotel Espana tucked away in a very narrow street lane (being renovated over on the left side) & even has a doorman to open the door. The room is rather swish to say the least. A shower you can dance in. King sized bed. Once settled, I started out walking around a bit more to get my bearings & seeing lively eating areas & community buzz at the Plaza Real de Cataluna Espana & the overcrowded fish, meat, poultry & fruit/veg markets. With the daylight fully ended I completed 15,374 steps = 11.98klms for the day. Tomorrow, I have a tut-tut city tour set for tomorrow morning 9am sharp & The Basilica de la Sagrada Familia tour set for 1pm.

24/10/25  WOW, WOW, WOW!!!Of what I have seen today but first I must divulge what started out on the day. Best sleep ever in such a great bed. Showered & off to a great breakfast in the hotel buffet. I was certainly looked after, treated like royalty, really. As soon as brekky was over, I started out to my meeting point, some 2.5klms walking away for the Tut-Tut City Tour (3hrs) to map the main points out on this wonderful city. Of course, I’m never late & was some 20mins early & I had the correct address & confirmed my arrival on Google Maps. Not a sign of a tut-tut, nor a representative. as time went on, I sent text msgs, emails before & after the 9am deadline but yet, not a response. I waited till 9.25am, yet not a response. I also sent an email at 5.57pm & still no response. Eventually I received an email from Get Your Guide operator on 26/10/25 stating they have received my request for a refund due to no tour provided. I received 2 more emails the next day requesting my tour feedback, so I couldn’t let that slide by. Finally, the 30/10/25 (I have since left Lisbon for Dublin) I received their email confirming my refund is being processed to my account. Such a slow response.

With much frustration of no Tut-Tut Tour I left the meeting point at 9.25am & headed towards my next tour, The Basilica de la Sagrada Familia some 15mins walk away & with that I saw a lot of landmarks & fine buildings. Castle of the Three Dragons (castle built for 1888 Exhibition World Fair, now cafe & museum), Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia, Arc de Triomf as the entrance gate to The World Fair in 1888. Sant Pau Recinte Modernista Hospital (1902-30), which is a hidden gem of spectacular, not far from Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. Viewing from the front entrance is amazing. The clocktower is 62m high. I didn’t get to see inside but people are stating it is of disbelief the imagery of architecture & finishes inside. It is now a knowledge centre for various educations of health, etc. Only a kilometre away from the Basilica is La Monumental is another Colosseum type – 1914 art noveau bullring building now used for concerts, etc with a bullring museum. You can go inside & even stand on the sand ring. Due South of Sagrada Familia is the Cathedral of Barcelona, another great architectural Gothic church (13 [1298] -15 centuries) built on previous churches foundations. The dome was completed in 1913. This cathedral has so much history & was operating well before the 13th century in previous buildings.

Of course I’m far too early, so I did a bit of crowd watching in-between looking at this marvelous structure disbelieving what I am seeing. After a while I circumnavigated this amazing place by a few city blocks to get more views of Barcelona living. Found the best coffee place I’ve had since Nuremburg & the staff were thrilled with my response. With more walking & getting nearer to my strict 1pm entry time I checked all correspondence with this tour. Lots of restrictions (like an airport & dress regs). I soon discovered my entry point is on the other side of this construction monument (rear of the structure) & headed off to be early again. I helped a foreign lady who was confused to find Entry Door C which is my access entry too. I was standing, people watching again & I looked over towards Entry C where she was waving & stating to ask the guard to come in earlier than my time allowed. That worked a treat with the guard & now I’m entering at 12.30pm, bonus. I wasn’t able to catch-up with her again to say thanks. The below photo is a teaser for my next blog on Basilica de la Sagrada Familia, this amazing structure of disbelief.

I’ll end my Blog #14 here for I have more to write about this magnificent basilica & far more photos of this brilliance & a little more of Barcelona. Many thanks for reading my blogs. Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #13 – WW1 Tour 21/10/25

Blog #13 – Amiens – Villers-Bretonneux 21/10/25 Today is an extra special day thought about long ago. It is about a ‘promise’ I secretly made to myself to visit the war area surrounding Villers-Bretonneux & The General Sir John Monash War Memorial just out of town. The promise came about when I was trying to organise a trip in 2017 for the 2018 opening of the underground War Museum at The General Sir John Monash War Memorial with my youngest brother, Rod but I won’t go into why he couldn’t agree but it wasn’t his decision not to. Not long after my first planning of this trip & discussing it with him Rod suddenly passed away (at only 54). Rod was an avid reader of books on WW1 & knew a lot more than I on the subject. After he passed away, I made that promise to myself to take him with me .. much like I’ve done on every trip since 2017.

I have read 2 large, detailed books on who I call our greatest ever Australian, General Sir John Monash who landed on Day 1 at Gallipoli 25th April 1915 & through his efforts & strategies saved countless lives & later ensured the safest retreat from the bloodbath of Gallipoli & in 1918 took control of the whole alliance armed forces of countries (England, USA, Canada, NZ & other countries) in an orchestrated front to defeat the German army. He was the only one to ever achieve that chief honour of such a combined force. Only cruel politics kept him from being rightly called Field Marshall, for he was born in Melbourne of German Jew parents & as he grew always called Australia his country despite his heritage. Too many Field Marshalls & Generals failed miserably throughout this war until they reluctantly took notice of him. He brought the war to an earlier end & saved countless thousands of soldiers & civilians. He was the only Commander to be knighted on the battlefront for about 200years by a reigning monarch, King George V through his amazing & accurate strategies mentioned above. After the war, he also brought reinforced concrete to Australia through Monier, built & designed bridges & rail networks, electricity networks, chief organiser of ANZAC Day marches & Remembrance Day & the repatriation of soldiers & the list goes on. Every student must read his life stories & his achievements, for they are amazing. His name is honoured by universities, highways & hospitals, etc.

So today, 21/10/25 at 9am I meet my guide, Bridgitt on a Tripadvisor 8hr tour – Australian Battlefields Tour. Our first stop is where I met Brigitt at the Cathedrale Notre-Dame d’Amiens, just 200m from my apartment. This Cathedral celebrated its 800 years birthday in 2020 with the first stones laid in 1220! She is the largest gothic medieval cathedral in the world, double the space of Paris Notre Dame & has a 112m high spire. . We also have the opportunity for an early morning peak & to hear the large pipe organ being practiced on. What a sound! The bishop, before the war began, wrote to the Pope asking for him to ensure the German’s don’t destroy the cathedral. It worked however, the bishop being less positive made sure the elaborate stained-glass windows were removed & stored in a large warehouse for safe keeping. The warehouse was eventually blown up by the Germans & only 2 windows survived as per my photo. The ceiling is solid stone & vaulted some 30m high which is an amazing sight in itself. There is just too much to see in this cathedral as well as the insane detail on the outside, carved in stone.

Moving on, you can see the beautiful rolling landscape of the Somme region. Farmland everywhere & perfectly manicured of sugar beet & seed sown ploughed acreage. The cows are kept warm in large sheds & allowed out twice a day, then milked. Such beautiful scenery now hiding the devastation of war.

Villers-Bretonneux is only a few kilometres away from Amiens & is a much smaller village but it has a stronger connection to Australia & it’s almost a religious following, as Australian troops saved this village & many others. There is a school, fully funded by the State of Victoria & is called Victoria School. Each student is fully schooled on the ANZACS & Australian history & culture. Robinvale in Victoria became its sister city in 1984/85 & the townships have had a close bond ever since. I had a chance look into the school due to school holidays & there’s certainly a lot of Australia here.

Just outside the township we visit the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery linked to the Australian Memorial where Bridgitt explained the role to undertake the carving of the Portland stone back in England & shipped out for the required grave after the soldier was clearly identified. Some families were even allowed to have something carved on their headstone along with their regiment or country war insignias, etc. Sadly, the Portland stone is a bit porous & some erosion is happening, making them difficult to read depending upon wind, etc. We saw 2 headstones side by side of 2 brothers who enlisted together & died in the same trench. One was 25 & the other 31yrs old. What a shock for the family.

Turning 180° from the thousand or so headstones, we walked a short distance to the General Sir John Monash Museum where thousands of names are engraved on external walls who could be identified who died in this region. I believe there are 300,000 still declared as missing (never found or identified) for this war. The Western Front & the counterattack led by the Allies in April 1918 shows the amazing courage the Australian troops displayed but also suffered terrible losses.

From looking at the walls of names Bridgitt takes me downstairs to venture into the underground museum but first, we partake in great Australian made barista coffee. The best one since arriving in Europe. This centre tells Australia’s story of the Western Front in the words of those who served through a cutting-edge multimedia centre revealing the Australian Western Front experience through a series of interactive media installations and immersive experiences. You are provided a smartphone to trace your steps & for the respective narration to take place & you have to pay €3 if you didn’t bring your own earpiece for it. I left mine in the apartment. Argh!! There are lots of exhibits & displays. I spent an hour interacting with the displays while Bridgitt organised our lunch there & talked to other tour colleagues. The below images you can see the interactive Western Front images on the floor screen.

Leaving the museum & just up the road towards Le Hamel is the Australian Corps Memorial where it was inaugurated on the 22nd of July 1922 by King George VI and is the last memorial of the Great War to have been erected. On its walls are engraved the names of 10,729 Australian servicemen. Every year, on the 25th of April thousands of people gather on this site at dawn, to commemorate “ANZAC Day”.

After a brief stop we venture down to Chipilly, Somme, Hauts-de-France where from “Camp Cesar viewpoint” you get a fantastic panoramic view of the valley of the Somme which gave its name to the famous “Battle of the Somme” in 1916. On our way to Albert (Albere) you can see for miles the Basilica Notre-Dame de Brebieres, which is of Neo-Byzantine style and was built at the end of the 19th Century. The original was completely destroyed by the Great War & was reconstructed identically by the son of the original architect: Edmond Duthoit. Its dome is covered with gold sheets & bares the statue of the Virgin Marie holding baby Jesus. The gold sheets with the sunlight on it glows like a strong beacon for miles.

Our next stop is the Lochnagar Crater, on Route de la Grande Mine, 80300 Ovillers-la-Boisselle. It is on private property & there are controls in place to limit erosion. The owner has placed a large carpark for buses & cars to see the crater from the fence line. We are in the middle of the Somme offensive of 1916. This crater was one of 19 underground mines planned to explode under the German lines to assist the infantry advance at the start of the battle. This impressive site is 70 feet deep and 330 feet wide which makes it the largest crater in the Somme. The earth & dust was seen to rise over 1,000’ into the air, let alone the noise & vibration. Due to the stalemate in this sector it was discovered the Germans were building their own range of tunnels, but the British beat them with their timing. One tunnel set was found to be only 3m apart, so it was a wonder they couldn’t hear each other dig.

Following part of the Somme River we stop at the 1st Australian Division Memorial, 268 Route d Albert, 80300 Pozieres where the Australian official historian accompanying the troops, Charles Bean would say about Pozières that it “is more densely sown with Australian sacrifice than any other place on earth.” Pozieres sadly is well known to Australians where almost 7,000 men lost their lives here. We also pass by the Windmill Memorial at Pozières where an Australian memorial was established in the 1930s at the suggestion of Australia’s official war historian, Charles Bean. It commemorates the 23,000 casualties; some of which died in the surrounding countryside. Just opposite this site stands the “Tank Memorial” which gives an insight about the part played by the tanks on the Western Front.

Not far from here is the site where the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen crashed his plane & died in a dog fight in the sky while taking a reconnaissance flight over to the allied forces. Canadian planes were in the dog fight against other German planes but a few years ago experts disclaimed the Canadian pilot shot him down for it was an Australian machine gunner at his post did the duty. Out of respect (his plane was painted red also) The Red Barron was buried by the allies with military honours after a few days in a village some klms away. Bridgitt states his body has been exhumed 7times until his final resting place since. He died April 21, 1918, at 25yrs old just 4 days until the big push from the allies that ultimately won the war. Monash chose 25th April as the ultimate date for the push as a Gallipoli landing anniversary motivation I suspect.

We later passed by Moquet Farm Pozieres where there were mass tragedies from 1st Australian, 2nd Australian & 4th Australian regiments doing the hard slog into battle. Everything was destroyed but we suffered huge losses. Circling back, we stopped at the Memorial de Thiepval, Rue de L’Ancre, 80300 Thiepval for the “Memorial of the Missing” where it is the largest British War Memorial in the world. This imposing monument overlooks the surrounding rolling countryside. On its walls are engraved the names of over 72,000 soldiers who are rather missing or whose bodies were found but not identified.

We then pass by the Ulster Memorial Tower & Thiepval Wood, Route de Saint-Pierre-Divion, 80300 Thiepval for Ulster Tower, Northern Ireland’s national war memorial. It was one of the first Memorials to be erected on the Western Front and commemorates the men of the 36th Division and all those from Ulster who served in the First World War. The memorial was officially opened on 19 November 1921. From the top of the hill, in the opposite field, you can still see the traces of the Battle of the Somme frontlines and the remains of a German machinegun post.

Getting late in the day 5pm this new parkland called The Memorial Terre-neuvien De Beaumont-hamel, Rue de l’Eglise, 80300 Beaumont-Hamel closes early now into Autumn by we are free to walk the grounds. This parkland is commonly called The Newfoundland Memorial Park which had money raised in Canada for 17 hectares bought & controlled by Canadian Newfoundlanders. It is the largest actual remaining battlefield site in the Somme and a memorial dedicated to all Newfoundlanders who served during the First World War.

The Battle of the Somme was the first major engagement of the regiment where they suffered staggering losses on the 1st of July 1916. The ground, purchased in 1921 by the women of Newfoundland and their government has become the symbol of sacrifice and a source of identity of the island. Here you will find the routes of trenches, craters & the view looking down at the German line after pushing them back with huge losses & countless bravery. The Germans had the prime location to defend themselves. Brigitt refers back down to the creek we just crossed by car where it was found a huge underground bunker was created by the Germans (villagers said the Germans took 2 yrs to build). It starts near the creek bank & then several branches are formed & each branch has well equipped rooms for the commanders & other huge rooms for the soldiers, kitchen, dining, a medical centre, ammunition stores, etc, all underground. This tunnel system nears about 1klm long & goes even past the ridge of machine gun outposts that could see the Australians coming up the hill. The Australians were sitting ducks with no cover.

Just up the road we pull over to a carpark & Brigitt shows me where a house once stood. Totally obliterated, yet you can see in the crater the house footings but with concrete walls between them where the Germans had a tunnel system connecting each house or farmland house, totally out of view of the enemy.

Brigitt points to where her home is & further away her dad’s farm along these fighting lines. Her current home is just 3klms away, yet she has to take me 30mins down the road to Amiens for my drop off. I really felt for her driving all that way & then returning. I did find sufficient Euros to tip her which she was very hesitant to taking, but I won. She is a marvelous tour guide & the history & research she has done is staggering. I was so blessed to have her but couldn’t take too many photos or remember everything she stated, such was the type of tour we were doing. Far too much info but it was very well received. I’ll end my Blog #13 here. Many thanks for reading my blogs. My next blogs will be leaving Amiens for an overnight stay in Paris, then my hi-speed train trip to Barcelona Spain (6.5hrs) where I hope the sun is stronger. Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #10 – Amsterdam to Paris 17 – 18/10/25

17/10/2025 I managed to pack most of my things, leaving my Aus banking till after brekky & then heading out to Amsterdam Centraal to catch the Eurostar train to Paris via Garde de Nord (train terminates there) at 11.10am. Can’t help but notice yesterday & today the sun is out .. typical when I’m leaving. Finally seeing the sky of blue instead of a constant off-white sheet. Things do change with the trains, so I kept an eye on the train schedule board for the correct platform. Trains are only shown about 30mins prior to arriving, so best be quick to the platform. Usually the train arrives on #15 & today that was correct. The platforms are so long they have 15A & 15B by cutting the platform length into halves. I’m on #15A.

The carriages were of a high standard & very clean. I found my seat & to my luck no-one was sitting next to me .. well .. until we stopped at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport (next stop) where a man sat next to me & wouldn’t utter a word. Anyway, he got off the train north of Belgium after about an hour & then I had the whole seat to myself. Yay!! Coming into Belgium we had a police incident, so we are running 20mins late so far.

Do you ever get the feeling something is going a little too well? Arriving at Garde de Nord Train Station was something else. Not enough clear English signs of course .. to be expected. The international trains (like mine) arrive on Level 1 (Hall 1) with about 12 platforms. The domestic & regional trains are on a few floors directly below which is an engineering marvel in itself. On the below levels there are Zones (about 5 Halls I think) where you have to work out which line you need. My phone said 4 RER B Sud, so where in the hell is that & where do I get my ticket? Found out later Sud means South & Nord means North. This place is enormous & then throw in a few thousand passengers & here we are, a bull ant colony with no chance of any communication with the clear sign I was a traveller, totally confused & no help forthcoming from any of the scrambling ‘ants’. After backtracking several times, I started using my secret cus words (plenty of them), especially when you have people walk right through you. This place really tests you! I eventually find a service counter back on Level 1. The lady looked at my phone & gave me my required ticket €6.30) & told me to go right & then down. Excellent! NOT!!

Nothing is making real sense at the moment, standing around to get a sign or some bearings. After walking the entire level 2 (Hall 2) I can see a board showing Saint -Michel- Notre Dame Station train in small print for Platform 42. Yay!! Upon arrival at the entrance of 42, large glass doors were locked for some reason. Passengers standing by were getting real jitty & then the doors finally opened without warning to stairs going up. My duffle bag is 19.4kgs & my day backpack is around 7kgs & I managed to beat a lot of people up the 30+ stairs; a lot were struggling. Within 2mins our train comes in & we are off. 3 stops down I get off at Saint -Michel- Notre Dame station for another train (another platform up). 3 stops later I get off at Champ de Mars (closest station to the Eifel Tower) & to my Mercure Hotel. With a bit of walking around the Eifel Tower I can see my Mercure Hotel & when entering a full bus of people were checking in. After a while a passenger comes up & says “we are not in a line, so you can go to the counter”. Yay!! Just as I got to the counter a French lady rudely jumps in front of me with no apologies. The reception staff found this very uncomfortable. She took 10mins to leave & then I started the check-in only to be told I’m at the wrong Mercure Hotel. Argh!! There are 3 Mercure’s within this small neighbourhood, so I made sure the next one was mine.

After checking in & paying the far cheaper City Tax of €25.35, compared to the whopping €128.80 for Amsterdam, I sorted out my room (King bed now) & then strolled over to both sides of the Eifel Tower (across the river too) where there were a couple of thousand people walking around & queuing for the climb up. I do my climb access at 12noon tomorrow on a pre-booked tour. At first look of the Eifel, you say, is that it, thought it would be taller … but when you sit there for a while & take in the sections it is quite the marvel. Will be a good view tomorrow.

Saw a street food vendor & he made a bbq chicken with spice, tomatoes, lettuce & seasoning wrap & it was amazing; €8 thanks (Yikes .. $15AUD). I followed it up with a high protein drink (24g) seeing I had done 15,164 steps today = 11.92klms. I’ll try & get a night photo of the Eifel Tower tomorrow seeing I just saw the lights from a distance. They start at 7pm & the added light show stays on for 5mins & this is repeated every hour till 11pm I think. My hotel is about 600m from the tower, so the location is good. From my 2nd floor room, I can see the top 80m or so. I had a really good sleep, an almost hot shower & into the buffet breakfast by 7.40am. This Mercure Hotel is a step down from the fantastic Eden Hotel in Amsterdam, but it is what it is & still I’m comfortable.

18/10/25 With time on my side, I headed off to what I believed was the Eifel Tower going by what I saw yesterday afternoon so I can travel further east for the Arc de Triomphe first. My tour of the Eifel Tower starts at 12noon. I’m trying to save my data as it seems to be used quickly now so I’m limiting my Google Maps use. Well, after a while I checked G Maps & to cut this story down it was playing up quite a bit. Today, my brain compass is not working either & so is G Maps. Argh!!! Finally, I get to Eifel Tower with around 40minutes of valuable wasted time & walking prior. Heading East from the tower, you go over the Pont d’lena bridge over the River Seine towards the phallic symbol fountain lake, Fontaine de Varsovie & then Trocadero, historical area & gardens & keep walking somewhat East for a while then head Southeast to see the Arc de Triomphe. I walked the elaborate street, Av. Georges Mandel with super expensive houses but of course that is the very long way. Bloody G Maps!!! If I had turned right after the bridge & took Av. D’Lena I would have seen the equestrian statue of George Washington & straight on to the Arc de Triomphe in all its glory (more facts below).

With the time remaining to my Eifel Tower Tour, I couldn’t squeeze into the subway walks to the centre of the Arc de Triomphe like my friend Renske said to do (she walked through the traffic which is really a no-no)!!! Took whatever photos I could then headed down the Av. Des Champs – Elysees for a while then turned right at the extra lavish Louis Vuitton shop. Passing these exclusive shops, I could feel a nosebleed coming on with the thought of how much money needed to shop here. Certainly extravagant. G Maps still playing up but my brain compass is working, a little. I headed off towards the Eifel Tower for my tour.

I had to now walk past my hotel, via the Eifel Tower again to check in with Get Your Guide shop for my guide & ticket I ordered back in August & then at 12noon my group walked back to the Eifel Tower & skipped the very long lines (up to 1hr usually to get through on these) to go through 2 screening airport-type systems to ensure you are not taking in anything like at an airport or anything metal-like to prevent idiots from carving their names into the expensive paint on the structure. They even screen for padlocks to prevent people from activating them on the structure.

Natalii was our guide & she asked us all to say where we are from. She then said she has been labelled many countries of origin due to her looks & dialect. After many unsuccessful guesses, she said Ukraine to all our amazement. She left 3yrs ago (war) where she was an English teacher & this guide work these past 3yrs has been most welcomed & enjoyable. She is now learning her 4th language at an age around 35, I guess. In these 3yrs she has done over 3,000 visits to the tower, so she is well versed.

Some quick stats on the Eifel tower, naming rights of the architect & engineer, Gustave Eiffel built in 1889 for an ‘Expo’ & also to celebrate the 100yr anniversary of the French Revolution. Eiffel had a fast-growing international engineering company & he fought hard against the elites in constructing it. To enable to get his dream started he supplied 85% of the costs to design & build it & pay for the naming rights & then the French Government reluctantly paid the remaining15%. Today just 1% of the earnings goes to Eiffel’s company & the govt takes 99%, so it’s a cruel outcome .. but typical of poor govts. Today, the tower generates more than 7million visitors each year & produces revenue of €100mil each year in just ticket sales alone.

The original height was 1,024ft, current height is 1,083ft using the antennae. The 4 tower feet are spaced at 410ft on the ground & the 1st floor height is 187ft, providing 14,485sq’ & the 2nd floor 377ft height providing 4,692sq’ with the 3rd floor height of 906ft providing 820sq’ with an exclusive restaurant that is ridiculously expensive. Just below the 1st Floor there are 72name plaques placed around the outside frame. These are men who have led the design, scientists, physicists & the like to enable the structure to be built. The govt is planning to place female names below the 2nd platform of recognised scientists, etc, like Madame Curie but no-one knows when, as a means of female recognition that didn’t happen in the past.

The structure has 7,300tons of dead metal weight & with the add-ons gives a total weight of 10,100tons. There are 18,038 metal pieces & 2.5mil rivets used. The original construction took 2yrs, 2mths & 5days to build. It was to last only 20yrs but with radio transmission evolving it became critical to keeping it. It is repainted every 7yrs & now into its 20th repaint. 60 tons of paint & 25 hand brush specialist painters are used each time (2yrs to fully paint) & many colours have been done over its 136yrs. The new colour is the same for 1907 but this time they are removing multi layers of paint for better bonding & protection. When it was previously painted through the 1900s the painters would climb it free hand, no ropes or pulleys. I saw the video … Yikes!!

Getting to the 2nd floor was by a type of Funicular lift (5 lifts are within the structure) & it was a good ride despite being packed in like the Japan Train Push. Moving out on the 2nd floor & mezzanine floor was insanely windy & very cold to boot. I froze of course until I got to the other side for the sun & wind block. The Arc de Triomphe could be seen of course & it looked tiny, but when compared to the surrounding structures it was quite large. I believe the Eifel Tower is still the highest structure in Paris, but it must be close with the skyscrapers out into a new part of the city. The Arc de Triomphe is 162.5’ high, width 147’ & depth 72.9’. Construction started 1806 & inaugurated in 1836. It was built to honour those who died in the French Revolution & Napoleonic Wars. Beneath its vault lies The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WW1. Like a huge bicycle wheel there are 12 (spokes) avenues coming of it on a roundabout configuration. Happy motoring!

After my adventures today I had this yearning for pasta, yes, I know I’m in Paris & found this great Italian restaurant, La Piccolino. It was a great little place & my lasagne with mushrooms & a special sauce was amazing. I’m hoping I’m not in Barcelona yearning for escargot. LOL!!! I walked away from the River Siene & took another view of the Eifel & saw another part of this historic area, including the stature of General Joseph Joffre (WW1) out the front of the impressive Ecole Militaire (Military Academy) opened in 1780.

I’m busy doing my blogs, so I’ll end this blog # 10 & trying to get my A game on tomorrow for a hectic big day. Today, I did 25,166 steps = 19.66klms of walking, not counting my night walk to the tower in the hope of getting a light photo. I managed to get out at night for the 8pm lighting of the tower. From 7pm – 10pm there is light show for 5mins every hour where the tower has sparkling light flashes, like a Christmas tree over the existing lights. In returning to my hotel, I managed the total of 28,625 steps = 22.4klms!!! Many thanks for reading my blogs. My next blogs will be more of Paris (Pantheon, Notre Dame & The Louvre + river cruise hopefully). Please stay safe, happy & healthy. Cheers.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #8 – Amsterdam 13 & 14/10/25

If you read my last blog (#7), you would see the journey, I had in getting to my Eden Hotel in Amsterdam. With that said, I slept very well, my room was excellent for a king single bed unit with ensuite with the hottest water for a shower I’ve come across. 13/10/25 (Day 12) With my room cost the buffet breakfast was included & WOW! .. it is a full breakfast. For the insane City Tax incurred (€128) when checking in the hotel it should be a 5star to justify that expense.

Amsterdam is a city of about 1Mil people; it is full of bikes, trams & tram lines, cycleways, roads in every direction, canals you can’t get your head around for direction, etc. You quickly learn where & when to walk & use your 360° vision. For a bustling city you can get around quite easily & just about everything goes within reason. Not too much policing, but they are about everywhere. Certain road & tram etiquette is required but people walk like ants in a colony. Another thing that hit me was the frequent strong smell of weed. It is legal here on the streets & in pubs, etc.

My first task was to pack my day bag ready for a bicycle tour & to head to the required meeting place up near Amsterdam Centraal, about a 22min walk away. Today & by the looks of the week it is going to be a very cloudy day, with misty rain. I walked past Magna Plaza which is a high-end shopping centre under renovations so there’s very little inside. I eventually found the bike shop but of course I was 25mins early & they were shocked to see me well ahead of time. I explained my diligence in being early in everything I attend. I went up the street & found a great little café (Caffe Vergnano 1882) where I was able to unwind very quickly & even did a review on it while I was there.

Again, I was right on time for my bike, but we had some very late commers, so we had to start the introduction & safety criteria again. So frustrating & it’s starting to rain. Must remember to not follow parallel with the tram lines, for you will come undone very quickly & violently. Baylon was our guide, but he was over cautious & it was harder to ride much slower. He showed us several historical buildings and their facade effects of shutters, gantries, etc even after major restorations. A couple from Scotland were my adopted partners, for they seriously needed watching over. I opted to ride last so I could keep an eye on the couple plus allow Baylon to easily see my bright blue wind jacket. As time went on, the group surged ahead of us at one major road crossing on a bend leaving the wife & myself behind. I could read her mind where she was going to take a direct short cut to catch up to her husband & I sped up a bit to catch her right arm & yell stop!!! She didn’t hear the tram coming up from behind her & she was just about to ride in front of it. The tram missed her by 600mm max. Catching her emotions, she was extremely thankful I saved her from the thought of a tram run over. Now the group was just about out of sight with no visual of what had happened. With a bit of collective confidence, we crossed the tram lines & took up the street & made good time. She could not wait to tell her husband of that near-miss. Very lucky & still Baylon was none the wiser.

We stopped in the huge natural forest park Baylon calls Amsterdam’s NY Central Park (Vondelpark) due to the same landscape designer used here. The lady (wife) shouted me a coffee for sticking with her & before long we were back on our bikes. We did get to see Ann Frank’s house externally & to see inside it is booked out for months. Not far from Ann Frank’s house is Westerkerk, a protestant church (1620 – 1631) which is Rembrandt’s burial place. Amsterdam is basically built on an extensive pine tree forest of some 13million or so trees due to the area being swamp land. Amsterdam Centraal Station is built on about 9,000 trees & fill. A lot of older buildings are early 1904 – 1940s (war period) & some are leaning in on a corner, but no-one worries about this. There are lots of houses (3 storeys high) that have a gantry out from the attic with a pulley wheel for getting stock & furniture up from the street. Houses were even built intentionally leaning out from the 1st floor to help with the lifting process so they wouldn’t hit the frontage or glass windows. You can see this in my photos. Very unnerving for me.

Going to another nearby & smaller park we stopped to see the Turkey & US Embassies next door to each other & diagonally opposite is the Concert Hall in all its grandeur. After that we cycled back to the bike shop & within a few minutes everyone had gone, all without any commentary or safe travels, etc. Really weird. I did see the Scottish couple some 80m up the street & managed to get them to wave back. Oh well, Go Figure? Anyway, I hit the pavement again to see more of Amsterdam. The canal boats, Victoria Hotel & St Nicholas Basilica built in the same years as Amsterdam Centraal. I didn’t manage a visit inside .. seems to have the big doors closed all the time.

I had to do a Dutch pancake thing before I run out of days, so I found this great cozy pancake café (lots of them but not everyone is cute & welcoming) called Milky Pancakes & they were so accommodating & really enjoyed my time there. The banana & hazelnut topping on the pancake was yummo!!!! After that, I had to do some serious walking to wear down that pancake & walked into the large plaza with the Royal Palace & the central sculpture where they have a dedication ceremony on 4th May each year & then Liberty Day on the 5th, so it’s a huge giving thanks & then celebration time.

14/10/25 (Day 13) Along the canals there are many permanent canal homes (old boats & barges) that have strict city & maritime controls on them. They eventuated when housing was extremely rare straight after WW2 & most have remained in that way of living. After that canal I went down to another canal to see the now famous ‘Skinny Bridge’ which was used in a James Bond film a few years back. Walking over it you can see how it works to raise the wooden platform for the bigger boats. Very ingenious & many more types can be found.

In the photo of the little black house next to the canal was the home of Rembrandt when he was painting. It is now a little café & looks very good for its age even though it is tilting slightly. Moving on you can see the green ship like structure. That is the NEMO Science Museum. I walked up along its ramped roof to take better view pictures but a bit expensive to go into it. I did take a photo of the insane engineered water clock in the foyer that was designed & completed by a physicist. The architect of the ‘green ship’ never designed it as a ship structure but something about light & dark .. (too much weed, I think) but so many Amsterdam citizens call it the ‘Green Ship’. Looking back down the ramp, you can see the Naval Museum with an old bounty ship moored there. This building also stored all sorts of ammunition & arms there for the defending of Amsterdam & now is a museum.

I checked out a souvenir shop (so many to see) & in broad daylight at a small child’s eye level was the rude section & my photo only took the less dirty section, so it can be full on here. I don’t believe any prudes live in Amsterdam. Also, walking past certain shops, bars especially I often get a full lung of weed smoke. Cough. Also, people all around are smoking the stuff, so you can’t avoid it plus the smell. Explains why I was painless, sort of happier when I arrived back at the hotel each day. LOL!!!

My first full day here took in 10,915 steps = 8.52klms on 13/10 & 15,009 steps = 11.63klms on 14/10, so not bad. Tomorrow, 15/10/25 (Day 14) I take a short train trip to Naarden Burrum train station to meet up with a very close friend, Ayla who had to postpone from Tuesday (14/10) which was totally fine & understandable. So blessed she could still make it for this old man.

I’ll end my 8th Blog here & many thanks for reading them. My next blogs will be more of Amsterdam & catching up with 2 of my much-loved backpacker friends I met years ago at my new hometown of Yamba at my cousin’s then Yamba Backpackers as well. Please stay safe, happy & healthy.

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #3 – Rome – Vatican

3/10/25 Day 2 OK, with the Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill Areas 3hr full on tour & past lunchtime on a warm day it was now very pressing for me to get over to the other side of the River Tiber to the Vatican City for my tour of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Basilica, etc. Today, Rome had a united train strike, so public transport was overwhelmed & traffic very heavy so as per my usual method I did my walking. From the Colosseum to the Vatican City is 4.1klms taking a calculated 55mins. I did it in 40mins & still took various photo landmarks along the way & in time to meet our guide. At the start there is no direct straight route until you come to the River Tiber, so it feels like I’m walking a circle. Lots to see along the way to the Vatican so the walk has benefits … if you’re fit too. LOL!! Beware .. lots of photos following.

From my photos you can see various history buildings, magnificent statues, fountains but extremely hard for me to know who & what they are until I see the photo details in my phone, for I make a point to have my location setting on which then aligns the photo to the name & address. It is obvious you can see the dome of the Vatican for miles so it’s easier knowing you’re going in the right direction. Firstly, you come across the original Stone wall with entrance doors which is not for us public people. The Vatican is its own country & government so a law unto themselves of course. While I think of it there are some restaurants/ cafés etc around the Vatican City that secretly invoke a table fee if you wish to sit down for a meal, coffee, etc. If you don’t ask about it when entering, you will find out big time when you get the bill. Some demand €20 which is a big OUCH!!! Can be a bloody expensive coffee. On that note, I didn’t spend a cent anywhere near the Vatican City.

The entrance brings you into a large courtyard with impressive building facades, a large pinecone & an incredible spiral ball sculpture that has several opinions of what it supposed to represent. Certainly, an eye grabber & such a detailed sculpture of modern art. The Pinecone sculpture, known as the Fontana della Pigna, is a monumental bronze statue located in a courtyard to the museum entrance, symbolizing immortality and rebirth. The Pinecone, or Pignone, is a bronze sculpture that stands approximately 4 metres (13 feet) tall & is hollow. It dates back to the 2nd century AD and was originally part of a fountain that adorned the Temple of Isis in ancient Rome. The courtyard itself is a blend of ancient and modern art, with the Sphere within a Sphere sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro also located here, symbolizing the relationship between the spiritual and physical worlds. With the sphere you can apply your muscles & get it to rotate & the inner sphere rotates with the out one & this action causes a mesmerizing stance if you’re not careful.

From the new side entrance, you are led into a chamber that overlooks a spiral ramp, much like the Guggenheim in NY. Our guide took us past this for some unknown reason into a large hall with over 1,000 small & large sculptures which is a bit much to take in however, the curved ceilings are really an eye opener too. I remain wondering where the spiral ramp would take you.

The Vatican City is completely full of all types of impressive sculptures, paintings & artifacts. I think our guide said 10,000 art pieces so there is no way in seeing them all. I can’t see how anyone can put a $value on these, get insurance cover & pay the premiums. LOL!! While you are walking with the crowd admiring the super detailed sculptures, etc you have to at the same time take in the high wall & ceiling paintings throughout the complex. It can be quite a feat! Our guide is super-fast in her speech too .. you can feel her religious passion & belief, so a lot of things are missed like each painting shows a story of course & once you get it, it all makes sense, but our transmitted earpieces cut in & out at times & there’s just too much to see & deal with.

While you’re looking at the ceiling, don’t forget to look at the various floors. Haha … another test! Some floors are all types of marble, granite & most impressive mosaic tiles, so fine you can hardly see the floors are tiled (like a painting). While I’m at it, one photo (hard to remember in my photos which one however it is about 4m x 3m in area) is of fine mosaic tiles so small that from my allowed 1.5m distance it is argued it’s a painting. How in the hell (bad word to use here .. haha .. but plenty of hell images in the paintings so I’m free I guess) does anyone have the skills to do this intense mural? Awaiting your answer … crickets?? The other impossible thing, when you’re allowed to take photos is to do it without the crowd always in front of you.

While I remember, there is one painting (artist name lost in my memory) painted this huge painting of God with Jesus holding one arm raised lifting the good people up to his heaven & the other hand pressing down the no-gooders into the hell version. At the time of the painting the artist was getting a lot of pressure & demands from a less liked pope at the time. Down the bottom of the rh corner is the portrait of that pope being in the no-good section. Classic revenge: while his self-portrait is closer to Jesus & in the centre of the painting holding a distorted dark face in a cloth which resembles his bad face doing this revenge side of him (sin). Apparently, the Pope never discovered this in the painting for he would have surely taken more than revenge upon the artist. There are lots of occasions where the artist or the architect has taken a revenge on the opposition in these paintings & structures. Very interesting.  

Curved walls & ceilings, domes, fountains, arches, gold, silver, bronze are beyond belief & I can’t type what I’m seeing, so enjoy each photo for is just too much to take in. Also note: NO photos to be taken within the Sistine Chapel so that’s another 50photos I could have on my phone to further show what is housed in that area. OMG!! Amazing & full of Michelangelo’s work throughout the ceiling (4yrs to paint it), The Last Judgement & The Creation of Adam. You could stand there for hours taking in the finest details of the immense artworks Michelangelo painted. A testimony to an extreme talent of a human.

We eventually see daylight into St Peter’s Square & after about 10mins we ventured into St Peter’s Basilica (up until 1989 it was the largest Christian church in the world) to more amazement & insane treasures of everything imaginable. There was a special service happening at the altar, so we couldn’t venture past the barricade, some 30m from the alter. The pipe organ was playing & a choir singing & it was an amazing experience to feel how this church really is. Reaching the end of the tour we are left to take our time in our departure while in St Peter’s, so after a while I ventured out to start my walk home being almost converted to priesthood. I was surprised to see a gorgeous blonde that was in our other group walking to the side 2m from me. We sat on different seat areas while waiting for our check-in prior. After my introduction I asked her what she thought of the last 3hrs. Her statement matched mine “OVERWHELMING”!!! Like me, couldn’t believe what we had seen. We walked for a bit together, but you could see she was concerned walking with a stranger & saw a shop she said to see, so I allowed her to ‘escape’ .. haha .. that’s how it goes .. allowing trust, privacy & safety to others as being paramount.

On my way back to my hotel I walked past the Colosseum & more impressive landmarks getting the evening light senses on my photos without the dreaded glaring sun I had to fight against at times. Just on the other side of the Colosseum I came across a set of stairs & too far to circle around them, so I toughened up & took the 101 steps to the top. Certain muscles let me know about it after the day of walking I had done. All in all, with my full day of walking which included the Colosseum area tour of the morning I had managed 24,350 steps or 18.94klms. Yikes!!!

Hope you enjoy the photos & truly, I cannot type or include all my photos on everything, so I’ll end my 3rd Blog here & many thanks for reading them. My next blogs will have more sights of Rome, Politano & Pompei. Please stay safe, happy & healthy

My Europe Tour 2025 – Blog #2 – Rome

Day 1 in Rome – 2/10/2025

OK!! I’m now in Rome city (Historic Quarter & my first EVER day in Europe) 9am after my expensive train from the airport (Blog 1) & my first project is to find a café, for coffee & to use their WiFi as my Saily Data package has not evolved as promoted to me. Using my data provider on my original Australian Network will incur an obscene charge per day so I’ll persist in seeking out a better solution. I am without the internet & everything else. A wonderful café opposite to the Rome Termini (Central Station) was Sfizio & they were superb. Everything appeared to kick in on my phone with Saily once the WiFi took hold. I could now confirm where my hotel is (not far) but upon leaving Sfizio & a block away, I again had no internet. I finally found my hotel Bettoja Hotel Massimo D’Azeglio without Google Maps & left my bags at reception (too early to check-in) & took a map they had at the counter, as I had a Patheon Tour (Italia Explorer) booked for 2pm @ $21.84AUD. With plenty of time I headed off, but the map reading was all over the place. The thousands of people & tourists made walking the streets bloody hard & I found myself doubling back several times & not quite int the direction needed. The street signage was in a level of crap of small writing & not making sense!!! Really out of my depth.

With frustration mounting (I had already done about 6klms of walking) & by the time I had found The Pantheon & my guide before the required deadline. He helped by putting me straight in (skip the line booking) which was a huge bonus instead of waiting for my designated time. The Pantheon was truly amazing & I can’t believe how this construction was carried out back then. The front 16 stone columns each weigh 60tons & were hand crafted in Egypt & shipped over. They used up to twelve elephants to erect each column. When inside, the wonder continues with great stone sculptures, arts & the world’s largest concrete dome of that type above us. The dome is 43.44m (142.5’) in diameter & is the largest unsupported concrete dome in the world & has had the record for over 2,000years (125AD). History does not record who built it, but it started in 27BC & was rebuilt to finish 125AD. The circular walls are 24’ thick & the entrance doors are bronze at 24’ high with an opening of about 14’ wide. The open eye “oculus” of the dome is a whopping 27’ in diameter & hardly any rain falls through it. The floor has a 1’ slope from the centre to accommodate any rain that rarely comes through it. For centuries experts could not prove the components of the true Roman Concrete of that age. The recipe had been lost long ago. With the latest technology used on original foundation footings still present today they found the vital ingredient which was the ash (white & grey pumice) from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD over Pompei, etc making it the strongest concrete ever.

The Pantheon & Obelisk

After the Pantheon I found another café with WiFi & contacted the Bot in Saily Support where the AI really can be scary .. so human like in answering & it diagnosed my phone was cutting in & out with the Airplane mode. After a few interactions & waiting the required seconds on the mode setting Saily cut in fully & no more problems after that so it was easy to find my way back to my hotel. I am now aware the Airplane mode can be erratic. My Samsung Health App notified me I had walked 23,705 steps equaling 18.56klms if you don’t mind. Yikes!!!

Upon returning to my hotel, quite close to the Rome Termini Station (Central) I was quite shocked trying to convince the reception staff on my check-in stating they had my bags in storage that morning. Finally, the staff realised I was in the wrong Bettoja Hotel, which was directly across the road from my Bettoja Massimo D’Azeglio. I was informed the father Bettoja had 3 hotels & upon his passing, each of his 3 sons inherited a hotel each & they are near each other (Mediterraneo was opposite & Atlantico on same block but further down). They are stunning hotels & had better get my attendances right over the next few days. LOL!! Finally settled into the night & sorting out my 4day stay & to get ready for my early morning Colosseum tour (1.5klms, 18mins walk away from my hotel).

3/10/25 Day 2 The hotel delivered my brekky right on time so heading out in the late dawn went very well. After lunchtime I must walk from the Colosseum over the River Tiber to the Vatican (50min walk, 4.1klms) for that tour. A HUGE day of course. My Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Hill Areas Tour by Crown Tours through Viator, was for a 9.30am start where the meeting point was 20mins walk away & I detest being late for anything. It is critical to organising an early morning tour, as by lunchtime the volume of people at the Colosseum is beyond ridiculous & the temperature is more comforting. Our guide was Annalisa, a documented archaeologist who apologised frequently in confirming a lot what we have been shown & taught are so out of touch to the real history we may become upset or disillusioned. The Gladiator movie was an example where it was more of Hollywood illusion of course.

After the viewing in awe of the Colosseum structure as we walked closer for its massive size you notice a side section is missing of its upper decks. This was due to outside thieves or colonies stealing the blocks of limestone/ travertine blocks for their other infrastructure which was an ongoing crime as building resources & workers were hard to get. The other side of the Colosseum was inhabited by a large village; hence blocks couldn’t be stolen from there. Due to the ‘vandalism’ it weakened the structure & when a great earthquake happened in 1349 & some of the fallen debris eventually was used to build hospitals, palaces & other structures. In a lot of walls of blocks, you can see small holes chipped into the blocks where the rare steel metal joining spikes were removed for other structures in time. This also weakened the walls.

The Colosseum was built in just 8yrs (72AD-80AD) using over 100,000cubic metres of stone & Roman concrete. After the fall of the Roman Empire the Colosseum was abandoned & fell into disrepair. The arena was a timber floor supported by numerous brick walls as per my photo. Sections of the floor was raised vertically by means of the adjacent aqueduct system that hydraulically lifted the selected platform for better public viewing when required. The underfloor structure, known as the hypogeum, consisted of numerous alleys of brick walls & cages where animals were caged for hunting performances. The next fighting gladiators were housed there just before their fights were to take place. The remaining gladiators were kept longer outside the Colosseum for relief & training & entered the arena underground by a tunnel. Gladiators were well paid by their schooling master’s & not killed merely for sport as per the movie The Gladiator. Their surviving skills kept them in a good financial status, but no life was long in Rome those days but not every gladiator was eliminated, unless they were poor performers.

The arena floor was also treated with a small layer of sand for the shows to reduce the effect of blood volume & slipperiness, mainly from the animal kills & not so much from any gladiator kills. Animals were hunted & slaughtered far more than any gladiator. If you look closely at the interior photo you can manage to see there were 5 seat terraces (see the staircase remains) where they placed all the lower-class people up onto the highest level, for their role was to cheer the loudest & to confirm if the losing gladiator was to live or die. The decision was decided by the volume of the cheering, not the emperor’s, thumbs up or down.

Everything you view is of a grand scale & it is hard to understand just 8yrs to build. On the eastern side, when you walk around you can see the original Rome floor was some 7m below the current ground level. This area would flood so over time the romans would build over what the floods provided with more soil making it now 7m above.

On the same side you can see the remnants of the high-level aqueducts that fed the water into the sub floor of the arena area for the hydraulics to work. The sub-floor would be flooded for approx. 1m deep. This again is confirmed when you venture adjacent to the Colosseum on the western side called Palatine Hill which also shows more intricate structure history including aqueducts over this expansive area. In the lower area, there is a small, curved wall with a new protective roof over it & this is where Julius Ceasar was assassinated by a stabbing. There is far too much history to type, discuss & take photos, so you must come to Rome for yourself & it would be a bonus in scoring our guide, Annalisa who is a walking encyclopedia. Enjoy the photos & look closely at the detail.

I’ll end my 2nd Blog here & many thanks for reading them. My next blogs will have far more pictures & of major significance of the major sights of Rome starting with the Vatican. Please stay safe, happy & healthy.

My Europe Tour – Oct 2025 – Blog 1

Bon Voyage for Europe

2025 came around so quick with quite a few trips done over the years with 70+ travel blogs (my initial passport was obtained in March 2016 (60yrs old … late starter). This year was also a busy project time for family, with the main one for my middle son, Matt at Banora Point. A huge retaining wall project that was convoluted with Cyclone Alfred. While stuck in a cyclone, I had a moment or two wondering what is next for my travels & something for me. Time to be selfish. LOL!!

Out of the blue, I had amazing memories of people I had met over the years, some at my now hometown of Yamba, NSW where I met quite a few at my cousin’s Yamba Backpackers plus, some on my trips overseas. It must have been then, when I had a yearning to see those faces again & contacted my Wyndham Resorts Owner Travel Club help line & my lovely Nili started setting up everything from my 1st attempt location list. Numerous emails, phone calls & lots of computer searches now had me locked in to fly out of Brisbane International Airport on 1st October 2025. I was amazed Nilli had remembered she had set up my Peru, Ecuador & Chile trip in 2019 with my eldest son, Scott. Amazing lady.

Overall, there are 8 countries, 9 plane trips & 7 train trips to undertake plus the accommodation, etc. Of course, I had to book a few things myself in places out of the way & all my activities, etc. My cities of visiting start at Rome with a Doha (3hr stopover), Munich/ Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Paris, Amiens/ Villers Bretonneux, Barcelona, Lisbon, Dublin, Bristol & finishing up at London so that will encompass plenty of more blogs to upload for my readers around the world. Itinerary set at 43days. Yikes!!!! 

The Schengen Area is where I’ll be spending much of my time & is made up of 29 European countries with common border rules. It lets travellers move freely between Schengen countries without going through border controls or getting a visa for each country provided your stay is under 90days. Their new digital entry system (EES) comes into effect 12th October 2025, so I’ll be well into my travel so I’m assuming there will be processing delays at some point when crossing a border. The system will hold your data (fingerprints, photos, etc) for 3years so re-entering later will be streamlined again. The UK & Ireland are not Schengen so you must now do an ETA (entry approval – £16) that lasts for 2years (basically a new Labor Tax). I was approved online in about 7minutes so they must just like the money.

My hometown is a regional coastal village of some 8,000 residents but on holidays, Easter & Christmas, 25,000 isn’t uncommon. It’s paradise where major surfing is every day with 6 beaches in walking distance from CBD including the Big River, The Clarence River. Check it out in Google Maps. Therefore, I’ll be extending my Winter months (Dislike the cold). LOL! From Yamba I have to get to Brisbane Airport, some 3.5hrs away. My first duty was to exchange my AUD with Euros by using my fav swap company, Crown Currency. Bummer .. $0.52 cents to 1 Euro dollar. OUCH!!!! I won’t bore you with the details of my awkward trip to Brisbane Airport, but it was a struggle out of my control.

My other clever planning was that I bought my Caribee Global Explorer Rolling Bag 125L (Anaconda) at their online sale $249, nearly $100 off & I tried it on my recent Cairns/ Port Douglas trip in the hope It will be better for my European tour. I am confident it will with its variable compartmentation and well-designed wheels. My still trusty Black Wolf 70L backpack can be adjusted to a duffle bag too, but that involves carrying this entire weight for the 43 days over my shoulder/ neck & have done for several years & now that I’m older I had best start being a little smarter. I’ll still take my small Black Wolf 20L day backpack for the airport journeys but interchange with my adjustable shoulder briefcase for my city touring of sights, blending into the population. I did a few packing trials prior to make sure I had everything & inside the weight & operational limits. I’m sad to not being able to display my Australian Flag/ badges, etc due to the current mass immigration & hatred exposed in a lot of countries. Even tourists are being targeted, so Barcelona may be a problem for me. My other duty was to purchase a good data esim provider for my trip & the best one & least problematic one was Saily, as I wanted to include all of Europe & UK without separately doing each or bundled countries. Using my phone gave me a few options, however, by using my laptop I saw more options available. 25Gb 60days – 8 countries covered for me. VPN Security, Add Blocker. 5Gb/day without speed limit or Hotspot restrictions at $78.51 or $48.99USD. It seemed perfect except you can’t get perfect & a low cost in the one bundle.

1st October 2025, Brisbane Roma St Station (short walk) & catch the Airport Train (wow ..$22.00AUD thanks) to the International Terminal (Domestic Terminal is the next & last stop on that line) for my 15.10pm departure on my first leg (14hrs 50mins .. yikes!!) to Doha (Qatar) for a 3hr stopover, then onto Rome Terminal 3 Fiumicino Airport, another 5hrs, arriving 7.25am local time. Am I getting excited? .. hmm?

While at the airport, my first duty was to send birthday wishes to my niece, Kahli who is now in the Australian Women’s Rugby Union Team + the 7s team. She even played in the last Olympics & has seen a lot of the world now. All morning, I have been getting messages from my friends in Europe & UK, my fb friends & my upcoming activity tickets, so all is good in the universe for this trip but stay tuned.

The 14hr 50min first leg to Doha was quite a struggle. The plane was totally full so there was no spare seating. The Boeing 700-300ER had a 3-4-3 seating arrangement. The two young guys sitting next to me, both had major sniffles & cough issues & was getting worse while the young guy sitting directly in front of me had a worse cough at a frequency of around 10mins & getting more frequent. He was sitting next to a young couple who went to the toilet 8times, yes, I counted as every time it was a challenge of how they could disrupt the passengers more. There’s no way anyone found sleep time & our flight started 3pm Brisbane time, so we were well through our normal body clock scenarios by then.

Doha International airport is HUGE!!! & the number of flights taking off around midnight their time was beyond belief. Our flight was 3.5hrs later & that didn’t even fit onto the oversized departure boards. At least the entire airport is under 1 giant terminal building & is split into 5zones. We arrived near the central zone of A/B & our departure gate was in D5. For that you transfer from your flight to go through security screening again with your carry-on & wander through the duty–free shop & into the endless mind-blowing luxury shops. Once you wander with wide eyes, you can take the escalators/ lifts to Level 1 where there is a looping tram carriage system to take you all the way to Zones C, D & E. I stayed on ground floor & walked the entire route for leg stretch & to see more of the terminal & it is a very long walk & that’s why a higher volume of travellers take the tram system.

Central A-B Area
My Long Walk

I was pleased to see the young guys are not on the flight to Rome however, our Airbus A350-900 was completely full too with a 3-3-3 seating pattern. The trip went fairly well but 5hrs was cutting deep again. A point to note, with both aircraft & having the enormous volumes of bums on seats, they need to re-pad the seat as they were quite compressed & a solid feel. I used the supplied blanket to overcome this. By the time the flight was over I had no idea of time (body clock time), apart from the sign of sleep deprivation, for I had been on the go since leaving Yamba.

Day 1 2/10/25 Upon landing at Rome Terminal 3 Fiumicino Airport, we were ushered to a tram system to take us to the other side of the airport into the main terminal. Going through Immigration was brief & then again in Border Control for passport stamping was a bit tedious but many of us were keen to get to the baggage pickup considering the volume of travellers. Ours was designated #12, yes  .. there are 14 carousels! By the time we arrived many bags were already on the carousel & being full, the bag sensors would not let all the bags out onto the carousel. What we found out was we had a very large Chinese group travelling with us (about 40) & they took ages through Border Control & the bags we could see, were theirs. Eventually, they turned up & the bag sensors started to work again. Suffice to say, one elderly couple & myself were the very last of the bags, some 40+minutes later!!! Not happy Jan!!!

OK, with that test completed, the best way to Rome CBD (Historic Quarter for the sights & my hotel) is to take the train (some 32mins). Only 4 train ticket machines were available & each person was struggling with its complexities & the lines kept growing. Finally, after watching the operation over time I got my chance & being under pressure, pressed OK & a ticket popped out after card payment. Yay!! From there you cross the road & take the stairs or the escalators to Level 2 for the train station. There is a scanning process of everyone’s ticket & when I scanned mine, the young lady doing the checking ushered me to hurry & pointed to my terminating train as it was deemed to leave immediately. With two other women we managed to sneak in before the doors closed & we were off. All was well until a young lady train guard asked for tickets. She scanned mine & scolded me for being on the wrong train or something like that. I had boarded the first-class part of the train, or the other train was the economy one. My ticket was for the economy train. Who knows? With much embarrassment, she processed a new ticket, along with a penalty making my trip from 8€ to an additional 14€ (22€). I was totally innocent of this mistake & I caught up to her when departing, for more clarification. My train was the other train on Platform 2 & not #1 as per the lady before pointing out. It felt like a scam to me on tourists, but that’s me being pissed off. Lesson learned.

I’ll end my first Blog here & many thanks for reading them. My next blogs will have far more pictures & of major significance. Rome awaits. Please stay safe, happy & healthy.

My Cairns – Port Douglas Trip – April 2025 – Blog 1

Blog # 1

I am an owner within the Wyndham Resorts empire & to use some of my pending overdue holiday credits I became very lucky to engage a 2-bed apartment at the Wyndham Port Douglas Resort 1hour drive north of the North Queensland town of Cairns around my birthday timing. To gain such bookings in Australia since COVID is like winning a lottery, so one must take these opportunities when they show as some bookings become available 13months in advance or when a rare cancellation appears. The 2-bed apartment was also in the hope I could share it with someone or my family but as you will read on, sadly this wasn’t to be.

I spent the early time after my booking confirmation for the best available flights, hiring a car which was a nightmare, costly & full of ‘traps’ from supplier contracts & some adventure tours, etc.

I left my hometown, Yamba, NSW at 4.15am to leave my car at my son’s place at Banora Point (2hrs away) for him to wake early & drive me to Varsity Lakes Train Station (Gold Coast) to board the Airport train at 6.40am (train goes directly to the Brisbane Airport Terminals) @ $23 one way. After 90mins I arrived with plenty of time to handle the terminal construction redevelopment changes now in play. No problem through security & found my favourite eatery from last time .. The Aviary. It is so much nicer than the communal fast food outlet area. Table service too, great food & coffee. 

2hr 10mins flight time to Cairns Airport via Boeing 737-800. Flew over the coastline going North & seeing a volume of popcorn looking clouds which I’ve never seen before. Saw the magic sea colours of The Whitsundays (mineral sands floating through the sea water gives out the glowing colours). Unfortunately, the photos are not doing it justice through the airplane’s porthole windows & at 36,000ft. I did the Airlie Beach/ Whitsunday stay in 2023 & the sands & water were beyond amazing. Reaching Mackay I counted 26 container & bulk ships anchored off the coast & there must be more, as the coastline was now on my western side. Must be a massive wait time to get into the port.

Brisbane Airport
Whitsundays
Whitsundays
Whitsundays
Whitsundays

Not long after this I arrived at Cairns & was picked up by East Coast Car Hire shuttle bus for my MG car hire for 6days. They had the best deal & a breeze of a contract. From there I did the grocery shopping at Cairns Central (main shopping centre) but bought my fruit & vegies at nearby Ridleys (so cheap & fresh) & travelled further north (55mins) to my Ramada Wyndham Resort at Port Douglas where I settled into my apartment with great ease & had a well-earned sleep that night in of my upgraded apartment (2 Bed) of the Ramada Resort nestled in a melaleuca rainforest. Such a shame I couldn’t get anyone to come with me, so the 2nd bedroom & bathroom wasted, I guess. 

The resort has a great nature looking Central Pool off the large timber boardwalks & the restaurant/ bar is adjacent to the unique ‘nature’ pool & within the structure they have kept the natural strangling figs taking over the host trees & these puncture through the dining roof. Quite huge specimens & creates a great atmosphere. The pool area is perfect for families. From the pool there are separate lounge areas, perfect for chatting, reading or card games, etc.

By mid-morning I had a Wyndham ownership update meeting, then headed 2klms down the road to the Port Douglas CBD (Macrosson St is the main street full of all types of pubs, eateries & boutique shops). Being Sunday, the huge markets are on in the park at the end of Macrosson St, along Wharf St. 

From the markets I walked through the large park sighting the ANZAC Memorial full of wreaths from our annual commemoration of the landing of our ANZACs on 25th April 1915 which is heavily placed in our history where our veterans went fay & beyond and gave us our lives we enjoy now. Next to the memorial is the restored Court House of yesteryear & now a museum, such a presentation of old building construction & techniques. On the southern side of the park, I came along a restored and relocated St Mary’s By the Sea Church. Again, beautifully restored but it wasn’t open this day. A cousin of mine lived her for some 30+ years & was heavily involved in raising funds to restore & relocate this wonderful community building. Next door to this church is the famous Tin Shed … a seaside tavern of sorts linked to the fishing community. They have a large deck overlooking the bay.

Leaving the Tin Shed I walked back up Wharf St to spend a bit of time at The Central Hotel for a beer or two & listening to a great guitar/ singer performer & as Aussie as they come. Great music!! After the pub I walked right along the nature thick shoreline on a nature path at the northern end of Wharf St until I took a shortcut to get me back onto the sealed road of Island Point Rd which eventually leads you to the end for the Trinity Bay Lookout. This is the highest point of Port Douglas so there is the restored signal mast for old shipping lines & the radio/ telecommunications tower.

I met a large travelling family from India looking out over the bay & then trying to get a family photo, so I jumped in to take the photo for them & not missing any family members. They were so surprised an old Aussie guy would do that for them. Surely, I can’t be the only one to do these simple but very important gestures? When I started to look out over the bay, I could see the ‘surf club’ far below with their structured swim pool area boarded off to the remaining sea & quickly spotted a large saltwater crocodile (4m, my guess) lying still just outside the border. The Indians were amazed they had not seen it & were thrilled to be shown how these crocodiles are so free & brazen. With a cheery good-bye I walked slowly back to my hire car & then headed back to my resort, now it’s quite late & time for a beer next to the pool.

Port Douglas was established in 1877 when gold was discovered & then forest logging took place. Back then, the population was around 27,000 & with 27 hotels. The population is now around 3,700 & expands to almost triple in the peak tourist season (Winter migration from southerners). This region cops the cyclones & a couple of nasty ones have devastated the region & some of the buildings in my photos took major restoration & relocating. 

Pt Douglas is 1hr drive from Cairns & both these locations are the stepping areas for The Great Barrier Reef (largest coral reef in the world) & The Daintree Rainforest (oldest rainforest in the world). Tomorrow is my birthday & I have to get up at 5.15am to meet my pre-booked Waterfall Tour in Cairns towards Karanda & South, expecting it to be an extra special day so I’ll end my 1st blog here & many thanks for reading them. Pls stay happy, healthy & safe.

My Sth Korea Tour – November 2024 – Blog 6

Blog 6    Days 15 & 16   21-22/11/24 Last Days

Woke up around 7.30am a little bit dusty & a very croaky voice from last night’s mini-binge outing but knowing I would be a lot better than some of my fellow drinkers (32 beers in total for us all). Sorted out my backpack & after a wake-up shower in the hope of repacking at the airport for when we leave at 6°C Max Seoul to 29°C for Sydney & Brisbane.

I sat with my favourite travellers, Maria & Ted (78 & 80) for brekky & I will truly miss them. They live in Sydney, Manly. Our check out was set for 10am so we had to log our suitcases into Reception until our bus arrives for the 5pm departure. I somehow missed the bus group after reception, so I didn’t know if anyone had something planned for their day.

Really, today is another wasted day with nothing to shop for or to really see without too much complication & walking so another wandering around to find a great cafe where I can add to my travel blog & watch the rain for 5mins. This is the only rain (drizzle) we have seen on our entire 16day trip to Japan & Korea, so we were truly blessed. Yay!!! However, Korea has been mostly freezing for me.

I walked down a few different streets but nothing to take a photo of and eventually found my way back to my normal main street & the Cheonggyecheon Stream Bridge where again, I found this area rather surprising & unique. This good stream of water ran through the city & for some reason in the 1950s, the city covered it over & built a major elevated highway over it.

Over time, the stream became a cesspit & an unsafe area, then a decision was made some decades later to demolish this highway & return the stream to some beauty for the city in a hard landscaping, construction theme (not natural edges of flora but stones, pavers, etc) & now it provides a great attraction for passive walking, city lunch gatherings & festive celebrations. At its western end is a constructed weir & waterfall that provides a good constant flow. Such imagination and ingenuity for this landmark.

Top End of Cheonggyecheon Stream

With more meandering undertaken I eventually returned to the reception of AMID Hotel where everyone was securing their luggage & in doing so, no-one had any good stories to tell of their day. Mostly just window shopping & a couple of markets. Come 5pm we are all loaded on the bus & finally EVERYONE is on board on time & not lost. First time EVER!!! Looking at my phone I had undertaken 7.61klms of walking.

The traffic to Incheon Airport (2nd largest port & 3rd largest city) which services Seoul was insane directly from leaving the hotel being end of work time & with 4hwy lanes each way mostly choked will be a very slow 90klm trip & it was. The airport is massive & amazing & basically taking up the whole island off the coast of Incheon city & even with us reaching the airport at dark, it certainly became obvious when the skyline opened like the full sun just appeared with the airport’s lighting. What a light show!!!

Getting off the bus & saying goodbye to our driver, the airport is so large we had trouble finding the Qantas check-in counter. We eventually found it on Aisle H .. & trust me, there were a lot more letters following beyond your line of sight with such a large airport. With the check-in counter closed for another hour, it gave me time to exchange currency & sort out my duty-free Scotch shopping. I allowed myself to get 2 bottles of my fav scotches (Aberlour & Balvenie). Yummo & Cheers!!!  Going through the security was OK however, one of our couples found quite a security emergency where the wife wore new sneakers she bought yesterday & the shoes tested positive for drugs & eventually was cleared with the new shoes intact. Her husband bought his new shoes at another store & those were OK after showing both purchase receipts. Whew!!

There is still enough time to review a good coffee outlet & notice a popular one down further with people lining up, but as it turned out, only 1 employee is taking the order & making the product. You’re kidding!!! Back to the start of my search & took the chance of the first option & was pleasantly surprised. A good coffee before I start the boarding circus.

Sitting at Gate 9, I was thankful for my bus friend, Ed (same age as my daughter), found me & we had our last catchup before he went to his gate to Melbourne. I’ll miss him & his humour, but he promised to call into my new hometown of Yamba when he comes up north next year. Looking at the boarding lines of both gates there were several people I will truly miss & a couple I certainly will NOT!!! Not group friendly or considerate the entire trip.

My QF88 flight is boarding 10pm, the same time as Ed’s & with a quick wave to him from a far I start to think being in a single seat, dreading sitting next to the bus horror passenger, DS from the G/Coast where I am also heading to .. I can’t print what this man did on the trip. Such disgusting, self-serving behaviour & I called him out on it the other day. He was horrid. With such relief, I had two spare seats between my other young Korean lady passenger (centre aisle of 4 seats). She was happy to take up these 3 seats & had a sleep for 95% of the 10hr flight. The flight gave us our dinner meal at 10.45pm & then lights out of course. The Korean lady had no dinner, nor breakfast & arose of course quite refreshed upon landing, but with bed hair extreme to which she was quickly rectifying.

22/11/24

No sleep, basically for me on the plane (10hrs is a long time) & was awake when the brekky trolley was pushed out around 6am. This was the time I could get to my backpack above to retrieve my pen to fill in the Australian Immigration & Customs Card provided to me when boarding.

Yikes!!!!! While sitting down to start writing, my pen leaked a ‘ton’ of blue ink out everywhere, narrowly missing my open passport, clothes & seats. Blue ink all over my hands. My opposite aisle passenger saw this & gave me a couple of fresh wipes & they were definitely blue when I finished but couldn’t get all the ink removed. That’s going to look suspect to Customs, I’m sure. Lol! I was so thankful for the young couple but now I have no pen.

Alighting from the plane & heading towards Customs/ Immigration, my favourite traveller, Maria was already waiting in line & I explained the pen ink situation & she instantly gave me her pen. Here I am trying to write, move my bag in the cattle grid line & keeping composed. Lol!! Suddenly, a line opens up & Maria & Ted were off like a shot!! I now have inherited her pen. Getting through Sydney Customs was a breeze, despite my fluoro blue hands & straight onto Gate 15, after another security check onto the Qantas inter-airport bus to the domestic terminal for Brisbane. Again, I’m dreading the thought of sitting next to DS & again the universe looked after me. Whew!!!

I again enjoyed the inter-bus trip across the airport adjacent to a taxiway I was heavily involved with in construction back in 1986 & to provide the beauty of Sydney I have uploaded some of my flight photos over the Sydney Domestic Airport, CBD & Harbour Bridge areas. The taxiway I spoke of is basically the centre of the below left photo.

Before long I was landing in Brisbane & was very thankful for my son in law, Jason to pick me up at Brisbane Domestic after his 14hr night work shift & drove me to their home in Canungra for a 2-night stay. The weather & traffic was so bad it took us 2hrs to do the drive. Jason was totally stuffed & went straight to bed after his shower & didn’t see him till later the next morning.

Such a relief to see my family & to chat about the trip & to chill out before heading home although I will spend one night with son, Matthew & his wife Ashlee at Banora Point before heading on a 2hr drive South to Yamba to review their large landscaping project they want me to undertake very soon. Reality starting to hit already.

Cheers to a great trip .. & my next one is Cairns/ Port Douglas (Nthrn Queensland, Australia) in late April. My next big trip will be Europe to catch up with some great friends in October 2025 for about 43days. Stay happy, healthy & safe for my next blog & thank you immensely for reading & hope you like the photos. By scrolling down to other posts you can review my entire Japan & Sth Korea trip plus keep scrolling to see my numerous other travel blogs. Happy reading … or sleeping? LOL!!!

My Sth Korea Tour – November 2024 – Blog 5

Day 14  20/11/24

Brekky early & time to chill before the 9.30 bus start for the pre-paid $150AUD Seoul City Sightseeing Tour that was rescheduled due to the Gyeongbokgung Palace opening times, changed earlier in the week.

From my previous planned daily walks alone to the South, we head off from our AMID Hotel in the opposite direction (North) by bus, for our first stop just 10mins away where we view the Heungnyemun Gate (centre) from the side entry to the Gyeongbokgung Palace & the 15min rendition to the changing of the Royal Guards Ceremony. There is no royal family existing here in Sth Korea now so with tradition dating back through the last 500years the guard ceremony has been resurrected to keep their culture & history relevant. As per common practice, the young locals all get dressed in traditional costumes for free entry plus it really makes everything wonderful to enjoy. To hear the big drum over the other drums was amazing & strong & be good in a rock band. Lol. I had great difficulty in getting a good photo, such was the volume of onlookers. It was difficult to understand the ceremony of the procedure however, it was done in such precision you could only admire the exhibition & the participant’s dedication.

Photos of the middle right & lower right is the Heungnyemun Gate (Central to the palace grounds) & the lower left & middle bottom is the Gwanghwamun Gate (front street entrance).

The construction of the Royal Palace was completed in 1395 however all buildings in this estate were completely destroyed by fire from the invading Japanese in 1592-98. A secondary, or say a temporary palace was built after the invasion in 1610 not far away from these grounds but these palace grounds were left derelict for some 270yrs. Finally, restoration took place in 1867 to resurrect this amazing monument to past Korean Governance & this continued to again in 1990. This vast walled ‘fortress’ of some 692,000m2 also housed about 500 tiny homes of essential governing people but these were never restored.

Where the guard ceremony (parade) was carried out was the foundation for the Japanese to erect their own government headquarters during their invasion of governance & the Gwanghwamun Gate (rear of the photos) was removed. A concerted effort to restore the main factor buildings have been ongoing since 1990. The Japanese Govt building was removed in 1997 & the Heungnyemun Gate (middle gate of palace grounds) was restored to its original state too. You will note in some of the photos, the buildings & shrines are also protected by a group of baboon looking monkeys on each roof hip line.

The Gwanghwamun Gate (main front gate) was restored in 2010 along with the King’s & Queen’s separate living quarters. You can see in one of the photos, the King’s sleeping quarters has numerous hanging panels from the ceiling that can be drawn down to segment of different room designs and to provide further privacy, as the King had many maidens as well. The Shrine in the King’s Palace area is an amazing work of features, etc all under the 25m ceiling. The bottom right photo shows our travelling group with our guide, Jade in her full voice of commentary & some of the group showing readiness for more viewing.

The actual King’s Palace restoration even retained the original large mote which looks fantastic in the photo and unfortunately is not open to the public. Surely, it would be as magnificent as its outside aesthetics.

King’s Palace with Mote

A short walk away was the National Folk Museum of Korea to learn more history & culture by being directed into the Permanent Exhibition #3 (Korean Life Passages) however upon entering, Jade, our guide, was in fine voice with no evidence of stopping & one could envisage this might take hours to get through this one floor of the museum so I headed off alone with the plan to meet up with the rest of the group who wanted respite & coffee in the foyer Cafe. Some of our travellers were limited in their walk lengths & stamina, so each to their own management. Exhibition #3 presents everyday items and culture from past to present and the growing education from child to adult & was quite detailed & well presented.

There were plenty of displays showing the various historical way of Korean life and how things progressively changed, and I was comfortable in studying these without the volume of speech from Jade. She was truly full on!! The last sight that really took my eye was the extremely colourful bier (Korean Hearse) which is carried by 12-24 pallbearers. This large bier is called a Daeyeo & a smaller one, Soyeo. This Daeyeo is in original condition & built for the funeral of Choi Pilju (1796-1856) making this bier constructed in 1856 & was a great donation to the museum from the family. One traveller who caught up with me said it was like a Noah’s Ark due to the shape & the 4 levels of animals on it with sculptures of human beasts, 12 zodiac animals on each level signifying the deceased to the afterlife.

The next & last exhibit was an interaction of photos projected onto a very large wall. One was a saying I aspire my later life to from my attendance in Landmark Forum, 2017 & a few books I read from Ekhart Tolle (The Power of Now & A New Earth). The saying here was “When I was young there were many tomorrows, but as I get older there are many yesterdays. As tomorrows must all become yesterdays, today is only a moment” by Han Jang-sok 1832-94. Landmark Forum is where I saw over 150 people change their outlook on life after the 3day forum & the outcome was “Stay in The Present” so you can understand “today is only a moment”. Turning left in the semi-darkness hallway was the Café where onlookers were smiling at me thinking the group was finally coming out. Sorry people, for it took another 30mins+ before Jade & the group resurfaced.

Next, we were to stop for a 10min quick photo of the ‘Blue House’, I believe is the President’s House which left me at the back of the bus out of the view from the side window. The bus only stopped for a mere 2 seconds then takes off leaving me with a partial blurred photo. Arghh!!! I was able to take a rapid shot of a similarly constructed neighbouring residence, obviously a Government Building also.

From there, we venture to the other side of the city (South) to view the Bukchon Hanok Village, a traditional housing estate dating back 600 or so years & still a private residential community. Today, there is only boundary access due to arriving here at the closing 5pm timeframe, so that’s disappointing. 15mins was our viewing time of basically nothingness, apart from some of the external building styles and some young Koreans in traditional costumes who have come to visit also.

We depart past the neo-fururism architecture styled monolith Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) designed by Zaha Hadid & Sameo & completed in 2011. Haha passed away during COVID. This building won the SEGD Merit Award in 2015 @ a construction cost of $451Million AUD. It resembles a large stainless-steel submarine at first glance & apologies in trying to get a good photo which really is a miracle to do so. The was no information to confirm what this building housed or was used for. Look hard into the RH photo below.

Bukchon Hanok Village
Dongdaemun Design Plaza

We were later granted 90mins of free time shopping at the large outlet store opposite but after scouring 6 levels of a Myer type store with same Australian prices I was back on the bus with no purchases worth getting. What a waste of time & others thought so too. One lady traveller bought a very expensive coat & that was all the bus purchases that happened.

Back at the hotel a few of us ‘lively’ ones decided on a group Korean bbq dinner for our last night out. Sally had found the other day an out of the way Korean bbq restaurant, but upon first glance, it was not inspiring. I was glad it was nearby to our AMID Hotel & surprisingly sat all 11 of us at the one table with 3 bbq plates (gas fired) along its centre. The staff were excited & very keen to see us, although taken aback first at us ‘barging in’ being an out of the busy shopping zone. They quickly arranged the pork, beef, brisket & vegetables & we started ordering the extra-large stubbie Cass beers prior to starting our own cooking.

We all did a bit of our own cooking (once I saw how it was meant to be done) & by the time the eating was done we had clocked up 23bottles & a $550 bill & that was well priced & worth it. Some of our ‘lively’ group went back to the hotel however, some of us (4) weren’t yet done so we went off searching for a bar or similar. We looked up at a 2nd floor neon sign that indicated was a ‘party-type’ bar & ventured in. It was almost deserted, but we did a group order & found to have been ripped off at $70AUD for 4 beers!!! Marching out in disgust we found another place for 4 beers at $28, which by then left a couple walking back to the hotel a bit strange & wobbly however I managed to do the Qantas online checkin, pre-packing, Polarsteps journal, etc before falling into bed. Young people are so soft now!!!

Beers All Round

Tomorrow is basically another free day (without Jade) & to finish brekky by 10am & checkout at 12noon. The bus picks us up at 5pm for Incheon Airport back to Sydney for the 10pm flight of 10hrs.

My day has ended with a walking trek of just 8.51klms which is a lot less than expected & yesterday’s walk. Stay happy, healthy & safe for my next blog & thank you immensely for reading & hope you like the photos.