Day 84 to 89. Omaha to KL Malaysia

Day 84 – Tours to D-Day beaches

Up for an early start – We had a new driver for 2 days.  The drivers are only allowed to drive for so many days and then have a day off.   We drove on the motor way  all morning to reach St Michel – which is a small island off the coast.  (really a big rock)  – but now connected by a “land bridge”.   This was a more isolated area of France. There were more dairy farms and crops – this area is wetter and cooler than other parts of France.

The “island” appeared in the distance.

 It was very impressive.   Although it was crowded it was nothing like normal apparently.

 They say you can hardly walk through the narrow streets normally because of the crowds.  We  walked the battlements  but we didn’t bother going to the top into the church.

 We visited shops and had some lunch sitting under some trees after walking the battlements trying to find some shade. It was very hot.

 Everything about this island is different .  It is a  very crowded tourist area! They plan removing the land bridge  that was created and replacing it with a bridge as well as diverting the river, since heaps of the land has silted up as a result over the past 50-100 years. 

Then we walked back in the coach and drove on to the Normandy Beaches. Stopped briefly in a village (Saint-Lo) to see a memorial on the side of a cliff  and listened to a tape in the bus about the D-Day invasion.

We drove to Omaha beach – It was very calm with no wind – not like it must have been – most signs of D- day have now gone but can still see some concrete bunkers still.

We then visited the USA memorial centre –

 very impressive with 100’s of “graves” laid out very militarily.

 We drove onto our hotel next. It had  a golf course once again – but no time for golf.  Tea was at the hotel by a pool.

Day 84 – Omaha to Paris

Up early yet again and onto Paris.  It is a hot day today – it reached 35 we think!   

First stop at Monet’s house and visited his Lily Pond and gardens as well as his house

 – very peaceful except for the 500+ other people visiting it at the same time!

 Went to Versailles but extremely hot. Did a short (because of the extreme heat) walk of gardens and then toured the palace – great paintings on all ceilings etc – but heat didn’t help concentration on guide!

 On to Paris and after a short stop at our hotel – which took ages to register our group, then no cold water for about 2 hours (eg no toilets), and no electricity on any of our plugs in our room – not very impressed with this “flash” hotel.

Any way then on to Moulin Rouge show and dinner (no photos sorry!).  It was a big place  with a lot of people. It was a nice dinner and the show was really good – good pace, and put together well. Not for young children though!!!  There were dances , very fast juggler, lady swimming with snakes, guy who lifted his partner in all sorts of ways and a ventriloquist.  Then an evening drive back to our hotel.

Day 85 – In Paris

After yesterday’s heat it is raining  heavily today! We had a bus tour around the city – passing many spots we had walked a couple of weeks earlier.

 We were pleased we had done that, as we are not getting a very good view of them today because of the rain.  We went up the Eiffel Tower (2^nd level) but raining and not very pleasant (and cool).

 We drove on to see the tomb of Napoleon – once again very impressive. Then back to hotel.

We decided to take the afternoon off and while  the  others did extra excursions.  We repacked bags and had some down time (including 40 winks )

Then out to final dinner with the group. The restraint was just down from the Arc de Triomphe  on the Avenue Des Champs Elysees – we were at the back downstairs.  It was a nice dinner and everyone was  taking lots of photos.  We dropped the rest off for a river cruise and we went back for a good night’s sleep.

Day 86 – Leaving France

Up and away at 7 am. We were not impressed with Paris airport. Duty Free pathetic – not cheap and very few shops.  We walked around with our bags waiting for over 30 minutes for Malaysian Airline check in,  to open.   We had a coffee and nibble and then we wandered looking at shops (what there was).  We went to go through customs/bag checks  an hour ahead of our leaving time and it took ages to get through– only one scanning machine for a number of jets. Not impressed with the efficiency at the airport in or out! Anyway on the plane which was held up for about 45 minutes since passengers were still going through customs! 

We watched 4 movies. No sleep really!  We  arrived in KL airport about 6.30 am. Fastest ever through passport control baggage claim  - I made the fatal comment about it being so fast – and then when we arrived out there was no transport waiting for us as promised!!!!! So after a lot of Shona assertiveness we finally got our transport sorted – Thanks to a great man from the Mayflower company.    We had a  good drive in with a great driver who shared lots about KL with us.  We got to hotel about 10 am. We were very tired. The people here were very friendly.    There is a huge swimming pool just outside our window – we went to bed to have a much needed sleep.

 After a few hours lie down, we were up again and we wandered to the Petronas Towers shopping centre which is only 5-10 minutes walk away. We walked the shopping centre again (did this last time) and had some lunch and then tea later. We headed back at dusk (about 6.45 pm) and then an early night to catch up on lost sleep and try and get our time clocks back to be organised.

Day 87 – KL for the day

A very relaxed start and after a latish breakfast we visited the Tourist centre which is just across the road. We decided to take it easy for the rest of the day.

Now updating the last 4 to 5 days of our diary and sorting photos and internet (hopefully) – if you are reading this before we get home then we got the internet sorted!

As you can see we got internet briefly. It is very expensive on a lot of hotels we have discovered! So this will probably be our last posting before returning to the cooler temperatures at home - give us a ring if you want to share the other 20,000 photos you haven't seen yet!!!!

 We have two more days in KL and then home to kiwiland.