Returning home (18 November 2024)

 


Bev was insistent that we take an Uber to the bus depot and to ensure we didn’t miss it we were away very early.  The trip into town was quite quick.  The driver was a man about our age who had got bored being retired so he worked during the day driving.  It gave him some company.  His earnings for an eight-hour day after expenses was $10 an hour. 

The trip back to Vancouver was uneventful.  We were dropped off in central Vancouver and went to our favourite café for a decent coffee and some lunch.  Then it was out to the airport and we were quickly ushered through security.  The plane left on time and we were fortunate to be in Business Class where Bev and I had dinner together.  It is a nice feature of the seating arrangement on Air New Zealand aircraft. 

Compared to the 4°C we experienced in Vancouver where snow was low on the ranges behind the city, Auckland was a balmy 16°C which meant our jackets had us sweltering. 

Wellington was also rather pleasant with a similar temperature and the sun was shining, a very nice welcome home. 

  1. The long flight back gave me time to reflect on the 10-week holiday.  Here is what I felt and observed. Europe and the UK are very wealthy but in the places we went we saw poverty and homelessness.  Copenhagen was the exception.  The safety net works well there but they have a high level of taxation to support their way of life.  Generally, the  people of Denmark seemed happy.
  2. Of the cities we went to Prague was the one I liked the most.  It was different but very European.  It was also probably the cheapest city to stay in.
  3. Everything seemed expensive in Europe and Canada.  In and the UK, what we would pay a dollar for would cost around about a Euro or Canadian dollar.  Eating out was particularly expensive. Generally, groceries and vegetables in France were about 10-15% per more than equivalent in New Zealand and often not as fresh.  Wine in France was the exception. It was cheaper. 
  4. In continental Europe smoking was still at high levels compared to Australia and New Zealand.  I was surprised at how many young women smoked or vaped. If you sat outside you were likely to be enveloped in a cloud of smoke.  The UK seemed to now be similar to us in terms of number of smokers.  Cigarette butts were everywhere.
  5. The towns and cities were generally clean and tidy, except for cigarette butts. Most places big and small had areas of their central city pedestrianised and thus were very walkable.  Bike lanes were a feature in the all the cities we visited and were used the numerous cyclists.  Public transport was excellent for the most part with buses and trains frequent.  The centres of the cites were buzzing with people and we were out of the tourist season so they were mostly locals.  I think some of our politicians should go and see what a denser city and good public transport does to make such cities liveable.    
  6.  The roads in France, even the secondary ones, were good to drive on surface wise.  They were mostly bitumen concrete.  The speed limits in France were really sensible, 30 -50 kph in most city centres, 80kph on the open road without a divided carriageway, 90kph on the dual carriage ways that were not tolled roads and 130kph on the tolled autoroutes.   France and to a lesser extent the UK were roundabout countries.  Every town we drove into had significant traffic calming through speed bumps or the roundabouts.
  7. The people we met were friendly and helpful, particularly in France outside Paris.  One of the joys was striking up a conversation with various people whether it was in a café, on a train or just standing around trying to find our way somewhere.
  8. I came away having enjoyed France the most of the places we visited with possibly the exception of Prague.. The food and wine was great for the most part with one exception in Tarbes.  It made me want to return soon but before I do I need to get my language skills up to scratch. 
  9.  If we go again I would want to stay for longer in more places and use them for exploring further afield.

It is good to be home but I do miss the daily planning, and some of the travel.  It was a good time to go with not so many tourists about. 

The driving was fun if not a bit nerve wracking at times.  It was the narrow roads and the speed of the oncoming vans that raised the anxiety,  Concentration was necessary.   However, I think driving on the other side of the road is really good for the brain but requires a lot of concentration.   One of the things that made driving good was the lack of noise from the bitumen.  It was nice and smooth which made conversations easy and the driving less tiring balancing out the effort of concentrating. 

So here is to planning the next trip.  




 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Choosing where to go next (28 October 2024)

Image
  Canal St-Martin There is so much to see in Paris, which makes for an almost overwhelming number of places to choose from.   Graham had what he called “crikey” moments where something would just take his breath away.   The Pont du Gard was one of those moments but he had many more so the challenge was to find at least one on our last full day in Paris.     We were keen to go to Belleville which is the highest point in Paris and Graham had picked up a book in the apartment with graphic photos of its former self before and after it had been redeveloped in the 1970s and later.   The view from there on a good day is excellent as you can see the city laid out with its various landmarks.   It   was quite misty when we left but we still decided to go. Parc de Belleville   We entered through the Parc de Bellville and climbed to the lookout point.   The Eiffel Tower was not visible due to the mist but as it was coffee t...
Read more

Frankfurt am Main

Image
Looking toward the CBD We woke early and found that our apartment had a wide and expansive balcony that gave us a view from the west to the east.   It was a nice outlook.     Apartments' courtyard View from the balconey of apartment It was over twelve hours since we had last eaten and Bev wanted breakfast so we went looking for a place in the local area settling on a bakery/café.   The food was carb heavy but it did the trick.   (Comment from Bev: Yum! – there will be a few of these added comments throughout as she edits my blog)   Our tram stop - cycle lane on my right Just before we left New Zealand I had a message from Deutsche Bahn to tell me that the train we were going on from Prague had been cancelled and we had to find another way of travelling.   The website was optimised for German speakers of course so I think the translated version was not as clear.   I thought the easiest way to deal with it was to go to Fra...
Read more

The Causeway Coastal Route (2 November 2024)

Image
Carrickfergus Castle It was very damp when we departed for Derry/Londonderry, taking the Coastal route there.   Normally this would be done when going to the Giant’s Causeway but we had not managed to do so.     The first stop was Carrickfergus Castle about 20 minutes out of Belfast.   It is a Norman castle that was built in 1147 on a rock that has fresh water available.   Over succeeding centuries it was much modified to become the fortress that it is today.   It was a central player in the wars of control of Ulster.   Initially it was the main centre of Ulster but eventually in the 1700 and 1800s the centre moved to Belfast.   Halloween display in the Keep   We paid the small fee to have a look around.   It was interesting to go into a very different kind of castle to those we had visited in France.   The idea was the same but execution was different.     In the main Keep which is the large...
Read more