Thomas journals

Bordeaux Vielle Ville   Walk around Place Camille Julian, then to the river, the nearby Place des Bourses.  I walked right over the famous Miroir d'Eau (no water during winter!).   Visited the city of Bordeaux free museum there, then walked to the main tourist information office and had a quiche and sandwich (delightful fresh baguette, ham & butter) at an outdoor café facing the Grand Théatre.   We hoped in vain for some performance at the reportedly beautiful Grand Théatre.  We instead purchase boat-tour tickets at the tourist office, then walked further, following our host's suggested walking trail, through the Quinconces Garden, then tired and returned home. Out later to Place Camille Julian for some escargots , of course

  Daylight Savings Time begins in France, so we lose an hour of sleep.   Beautiful sunny weather awaits us at breakfast, then a drive through the big village of Hasparren and Utxurru with a visit to their Church of St.JeanBaptiste, with its 3 wooden galleries along the side, characteristic of Basque churches, where the male choir typically stands and sings.  Then coffee at the Café Atakara, back home for another lunch from chef Maxime: spanish ham & olives, followed by mashed potatoes and stew of wild boar (cooked CV, Cuit à la Vin : chilled, marinated overnight, then slow-cooked for three hours).  Then of course the cheese plate, followed by a replay of the Tarte Tatin .  Sitting and chatting, then driving to Bayonne station, where Maxime helps us with the suitcases as there is no elevator connecting the platforms, and our TGV InOui train is a double-decker (voiture 17, sièges 111 & 112). Arrive at Bordeaux, a few minutes delay waiting for the platform, quite a large crowd ex

  Le Grand Tour : big breakfast with toast, yogurt, muesli, fruit, apple juice (from their own apple tree).  Into the car for a drive to Espellet, then St.Jean de Luz, to view the very old church where their daughter married, and where Louis XV married Infanta Marie-Therèse of Austria; and the residences built for them in the 1600s.  Drive north toward Biarritz and Anglet (pronouced ahnglet), where Dominique spent some early years.   Lunch in Bidart, at Restaurant Tantina de la Playa , a surfside seafood place, very popular, with a snack bar on the side.  We had a difficult time finding a parking place, as the cliffside road was barricaded, so we drove around to another parking area then walked down the cliffside to the beach.  No signs, so we  assumed the snack bar was the place, but telling the waiter that we had a reservation made him point to the nearby tablecloth restaurant!  Maxime ordered chipirons grillé (typical Basque grilled squid) and poivrons farci (stuffed peppers wit

  [25mar22] De Montpellier à Bayonne: Easy morning, clean up the apartment, walk the suitcases to Place de la Comédie , take Tramway one stop to the train station, get breakfast (regional specialties), train first class car #2 to Montpellier, changing trains is Toulouse.  Second class is 2X2 seating while first-class is 2x1 seating with a bit more legroom and slightly nicer seats, but otherwise not much different.  Fortunately these intercités trains have good wi-fi.  Arrival at Toulouse is a bit delayed; Jeff runs to the ObjetsTrouvés office seeking his eyeglasses.  Fortunately the office is open, the guy helpful; he shows me his box of found eyeglasses.  Mine are not there.  Disappointing, yet it's somewhat reassuring to know for sure that they are truly lost.  I run back to Track #3, where our next train is boarding—we (and others) struggle to identify car #13.  Even other passengers cannot find #13.  Eventually I ask a worker, who tells me the passage through the train cars

  [24mar22] The day for the beach.  Tourist office and guideblogs both said Palavas-les-flots is the main beach town accessible by public transport.  The blog referred to rental chairs and beachside cafés somewhere.  We take the tramway to the end, at Etang d'Or, Golden Pond, and wait for Bus #1.  Separate ticket, but only costs 1euro each, long wait, 15 minute ride to the town—some locals assure us that the Hotel de Ville is the best beach spot, with lots of activities there.   Yes, beach, but nothing happening, no services available, no chairs, no beachside café.  We walk into town to get a fresh baguette and quiche Lorraine, and Orangina, then walk back to sit on the sand – clean sand, wide shallow beach area, wave action small but just enough for a few surfers; and lots of shells to collect!   We walk along the shore and back, disappointed in the lack of amenities – only one beachside café obvious along the way.  We catch the 1:13 bus back to the tram.  We had thought of atten

  [23mar22] Another walking day: to the A rc de Triomphe , passing through quaint quiet attractive old neighborhoods, particularly the P lace de Marché des Fleurs.  Arc de Triomphe is spectacular, next to an equally impressive Palais de Justice , and the Promenade de Peyrou that has a great view of the surrounding hills and the aqueduct built by Peyrou to supply the city's fountains.  The Jardin des Plantes – oldest botanical garden in Europe – opens at noon, so we walk around to the Cathedral St.Etienne, with its obscure side entrance, but huge interior space, really huge and rather stark, in keeping with its 13 th century origin – though of course several later kings and bishops added chapels, stained-glass, and organ.  While there, the organ started up, providing appropriate sonic accompaniment to the surroundings (ref. My video).   We return to the garden to await its opening, chatting with some Chicago tourists (go Bears!).  The garden is very nice place for sauntering, and

  [22mar22] Wake-up at 7 – finally, a good sleep!  We had promised ourselves a quieter day so as to recover a bit.  We figure on a café & croissant, but the first outdoor café we try tells us “no baked goods delivered today”, and others are likewise.  So we find an obscure pretzel place.  Late morning we decide to walk through the Polygone shopping center (buy a baguette at the chain bakery Brioche Dorée) to the Antigone planned residential area, to the river and l'Arbre Blanc apartment building.  Long walk.  Antigone is dramatically concrete, 70s modern style, but now rather down-in-the-mouth, starting to feel abandoned or dilapidated.  Note that its architect Ricardo Bofill just recently died.  However, L'Arbre Blanc, the White Tree building is a stunning design with huge balconies cantilevered out.  The nearby River Lez (pronouced lez) is quite channeled – we watch some skateboarders attempt to ride down the steep concrete banks without crashing into the water. 

  [21mar22] wake-up just before 5, quickly shower and depart, walk to DOH airport check-in, breakfast (use our Qatar Airways 10pound coupons) at Fortnum&Mason (tea & crumpets, toast & jam of course); then at the lounge (oatmeal & coffee); walk to gate A5 for our A320 flight to Toulouse, a bit delayed departure, but arrival just a few minutes late.  This time we have a long passport queue: stamp, but no questions asked.  Retrieve suitcases (they are there this time!) and get Bolt to the train station Toulouse Matabiau.  With three hours before train departure, we cross the plaza to the Hotel Bristol bistro for their lunch specials: délicieux, of course, including the regional specialty Cassoulet Then walk back across the very sunny and very windy plaza – I take off my glasses, tuck them in my shirt, put on sunglasses.  We walk around the station, around all the construction, sit in a quiet spot for a while.  Fifteen minutes before boarding, I realize my eyeglasses are mi

  Qatar: [20mar22] wake-up at 4:30 (Margo & Charles had arrived home at 1am from their trip); Margo woke up to say goodbye and thanks.   Uber 5am to Doha airport, check-in, long queue at lounge, then long queue at gate A5, onto QR3 to Heathrow, seats 60f&g, movies Get Out, Military Wives, The Accountant, The General, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.      Plane lands at 12:30 local time at Heathrow, but waits for 30 minutes for a gate to open (this A380 requires special jetway); we are in row 60, so it takes a while for us to deplane, get the underground train back to the main terminal and enter the automated boarding-pass checker, which refuses: Go To Reservations Desk.  Over a hundred people are crowded around the nearby Customer Service desk, and our individual queries to several official persons nearby confirm that we must stand in the Very Long Queue to get our problem addressed – evidently because our attempt to enter the boarding area was after the cutoff time for that flight's

 We awoke at 5:15am in order to drive our hosts (Margo Sendall & Charles Werbs) to the airport (in their car, a Mitsubishi Pajero). We dropped them off with their snowboard paraphernalia for their exciting time in Oslo (more on that later). Then we parked, walked in to the Arrivals area, questioned intently by security: “we are here to pick up our lost luggage”. The Baggage Service office was polite and helpful, noted that our suitcases were present in the airport, but difficult to find as they are swamped with luggage from a recently-cancelled flight. Barbara, particularly jet-lagged, agrees to wait there while I walk down to the Ooreedoo desk and get a simcard installed in my iPhone: QR63 for 3gb data for 30 days, 15minutes international calls and unlimited Qatar calls the first week. Next to the Ooreedoo desk was a pop-up desk for Ehteraz, the Qatari answer to France's AntiCovid app. I proceeded there, and the young Qatari guy helped me install the app and get it started on

  We were securely booked TLS-LHR-DOH, via Expedia, on British then Qatar Airways, due to depart TLS at 11:20am, finally arriving Doha at 11:30pm (thanks to timezone difference). I clicked through countless online pages about flight/entry/arrival requirements for Heathrow and Doha. I filled out several circuitous online forms for British Airways, Qatar Airways, Qatar government (ehteraz) and UK government (passenger locator form), and also downloaded the Verifly app as it was encouraged by British Airways. In assessing these various website/app User eXperience, the gov.uk covid info site was best, as it clearly listed cases, with hyperlinks to click for details about each case. The Qatar government site is typically (in my past experience) very wordy, with every possible case and argument dealt with in a single very long document: combine citizen/resident/GCC/visitor times vaccinatedUS/vaccinatedQR/non-vaccinated/recovered, and you get 4x4 long paragraphs. I completed their lengthy Eht