After being in Sheffield, before going back to Paris, it made sense to check out London
bye bye Sheffield :)
quick walk to the train station
St Pancras
After arriving, going for a Xmas lights bus tour sounded like a good idea. Unfortunately it was harder to setup than it should have been, with a despicable company, and the view was not always the best for pictures, but it was still nice to have a look:
West end tour at the same time:
More lights:
After a nice brazillian BBQ dinner, a musical that was available that night (pickings were slim on dec 29th):
The next day started with the canal museum as it was too late to get tickets for the tower bridge:
I tried to sign up for a canal ride, but they were also sold out
old tractor that used to pull the boats
Next, was a ride on the Thames and a walk:
Fun stores:
Then was time to see Faulty Power, the play. It was last minute, not many options available on Dec 30th. It was fun for me since I had seen the old TV show from the 70s:
The rest of the day was spent walking through neighborhoods with lights and go to winter wonderland in hyde park:
Going to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, it was nice inside but the security search detained me more than 5mn going through all the pockets of my scottevest, which is a lot of stuff, and the amount of things they prohibited, including hand sanitizer was such bullshit that it was very much a turn off, and enough for me not to go back had I been a local. The UK is really getting security wrong, at this level, I'm not interested in going back and dealing with such BS. It's a bummer because once inside it was very nice, but that doesn't make up for the level of ridiculous they are putting their customers, through (Paris was so much more reasonable in comparison):
yes, the rides were numerous and impressive
The last day and morning, I had a couple of hours before the train back to Paris, and used them to meet my good friend, Raster, for early brunch and catching up, that was a lovely time:
geeking out about enlightenment 17, he wrote and I still use
Found Mathias and Nicole in SFO airport, going in the same plane to Paris as I did:
first class looks nice, but hard to justify the price they want
this was more than good enough :)
I didn't have much time to get out, but still did a bit, the highlight was the Xmas market at la Défense:
cold, but beautiful day
yum!
my favorite, seared foie gras sandwich
double yum!
beautiful bottles
the bad news is the elevator to the top is now closed forever, bit downer :(
Beautiful sunset, selfie time!
A few more pictures of the beautiful weather and sky:
On Jan 2nd, it was time to go shopping:
that was yummy
chocolate dessert refill!
and my favorite, blood orange juice
heaven
just a few :)
this should do nicely :)
In the afternoon, a few hours to go in Paris:
Finally got to see Legay shock bakery:
The 1st arrondissement and nearby stores are always fun to visit:
Notre Dame was finally re-opened after many years to repair all the fire damage, although it still had scaffolding outside. Unsurprisingly, there was a ridiculous line (looked like maybe 2H) to get in, in the 'no reserved slot' line as well as the other line for people who had reserved slots (making them kin dof useless). It would have been nice to go back in, but I've been many times and it wasn't worth the wait:
Last time I tried to fly around Kauai, there were no rental planes available and the trikes I rented were barely able to keep up with the wind, so I didn't get very far. This time around, the one plane I could have rented was not available either, so I got a passenger flight. Sadly this time of the year, the weather around Kauai is seldom sunny around the entire island (it's the green island afterall), and the schedule for the week was inflexible enough due to many places having limited hours/days, I ended up opting to stay with the flight, even if it could not go around the entire island and missed the south and waimea canyon.
I got copilot seat, but was just passenger
The flight ended with the double/triple Wailua Falls close to the airport:
cool to see the parking lot I had just driven to a hour prior
It had been a good 15 years since I last went, so it was a good time to go back, revisit a few fun things, and check out a few new ones. Once planning and there, I got reminded that this is the least developed of the 4 islands, so lining up attractions and tours or even main national gardens, was not trivial as many things were only open a few days a week, and not all on the same days. Also many things were pre-booked tour only.
It took a lot of juggling to get everything to fit in a week, but after lots of shuffling, I managed to do so, although it did not offer any flexibility in changing things for weather....
One other thing I also found out was that of course the Hawaii islands are not cheap anymore (only the flight is cheap), but Kauai especially seemed especially expensive. Some tours like a simple garden and chocolate tour, would ask for $140 per person (!).
Anyway, here is the map:
after landing, had a quick drive to Wailua Falls while waiting for the flight time:
walked around a bit to burn time
quickly found a friend :)
happiest cat in the world
Day 1: Partial Island Flight
Then, it as time for the scenic flight, which sadly was partial due to weather, but realistically weather was not great for flying for over half the time there. It's the garden (green) island afterall, and that comes from all the rain... Flight details there
rode copilot
same waterfall
Smith Family Luau
After the flight was time for a nice dinner and show at Smith Family Luau
I then had to deal with the dive Kauai and their lying passive aggressive boat driver, Nick, who did his best to ruin my diving by showing how much of an lying p. he could be. Dive Kauai, only barely worthwhile for beginners, was totally not worth it. At least I'm making proper notes this time to make sure I never go back to those people (turns out I had old notes from 2008 saying I also picked them and regretted it, sigh...)
Despite the time wasted by them, had a bit of time to check out an evening art festival at Hanapepe:
Day 4: Diving, McBryde+Allterton Gardens, Koloa Zipline
I was supposed to start with 2 dives that morning, but with my previous night's injury and open wound, those were cancelled, so off to Waimea that was:
then it was time to drive up to Waimea Canyon:
the famous red dirt
beautiful scenery
After an mostly unimpeded quick drive down, and rental car brakes that didn't fade, and time for a few quick stops before the 2nd Luau:
Day 6: Aulii Beach Luau
how to open coconuts
yum
Day 7: North Island Tour to Road's End: Princeville Botanical Gardens
I decided to skip Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens & Sculpture Park as they required slow and painful tours that didn't happen every day, and instead opted for the Princeville Botanical Garden 3H tour which was worth the drive and time.
Day 7: Princeville Botanical Gardens
Day 7: Limuhali Botanical Gardens
From there, 30mn drive to Limuhali Botanical Gardens, which unexplicably also required advance reservations for a limited parking spot and self guided tour:
After that, there was some time for a slower drive back and stop at a few places on the way:
more shaved ice with ice cream
Day 7: Kilauea, the northmost point of all of Hawaii, and Nenes
Went to Kilauea, the northmost point of all of Hawaii, and its famous Nenes ducks:
babies!
unfortunately the tip is now open only certain days with advance tickets, WTF?
one used to be able to just drive there :(
boobie!
Day 8: Kauai Museum
Day 8: Kauai Plantation Railway and Rhum Tasting
Then, finished the half day and the trip with the Plantation Railway and Rhum:
I arrived in Paris just after the Olympics, when most of the mess was over, but many installations were still there, and some were there for upcoming para olympics a few weeks later. It was interesting to see Paris in this different way:
Lafayettes Gourmet is fun to visit, so much yummy food:
A little bit of chocolate:
Checked out some more unusual museums:
musee du parfum is in a pretty old private residence
Nextdoor-ish, flyview Paris had multiple interesting VR movies:
Place vendome:
Jardin des tuileries was a bit weird and still half closed due to olympics. It had this interesting hot air balloon in the middle:
Had dinner with David at La Plume, nice restaurant with view:
Then it was time to see Luminiscence at Eglise St Eustache:
I had heard about Cesky Krumlov as a charming town with castle, but it's indeed a long ways from Prague, almost 3h each way, so it didn't happen last time I was in the area. But this time around, it worked out, and I figured it would make sense to get a tour from getyourguide with 5H to spend there, 2h were a so-so skipable fairly commercial guided tour that in hindsight I would have done without. It did help with getting oriented in the town, but it also burned 90mn needlessly that coudl have been better spent. Still, even with that more minor setback, there was enough time to enjoy most of the town and main attractions.
After arriving, we started with a walk around town:
Once back in the castle, a quick castle museum and castle tour:
Of course great views from up there:
After that there was a bit of time left to see town, but that time was running out and then it was time to get back to the bus back to Prague:
I chose a Prague underground tour this time around, it was interesting as Prague used to be an entire floor lower, exactly like Seattle, and due to repeated flooding, they raised the entire city to the first floor. However, just like Seattle, you can visit the old ground floor in a few places:
Next, it was fun to go back to the top of the clock tower, which you can do by elevator:
After that I booked a river tour, one of the other things to do in Prague that I hadn't done before:
The next day, a quick tour of the castle and its majestic Vitus cathedral
Next, it was time to go back to the excellent Narodni reopened state museum:
Across the street a sister museum:
On that day, I also booked a communism and underground bunker tour, which was a pretty informative tour and story:
where the revolution started
There was a bit of time after that to go to the lego museum, now renamed museum of bricks because patents?
and just enough time left to see the Bansky Museum, which is definitely intriguing:
To finish the tour of greece, Santorini was the last island on the tour and it was beautiful. In hindsight it was indeed worth more time than Mykonos, although 2 full days is enough to see most important things, 3 days in Santorini is not a bad plan either.
Boat arrived quite late (close to midnight), it was nice inside and fairly empty:
the boat being chronically late, opens its doors while still arriving in port to save a few minutes
better late than never...
I'll skip the terrible experience with the rental car dropoff at the boat, and the village idiot we ended up being stuck with and that wasted an entire hour making himself feel important, and eventually arrived quite late at the beautiful hotel with fantastic views:
The next morning, after some needed rest, enjoyed a great breakfast with view:
and then it was time to drive around the island to see the many viewpoints:
still a volcanic island
A lot of history on this island, all the way to potentially being the lost island of Atlantis (the part of it that ended up being swallowed by water after a volcanic eruption)
this used to be an entire crater filled with water
how things changed
One level down, there are actual leftovers of a city:
this is one of the most famous paintings
From there, I went to downtown Fira to enjoy some tourist stuff:
Lots of viewpoints on the road:
cable car from old town
The heart of santorini is a nice hole in a rock:
Next was another archeological site, interesting ruins:
Plenty of cats in Santorini too:
Then continued the island tour:
From there, drove up to ancient thera, another archeological site, which unfortunately was closed early and closed the next day. It's supposed to not be essential, but kind of sucks to get all the way there, just to be turned back at the gate. At least there were good views form the top:
So instead, I opted to visit a couple of wineries. Santorini is very arid, but somehow they still have a tradition of making wine:
The first winery also had an art gallery:
The 2nd winery had a fantastic wine museum that was beyond expectations, literally one of the best such museums in the world:
Then went to the museum:
Cool to see what happened to Santorini:
After that, time to grab dinner and enjoy the view from the hotel and sunset:
Fun to compare with the next morning:
For the 2nd day, I picked a boat tour recommended by the hotel, which ended up being the wrong choice. I did want to see the craters and actually "do stuff" like get off the boat and be on islands, however this boat did not offer that, and felt like mostly a waste of time, even if it did offer some views:
intersting colors on the rocks
other people in the boat went to bathe, but water was kind of cold and I don't really go in the water unless it's to snorkel or dive :)
they offered a nice lunch
After the boat tour that burnt most of the day, there was a bit of time to drive around:
While I thought it would be a tourist trap, in the end Lost Atlantis Experience was actually an interesting interactive museum that makes plenty of fair points that the Lost City of Atlantis, if it existed, may very well have been in Santorini as a good portion of it did sink under water level due to volcanic activity:
This video does a good job explaining what happened to the island:
From there, it was time to drive to the north side by Oia to visit this charming little town where many go see the sunset. The route there was interesting:
Finally, Oia:
then an early morning flight the next day to fly to Malta. Santorini was a beautiful island, great to have seen it.
