Melb - Perth - Paris - Ypres

We thought we'd left the weather chaos behind in Tassie, to spend the weekend in Melbourne before departing for Europe, but it wasn't to be!

We had lunch in Footscray on Saturday with the family, before catching up with some nephews and neices for beers and dinner in Hawthorn. Sunday involved a walk to the Camberwell market for a Father's Day coffee (and a Sth Melb Market Dim Sim or 2), before heading to Cora Lynn to watch Oscar play in his footy semi finals. It was blowing a gale across the Gippsland dairy country with intermittent showers/down pours. Unfortunately they didn't come away with the win, but gave us an entertaining game for 3 quarters.

We all headed back to Hawthorn for more beer and tea with Oscar's Mum, Dad, brother and his girlfriend.

It was Kate's b'day Monday morning, so after rearranging her house - (because it's her b'day, and we're very practiced at moving furniture now) we went out for a b'day breakfast before we were dropped at the airport by midday. We had a 2.20pm departure for Perth. We relaxed in the Qantas lounge for a couple of hours, before getting away on time.

We gained a few hours and arrived in Perth at 4.30 local time, for another 3 hours in the Qantas lounge. Ade's made the most of the lounge access and showered in both Melb and Perth 😂, but the leg to Paris is 17 hrs non-stop.

The flight started well - almost a full flight, but I scored a spare seat beside me - until about 30 mins in the hostile asked if someone could move as their sound wasn't working for their entertainment 🙄. Going straight through without a stop wasn't a bad way to go - Qantas kept us well fed, with lots of snacks through out and we both managed to get some sleep. Ade was very disappointed that they blocked all the windows automatically, so nobody could see out. He likes watching for storms and picking out places we're flying over. They didn't unblock them until about 2 hrs out of Paris. So much for organising a window seat!

We landed in Paris at about 6am local time and we had a few hours in Paris in the morning - not straying too far from Gare Du Nord train station. We found some pastries - because that's what you've got to do, went for a walk and found some old churches, a garden, a market and a canal (it was the far canal - just in case anyone was wondering - namely Roddy!)

We headed back to the train station to find our train to Brussels has been cancelled - great reliable public transport. Ade managed to get us onto an earlier train, which was great negotiating! Lunch was a jaw building baguette.

In Brussels we swapped trains again, arriving in Ypres by 4pm. After checking in and a quick refresh, we took in the sights of Ypres.

We decided on a beer/wine and a light tea in the town's main square. The temperature was perfect.

We headed home and were in bed by 8.15. Not a bad effort for our first day.