Friday 16th May - The Holiday is over!

Rise early and pack - Head for the station arriving at 10.00am - train leaves at mid-day.

Good trip to Paris - again first class service.

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Arrive at Paris Nord and look for a train to the airport - peak hour - down comes the rain - up goes the humidity - on comes the crowds - rush for the last carriage -squeeze in with a huge crowd of north Africans - be greeting with smiles and questioning about where we are from - temperature and humidity in the crowded compartment rises - every one sweats profusely save the stylish, tall, North African girl who elegantly dabs her forehead and cheek with a powder puff - we arrive at the station covered in perspiration and head for the Air France lounge with our Qantas club - I am sorry sir Qantas have not signed an agreement with us for Qantas club members - swear - head for the toilets for a makeshift towel wash.

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Board at 11:15 and sit in the plane for 90 minutes while they try to release the loading tunnel - worry about the crowded and cramped plane flight ahead of us - all is well that ends well - a little girl in the row next to us manages to talk herself into an upgrade - we send the passenger in our row into the spare space and the three of us all manage to have spare spaces beside us for the flight to Singapore.

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A quick change over in Singapore and we get into Melbourne at 5.00 am .

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A great holiday!

Thursday 15th May - Linden

Today was work - tram to central station - train to Liden - taxi to the resort - meet up with Guido and Mary - interesting discussions with the Dutch networkers - home and out to dinner with Bernie - settle for Pizza tonight!

Wednesday 14th may

Wander round Amsterdam - meet Mary in the flower market near Singel - take a tour of the canals - have more coffee - wander home for a nap - a great day.

Rise for dinner - wander into a random restaurant - be told - no menu - we like to surprise you! - wonderful meal build around four small courses each supported by the matched wines - the wine selection was the finest I have every experienced - by the end of the meal we were in a position where the bill was unlikely to surprise us - in fact it did - it turned out to be slightly less than we had grown to expect - while not surprising it was painful!

Tuesday 13th May - To Amsterdam

Farewell to the faithful Peugeot - sad to leave her - a rye smile from the dealer when I tell him I would think about buying one in Australia.

Taxi to the TGV and on our way to Amsterdam - damm! - fire in a station - TGV brought to a long standstill and then reduced to creeping along its banked tracked uncomfortably tilting its passengers as it negotiates the long curves designed for speeds 200 kilometer higher.

Miss the connection in Paris - line up in queue to get the last train - eventually get on board and enjoy a nice, well serviced trip to Amsterdam - wonderful food and great Australian wine served at the seat - all's well that ends well!

Taxi to the hotel - Nicholas Witsen located on the perimeter of the city - nice and clean.

Monday 12th May - St Emillon

St Emillion – not to be missed – Tommy guides us out of Bordeaux over enormous suspension bridge – soon into the wine country – 40 kilometres and we enter St Emillon.

Amongst the first to arrive - Coffee and Macaroons a great idea – Bernie changes her mind when her macaroon displays signs of the overnight feasting activities of local “une animal petite “

St Emillon - Amazing village dating to the 12th century with beautiful preserved low rise homes lining narrow stone paved lanes. The homes are now joined by wine shops, wine shops and wine shops, restaurants, restaurants and restaurants, art shop and art shops. This is what Beechworth would aspire to!

Take a tour of the St Emillon’s cave, the church and catacombs. Not to be missed. The church looks insignificant from the plaza in front of the tourist office – visible is the bell tower only – no wonder - the bell tower is just an after thought planted on top the limestone rock formation – below is the largest underground church in Europe carved out by hand inside the limestone formation – an enormous man-made cavern . Stunning!

Reluctantly leave the tourists and the town and head for St Christophe Du Barres for lunch at a small local restaurant. Lovely setting – worlds greatest potatoes chips – very mediocre steak – lots of good local red wine – complain to myself about my misfortune – I am designated driver and Bernadette gets to drink most of the wine.

Cruise through the St Emillon wine district – understand the romance of the region – hard to beat.

Sunday 11th May - Bordeaux

Check out reception – the delightful French receptionist is still on duty – we joke about his hours – he talks of Australia – we leave a little heavy hearted – holiday coming to a close.

Tommy also not entirely happy at leaving – takes us on a lap of the Pau motor racing street circuit – we finally convince him that all good things have to end – he reluctantly agrees and we head towards Bordeaux.

Along the east-west freeway toward Bayonne – cross, cross and re-cross the Gave du Pau – be reminded and reminded of deer – enjoy the road as it traverses the enjoyable if unspectacular scenery

Turn north towards Bordeaux – could be anywhere following a flat road through the near oceanic hinterland – be impressed by the interactions of the pine forests with the light penetrating from behind. – long weekend – traffic everywhere.

Enter Bordeaux –lac. – 15 minutes from town - Soffitel hotel! – someone has added a few stars to our hotel menu – glorious view over the rowing course and the exhibition centre – check in – never heard of us – agree to accept our print out of the booking – look stunned at the bargain basement price that was quoted on it.

Head into Bordeaux town – large – combination of old and new – check out the rail station and in doing so pass through a street populated by scantily dress ladies who seemed to have a remarkable interest in passing traffic – continue and find some more streets that encouraged the little Peugeot to grab a lower gear and move on – the winds rise up and the rain descends – we attempt to navigate our way though attention grabbing conditions – head back to refuge of hotel.