Wrapping it up for Hillseys Holiday 2015

The trip home was uneventful, not much sleep but I think we all enjoyed retreating to our own corners for a day! The kids figured out that if they push the button for attention and requested snacks, they arrived. Oh dear, they certainly don't get that at home.

The sunrise coming into Singapore was really pretty, and given the short transit through Changi- literally one gate straight to the next, we left the kids in their PJ's. Tres sophisticated!

Noma surprised us with an airport pickup (thank you again!!) so it was only a short time after landing that we were home and cuddling Missy! A huge thanks goes out to Nic, Paul, Eamonn, Ella and Ben for keeping her company- she looks so happy.

Things I want to remember for the next trip...

1. Pack even less! We dropped 25kg overall from our last trip, and there were still things we didn't use much along the way. If we end up shopping we can always buy a cheap bag to get it home.

2. Do a little more research on local public transfer options- I think we could have done a few more airport transfers via public transport, amd also got caught with a few expensive train tix on the spot by not selecting the right options at the station on the auto machines.

3. Take my own laundry washing liquid and a sheet for Amy washed already from home. Have just stumped up lots of $$$$ in medication to calm the eczema down that almost covered her whole torso by the time we got home

4. Take all 'possible' medication. I left something at home for my asthma I don't always need and ended up needing it! Likewise for Amy's skin. When you don't speak the local language it's hard to get what you need sometimes.

I'm going to ask the kids and Baz to add to this but here's my top list;

1. Terrific town- Hard to say between Barcelona and Seville!

2. Place I'd like most to go back to- Bilbao. I'd like to see the imside of the Guggenheim!

3. Fave Accommodation- Barcelona both places

4. Dreamiest bed- Citizen M Paris Airport

5. Delicious dish- Cider cream mussels (Biarritz), Galacian Octopus (Seville), Bacalao in all dishes (Spain!) and baby calamari from the markets. And cheese, and olives... And.... Ok everything!!!

6. Market- Loved them all, but for sheer variety probably Biarritz.

7. Best coffee (only me to review this)- Seville, though it's a cheat with an italian cafe!

8. Easist Euro airline (we flew Easyjet/Vueling/Ryanair/Iberia)- Vueling. On time, the least time to queue and fastest luggage appearance.

9. Best Train trip- Thalys Rotterdam- Paris. 3 hours passed by in the blink of an eye.

10. Hosts with the Most- Allison, Brian, James and Clare Cohen! They were so welcoming and made us feel at home.

11. Memorable language mistake- Baz ordering two beers and ending up with two freshly squeezed orange juices in Barcelona!

12. Top Ticket stuff up- Paying too much for 1st class tickets from Amsterdam airport, ending up in a 'silent' carriage and having to shush kids the whole way, and then not tagging on or off so could have cheated and gone ticketless!!

13. Long lunch- Reims France. We hit the trifecta with good company, wine and food!

14. Best views- Biarritz from anywhere along the coast and the corner near our apartment in Paris. The Eiffel Tower always looks amazing!

15. Most fun tour/activity- Visiting the cellars at Mumm. Once in a lifetime for me.

16. Relaxing day- one day when we just hung out in our place in Seville enjoying the pool and the sunshine not leaving the premises for anything!

Reims and Au Revoir Holidays

We spent a great day at Reims yesterday, terrorising the Champagne town with 5 kids in tow after hooking up with the Lustigs again.

The TGV train took us only 45 mins with speeds up to 319 kmph.

We walked to Mumm to check out our tour options, then settled into a Brasserie nearby for a delicious lunch while we waited.

We also walked by Roederer and Krug!

The tour started at 2pm and our guide was fantastic, we learned all about how champagne is made and the history of the region and the house of Mumm.

We then went down to the chalk cellars 14m underground to see where the wine is stored. The chalk feels damp to touch and is a constant temperature and 90 % humidity!

There are 25km of tunnels in all full of millions of bottles of Mumm!

The tunnels are engraved with drawings and messages many left by the residents of Reims who sought refuge during the war when the town was bombed. Mumm established a school, church and barracks while Veuve Cliquot housed the hospital.

Then time for the tasting with one option being a blind tasting with different smells to identify.

The kids had OJ of course!

The train whisked us back to Paris where we had a local dinner and packed up ready for the airport run today.

It's been an amazing trip, but we are all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds and giving Missy a huge cuddle!!

Paris by Segway and a long lunch with Aussie friends!

Today again was sunny and mild, this opening line is gettimg tedious!! We really have had great weather this trip.

We legged it across a few blocks to hook up with our Segway tour and guide Pierre. It all started well and the other family joining us were from Sydney- small world.

The tour covered the Eiffel Tower, the Alexander III Bridge, the Military School, The Invalides and the Seine banks.

The statue you can see under the bridge is actually used to gauge the river height, for example when the river reaches his ankles the banks of the river are closed to visitors and the highest floods in saw water over levels rise over his shoulders.

Pierre was knowledgeable and interesting. Also as it turned out he was quite amazing as Amy lost control of her machine coming up from the river towards a very busy road and he dived off his Segway and stopped her from what could have been a nasty accident.

Even Jack was happy to cuddle Amy- We were all a bit shaken (Pierre included) but we managed to slowly finish the tour anyway and Amy is just fine. I'm not sure she'll be begging for a Segway tour again any time soon though.

We bid Pierre Au Revoir and headed off to meet Danielle, Alex, Hugo, Olive and Kit at the Place Des Voges park for the kids to have a play then enjoy lunch together.

Again we saw something new on our Metro journey- a pet rabbit and his owner sleeping rough. Today the musical entertainmemt on line 8 was a piano accordian, very authentic.

It was nice to catch up with our mates and compare travel notes, and the kids were thrilled to have friends to play with.

A nearby bistro hit the spot for lunch and a few glasses of wine. Very relaxing! It was a lovely area too, very traditional 'old paris' neighbourhood.

Being a Sunday we found most of our neighbourhood including supermarkets were closed! We had a drink at the bar downstairs then home for a dinner of nibbles and cheese, as we have an early start tomorrow. Reims and the champagne country for the day yippee!!

Jack Blogs Again- The Happiest Place on Earth for Dad

Hi this is Jack and I'm back to blog!!! This is the Heineken Beer factory! (Dads favourite beer) To get there we went on a canal boat in AMSTERDAM! It was really cool cruising through Amsterdam. When we got there Dad and I stood in front of the poster.

This is dad checking out the really big brewing tank.

This is me and amy grinding wheat to help the brewers!

This is the stables where the Heineken delivery horses live! They go out delivering beer in the morning and the afternoon.

This is dad having a lesson on how to taste beer properly!

This is me and Amy making a delivery video on the screen that is in front of us.

This beer is a very special beer! It has mum and dads names writen on the bottom. (Can you see it?)

In Amsterdam whatever you do DO NOT STEP IN THE BIKE LANE!!! I nearly got hit by a bike about 4-5 times. Amsterdam is where nearly everyone speaks english!! (Even though it is a dutch speaking city) I stayed with the Cohens (Remember them?) their house is in The Hague (Den haag as the dutch call it) and has three floors. And the stairs are so steep they are like climbing up a ladder! Its a very good work out for in the morning!!!

This is the end of the blog. We are coming back to Perth Tuesday. Hope to see everyone again soon!!! Bye From Jack!!!

A very full day again- just under 14km walked

We again managed to pack a lot into our day!

Looking ahead to dinner, we sought out the markets at Saxe-Bretueil about a 15 minute walk from our place. It's a fresh market and held twice a week.

We passed more spectacular buildings on our walk. It seems every corner we turn brings history into sharp focus, especially given our 'young' Aussie heritage.

The markets were full of tempting local produce- so we shopped up! Dinner pics will follow later here's what we left behind.

Baz's haircut went smoothly and he even had his hair washed and dried though with a number 2 not sure how one does that!. Apparently a step up from his hairdresser in Perth- I hope she doesn't get offended... The next cut back in Perth may be hard to book in perhaps?

I searched 'off the beaten track' Paris ideas last night and found the 'Coulee Verte' which is a city park built along a disused elevated rail line through the 12th  arr. A visit to our local boulangerie was what we needed for a picnic lunch then we were on our way to explore.

The Metro ride was quite colourful to say the least. Last night in Paris there was a zombie parade where locals dressed up as living dead to hit the streets. Today we spotted a fully costumed zombie girl on our train- could this have been a ghoulish 'walk of shame'? No pics unfortunately she was too scary to push a camera at. The kids couldn't stop staring. Next a guy busking with a saxophone worked his way up the carriages so they were ready to escape when our stop at Bastille arrived.

You may have heard of the High Line park in New York- well this was built in the 90's so precedes that. It's interesting to see how it fits with this city and the residents around it. I noticed more new construction in NY integrating the high line, whereas the Coulee Verte has centuries old neighbours.

Anyone seen the movie 'Ratatouille'? We had a little Ratatouille moment when this little fella and a few mates popped out of the bushes next to our picnic seat to join in the feast.

The kids thought he was very cute, but judging by this shop display we saw later in the day the Parisians don't agree!!

I dragged the family into E. Dehillerin- a Paris cooking landmark and filled with foodie tourists and some local accents too. I may have something bright and heavy to pack in my bag!

I was overwhelmed by the place, but thankfully Baz was able to decipher their pricing system for me.

The river walk home along the Seine included a stop for refreshments at a floating restaurant. The banks were packed with people enjoying the sunshine.

The de-love locked bridge. A few panels are left along the entrance ramps but our 2013 lock has been removed with many thousands to stop the historic bridge being damaged by the weight of the locks.

As we headed down our street I spotted the Petrosian, a shop and restaurant Baz and I visited in New York last year and we took the kids in to look around.

We were in the 'deli' side rather than the restaurant. They display food and some decorator items including these jewelled eggs- this reminded us of something you would like Norma.

Their specialty is caviar and we got chatting with the bloke behind the counter as he finished with a client.

He kindly shared lots of information with us about the fish caviar is harvested from, and the reason that prices are so steep given the sturgeon is now a protected species so all caviar is now farmed rather than wild.

He also explained that caviar is 'aged' and eaten perhaps 6-8 months after harvest and that once it's exposed to air the texture deteriorates so he was carefully re-sealing one of the big cans, and dividing the other into small portions. 

The Petrosian was established in Paris in the 1920's with the 'salon' for retail clients and are the wholesaler suppliers for all of Paris restaurants and shops too.

Imagine our surprise when he then announced that he was offering us all a taste- even Jack had a go! Even more astounding was the fact that after we tasted it, he revealed we had tried one of their most expensive products at €3,000 per 500g. Thank goodness Jack didn't gag on it!

It was real experience and one I won't forget in many years.

Amy then helped me to assemble our market goodies into dinner, mussels with cider, leek and cream to start and a rotisserie chook, dauphin potatoes and salad for main. It's hard to justify restaurant prices for dinner out when the market food is this great!

Mmmm I was a little slow on the main pics- it's mostly eaten!

I can safely say we are enjoying our Paris stay, Baz said he could just people watch from our window all day.

I must go to bed now... It's just so good to record the day's events along the way as we are doing so much I am already forgetting some things! Getting old perhaps? Nigh nighs