London Calling

5:00 am seemed to come awfully early on Wednesday, September 28th. (The alarm was set for 5:30 but we woke up early.) I had a taxi booked to pick Lynda and I up at 6:20 am to take us to Gare du Nord so we could take the Eurostar train to London for a fish and chip lunch and maybe do some shopping.

Two of the things I wanted to do on our holiday was; take the train somewhere and to have fish and chips in London just because I could. This trip would check both of those off my list. I do have to say it was the most expensive meal I’ve ever had but I probably won’t get back there again so I really don’t care about that.

Our train left Paris at 7:43 am and with the time change heading west; arrived in London’s St. Pancras Station just after 9:00 am. I had booked the basic seats for the trip over to London, not realizing there were no USB chargers in the cheap seats. We never thought to bring a DC/USB adapter with us.

SPOILER ALERT: This blog post contains a lot of touristy looking photos. And I do mean a lot of them. Turns out I wouldn’t have time to shoot the kind of photos I usually do. You have been warned.

Just outside of Paris

There isn’t a whole lot of scenery to view along the way, and at about 300km/hr, if you see something to take a picture of, it’s gone by the time you try to take a photo. (It’s only going 160 km/hr through the Chunnel but there is even less to see there.)

Platform at St Pancras Station

We got off the train and made our way through the station to the attached Kings Cross Subway Station to take the subway to Waterloo Station for a short walk to the lastminute.com London Eye. Lynda had booked our entertainment for while we were in London and the London Eye was to be our first stop.

Just a few bicycles

It was a short walk and soon we were at our destination. Our tour was booked for 11:30 am but we were there before they opened at 11 am. I looked for photo opportunities while Lynda went to ask where we would go to get on the ride.

Turns out that she was right where the line would start so we were the first ones in line. Since that never, ever happens to us it was a weird feeling being at the front of the line. (Not weird enough for us to give up our spot though.)

A long line formed behind us and just after 11:00 o’clock, the line started moving and we were soon standing at the first pod waiting to board for our “flight.”

About 20 of us loaded up and were soon moving up. Upon boarding an electronic voice says; “Welcome to the London Eye.” And that is the last thing that is said. It is a little disappointing that there is no references to any of the buildings you can see so you know what you are looking at.

View from the top

I wasn’t kidding about plenty of tourist photos and you haven’t seen anything yet.

Soon our half hour ride was over and we got off the ride to walk over to Victoria Cross Subway Station for the bus tour Lynda booked for us.

We walked north to the pedestrian bridge over the River Thames and headed towards Trafalgar Square. We saw a few photogenic things along the way.

Panorama

1 Shot

We made it to Trafalgar Square.

We made our way to Admiralty Arch on our way to The Mall.

Panorama from up close

1 shot from farther down The Mall

Normally The Mall has traffic flowing along it but it was being set up for the London Marathon to use it on October 2nd.

We were about half way down the street when the police were suddenly moving people off the road to the sidewalks as the road opened up.

Victoria Memorial with Buckingham Palace in the distance

As we got near the end of The Mall, we cut through St. James Park.

A very cool snack stand in St. James Park

We were getting close to our destination when we saw something that made us wonder if Lynda’s mom, Gail, has been keep a secret. (Apparently there are 20 or so Gail’s locations in and around London.)

It took us about an hour to make the walk over with our photo stops but we made it to Victoria Cross Station with time to spare to make our tour. (We did miss lunchtime by walking though.)

We got on the open air bus and made our way to the upper deck. Cool weather be damned; we’re tourists looking to see stuff.

Lynda’s all smiles (for now)

The upper deck was a pretty popular place

Our tour guide Pepe telling us what we were seeing.

Our very WASP looking, British sounding tour guide, Pepe, told us the story of how he got his name. He said when he was born, the parents were responsible to register the name of a new baby at the registry office. Unfortunately, there were 10 pubs between their house and the registry office; and his father stopped at all of them. By the time he arrived to register a name, he couldn’t recall the chosen name and he blurted out the name of the neighbours dog. He did point out that his mother was Spanish so it wasn’t all bad. He went on to say he often tells his younger brother he’s lucky both sets of grandparents escorted their father to register his birth or he might of been named after the neighbours new dog; Fifi.

Pepe was a good and knowledgeable guide. Unfortunately, most of what he said after his name story didn’t stick with me.

Approaching Westminster Abbey

Someone killed their cell phone and had to switch to plan B

I know we drove past Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and 10 Downing Street but I don’t remember which order we went by them all. There was a protest happening across the street from 10 Downing Street to protest Prime Minister Liz Truss’s economic policies. (And since she’s already been replaced, that might have worked.)

Westminster Abbey again

We drove past Westminster Cathedral on our way to cross the River Thames.

After we crossed the river, we stopped for a photo opportunity of the Parliament Building across the water. I got out to participate while my bride stayed on the bus.

Our bus driver, Floyd stayed on the bus as well.

Soon we were back on the road and re-crossing the river.

The King’s Guard

I wasn’t kidding when I said I didn’t recall the order of places we passed as we are now approaching Trafalgar Square again.

We drove all around the square.

Ducka you head

We made our way down Fleet Street.

It was time to re-cross the river.

We weren’t across the river very long as we were soon crossing Tower Bridge on our way to The Tower of London.

We got out of the bus for a short walk past the London Wall – a piece of the original Roman Wall from when way, way back.

We had a 20 minute stop at The Tower of London while we waited to board our boat for the river cruise part of the tour. (That part came as a surprise to Lynda and I.)

Pepe gathering his flock

Soon our break was over and we were lining up to board the boat. Lynda and I went to the open, top deck so we could again see the most stuff on the tour.

Just as we were leaving the dock, Tower Bridge started to open up. Pepe told us it’s rare to be on the tour and see it.

As the bridge was fully open, we could see a couple of tugs maneuvering a warship towards the opening.

By now we were parallel to the HMS Belfast as we headed up river.

The boat was pretty full with a good amount of people out on the top deck.

After about 20 minutes, we were across from The London Eye and it was time to dock.

It was time to get off the boat and get back on the bus. Some of the people in the tour were going to walk across Westminster Bridge to go to the London Eye. (Lynda didn’t know that was an option when she booked the tour or she would of just booked this tour.)

There’s a lot less people on the bus now

Lynda’s not looking as happy as she did at the start of the tour

The tour was going to continue to Harrods Department Store but we needed to get some food and get back to St Pancras before 6:30 pm for our 8:00 pm departure back to Paris. Our 3 hour tour lasted almost 4 hours and it was around 5:00 pm getting into Kings Cross Station.

We had decided to look for food near the station as we were limited for time and after we walked around to check out the area we decide to try Drake & Morgan at King’s Cross. It looked like a nice place and we felt a bit under dressed walking in. We couldn’t really hear what the hostess said so we wandered over towards the bar to have a look. A manager came over to help us and squeezed us in right at the end of the prep area. After not having a meal since breakfast; we would of been happy to sit in the kitchen to eat.

It was pretty cool watching them prep meals.

We had a waiter come by and mumble he’d be right with us but he never came back so the manager who had seated us took our order.

Fish and chips had been my plan so I ordered that to share with a loaf of sourdough and a couple of fresh fruit drinks for Lynda and I. The British pound was running about $1.50 CAD per so we paid about $52 for our meal. It was a really good piece of fish and the fries were also very good. Our drinks worked out to about $12 each and there was no alcohol in them. (The were yummy though.)

We enjoyed our meal and made our way back to the train station by 6:30 pm like our ticket suggested. We thought we’d charge Lynda’s nearly dead cell phone but finding a USB plug proved more than challenging. (We found 1 spot with 2 jacks in the entire building and 1 of the jacks didn’t work.) Turns out having a DC/USB plug adapter would of again been the solution.

Our train left on time at 8:01 pm and I had upgraded our seats from Standard to Standard Premier so we’d get a meal on the return trip. With the time change it would be almost 11:30 pm getting into Paris so a late supper was appreciated.

As an added bonus, there were USB chargers with the upgraded seats.

Being dark as pitch out, I never tried to take any photos on the return trip.

Our meal was a salmon quiche that was pretty good. (Seems like a popular meal choice.)

Once we got back to Paris, I had a gypsy cab driver offer to take us home and he seemed like a nice old guy so I agreed. (It wasn’t twice as much as the morning trip but it was more than it should of been.)

We got back to the apartment just before midnight. It had been a long day and it felt like a whirlwind trip.

Our day didn’t go as we had planned with lunch coming at supper time and not having any time to do any shopping but even feeling like a rushed day, it was fun and I know what not to do if I ever get back there.

I managed to get over 17k steps in today. No wonder it felt like such a long day.

Paris, Day 10

Another cool and rainy day greeted us on Tuesday, September 27th.

Lynda and I took it easy for most of the morning before heading out to catch the bus to check out the souvenir shops we’d seen down by Galway Irish Pub.

We walked through the market at Fontaine Saint-Michel but Lynda wasn’t feeling anything calling her name so we walked to the Quai des Grands Augustins to check out some of the shops along there.

Lynda was regretting not shopping the last time we were there as she couldn’t find the things that caught her eye the last time.

Maybe a lunch break at The Great Canadian Pub would change our luck.

The service was slow (even compared to other places in France) and the food was only good. (We’d had so much great food on our trip that this place seemed a bit disappointing in comparison.)

Lunch over, we kept walking along the road for a bit to some other shops for Lynda to check out.

I wasn’t on the hunt for souvenirs so I decided to wait outside and take some photos.

The older couple waiting for the bus caught my eye so I decided to get a couple different angles of them.

As I took their photo I remembered that I was hoping to capture some random street shots of Paris in hopes enough of them inspired me to make a black and white calendar. So I shot a few more scenes as we walked along.

Soon we were back by the market at Fontaine Saint-Michel again.

The layout of the booths makes it hard to get a decent shot of the fountain so I just wandered around while she shopped. (And this time, she shopped.)

We made our way over to a bus stop to catch the number 21 back to the apartment. It was about a 7 minute wait and more and more people kept coming to the stop.

The bus was pretty full when it pulled up and a lot of people at the stop got on the bus and we decided to walk along Bd Saint-Michel to another stop to see if the next bus would be less full.

As we walked, I liked the look of the book store. (I always like bookstores.)

The buses were less and less full as they passed by but it was a nice walk so we ventured a little further along until we came to Le Jardin du Luxembourg. (Luxembourg Gardens)

Living where I do with relatively new history; it was pretty neat to wander into a 17th-century park with formally laid-out gardens, trees planted in patterns & statues on pedestals. (And it’s not like that’s the oldest thing around there.)

Flowers were not in summer form but not in bad condition all in all.

We wandered through the park until we came to Luxembourg Palace; Former royal residence, now repurposed & used as the meeting place for the French senate. (We didn’t know what the building was at the time but the armed guards made it seem official.)

Even in the rain, it is a beautiful park.

We made our way out of the park and as we walked to another bus stop, I couldn’t help but notice the “skinny” building.

We finally grabbed a fairly empty bus to get back to the apartment in time to get supper.

Lucille wanted to get a roast chicken and potatoes from her local butcher; who was right beside L’Amiral Chicken; where we’d had supper last night. I decided to go with her and as we left the apartment; the rain that was almost done when Lynda and I got back was now pouring down.

We mostly ran to the butcher and were pretty soaked (Well, I was; Lucille had on a rain coat.) In the 3 minutes we were in the shop, the rain stopped so we walked back at a more sedate pace.

After our tasty meal, all of us but Lynda went out to look for a coat for Lucille and to get some stuff from the fruit market. Lynda had enough walking for 1 day so she stayed behind to have a nice relaxing bath.

We didn’t find a coat for Lucille at the mall but the fruit market stop was successful.

It was starting to get dark as we headed back to the apartment.

The indoor gas station is a bit freaky

I had gotten just over 15 thousand steps for the day and it was time for an relatively early night as it was going to be an early morning for Lynda and I in no time at all.

Adiós Tenerife; Re-bonjour Paris (Goodbye Tenerife; Hello again Paris)

The 4:30 am wake up alarm came awfully early on Monday, September 26th and Lynda and I were awake before it went off.

We got showered, dressed and finished our packing before it was time to leave at 5:30 am to return the rental car and check in at the airport for our flight to Madrid on our way back to Paris. The clouds were still looking like there was more rain to come but it wasn’t raining as we left for our drive to the airport.

We had come on a direct flight but in order to get the good deal we got for the flights and apartment, there was to be a 4 hour stopover in Madrid on the return leg. I’ve been liking Spain so far so how bad can that be?

After dropping off the car we walked into the terminal at Aeropuerto de Tenerife Sur and preceded through the check in/ security check with no real problems.

Boarding seemed to take the longest. Why planes aren’t loaded from the back, forward is beyond me. It feels like it takes you 20 minutes to get down the isle to your seat near the back of the plane.

It was still dark as our Airbus A321 climbed out for our 2 and a half hour flight and headed north towards Spain.

The weather cleared up as we approached Madrid and we enjoyed a nice smooth landing.

The Madrid airport is a very long building with some nice design features. (One would think I would of taken photos of such things, but one would be mistaken in that belief.)

We passed the time with people watching and airport food.

Finally, it was time to board another Airbus for the hour and a half flight to Paris.

Another smooth landing at Aéroport de Paris-Orly was appreciated by all.

The nice thing about these flights were we didn’t have to go through Customs upon arrival so it was pretty quick to get through the airport for the taxi queue. It was a whole lot longer than the one Lynda and I got into when we got back from Nice.

It really wasn’t all that long before it was our turn at the front of the line.

We told the fellow directing people that there was 4 of us and he pointed at a sedan. The driver started to protest but we told him that’s were we were directed to, so he loaded us up and took us.

We got safely back to the apartment and decided to head out for supper.

It was a really long walk of a block and a half over to L’Amiral Chicken for really good kebabs and fries.

Views in Tenerife were a bit better

It was a pretty quiet night for us as all we did was wander back to the apartment to call it a day.

Even with it being a travel day, I still managed to almost get my 10k in steps topping out at 9552. I know it was close but no cigar (I draw the line at trying wine).

Tenerife, Day 4

It had rained pretty hard at times overnight but there was a pause in the rain when we got up on Sunday, September 25th.

The weather wasn’t expected to be any better than yesterday and a lot of places were still closed so we went back to Sweet Franks for breakfast. It was just as good as it had been yesterday.

As we sat and eyeballed the cloud cover, we decided we’d drive up to see it conditions were any better at Parque Nacional del Teide to see the volcano. We didn’t really believe they would be but we set off to find out anyway.

Hard to get good images out the car window

Soon we were climbing the hills in a dizzying array of switchbacks. I don’t want to say the Spanish are crazy but according to the GPS, the speed limit was 90 km/h on that stretch of road.

It wasn’t long before we were at the top of the mountain. At least it looked that way as you couldn’t see up hill very well.

You couldn’t see down all that well either.

So, back in the car to climb higher.

The big patches of white are banana plantations.

Sometimes we’d get out of the rain into patches of almost blue sky, but then it was back to rain and mist in no time.

Apparently the storm was causing problems with flooding and damages in places around the Canary Islands but the most we saw was debris on the road.

We did see a lot of places with rocks and such on the road but no real damage otherwise.

What you could see of the landscape looked kind of cool.

The rain was down to a mist as we passed Paradores Cañadas del Teide on our way to the cable car at Teleférico del Teide.

Visibility was good enough for us to see the road closed gate and not much else.

We were a bit bummed but not surprised by this and we headed back to see what was at Paradores Cañadas del Teide.

It’s a visitor centre with a restaurant, washroom and giftshop.

Lynda and Lucille did some shopping in the giftshop and found a few nice things to bring home.

With our planed outing being a bust, we headed back down a different road in search of lunch.

We ended up in a familiar place; Centro Comercial Safari shopping mall. We knew things were open there so we thought we’d play it safe to find food.

We ended up at Roma Restaurant – Pizzeria; right beside where we had lunch yesterday.

It was very good Italian food and drink.

It wasn’t raining when we had finished eating so we walked about a block to Playa del Camisón beach to could check it out.

It was another really nice beach and we walked in the surf for a while.

The breakwater made the water quite calm but my bride showed a lot restraint and only waded knee deep as she walked along.

We walked along the beach for a while and decided to head back to the apartment.

With our late lunch, no one was really needing supper so Lucille and Curtis went in search of potato chips. We had other snacks and drinks to finish off before our flight out in the morning.

The weather still wasn’t all that great as we waited for them to get back and the pool was still closed so I grabbed a couple of “weather” shots.

About my only disappointment (And I wasn’t all that disappointed) with Tenerife was the boring sunsets we saw. I know the storm may have something to do with it but it literally went from light out to dark out with next to no sunset colour. It is just a minor niggle to me because, even with the storm I was really enjoying the island.

It was getting dark when I shot my last photos of the day. (And as it turned out, trip.)

We finished off our snacks and got to bed fairly early because our 5:30 am leaving time would get here soon enough.

It was a bit of a slack walking day and I managed just shy of 7600 steps.

Tenerife, Day 3

Woke up to lots and lots of rain on Saturday, September 24th.

Apparently our rough seas on the ferry crossing yesterday was the first signs of Tropical Storm Hermine as it approached the islands.

We headed out to Lizzie’s Bistro for breakfast and as we pulled up I got a Facebook notice that they would be closed due to the weather.

We had to go in search of plan B. We didn’t know many places yet so we drove around to see what looked open.

We soon found Sweet Franks. It had a covered patio and promised the best breakfast so we though we’d give it a try.

It was quite a good breakfast and we got some tea for the road as we went off in search of more shot glasses for Curtis at The Hard Rock Hotel on the west side of the island.

It was a fairly high falutin place but they didn’t have any shot glasses.

We decided to make our way to the Rock Shop area.

We ended up across the road at Centro Comercial Safari shopping centre. It’s a nice shopping mall with a a bunch of restaurants on the 2nd level.

All the restaurants looked good and we decided on Hacienda Miranda for lunch.

It was the first Mexican restaurant we had tried on our trip and it was very, very good. The food was fabulous and they made the best strawberry margarita I have ever gotten in a restaurant or bar, anywhere.

To avoid a food coma, we walke across the street to The Rock Shop. Not only did they not have any shot glasses, the clerk was a bit pissy about us bringing wet umbrellas into the shop. (How dare we use them in all that rain.) They didn’t have a spot by the door for them and it’s not like anyone was waving them around, but Lucille did shake out her poncho afterwards.

We re-crossed the street to check out the shopping mall and after a bit of window shopping, were ready to head back to the apartments.

The rain had been varying from misty to pouring rain all day but we still decided to walk over to the grocery store for some tea and other stuff.

Roadside sculpture

It was raining intermittently when we went out for supper but we walked over to Bistró 431, which is in the lower level of the building Sweet Franks is.

Since our lunch had been so big, no one was overly hungry so we just got some Tapas. The food was good but it wasn’t on the same level as lunch had been so it seemed a bit disappointing at the time. (Even though it really wasn’t disappointing at all.)

The plates were super cool

We headed back to the apartments drinks and snacks we had gotten at the grocery store earlier. (I know we had just eaten but there wasn’t much to do in the rain.)

The weather wasn’t looking any better as darkness approached.

Even though it wasn’t cold out, (at least not by Canadian standards) the pool was closed, as it had been all day.

Even with the weather as it was, we managed to get just over 12 thousand steps in today. Not bad all in all. Hopefully, tomorrow will dawn with better weather.

Canary Islands; day 2

I was going to title this post as Tenerife; Day 2 but we were up well before the crack of dawn on Friday, September 23rd, to drive north to Santa Cruz de Tenerife to catch the ferry to go to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in search of Hard Rock Cafe shot glasses and beaches.

My brother in law, Curtis, collects the shot glasses from Hard Rock Cafes and Hotels from all the places he’s visited around the world (and he’s visited a lot of places) but he’d never been to the Canary Islands and the opportunity to visit another island nearby was just too tempting not to go.

Seems so calm out there

We had just cleared the entrance to the harbour when it became obvious that it was rougher than it looked out there on the open sea.

The ferry seemed like it was just crawling along and it was pitching and bouncing so walking was a challenge. The crew made it look easy but looking for chairs to grab or a wall to lean on was the only way I could get around easily.

It’s faster than it feels

It seemed less rough at the back of the boat so I stayed on the deck for a bit and took a few shots. Lynda made her way back there for a while too.

She’s smiling now

Our trip over was about 2 and a half hours. We could of taken a 2 hour trip to a different port but it would of involved more driving to where we needed to go. I’m sure with the rough ride, Curtis was re-thinking the port choice.

Ferry going the other way

Hard to keep a level horizon

It had been pretty cloudy on the way over but as we drove to the south side of the island to find the Hard Rock Cafe Rock Shop Gran Canaria the clouds started parting.

At least the sun was shining when we got to the shopping centre as The Rock Shop was closed. We walked around the area checking out stores hoping it would open soon. We’ll take the credit for that working.

After the wait, we found out they are out of shot glasses and suggested going to the Hard Rock Hotel to find some.

I did get myself a tee shirt so at least it wasn’t a total waste of time.

We decided to get some lunch while we were there.

The food was fabulous and I really enjoyed the Tapas.

The bathroom tile was pretty cool

With lunch over, it was time to walk over to the beach.

So many nice flowers growing everywhere

At last, the beach came into view.

I’m not much of a beach guy so I’ve not been to too many of them but even I can recognize a nice beach when I see it. And this was a nice beach.

It was such nice sand to walk on. The black mixed in made the sand patterns change constantly as the water washed over it.

The water seemed cool initially but as I walked along it felt warm. Since I had my camera and was carrying all our stuff, going knee deep was as far as I could go. My bride, on the other hand, had no such restrictions having given me everything but her sandals to carry.

A lack of swimsuit wouldn’t deter my bride from getting a feel for the ocean. Even her hat was wet, but she was enjoying herself.

We started making our way back to the car so we could head over to The Hard Rock Hotel to look for shot glasses there.

It was a short drive east to the hotel and we found a parking spot only a short walk away.

After learning there were no shot glasses here either, we sat and enjoyed a drink before going to check out the nearby beach.

It was a short walk through some sand dunes to another fabulous beach.

I saw why Gran Canaria is noted for it’s beaches. I’ve only been to 2 of them so far and both have been really nice.

I was once again limited to knee depth but my wife and sister had no such restrictions. They figured they were already wet so maybe some body surfing was in order. They never did manage to get the surfing part down but they did manage to get even wetter than they already were.

I was in the ocean too.

It was getting time to go look for some food before we had to catch the ferry back so we walked along the restaurants near the back and decided on Pub Dragon.

We tried a few more Tapas and Curtis had a hotdog.

It was a nice, short walk back to the car.

I saw quite a few cool things along the way but it’s really hard to take photos out the back of a car so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

We got back to the ferry terminal with time to spare and waited patiently for it to come. And waited, and waited.

Finally a ferry pulled in. It wasn’t the company we had come over with and it was an older ship. It looked to be a downgrade from the morning boat.

Finally we were under way.

Just like the mornings trip, the moment we left the harbour it was a rough ride. It was actually rougher than in the morning. (The tropical depression that arrives tomorrow probably had something to do with it.) I’m sure being pitch dark out probably didn’t help the feeling of how rough the crossing was.

We got back to Santa Cruz de Tenerife around 11:00 pm and made our way back to the apartments.

I’m sure there is some cool stuff to see between there and the Costa del Silencio area but both directions of travel on that trip was in the dark so I really have no idea if there is or not.

Our really long day was over around midnight as we got back to the apartment. Just shy of 12k steps today, a lot of them at/near the beach. It was a good day, ferry rides aside.

Did someone say “Tapas”?

The 1st full day of fall had arrived in Paris so it was time to head for a warmer climate.

We arrived at Aéroport de Paris-Orly quite early to catch our flight to Tenerife, Canary Island.

Many years ago I had researched the most temperate climate in the world and Tenerife in the Canary Islands was the answer. So, I told management at work that if they ever opened a store there I would be willing to move there, sight unseen.

Once we had decided to go to Paris, I started checking out inexpensive trips to take from there and Tenerife was in the running to check out.

Lucille and Curtis had never been and Curtis was interested in going so, he booked us flights and accommodations for 4 days.

Hola

Curtis had decided to get a rental car and luckily he gets a deal through work.

We piled into the car and headed to our apartments.

Soon we were checking into Apartamentos Parque Carolina to drop off our stuff and we went looking for food.

Lucille found Flicks Bar listed as being really close and we followed her to find it. Since she isn’t all that great at reading her phone map, we were soon going the wrong way and ended up at Tapas Harry’s Place. It was a pretty cool view but they weren’t serving food yet.

We headed back to find Flicks. We were almost there when we saw an older couple on the deck of their apartment and asked about the bar. They told us it had closed down about 3 weeks ago. I still walked down the path to take a couple photos as I was there anyway.

It was too bad the place was closed because it would of been a great place to sit and have lunch.

So Curtis pulled out his phone to find food and soon we were walking northwest to see what we could find.

We saw a few places but the name Lizzie’s Bistro jumped out at us and we decided to give it a try.

The thing that jumps out at you at Lizzie’s is the drink menu of 64 cocktails.

Looked like a challenging menu to try them all but we thought we should at least try and we each ordered something different.

The first round was good so we had a 2nd round with our food.

We stopped after 2 rounds so we could go check out the pool at our apartments.

The listing for the apartment stated it had an ocean view and to be fair, it was accurate.

The view from our our window

With swim time over, it was time to go and find supper. So back to Lizzie’s to add more drinks to our list.

It was karaoke night and there were a few talented singers to entertain us.

With 2 more rounds under our belt, we headed back to our apartments the same way we had walked earlier in the day. Curtis found the shutter button assembly from Lynda’s camera on a sidewalk. We had found it broken when we were getting ready to go for supper and I guessed it probably had gotten jammed up against something she was carrying and it popped off somewhere along our walk.

The camera would focus with the button but it wouldn’t take a photo so I guess it’s her cell phone for the rest of the trip as need be.

Got about 15.5 k in steps today so getting back on track anyway.

Paris, Day 8

It was another slow starting day on Wednesday, September 21st.

I got laundry done while we waited for Lucille to get home from school.

I know we went out for lunch but I didn’t take any photos in the afternoon to remember where we went.

When we went out for supper we turned left leaving the apartment and went in a totally new area for us.

We went over to Le Liberté for pizza but we were too early for pizza.

I didn’t have alcohol with every meal

1st time I never used my camera at all during the day and just used my phone.

The lackadaisical day cut into my 10k/day steps and I only managed 7506.

Tomorrow is the 1st full day of fall and hopefully I can pull up my socks and do better.