Not a lot to write about. Got an Uber from the hotel to the airport, the driver was from Senegal originally but lived in Spain for a while before moving to Paris, and he spoke 5 languages.
Got to the airport in good time, I waited in the lounge while Song went to buy some handbags, then onto the plane, left more or less on time. Had a nice meal (jambon to start, then I had a steak, Song had fish, then I had chocolate tart for dessert, Song had fruit). I also had a gin and tonic and a glass of red wine because it was free if you don’t count the cost of the ticket.
Neither of us slept much, Song a couple of hours, me about an hour.
We landed on time at around 06:30 local time, took about 30 minutes to walk to immigration and get through. We couldn’t check into the hotel until 15:00 which gave us a lot of time to kill so we thought about staying in the airport for a while but almost everything was shut. Wandered about for a while but decided to bite the bullet and get a taxi to the hotel and see if we could get an early check in.
No early check in, but they had a shower which I used, then we dropped the bags and went over the road to a shopping centre and I got a Starbucks.
Found a restaurant on Google, a place that did chilli crab, that was open at 10:00 which meant only 10 minutes to wait. Having been stung by Google showing restaurants open only to get there and find them closed, checked the restaurant website which also showed it open so left the shopping centre and went out into the hot, humid, overcast day.
It was an uncomfortable 15 minute walk, got to the place which was along the river with dozens of restaurants all next to each other. All closed, including the one we checked. FFS. Walked back again, sweating, to the shopping centre and wandered around the food court before choosing a place that did Vietnamese food. I had a Banh-Mi and Song had Pho.
Jet lag started to hit so crossed the road to the hotel and our room was ready, so crashed for the rest of the day, had a sleep of a couple of hours and watched some TV downloads.
No photos, it was an uneventful day.
So that’s it; our mega European tour of 2025. Seems so long ago that we were up a mountain, freezing in snow, then the Duomo in Milan, looking out over the Italian countryside in San Marino, and all the other great things we’ve done. Hard to pick a highlight; the Matterhorn and the Alps from the Glacier Express were spectacular. Tapas in San Sebastian has always been something I wanted to do. Eating food from the French markets and incredible cakes from the Patisseries.
Song did the best job at planning the route and picking the places to visit and the hotels; every place we stopped had something of interest and we spent just enough time at a place to make sure we saw everything and not so long that we got bored, but also some slow days to relax. All the hotels were great locations, either close to the attractions or public transport.
Trip Statistics
Total Distance Travelled including flights = 37,500 KM
Total Distance Travelled excluding flights (train and bus) = 5,455 KM
Total Number of Countries Visited = 8
Total Number of Towns / Cities Visited = 24
Total Number of Different Hotels = 19
Total Number of Steps Taken (based on my phone) = 449,741
Total Distance Walked = 324.8 KM
Average Steps Taken A Day = 12,849.74
Average Distance Walked A Day = 9.28 KM
Total Number of Photos Taken By Song = 4,489
Average Number of Photos Taken By Song A Day = 124.69
Total Number of Photos Taken By Andy = 3
Coldest Temperature = -8C in Zermatt
Hottest Temperature = 32C in Singapore
Not sure what our next trip will be – we are planning a few days in Adelaide and then in Canberra sometime this year. We haven’t decided on next year yet.