Add another 25 minutes

Enough said!!!

Slight Delay

Here it is...departure time and I'm still in the Lounge...flight has been delayed 25 minutes...still, can't complain, the lunch time flight to Canberra is still here and won't be going until 8:00 tonight. 

On my way to Canberra

This isn't a holiday so it really doesn't belong in my Blog but I am just testing "blogging on the run" using an App on my new iPad. 

At the moment I am sitting in the Lounge at Melbourne Airport waiting to board my plane to Canberra. 

Darwin Goes Off With a Bang!

Today is Territory Day...or Cracker Day as the locals more often refer to it. Yes, the only place left in Australia where you can go and buy fireworks to let off yourself...and they do it really well!!! Pop-up shops all over the place are set up to sell fireworks...but not before 9:00am on Territory Day and they have to close by 9:00pm. Fireworks can be set off from no earlier than 6:00pm (although some people's clocks must have been a little fast...) and have to finish that night. Quite incredibly, they were all pretty good about it...maybe they are too fearful of loosing their fireworks that they really behave with them.

But more of Cracker Day later...we started the morning with a stroll around the Botanical Gardens. It is an amazing place and Darwin is really lucky to have it...some of the old trees were blown over by Cyclone Tracy but there were rescued and stood up in amongst the rest of the carnage and recovery. With the day warming up, we stayed in the Gardens for some lunch...and to finish off a multi-stage cache to bring up a total 1500 cache finds since I started nearly 3 years ago.

The late afternoon was spent back at the motel...split between the Pool and the Laundry...a rather pleasant way to get the washing done actually. For dinner we went downtown and found a pub where we could sit on the street and be entertained by the local's fireworks...well at least the high ones that went above the buildings. After dinner we walked back the our motel via Bicentennial Park which was an impromptu fireworks site with the locals sending "thousands of dollars" up into the sky in spectacular fashion...and rivaling some New Years Eve's efforts put on in Melbourne and Sydney!

Remembering Tracy

One of the different things about Darwin is that there is really nothing much that is very old...and you can put that mainly down to Cyclone Tracy. You can remember that it flatten Darwin but that really doesn't sink in until you look around and see that just about everything is relatively new. In the heart of the city, most of the "old" buildings are from the 1960's because they were strong enough to survive. This impression of Darwin was reinforced by our morning walk down to the wharfs and back through the waterfront development.

After lunch we went for a drive and visited the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. The centrepiece display for tourists is, of course, the story of Cyclone Tracy and the impact it had on Darwin. Standing in the "cyclone room", it was interesting to listen to what it sounded like...but I don't think they were playing it at full volume!

After the Museum, we drove out to East Point (to find a really old cache of course) before heading back to our motel. Dinner this evening was Thai but not before we went and finished another really old cache that we had started in the morning...a multiple step one that took us, rather conveniently, around the wharfs which is what we had intended to do anyway...promise!

A Lazy Day in Darwin

Just across the road from our motel is Bicentennial Park...where we went for a morning stroll...and, of course, finding the geocaches that are hidden along the way. After a pleasant morning in the sun we ventured into "downtown Darwin" for a little lunch before returning to our motel for a swim in the pool.

After a thoroughly lazy day, we wandered back into the centre of Darwin for dinner...pizza tonight. I have to say that thing that has surprised me about Darwin is just how small it is...smaller than Geelong I have just discovered. 

Our Top End Adventure Begins...

It was a typical grey and dreary Winter's day in Melbourne as we made our way out to Tullamarine Airport for out flight to Darwin. It had taken all the points we had amassed over several years but we were flying Business Class...very pleasant if you can manage it...and really the only way to make a four hour flight.

Just after 2:00pm we took off from Melbourne and climbed through the clouds to leave the winter gloom behind. About half way through our flight we passed by Lake Eyre...quite impressive from 37,000 feet...and landed in Darwin in time for a bright yellow sunset.

We picked up our car for the next 13 days...an almost new Toyota Corolla...and headed into Darwin to the Palm City Resort where we are staying for the next few days. After dropping our bags in our room it was back in the car and off to the Mindil Beach Sunset Market...a pleasant way to end the day!

Time to come home....

We are flying home today...unfortunately some work got in the way of the Blog over the last few days so it will just have to wait until I get home.

More Museums, More Culture

We started our day walking through Jardin du Luxembourg while we pondered what to do for the day...eventually settling on visiting Musée Rodin. Located in the Hôtel Biron where Rodin lived, the museum was set up in 1916 when Rodin donated his works to the state in return for the for the state undertaking to preserve the building. It was a fascinating place to walk around with Rodin's major works throughout the gardens and smaller works housed inside.

The gardens of Hôtel Biron

Le Pensevr...The Thinker...perhaps the best known of Rodin's works

The original le Pensevr...part of la Porte de l'Enfer

The complete la Porte de l'Enfer...Gate of Hell

Other works by Rodin

We left Musée Rodin and made our way past the Hôtel des Invalides...which houses the Army Museum...to la Seine where we turned towards Musée d'Orsay. Our objective was to make another attempt to see the Impressionist galleries up on Level 5...and this time we were successful...just. Not long after we arrived, multi-ligual announcements started about some property left somewhere in the museum. These were repeated continuously for about 15 minutes before they stopped to ...and all the time we were half expecting the announcement to change "please leave the building". Fortunately they didn't so we were able to see everything that we wanted to.

Outside Hôtel des Invalides

Musée du Louvre from the roof of Musée d'Orsay

Jardin des Tuileries from the roof of Musée d'Orsay

A sneaky inside shot of Musée d'Orsay...sneaky because you aren't allowed to use a camera inside

The crowd in the Musée d'Orsay was much smaller than we expected so...somewhat foolishly perhaps...we decided to drop into Musée du Louvre. We had spent the entire day here three years ago and so this time went for a quick visit...not that any visit can really be quick as the place is so big...to see the Madonna again. Even though the museum wasn't particularly crowded, the Madonna is such a popular exhibit, it was still a "bun fight". After visiting that gallery, we then went to the other side of the museum to visit the Napoleon III Apartments.

Madonna...

...attracts a large crowd at any time

The Napoleon III Apartments

Having ended up walking further than we probably should have, we found our way back to our hotel for a much needed rest before going out to find dinner.

A Walk Around the Left Bank...and a bit more

On our overseas holiday three years ago we bought a Paris guidebook. It has a number of suggested walks in it, one of which travels around the Left Bank and finishes at Jardin du Luxembourg. This morning, finding ourselves at the finish of this walk, we decided to do it...in reverse. Our route took us past shops and cafes until it brought us to Église de Saint Germain des Prés, the oldest church in Paris...where we stopped off to have a look inside.

Église de Saint Germain des Prés

Inside Église de Saint Germain des Prés

Our walk continued on until it brought us to the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix...a museum dedicated to Eugène Delacroix that is set up in his former home and studio. After touring the museum, we had a pleasant interlude sitting in the garden courtyard before taking up the walking tour again...which finally brought us to its start and our end at the Bibliothèque Mazarine, a historic library by la Seine.

A typical narrow Parisian street

The garden courtyard of Eugène Delacroix's house

At this point we crossed over the river to the Musée du Louvre that was opposite and walked along the Right Bank looking for some lunch. We had walked this way three years ago and had found a quaint cafe off the main roads...and we found it again today. Café A la Tour...on the corner of Rue Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois and Rue Bertinn Poirée...a good place to stop for some simple and cheap food in the heart of Paris.

Crossing la Seine on the Pont des Arts

Courtyard of the Musée du Louvre

After our rather late lunch, we continued our not-so-little walk...going on to the Ile de la Cité and walking past Cathédrale Notre-Dame before crossing back to the Left Bank and walking back to our hotel, passing la Sorbonne on the way.

Cathédrale Notre-Dame

Cathédrale Notre-Dame

Another typical narrow Parisian street

La Sorbonne

Day stretching into Night

After a big day yesterday, we needed a more relaxed day today...especially as we had a booking for tonight. Although it isn't part of the Museum Pass, we decided that we would go to the Musée Marmottan Monet as it has a significant collection of works by Claude Monet. Out past Trocadéro, it is best accessed using the M9 Metro or RER C...but as our hotel isn't near either of those, we used buses instead.

Directly outside our hotel was a stop for the Route 38 bus directly into the heart of Paris...so we caught one to Châtelet. The Paris t+ tickets are really great...you can by them 10 at a time to save money and they can either be used on the Metro or the buses. If you use them on a bus, you can change buses as often as you like for 90 minutes from their first use. So at Châtelet we changed to a Route 72 bus which took us alongside la Seine to Trocadéro. At this point we probably should have caught another bus but instead we walked up through the la Muette area to the museum.

Tour Eiffel

Trocadéro

The streets of la Muette

Musée Marmottan Monet started in 1934 when Paul Marmottan left his house and artwork collection to the French Academy of Fine Arts. The collection has been added to over the years with the most significant being the bequest of Michel Monet, Claude Monet's second son. As a result, the museum has a huge and interesting collection of Monet's works and works by other artists that Claude Monet had collected. One of the most evocative paintings on display was Impression, Soleil levant...the painting that was to give the name to the genre.

Impression, Soleil levant...copied from the Internet because you weren't allowed to take photos

 

After we left the museum, we walked back to la Muette where we had lunch and then on to Trocadéro. Here we caught a bus back towards Paris but only went part of the way...getting off at Place de la Concorde so we could go to Musée de l'Orangerie...the home of Claude Monet's Les Nymphéas and the Walter-Guillaume Collection. It was particularly interesting to come here following on from Musée Marmottan Monet as there we had seen some of the works that had been the lead up to the final work of Les Nymphéas. Although it wasn't all that late, after the Musée de l'Orangerie we went back to our hotel for a rest...which would have been more of a rest if we had caught a bus back instead walking all the way.

Part of Les Nymphéas...copied from the Internet because you weren't allowed to take photos

Renoir's last portrait...on loan from a Japanese collection

Painting by Paul Guillaume

Just before dinner time, we were off out again...before leaving Australia we had pre-booked tickets for the top of Tour Eiffel at 8 o'clock. The plan was to head over to the tower and have dinner before going up. After studying the bus map a little more carefully, I discovered that we could catch a Route 82 bus across the road from our hotel and it would take us to Trocadéro without needing to change buses. Once there, we headed back into the la Muette area to find some dinner...and to avoid all the tourists.

On our way to find some dinner

At the appointed time we presented ourselves at the gate for pre-booked tickets and bypassed the crowds still queuing to buy theirs. It still took a while to get to the top as it was a very popular time...but we made it before sunset. It was all rather magical watching the sun go down and Paris slowly light up as it got dark. Eventually we had a fill of the sights and left the tower to go back to our hotel. By then the Route 82 buses had stopped running so we had to fall back to a combination of a Route 72 followed by a Route 38 bus to conclude a very long day.

Up there...that's where we are going

The sun goes down...

...and Paris lights up

Waiting for a bus