Alyssa arrived this morning around 11am. She had been up since 4am. After a short rest, we decided to explore Paris. Alyssa has been here many times before so we let her lead the way. We wanted to walk along Canal St Martin. We took the train to a what seemed like the ugly part along the canal and decided to walk along the banks.
We had lunch after the canal walk and then decided to head into the city to explore the Conciergerie.
The check-in time to the apartment we are moving into is 4pm. We had breakfast at the hotel and gave the apartment building manager a call to say we will arrive at 4pm.
We now had to kill time to about 3:30pm. We decided to head into the city to Galeries Lafayette. Main reason is to check out the luggage variety available here. Alyssa is bringing across a whole lot of stuff for me to take home. I can carry 55kgs back and we thought we should take advantage of this. We took the train to Opera station. We bought a 5-day pass which seemed most economical.
We walked over to Galeries Lafayette which is at the back of the Opera House. We checked out on some large suitcases and decided on one. We were going to buy it once Alyssa arrived. We then decided to go to the Terrace Bar on the rooftop of the building to get a panoramic view of the city.
It was a hot day. We headed back to our hotel at 3:15pm to take a break in the air-conditioning. After about 30mins, we booked an Uber to take us to the apartment. The apartment is reasonably close to Arc de Triomphe. It is a typical Parisian apartment with 2 bedrooms. It was built in the 19th century. We booked the apartment through AirBnb on the recommendation of our friend Theresa who has stayed at the apartment before.
The building manager greeted us on arrival. He spoke little English and we spoke little French but we managed with Google Translator. He was very welcoming and showed us around the entire place. We couldn’t be more impressed.
We had booked a small group (up to 16) tour of the Western Front. We decided to do this tour the day after we arrived in Paris. We could not have foreseen the fact that we arrived in Paris late due to the flight delay. We were supposed to meet at 6:40 am outside the Paris Tourist Office in Pyramides. We made it to the Paris Tourist Office outside the Town Hall. We realised after some time we were at the wrong spot. Pyramides was not near and we needed a taxi. We had difficulty getting a taxi and so I booked an Uber that arrived in 4 mins. While in the Uber car, the tour guide called me to enquire about our whereabouts. I told him we were waiting at the wrong spot but now we were in a Uber cab and on our way. We just made it in time.
Our tour group was a small one; just six of us. There was a Canadian couple, a young Australian couple from Melbourne and us. We had a mini-van that was very comfortable for all of us. We felt quite lucky to get a small group.
The drive to the Western Front was more than 2 hours. On the way, the guide gave us a run down of the programme for the day and also outlined some of the historical facts. He was full of knowledge and had an iPad with photographs from the period to illustrate various topics he was discussing.
We got to the Australian Memorial at about 9:20am. It opens at 9:30am. No one was there. The guide had good timing. He gave us a guide of the site and graves. It is actually a Commonwealth grave with most being Australian. There were British and Canadians buried here. The good thing about coming early is also it allows me to capture uninterrupted picture of the whole area.
Most burial plots are near where the soldiers fell. The exception here will be the La Chapelette British and Indian Cemetery in Peronne where there are 571 identified graves and 6 unidentified. The 5th Indian Cavalry Division led the only cavalry charge on the Western front.
There is also a Chinese Cemetery at Noyelles-sur-Mer. The Chinese were brought in as labourers to build British war infrastructure and fortification. They mostly died of illness and mainly the Spanish flu.
The Red Baron (Manfred von Richthofen) sustained a serious head wound and crashed in Vaux sur Somme on 6th July 2017. He was pursued by a Canadian pilot but later investigation credited Australian ground fire for bringing down the plane. He was 27 when he died.
The British War Memorial was large and impressive. After our visit of this site in Thiepval, we headed for the Newfoundland Memorial Park dedicated to Canadian soldiers. Most of the Canadian soldiers were from Newfoundland. This site also contains reasonably preserved war trenches.
The Newfoundand Memorial Park in Beaumont-Hamel is an actual battleground. It is littered with reasonably well preserved trenches. In other areas of Somme, trenches have been covered up and farming now takes place. The trenches in this park are exactly as they were 100 years ago.The original trenches were a lot deeper. Over time, soil fell into the trenches.
After Newfoundland Memorial Park, we headed for the town of Peronne for lunch. Peronne was a German stronghold during the war and was heavily shelled by the allies. We also visited the museum in town which had relics from the war period including period uniforms and weapons.
We were leaving hot and humid Malta for Paris. Our flight is at 3:10pm. We decided to leave early so that I could return the rental car and possibly allowing enough time for us to get lost along the way. There is also the issue of the chaotic traffic in Malta. Not sure why we hired a car in the first place.
We arrived at the airport in good time. I dropped Dianne at departures and I went around to drop the car. The rental car area is at the far end of the car park which is a good distance from the terminal. In the hot sun, it is hard work walking back to the terminal.
We checked in with no issues. Both our bags came in around 21.6 to 21.7 kgs; within the 23 kgs limit. We went through the usual security screening and parked ourselves on some comfy seat about 2 hours ahead of departure time. Unbeknown to us, our flight was delayed. It was now taking off at 5:45 pm! That is some 2 hours and 35 minutes later. There was no announcements. It was just indicated on the board.
We were not expecting Malta Airport to be Changi International Airport but still it was a real challenge during the wait period. Air-conditioning at the airport was not good and so we sat down on seats directly under the air-conditioning vents. There was a piano in the passenger area of the airport. Waiting passengers took turns playing on the piano. It was good entertainment and there was some great piano playing.
At 5 past 5, the indicator board flashed that Gate 2 as the departure gate. We quickly rushed to queue. After a wait of about 20 minutes or so, we were allowed to board. Flight took off as normal. There is absolutely no complimentary inflight service. Air Malta is a budget airlines; you pay for everything. We ordered some food and drinks which seemed like an involved process. There was someone onboard with a severe nut allergy. An announcement was made asking us to refrain from consuming any nuts. I ordered a tapas tray and beer. Dianne ordered bread roll with eggplant and pesto filling. She was informed that this was off the menu at it contained nut products in it. She ordered another bread roll. The food arrived shortly. My beer was warm. Dianne requested 2 cups of ice so that we could chill our drinks. Dianne’s bread roll was stale. My tapas was not too bad. We should not complain too much. It is highly unlikely we will be catching Air Malta again.
We were glad to touchdown at Orly. Weather was a coolish 21C. We breezed through the exit (no immigration or customs as we came from an EU country) and queued up for a taxi. After a short wait, we were on our way to the hotel. All taxis from the airport charge a flat fare to Paris.
Our AirBnb apartment in Paris was already booked for our first 2 night in Paris. I booked a boutique hotel named Hotel Original Paris which was near Place de la Bastille, for 2 nights. We were welcomed warmly by manager on our arrival. We were given a room upgrade and free breakfast for the 2 days. We were leaving early the next morning for a trip to the Western Front. The manager organised an early breakfast for 5:45 am. He was even going to bring it up to us in the morning. That is real service.
It’s our last day in Malta. Tomorrow we fly to Paris. We bought tickets for a harbour cruise a few days back. We thought we would do it today. Meaghan, Fiona and Nigel were joining us. The others decided to go to Mdina and Rabat.
We made our way to Sliema where all the tour boats operate from. We were ushered into one of the boats. After a short wait, we were on our way.
Today we decided to drive to the ancient city of Mdina and Rabat. They are next to each other. The drive after breakfast was manageable. Traffic was not too bad by Maltese standards. When we got there, parking was an issue. There were cars and tourist buses everywhere. The carpark was full and people had resorted to parking in handicap zones. We drove slightly out of the city (about a 5 min walk) and parked the car in a parking bay along the main road to Rabat. This as it turned out was more sensible than parking in the city.
Mdina was called by various names throughout history. The Arabs named in Medina. The current name is a bastardisation of this name. The Arabs extended the city walls to include surrounding areas which they called Rabat.
We decided to take a mini-train tour of Mdina and Rabat. These rides, like in Valletta usually gave a good overview of the area.
We were all interested in doing a boat trip to Comino and Blue Lagoon which is next to Gozo. Larry volunteered to organise the trip. He made the arrangements with a tour company in Paceville. We were all ready at 9am and we made it to the tour company. There were 12 of us. It was going to be a hot day and we were prepared a day of swimming and wallowing in the waters of the Blue Lagoon. We were all then ushered to a bus stop and boarded one of the hop-on-hop-off tour buses for a ride to Sliema. Sliema is where all the tour boats depart on various trips.
We were early. We boarded the boat and waited a while before the trip began. Drinks including beer and wine were included in the package we had. It was a pleasant boat ride and we got to see Malta and her shoreline from the sea.
We booked ourselves on a power boat trip that would take us into the grottos around Comino.
The group decided the previous night that we will go into Valletta today and tour the city. The others were going early into Valletta to have breakfast. We were going to have breakfast in our hotel and meet them in Valletta.
We took the public bus into Valletta.
Although Malta has plenty of historical sites and of course Valletta has plenty, in what seems like unfettered construction of apartments is a blight on the general landscape. Most apartments are generic and uninspiring. Construction is not coordinated and buildings do not fit into the historical backdrop. The roads don’t seem to cope with this construction boom. I feel there will be crunch at some point.
The landscape is almost devoid of greenery. What plants there are, are either dying or are in poor condition. I believe water supply is an issue here. There is litter, plastic and rubble everywhere, even outside our 5 star hotel. It was rather disappointing to see.
Valletta is quite different and being the capital is quite tidy. Malta was recently appointed the European Cultural Capital by the EU and hence it seems like money was spent sprucing up Valletta.
We met up with the group on the main street of Valletta quite by accident. We went away in different directions and then met up for lunch in an air-conditioned restaurant. It was a hot day and therefore the air-conditioning was a good welcome. The food was good too.
Our next stop was the Grandmaster’s Palace.
We slept in late after a long nights rest. We made it to breakfast at 9:30 am. It was quite a spread. After breakfast, we decided to wonder around the hotel to see what facilities are available. We are glad we booked into the the Westin Dragonara. It is slightly pricey but the service and facilities are good.
We decided to do the hop-on-hop-off bus tour of Malta with our friends. We got our friends to meet us at the hotel as our hotel is a pickup point.
Booking for this trip is rather convoluted. We booked the trip through the concierge at our hotel. He gave us a receipt but we were told payment will be collected at stop 17 of the tour. We get to stop 17 in Silema and two men boarded the bus to collect the fare.
The tour takes us past Valletta but not into the town and heads for Mdina. There are two tours; North Island tour and the South Island tour. Mid-way to Mdina the bus stops at one of the regular stops. Those going on the South Island tour needed to change buses.
The bus then takes us through Mdina and heads for Golden Bay where we get off to have lunch and look around. Golden Bay is on the West coast of the island.
After lunch, we caught the next bus that took us to St Paul’s Bay and then back to our hotels in St Julians. Mid-way, the bus stops to wait for the another bus behind to pick up passengers from that bus. It is not the most efficient system and the fast driving around the island did not improve the experience. However, we did learn something from the commentary. We waited nearly 30mins or so in the hot sun for the other bus to turn up. I would say the hop-on-hop-off bus service is rather crude but we got to see a lot of the island.
At night, we all went out for dinner to celebrate Fiona’s birthday. We had a scrumptious seafood dinner on the beach.
We left a wet Munich for Malta today. Our flight was at 2:30 pm. We left for the airport early. Flight was slightly delayed. We got to Malta around 5 pm.
We hired a car at the airport. There are many horror stories of car hires in Malta. So I pre-booked a car through Avis. Driving here is a challenge too. Road rules are very loosely observed. We saw this first hand in the airport carpark itself. We saw cars driven against traffic flow.
It is warm in Malta. Our drive from the airport to our hotel was stressful and harrowing. Hopefully this will improve over time. The roads are rather confusing and this is while equipped with a GPS.
Our rooms at the Westin Dragonara is very comfortable. I booked a room with a king sized bed but got one with two queens. We are not complaining. We both have our things spread on our own beds.
We met up with our friends later. They are in an apartment close-by. We went out for a relaxing dinner.
