WDH in WDH (and a little Paris on the way)
Today we tried to get up early to get a start at the 7 hour time zone difference between Toronto and Namibia. Plus its good to wake up early if you happen to be leaving for three weeks and you haven't started to pack! A couple of loads of laundry later and we were packed - we are starting to get good at this - about 35lbs total for the two of us. Ask any traveler out there, no one ever says "Boy next time I need to pack more stuff to carry around…"
We have a lot of flights in the next couple of days. Toronto to Paris, then our first time on an A380 for our flight from Paris to Johannesburg, then another quick 2 hour flight to get to Windhoek. For those of you that don't know Bill, he is very excited to finally be flying into Windhoek
Theresa getting her Money's Worth
. Windhoek's airport code is WDH - his initials - checking in he even asked the Air France person if she should print a second baggage tag that he could keep. Back off ladies, he is all mine!!
After checking in we decided to have some dinner, we heard that the AF/KLM lounge was having a $35 special - Can we drink and eat $35 worth in 2 hours - challenge accepted! The lounge is comfortable, but honestly I think it is better at Billy Bishop and you do not have to pay extra there. But, the one perk here is the fully stocked bar, so we can not complain too much!
We will be boarding Air France shortly, so we will try to update the blog tomorrow when we are in gay Paris!
So, you thought this was supposed to be a trip to Africa, so what are we doing in Paris? Our travel tip of the day is: If you have a connection through a city, take advantage of the situation and spend time seeing some of the sites. It is not considered a layover if it is less than 24 hours, and will not cost you any more, so check what flight will work best for you. We have taken advantage of spending time in San Fransico, Hong Kong, Washington DC, New York and now Paris by working our connections over the years.
We took the train to Paris, then the metro, and arrived in the centre of Paris around 9:30. It was only three degrees, so we were a bit cool without our coats
Bill is Drinking non Coke Caffeine??
. It was an overcast and damp Fall day, but were still feeling romance in the air. We had petit dejuenier at Les Edituers. My egg yolks were all joined together on one side of my plate and the remaining egg whites took up the rest of the plate & were covered in a spring mix with a vinegrette. Bill's scrambled eggs were very rich. I think they added cream to them. Both meals were delicious. Bill decided to finish his breakfast with an expresso. This is the first coffee beverage I have ever seen him have. I took a sip and immediately regret it. I hoped it would not take me all day to get the awful bitter taste out of my mouth!
We strolled along the Sienne to Musee d'Orsay. We spent several hours admiring works of art from some incredible artists. We had to take a few short breaks during our tour because we both did not sleep well on the plane. Bill's cold kept us both awake for a majority of the flight
Walking through Paris - Beautiful
. At one spot in the museum there was a huge bean bag like chair. I curled up on it and had a 10 minute cat nap.
We finished our tour of the main exhibit and then sent some time at the special exhibit, Masculin, an exploration of the male nude. We are sure that both of our cat sitters would appreciate this display.
By mid-afternoon we were done touring the museum so we stopped into Mucha Cafe. We shared a charcuterie platter and crepes suzette. Both were very filling and delicious. I am finally feeling like a human for the first time today. I guess it helps that it is now morning back home instead of the middle of the night.
It was so lovely to walk along the beautiful streets of Paris. We contemplated what it would be like for a Parisians to travel to another city
. I am sure that only cities like New York, Tokyo, Rome and London can measure up. Other cities must be so disappointing by comparison. We walked around for a few hours and only saw beautiful and well maintained buildings. We did not see a single building or green space that was run down or in need of repair. How do they do it?
We took a minor diversion through a flea market that was set up along one street. It had a few neat things, but we did not do any shopping there.
At one point I was trying to take a photo when Bill stated exclaiming "watch out!" I almost stepped into dog poop! I totally forgot that you have to watch where you are walking in Paris.
We strolled through the park that surrounds the Eiffel Tower. It was lovely to see so many families out with their children playing
. We then headed to the Arc de Triomphe and Bill snapped some really nice photos before and after the street lights were turned on.
We then walked up the infamous and very crowded Champs de Elysee. It is definitely very vibrant with lots of people walking along the wide sidewalks and all the stores and shops were open, even on a Sunday evening. We walked all the way to the Ferris wheel and for the last several hundred metres there was a street fair, the Paris Festival de Noel. There was lots of food and drinks along with some vendors selling small items.
We sampled the Vin Chaud. It was not bad, but I think I still prefer hot apple cider. One booth was selling "authentic" Canadian tuques that had a covering for your mouth and nose. We have never seen anything like it and the Canadian flag was not correctly represented. We had decided that they were huge frauds!
We made one purchase at the festival
. A beautiful Christmas tree ornament with Paris on it, hand painted by a Ukranian. We believe it is the only souvenier from Paris that we have. Althought I also bought a Paris Starbucks mug earlier today, but that does not count, that is for my collection!
We walked around the Ferris wheel and through a park that led us to the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and the Louvre. The Louvre is so massive and stunning. It is truly one of the most impressive palaces in the world.
We decided to have a bite to eat here instead of at the airport. We found a nice cafe and had a massive cheese platter and beer. I was able to snuggle up next to a radiator. I think that is the warmest that I have been all day.
We hopped on the metro, then the train back to the airport. We had a couple of hours before our flight, so I found a few seats together that did not have arm rests, laid down and slept for an hour. It took a while to board the flight, we hung back until it was almost full before we boarded.
Our plane to Johannesburg was an A380. We were both amazed by the size of this plane and it was our first time on one. It looked like it was going to be full and it holds over 500 people. That is larger than the size of the town I grew up in and now we were all on a plane and it would actually get us off the ground and take us to a city more than 5,000 miles away in 10 1/2 hours.
Thankfully we both had a solid sleep on the flight from Paris. There was a lovely Spanish lady next to us, but we had difficulty communicating. She does speak much English and I do not speak much Spanish. I needed my sister and niece along to help translate!
Our connection was tight and our flight was more than 30 minutes late arriving. Bill was convinced that we would not catch our noon flight to Windhoek. Thankfully he was wrong, otherwise we would have been stuck in Johannesburg. They had someone greet us at the gate and they had already checked us in. . We ran halfway there, but I left her and Bill in the dust when we reached an incline. Wimps! Good thing we are not in The Amazing Race! Despite this, we were escorted us to the area where we had to clear customs and made our plane with time to spare WDH in WDH. We are very thankful with the service from Air Namibia, we were very happy with your efforts for getting us to the plane on time!
I was asleep before we took off, Bill woke me up for lunch and I went right back to sleep until we touched down at WDH - Windhoek Airport. In case you do not already know, Bill has always wanted to come to this airport because it is his initials. Unfortuneately, our bags were not granted the same great service and are still in Johannesburg.
Nicolas met us and drove us the 40 KM to our hotel, Kalahari Sands Hotel. We learned from him that the average income in Namibia is $12/day. Just after he told us that we saw a Ferrari and a Mazerati. Nicolas said that you will often see premium cars like that here. So, I guess there is a small minority who make signifcantly more than $12/day. Our driver also told us that there is a lot of mining in this province - copper, tin, diamonds, emeralds, ect Our Room at Kalahari Sands. We saw the bed for a massive dump truck bed being hauled along the highway that would have been for a mining truck. The drive to our hotel did not take long, the roads are well constructed and maintained from the airport to the city.
We checked into the hotel and went into the attached mall to buy some necessities until our bags show up. Back in the room I started watching a movie, but feel asleep again for another couple of hours.
We dragged ourselves out of bed and went to the lounge for dinner. I had a club sandwich instead of a chicken and avocado salad becuase they were out of avocado. My club sandwich had avocado on it when it arrived... Must be some special avocados that are only for salads!? Bill had fish and chips and we washed it all down with red wine and Windhoek beer.
We are going to try to get some sleep tonight so we are ready to hit the ground running tomorrow!
