The one that got away

By -
In trying to save some money on our flight to Iceland, we made a rookie mistake. Flying via Paris worked out much cheaper, even as two separate bookings – one from Porto, Portugal to Paris and then from Paris on to Reykjavík, Iceland. But the BIG MISTAKE came in when we did not check that we were arriving and leaving from the same airport.

We have not been able to visit Paris as part of this crazy adventure, so when it was the cheapest flight option we jumped at the chance and tried to be clever. We thought we could use our 12 hours in between our flights to get into the city for the day and see some of the major sites.

Soon after booking our flights I was overcome with a nagging feeling. I checked our flights, and that’s when we saw our mistake of needing to be at two different airports. The planner that I am was initially flustered, but we talked it over and thought it would still be okay since we would have to leave the airport anyway to tour the city. It would mean we would need to lug our two rather heavy bags with us now instead of storing them – an inconvenience but not a disaster.

Further investigations revealed that Beauvais airport is 80km out of Paris and a similar distance from Charles de Gaulle airport. A taxi would not be an option!

We spent hours pouring over the different options for tackling this problem. No matter how we looked at it, the trains, buses and city tours would all add up to way too much money to make it viable to get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame Cathedral or the Louvre Museum.

We are no strangers to killing time at an airport, but today is particularly challenging with these incredible ‘bucket list’ gems of Paris being so close but remaining elusive.

Killing time at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Little piece of heaven disguised as a slightly run down resort

By -
Image
In the movie Braveheart, Stephen to William Wallace says that the island (Ireland) is ‘mine’. This feeling of belonging and possession is how it felt at times on Nam Cat island – one of the many tiny islands surrounding the larger Catba island off the coast of Hai Phong, Vietnam. From about 9 am to about lunch time, we had the island to ourselves with all the comforts you would need. These precious morning hours on our island could be spent on the foggy days taking photos of the mist and rain rolling in over the island mountains dotted around us. The sunny days allowed you to see all kinds of fish right from the jetty. Sitting alone at the end of the tiny pier watching the boats pass in the distance could be described as the idyllic vacation. It is my island - Nam Cat, Vietnam But the island was not ours for the whole day. In fact, this little resort is a very popular stop for tourists passing through the area that want to spend a night on a private island. From midday a new g
Read more

An adventure in Nepal

By -
Image
We would not consider ourselves to be adventurous people. At home, we are not naturally inclined to participate in adrenalin inducing activities. Booked through a third party in India, we did not really know what our tour in Nepal encompassed and went quite blindly into it all. But read our story about our visit to Nepal below, and you be the judge of whether this could be considered an adventure. Our tour company, Himalayan Social Journey , had it all in hand and made all the arrangements for us to have nine great days in Nepal. The briefing on the planned activities definitely surprised us, and against our natural instinct, we decided to trust their judgment and participate in the suggested activities. Our second day in Kathmandu started with an early morning flight on a small 30-seater plane. It was a majestic one-hour scenic flight over Mt. Everest and the range surrounding it. The US$200 price per person was not in our original budget, but considering we were in Nepal, s
Read more

Fingers Flambé

By -
Image
We have had our first noteworthy injury on our round-the-world trip. While dishing up some breakfast, the paper serviette that Schalk was holding under his plate caught fire. It is worth noting that breakfast is served early at our current location and Schalk only fully wakes up by about lunch time. So when a sleepy Schalk was told he was on fire, he may have reacted a little slowly to put out the fire. Three fingers got slightly toasted with a great big blister forming on one finger. All in all, we think he was lucky as he quickly got his hand under cold running water. Two travelling chefs were also quick to come to his rescue with burn cream and dressing for the fingers (it is nice to see how strangers are willing to help fellow travellers in a difficult situation without a second thought). We will watch the fingers as they heal to check that they don’t get infected but luckily it seems Schalk got off lightly. Advice directly from Schalk: “Beware the open flame when serviette
Read more