GandJTravels

Saturday, 24 November 2018

Nov 18, 2018: Puerto-Vallarta, Mexico

Looking forward to a week of warm sunshine, pools and sand. Think will do alright here on the edge of Puerto-Vallarta at the Mayan Palace Puerto-Vallarta.

A very nice first full day at the resort.

Friday, 28 September 2018

Sept 28, 2018: Post Trip Review

Overall, this was a great adventure, even though Jan had to manage with her wrist in a cast. Tried to make things as easy as possible from the transportation and movement of luggage, etc., I think this was well accomplished.

The Exodus people (Headwater here), for our Loire valley leg were absolutely fantastic, we will use them again as I would love to bike the terrain here. We may not opt for the premium gastronomic package because, well, 6 courses a couple times with others at five courses, although incredible and fantastic, a lot of calories. I am going to give myself a few days before jumping on the scale, lol.

The Paris leg as you saw was once again fantastic, but how could it not be, it’s Paris.

Gadventures, again surpassed all expectations. Sarah, our guide, was excellent as were all our travelling companions. Mix in a beautiful barge, wonderful crew and incredible destinations, if anyone did not enjoy themselves, please consult your doctor, again lol. If I did not mention the food and gastronomic delights that came out of the closet size kitchen, bad me. Pascal is truly an artist and creator, thank you for adding a few numbers to my scale, your meals where all amazingly.

Finally, Lyon, wow what a gem, if not on your list you should really think about adding it on. What a great three days we had there.

Special mention for the weather throughout, sometimes this could make or break a trip. For us we had a couple of days of not so great weather but for us this happened to be on days we were either travelling or just waited until it cleared up (an afternoon excursion). So the rain we received was not like Vancouver rain but a couple hours here and there, so all great overall. It did get smoking hot for some of our trip but not complaining, I would rather be too hot than too cold given the option.

So this wraps up this adventure, thanks to Carla for organizing and getting us all together. She had been talking about this for years and it was so wonderful to be a part of the travel group. Perhaps we should try this again somewhere else on this planet.

Next big one for us is target South America, the final Grand Voyage for the Prinsendam, so stayed tuned, currently working out the details but we are looking at a January 3, 2019 departure to Fort Lauderdale.

Until then....

Monday, 24 September 2018

Sept 24, 2018: Charles du Gaulle Airport, France

Since I had two unused metro tickets and it was a nice day, I figured I would try taking the metro to the train station rather than hailing a cab. Turned out great, we were at the Train station in less than 20 minutes, so a comfortable hour and a quarter before our train. Grabbed a train lunch had a seat and then watched the board. Our train posted as 30 mins late, hmmm, 5 mins is okay but 30 could easily turn into a lot more. Let’s just say the train was an hour and twenty five minutes late, not fun. Good thing we didn’t have a plane to catch.

The lousy thing about something like this and for of you playing at home, when your train is late you must keep watching the board as they only give a 10 minute warning for when your train comes in and for you to get on. We were checking the board every five minutes and it must have just been posted because five minutes later when we looked, well we only had 5 minutes to get to the platform, find our cabin’s position and get on the train. So you wait and wait and then run for the platform, now wasn’t that fun.

Train ride thereafter was great, easily found the tram shuttle to our airport hotel and just relaxed before heading down to “the” restaurant for dinner. Jan had an omelet while I had a cheeseburger, yup, not very exciting.

Only one pic of our room here at the Mercure Hotel CDG... wrap up tomorrow.